Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We Need Your Vote!

Earth Ministry's Celebration of St. Francis
Creation Care Sermon Contest

September 26, 2009; 4-6pm
University Lutheran
1604 NE 50th St, Seattle

The work and mission of Earth Ministry is made possible through the generous financial support of our members, colleagues, and church partners. This year's sermon finalists offer their inspired call to care for God's creation because they believe in the work of Earth Ministry.

Admission is free, but we need you to show up and vote with your dollars to select the winners of this year's sermon contest. If you can't join us, tell your friends!

Fun Facts About This Year's Finalists:
  1. They hail from four different regions of the country - demonstrating that faith-based creation care is burgeoning across the U.S.

  2. Several denominations have influenced their faith journeys—including Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopal, and Baptist—affirming the ecumenical (cross-denominational) work of ecological justice in the church

  3. The finalists have met the challenge to form a concise, yet meaningful message not to exceed 10 minutes

  4. Two are ordained clergy and two have advanced degrees in religious studies

  5. The finalists are comprised of three women and one man

Please join us at the Celebration of St. Francis on September 26, for Earth Ministry's Second Annual Sermon Contest. In addition to the sermon contest, this event will feature music by the University Lutheran worship team, a moving short film from the Irreplaceable Campaign, and a prayer to honor Earth Ministry's eight new and twenty-three existing Greening Congregations.* The event will be followed by a reception featuring local and seasonal hors d'oeuvres and desserts.

*We encourage our Greening Congregations to send representatives from their church who will be asked to stand and be recognized for their accomplishments.

Please join us as we celebrate God's gift of creation!

All contributions made to support the work of Earth Ministry are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Free parking is available at University Lutheran. Overflow parking is available at the lot across from University Christian Church at the southeast corner of NE 50th St and 15th Ave NE (entrance is on 15th).

For more information see the event announcement on our website

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Finalists for Earth Ministry's Sermon Contest!

Earth Ministry is proud to announce this year's four finalists in the St. Francis Creation Care Sermon Contest.

We received many inspiring sermons from people across the United States. We are so grateful for all who shared their moving words. But there can only be four finalists, and here they are:
  • Elizabeth Freese, Austin, TX
  • Jeanie Graustein, New Haven, CT
  • Rev. Anne Hall, Seattle, WA
  • Dr. Hank Langknecht, Columbus, OH
Please join us on September 26, 2009, from 4-6pm to be inspired by the beautiful messages that God has given our finalists to share, to pray for our growing number of Greening Congregations, sing songs of praise to our God for the gift of creation, fellowship with one another, and support the work of Earth Ministry. A heavy hors d'oeuvres reception will follow the event.

The Celebration of St. Francis will be held at University Lutheran,1604 NE 50th St, Seattle. The event is free to all. As an attendee of this event, you will have the opportunity to vote for the sermon that inspires you the most through a paper ballot and donation to support the work and mission of Earth Ministry.

Parking is free at the University Lutheran and University Christian Church (4731 15th Avenue Northeast - just a block away from University Lutheran).

We encourage our Greening Congregations to send representatives from their green team and church membership to stand and be recognized for their accomplishments.

Please join us at this celebratory event!

To Be Good


by Clare Brauer-Rieke

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

-- Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"

I heard this poem for the first time two weeks ago. Since then, it has filled my head, resonated in my mind-space, and its echoes have not yet quieted. Mostly, I think it is the first line: "You do not have to be good." In the Christian tradition, in both familial and societal life, the message I know is, "Be good. In fact, be better than good-- be like Jesus, who was perfect." Oh well, then! Certainly, let me get right on that.

The pressure is immense. My generation especially feels the weight of climate change, environmental degradation, the loss of entire species of animals, the impact of all these things on the global poor. We do not just feel the pressure to be good. We feel the pressure of all choices made before we were making choices, of compounding those choices with our own, struggling to keep all the balls in the air when we aren't even sure we know how to juggle yet. Be good? No. Be better than good -- be perfect. And so it becomes the competition of the most righteous, the greenest, the most environmentally-conscious, the least hypocritical.

With this frame of mind, go back and read Oliver's poem again. "You do not have to be good." What permission this is. Though whispered like a benediction, it rings in my ears. And while it is this first line that jars me, captures my attention, what follows is the heart of Oliver's message: "You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. . . . Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-- over and over announcing your place in the family of things."

How did "being good" come to be our focus? "Being good" rings false-- if we are born into a context of brokenness and cannot reconcile ourselves, "being good" is behavior only. The weight I feel, what feels like nothing less than the preservation of the earth's ability to support life, will bury me if my only defense is a desperate struggle to be good, better than good, perfect. If I am honest with myself and with you, I can never be any of those things. Instead, what if I step outside of the rat race for a moment? What if I let the soft animal of my body have voice again, love what it loves; what if I hear the world's invitation to me, to my imagination, and recognize my place in the family of things? Maybe if I can remember who I am-- in a deeper way than my name, my address, my occupation-- an understanding of what I can do will begin to fall into place.

I would like to set Oliver's challenge before us to be taken seriously and practically. You don't have to be good. In fact, just stop being good for a minute. Go somewhere where the soft animal of your body has voice again, and listen. What does it love? What do you love? Where is your place in the family of things? Revel in it for awhile, let things slip back into focus, even if briefly. See if it clicks. Then, with open eyes and an open heart, maybe you will have new strength, new insight. And, imperfect as you are, maybe you will do good.

Meanwhile the world goes on.