Water

This is the sermon I preached this Sunday at Christ Lutheran Church in Fairfax. The text is 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13.

http://www.earthtimes.org/health/methane-contaminated-drinking-water-confirmed-fracking-wells/818/

There's a Kenyan proverb that says, "The Earth is not a gift from our parents, it's a loan from our children." We have an awesome responsibility in taking care of this planet. It's the only place in this entire universe that we know of where we can live, and even if we found another place, we don't yet have the technology to get there, and God only knows how long it would take for us to develop it. So we need to be careful with our planet.

God has charged us to be stewards of the Earth, and for the first 250,000 years, we've done a pretty good job. But in the past few decades, some have called our stewardship into question, and protection of the environment has become a major political issue. We have not been treating the Earth as if it were on loan to us, to be returned in the same, if not better condition, in which we inherited it. Some would say that we've been treating it like it was just another one of our disposable things, to be used up and thrown away, that we've been squandering it.

As the years have gone by, most people have come to accept the fact that human beings have had a negative impact on the environment, and that if we don't change our ways things are going to worse. We hear about the effects of our activities all time: global warming, melting polar ice caps, the polar bears, pollution, over fishing. But, that's just too much to talk about in one sermon. So today, I just want to focus on one thing: water.

Did you know that we're facing a severe water shortage? Scientists estimate that if things do not change by 2050, many parts of the world will be in a water crisis, including the Bay Area. Wars will be fought over water. People will die, not just because they lack the water they need to survive, but as victims in the battle over this precious resource, that some have already started to call blue gold.

Think about it. Think about how precious water is. There's no replacement for water. Think about how much we fight over oil. Oil is not nearly as important to us as water. We've already started developing alternative energy sources, and if push comes to shove, we can always burn wood. But we are still fighting over oil. Imagine how much more intense the fighting would be for water.

We've become so accustomed to the availability of water that we completely take it for granted, except to take something for granted would involve more thought than we currently give to our water. No one is saying that we are willfully using water in a wasteful way, but we're not treating it like the precious resource that it is. We do waste it. It's a sin of indifference, and we are passing the consequences of this sin onto the generations that will follow us.

Now, David was no stranger to sin, and his sin in our reading today was a little bit more blatant than indifference. In the verses leading up to our reading, David had Uriah sent to the front lines of the battle for the express purpose of having him killed. Uriah dies, and David takes his widow, Bathsheba, who is pregnant with David's child, as his wife.

And now, the prophet Nathan has come to him and has told him this story of a rich man killing a poor man's beloved little ewe-lamb so that he could feed it to a visitor. And, David is so enraged by this, he yells, "This man deserves to die!"

Isn't it interesting how quickly David was moved to rage over the death of a lamb, when he himself had just killed a man so that he could cover up his adultery? We often find ourselves in situations like this, where we point out the specks in the eyes of our neighbors while ignoring the logs sticking out of our own. And then Nathan tells him, that David himself is that rich man in the story, and David admits his sin. And then, Nathan tells him, "God has put away your sin; you shall not die." But, it's strange that the lectionary reading ends here, because in the very next verse, Nathan tells David that because he has scorned God, the child that he is to have with Bathsheba will die.

I looked up the Hebrew verb in the last sentence of our reading because it seemed a little odd. God has "put away" your sin. This verb "put away," "avar" in the Hebrew, is more commonly translated in the Bible as "pass over;" it's the same verb used in the Passover story, when God passes over the homes of the Israelites during the tenth plague, which was the death of all of the firstborn.

But sometimes, it can mean that something is being transferred from one place to another, like when someone passes you the salt at dinner. If God was "passing over" the sin, then there would be no punishment required, but if the sin was being "passed on" then someone would still have to answer for it, and in this story, it's David and Bathsheba's child.

Now, I have trouble believing that God would kill David's child as a punishment for his indiscretion, but I do believe this text is lifting up the reality that there are consequences for the choices that we make. That's just the way the world works. If you don't do your homework, you're not going to get a good grade. If you show up late for work every day, you're probably going to get fired. If you drive home drunk, there's a chance you might kill someone. You might even end up killing yourself. And if we as a society don't take care of this planet that we live on, we're not going to have much of a planet to pass on to our children. Right now, we are in the very real danger of passing the consequences of our sins along to the next generation.

