Ode to Mother Earth

Today is Earth Day. We have been celebrating this day for over three decades now, and it is time to assess what impact it has had on our thinking. The answer to that question is - I don't have the foggiest idea. But, I do know this. "Green (said in the voice of Gordon Gecko from the film "Wall Street"), for lack of a better term, is good. Green in good." And the beautiful thing is that it does not seem to matter where we are on the political spectrum - whether we believe global warming is a human-caused phenomenon or a natural one - the consensus around the world is moving toward the idea that "green is good." I don't know if over 30 years of earth day, or something else, caused that change in our consciousness, I am just glad that it did.


John Wesley, the spiritual forebear of the Methodist tradition had three simple rules that he used to live by. These were sort of "catch-all" rules. If he did not know what to do, he knew that he could remember these rules and he would probably do the right thing (we will be doing a sermon series on these rules in late summer). The rules are:
1) Do no harm.
2) Go good.
3) Stay in love with God.

I told you they were simple. I think that the first rule is a good place to start on Earth Day. Let's minimize the harm that we do to the earth. One easy way is also encapsulated in three simple rules - reduce, reuse, recycle. After we have made a habit of doing no harm (or as little harm as possible), then we can move onto doing good to the earth. Once we learn that, we will note that doing good to the earth is a great way to stay in love with God.

Happy Earth Day!