Hope for a Heated Planet
April 19th, 2009A sermon delivered at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ
Bethesda, MD
by Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., M.P.H.
April 19, 2009
What a glorious weekend this has been as today we celebrate Earth Day Sunday and God’s gift of creation! God created the heavens and the earth and saw that it was good — very, very good. As we know from today’s scripture reading in Genesis and our modern understanding of it, God created man and woman to till and tend the earth, to garden if you will. Not to dominate, damage, or despoil creation, but to be faithful stewards of it. And who can resist being out in our gardens at times like this? How many of you have had to take a few extra Aleves after all that planting and sowing and mowing, hauling of sacks of seed and woodchips, and turning and smelling the rich, fecund earth? Who can resist the fragrance of the tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and magnolias, or strolling the neighborhood gazing in awe at the cherry and pear blossoms, the forsythia, the tentative chartreuse and apple -green buds that are now leafing out on oaks and maples and tulip poplars?