  The average American uses 100 gallons of water every day. The average African family only uses 5. This number doesn't even take into account the amount of water that's needed to generate the electricity that the average American uses every day. 250 gallons of water! That's not hydropower, this isn't electricity coming from a dam, that's the amount water that's needed to convert gas, oil or coal into electricity for the daily use of the average American consumer.

The last 100 years have been referred to as the golden age of water, when water was safe, seemingly unlimited, and almost free. But now, we are coming to an era in which we are not going to have water that is all three of those things at the same time. Right now, we use purified, potable water to flush our toilets and water our lawns. It doesn't make any sense. But, what are we going to do about it?

It may seem like we have a lot of control over our lives, and in some ways, we do. If you wanted to, you could go home right now, and change everything about the way that you live, and maybe you could cut your water use in half. But think about it. How many people are there in the United States? How many people are there in the developed world? Let's say you manage to save 50,000 gallons of water every year. That's like 3 swimming pools. But if every other American is using 6 swimming pools of water every year, your 3 swimming pools of water, that's just a drop in the bucket.

And, that's the way that corporate sin works. We're part of a system. Individually, we each contribute to the problems, but even if we could pull ourselves out of it, which would be extremely difficult to do, the machine keeps moving without us. It's almost impossible to stop. It's going to take something bigger than us to save us from ourselves, something that can move us as a society. We can change the way that we live and we can talk to people about changing things on a larger scale, but ultimately we have to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, to move us as a community to change the way that we live.

Luckily, God has shown some interest in us in the past, and I think that God is already moving to change the way that we do things. Like the prophet Nathan that was sent to David, so that David would be forced to face his own sin, scientists and environmental activists have been working to spread the word of our wasteful nature. The laws are slowly changing, and people are starting to understand the impacts that their lives are having on the world around them. None of this would be possible if not for the Holy Spirit softening our hearts, so that we would listen.

Las Vegas is the perfect example. We often look at this city in the desert as a symbol of decadence and sin. It's the driest of the of the largest 250 cities in America, and yet, when you walk down the strip, you will see some of the largest and most elaborate fountains in the world, lush plantings, a replica of the bay of New York, complete with water and a pier, and signs tempting visitors inside the casinos where you can see enormous aquariums filled with sharks and bottle-nose dolphins, in the middle of the desert.

But, things are not always as they seem. The city of Las Vegas has put into place programs that they have developed so that they could save water. They offer incentives to people encouraging them to pull up their lawns and replace them with zero water plantings. The golf courses are strictly limited in the amount of water they can use, and the water that they do use to water their grass, is grey water. The entire city has systems in place to recapture water that is used indoors, and they now recycle 94% of that water.

It can be done. If it can be done in Las Vegas, then it can be done in the rest of the world. We just need to change the way that we think about water, and the way that we use it. If we listen to the modern day prophets, and maybe even become prophets ourselves, then we can make a difference, and we can save this world for our children. God didn't make the Earth only to have us destroy. This beautiful planet is filled with so many wonders that a person could never hope to see them all in a single lifetime. We have to preserve it. We need to reverse the turning wheels of our collective indifference before it is too late, and we pass our sins onto our children. If we open our hearts and our minds to God, if we start listening to each other and stop politicizing these issues that affect us all, then we can be the stewards of the Earth that God expects us to be. And there will be enough water for everyone. Amen.

Home Cooking Cited as Cause of Diabetes

Many of you may know that I do food demonstrations for the Fairfax food bank as part of my internship. One of the main reasons that I do this is that I think it changes the atmosphere of the food bank. For some people, the need to ask for help at a food bank brings with it a sense of shame. American society teaches us that asking for help means that we're somehow not good enough. We're expected to be able to take care of ourselves. Sometimes, this idea is enough to keep people away who are in real need.

By having food demonstrations, going to the food bank becomes more like a trip to Trader Joe's or Costco. It adds an element of fun and people really look forward to seeing what's cooking each week. There are practical reasons as well. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to do with the food that comes every week. I try to cook foods that people wouldn't necessarily think of making, like latkes or roasted cabbage with cream sauce. It's important that people actually use the food that they get or there's no point, and if people are able to create something delicious, I think it also helps with self esteem. People get a real sense of accomplishment when they are successful with a new recipe and that feeling can extend to other areas of their lives.

Sometimes, we get a ton of one thing, say cauliflower, and so I cook something using that ingredient to sort of push the item. People are more likely to take food items if they have an idea of what they can do with them.

