One World is Enough?

Back in April, the youth of St. George’s were invited to participate in an event held here overnight called Off the Grid. It is a program developed by The PWRDF, to help increase the awareness of our youth of the serious global issues faced by our planet and all the things that are living on it. As part of the event the youth were encouraged to think about the many ways we use God’s creation, and how our use impacts the health of the planet and all God’s creatures. Part of the program, included games and activities that helped them to understand the interconnectedness of the environment and human activity, a guest speaker about local efforts to live better, and a chance to examine their own ecological impact by calculating their own “carbon footprint”.

I was invited our youth to take a “carbon footprint” test of my own. First off, I must confess that I added to my “carbon footprint” by taking the test because I did the test on one of the recommended online testing sites, myfootprint.org which calculates more than just your carbon footprint, but also your food footprint, your housing footprint, and your goods and services footprint. Together this then will calculate a big picture ecological footprint.

The test begins with a few questions that help to place you geographically and economically on the planet, then the test inquires about your consumption habits, including food, transportation, and energy, and allow some general questions about the waste your consumption generates. The test generates a result that determines how much of creation is physically needed to meet your individual consumption needs. The score is given in global hectares.

Here is how I scored: My Carbon Footprint was 15.6 global hectares and my total score was 83.51. They then gave me the cheery observation that if everyone in the world lived like me, then we would need 5.32 planet earths to support us all.

I was feeling a little depressed about my test score, so I went back and looked a questions to see what kind of answers would have given me a better score and much smaller ecological foot print. Honestly, I found out that most of the answers that would help me to lower my score, would require me to begin to make some serious changes. Bigger changes than even trying to figure out what goes in the green-cart, what goes in the garbage, and what goes in the recycle bin. I do want to share with you some of my findings, but since I personally found them so hard to swallow, that I wanted to present them to you with the help some "sugar", in form of some help from friends I found on the internet called the Lolcats (with images from icanhascheezburger.com).

| View | Upload your own

Seriously though, what I was reminded of by calculating my ecological footprint is that God has blessed us abundantly and we need to use our blessings wisely and to be gracious with those blessings, as God has been gracious with us in giving them to us. Furthermore, the warning about taking too much from creation is also an important warning for us to hear. We need to become more aware of when enough for us is enough. And this is a hard message for you and I to hear sometimes, even when cute kittens are the sales people.

Jesus says in Luke's Gospel chapter 12, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” God blesses us so that we can indeed be blessed. God blesses us abundantly, not so that we can have more than enough and hoard it to ourselves, but so that we can be a blessing to others. And it is hard to be a blessing to others when your footprint is so big that you step on everybody else's toes!

"Messy" Church Picnic

As a special way to mark the coming of the summer is the annual church picnic. With the arrival of the Rev'd Nancy Rowe, as part time assistant priest at St. George's, it was decided that St. George's should have a picnic together with St. Paul's, Norval, where Nancy, as rector, is also the priest in charge.

So on Sunday June 15th, at St. Paul's in Norval, at 10:30 am we are having a church picnic together. Picnic's of the past have regularly begun with a outdoor worship service followed by a meal and games, but this year we doing things differently.

The Rev'd Nancy Rowe has begun a special kind of church gathering at St. George's and now at St. Paul's called "Messy Church", we decided to conduct or church picnic in that same style, adapting it for our needs for the picnic.

I hope you join us. Bring a lawn chair.

God's Great Task for You

When the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream in the very first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel the angel told Joseph that of his son would that “they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us”” (Verse 23).

God is with us.

This is the promise and the strength of Jesus Christ. We find strength and hope in the knowledge that God is with us, that God walks beside us, that God dwells in us. We are never alone because God is with us.

We know what a great promise this is because all of us have, at some point in our life, have felt alone. It happens to all of us. It’s happened when we have separated ourselves from others or have felt separated from others important in our lives. Or we have felt abandoned by or friends or family. That feeling of being alone, can be devastating, debilitating, paralyzing. But the news of the Matthew’s Gospel, from the start to the finish, includes this most important promise, that God is with us. It is found in those first verses in the name if Jesus being Emmanuel and it is repeated in the very last words in Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Verse 20)

If you are in a place in your life where you are feeling alone, today, then it is most important for you to hear that promise that Jesus makes to all of us who are walking our journey of faith. God is with you. You are not alone.

And also know that when God is with you, nothing is impossible for God. This accomplishing of the impossible is the theme of the second part of Jesus last words with his disciples in Matthew's Gospel, a passage which is often referred to as the Great Commissioning. And it is called “Great” because it is so very grand in scale. Jesus is calling his disciples to something really big, something bigger than they have ever done before, a task or mission bigger than they probably ever imagined. You see back in chapter 10 of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus commissioned the twelve disciples with a much smaller "big" task. He said to them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” (Matthew 10:5-7) In his earlier commissioning, Jesus is telling the disciples to keep their work to the house of Israel. But now in chapter 28, the last chapter, Jesus has something even bigger in mind for them. Now Jesus is sending them out to make disciples of all nations, not just the house of Israel, but each and every person of every race and nation. This is indeed a “great” task.

God doesn't only have great tasks in mind for his disciples. God has put a great task into the heart of each and every one of us. Maybe it is a dream to be the best parent that we can be, or to be successful in our job, or to be the best spouse we can be. Perhaps it is to be the person who stands up for God’s creation and our job as good stewards of God’s creation, or to stand up for Justice for the poor and persecuted in our world and society, or to be a comfort for those who suffer. I know that as I list off these great tasks, one of these or some great dream like it will ring true with the dream you have in your heart. I tell you it is God who planted those seeds within you and it is God wants to help you to accomplish those great tasks.

I also know that just as quickly, the doubt and fears that have kept you from accomplishing those great tasks will also rise up. But, when we doubt ourselves and think things like: I am not good enough, our smart enough, or I am not strong enough, or I never get the breaks I need to accomplish what I want, then we keep ourselves from achieving our great tasks. These negative thoughts hold us back.

I know this is true because this is just what happened on that mountain in in that last chapter of Mathew's gospel. There are some disciples in that passage we are told who when the see the resurrected Jesus on the mountain give thanks for this great miracle and worship him. But, as well, we are told that some doubt.

But how does Jesus react in the face of this doubt? Jesus encourages them step beyond their fears and doubt and dream bigger. Jesus wants them to think bigger, to beyond just the nation of Israel, to extend to all nations. Jesus encourages them to dream bigger, because he knows that if they stay in faith with him they will accomplish great things, things greater than they had imagined before.

As we face the fears, worries, and doubts, that we have when we think about that great task that God has put in our life, let us be reminded of the promise that through Jesus, God has promised to be present with us. May you be reminded that when God is with you, you are never alone to face the challenges you meet and may you be strengthened by the knowledge that when we walk together with God nothing is impossible.