The reason I'm telling you all of this is because I had a meeting today in which I was told that I should no longer use sugar in my cooking because of the high rate of diabetes in Fairfax. To give you perspective, the typical amount of sugar in one of my dishes would be something along the lines of 1 tablespoon of sugar to 2 heads of broccoli, 5 carrots and an onion. Ratios like this are not going to cause diabetes in anyone anytime soon. Sugar is an important part of cooking. It's important to have a balance of flavors in dishes in order to make them taste good. If people have the tools to make nutritious food that also tastes good, they will be less likely to eat fast food or processed foods, which are the actual cause of diabetes.

I don't understand this reactionary stance that people take when they think something is a problem. Are a few men drinking away their family's savings? Prohibition is the answer! Unemployment on the rise? Then legislation making illegal to help undocumented people what you need! Diabetes becoming a problem? Make nutritious home-cooked food not taste as good, increasing the allure of foods that are the actual problem.

Does this kind of thinking actually ever solve anything? Maybe we need to go back to electroshock therapy and lobotomies to help people with mental problems.

Why is it always the people with the loudest voices that have the power? Why are we so afraid of logic and reason? Perhaps I have become a victim of the fallout surrounding Paula Dean and her announcement that she has diabetes.

This world is just way too confusing sometimes. We focus so much on petty little things, like our disagreements over whether or not same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, or that 1 tablespoon of sugar in an entire pot of food that we forget that every 4 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from poverty. There are wars, murder & rape happening all over the world every day, and the number of people that don't have clean water to drink is mind boggling. Did you know that we as a human race are on schedule to have a severe water shortage in about 50 years?

Wake up, people! There are real problems in the world, and the more we focus on little inconsequential issues, the less effective we are at following Jesus Christ's instructions to heal the sick and feed the hungry. I don't see God acting in these kinds of behaviors, and yet I am forced to deal with them because my voice is too small.

I've decided to start blogging again to be a small voice of reason amidst the cacophony of noise out there in the world, so expect to see one of these about every week or so. It may not make much of a difference, but I think I have a responsibility to try.

In the meantime, I'm going to the store to buy some stevia.

Art & Chapel

We had a great chapel service today that involved using our creativity to worship God. The congregation came together to create art as a way of worshipping, and we ended up with a couple of neat pieces that we'll be able to display at the school.

Here's what the chancel looked like before we started:

Our palate. The projected consisted of gluing scraps of cloth and written prayers to two canvases.

The works in progress.

The chancel after the service.

Finished art piece #1

Finished art piece #2

We did this as part of our weekly Worship Lab series, where we try to explore different ways of worshipping God in chapel on Thursdays. So far, we've had a drum circle...

a serviced based on the Iona community in Scotland, and a service where we sang songs written by one of the students. This Worship Lab idea has really forced us to stretch ourselves when it comes to doing weekly worship services, and It has been really fun! I look forward to seeing what else we will do in the coming semester!

Ghosts from the Past

I you're reading this blog, you are probably aware of what happened to me last Fall. Just to rehash, I left the PCUSA because the congregation that was sponsoring me decided that they could no longer back me because of our fundamentally different theological views on homosexuality. Even though the PCUSA is beginning to move away from that direction, I no longer felt comfortable participating in a denomination whose governmental structure allowed so many people to remain in a state of oppression for so long.

I sent an email letting Santa Barbara Presbytery and the congregation that was supporting me know that I was leaving the PCUSA. After a few emails back and forth with both parties, I came to a point where I simply could not allow them to hurt me anymore, and so I left the last email from each of them unread in my inbox for the last 7 months.

I finally read them today, and they were just as insulting and close-minded as I had expected them to be. There are two main problems here, and I don't know if there are any solutions for them. The first is that there are still a great many people in this world that believe homosexuality is a choice. I don't understand why this belief has persisted for so long, perhaps because being gay just opens so many doors for people and ensures your instant celebrity status, but it just isn't true. Given the way so much of the world views homosexuals, what possible advantage could a person possibly gain by choosing to be gay? Is it rebelliousness for rebellion's sake? A repressed belief that my life deserves to suck, or that I'm subconsciously hoping that somebody gay-bashes me or kills me? Please, somebody explain this belief to me so that I can become one of the enlightened.

The other problem, and this one is probably the more difficult one, is the very legalistic take on Christianity that quite a few people in the Christian community have. Without getting into a huge theological debate on this, the part that specifically applies to this situation is that these people don't care whether homosexuality is a choice or not. If it is a choice, it is obviously wrong. If it is not a choice, then is is something akin to a birth defect or mental disorder that needs to be corrected, lest a person fall to homosexual sin and be condemned to the fiery pits of Hell. I think an excerpt from one of the emails that I got could best explain this:

"It is devastating to confront the possibility that the great desire of our heart may in fact be simply a false and misshapened idol. You feel now that this church has not shown grace to you. But what kind grace would let you go unwarned into danger to your soul? You may disagree with the perceived danger. So be it. You may find another avenue for Christian service. God will use you as He pleases. But please do not proceed without understanding that true grace often comes in the form of opposition, and that it is a dangerous thing to follow only the counsels of our own heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? (Jer 17:9)"

My understanding of Christianity is not legalistic. I think Jesus came to us to teach us how to love each other, not how to judge each other. Oh, well. To each their own.

So, there it is. I am going to do my best and try to put this business behind me because I just don't have the energy for it anymore. I'll be joining the United Church of Christ (UCC) next month where I will hopefully not run into any people who try to make me feel less that human, that my sin is somehow greater than theirs. This isn't to say that the UCC is perfect, only that I will hopefully have to deal with this particular brand of evil a whole lot less. To all who remain in the PCUSA, I wish you the best of luck, and I sincerely mean that. This was simply not my fight, and I hope you can all understand.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 070 (Hand Sanitizer)

I visited Christ Lutheran Church today. The pastor there is actually the wife of one of my Intro to Ministry professors. I was having a weird deja vu moment when we pulled into the parking lot because the layout of the church is exactly the same layout that I remember from a Ventura County Chinese Club Halloween party from when I was a kid, but I know we did not drive all the way up here for it. I mean, I'm pretty sure we didn't because that would be crazy. I also remember winning my Halloween Snoopy mug that year, which I broke a few years later. I always end up breaking my favorite mugs. I guess it's inevitable when you use the same mug every day.

Anyway, so we're at this church, and I notice they have these hand sanitizer "stations" set up, one at the front of each of the two aisles. I didn't think too much about them until Pastor Terry pointed them out and said that while she is certainly not discouraging people from touching each other, she did describe her congregation as a congregation that likes to touch, we still had to respect the H1N1 epidemic that our country is facing right now. I totally agree with what she is saying, but I worry about the social implications of it. With the hand sanitizers sitting right there out in the open, and everyone using them right after shaking each others' hands, it's kind of like a subconscious jab at the people around you. It says, "You're dirty." It says, "We're all dirty, and we need to purify ourselves after touching each other." Not exactly the message that I would want to send to a people in a church.

I don't want to say this like I'm some kind of sociologist and that I have all kinds of degrees in this kind of thing, it's just the gut reaction that I got from it. I think if this practice were to spread to any kind of degree, it would just feed into everyone's paranoia. Like I said, I agree with her and believe we need to do something to protect ourselves from this virus. In fact, my brother just contracted it recently. (He's fine now, btw.) I just don't like what this kind of thought can lead to. Eventually, if we are going to follow the slippery slope model, which is a model that I find inherently flawed, but let's just go there for a moment for hyperbole's sake, no one will want to touch anyone anymore. And, that would just make for a sad, sad world.

This is not a congregation that wants to avoid people. They were very warm and welcoming, and everyone went around the room "Passing the peace," which I guess is a very Marin County thing to do. Maybe it's a NorCal thing? Down south, when we shake each others' hands or hug, we say, "Good morning." Up here, it's, "Peace be with you." Maybe it's a "Shalom" thing...

We were lucky today, because we happened to pick what I think is the Lutheran equivalent to our Presbyterian "Stewardship Sunday," and they had a celebration luncheon afterwards. Stewardship Sunday is the day when we all pledge how much we expect to tithe to the church in the upcoming year so that the church can figure out its operating budget. This "lunch after church" thing has been happening a lot with our church visits, which is good 'cuz it saves the cost of a meal and gives us a chance to interact a little bit more with the people at those churches. These churches don't have lunches every Sunday, we've just been getting lucky in the game of church lunch Russian Roulette.

Didn't do much else today. Caught up on Ugly Betty and finished editing the Inquirer essays, so I'll be mailing those out tomorrow. I'll hopefully be getting a lot of reading done after that.