Earth Day, A Time to Sow
April 22, 2009
Here at the Evangelical Environmental Network we celebrate Creation Sunday. Over the past several decades many churches have begun to celebrate the gift of God’s creation on the Sunday that falls closest to Earth Day, which is always on April 22. This once a year emphasis we call Creation Sunday. We encourage churches to celebrate Creation Sunday when it best suits their circumstances. (For 2009 we are suggesting April 26.)
This year’s theme is a “A Time to Sow.” On this Earth Day 2009, it is a day to focus our attention back on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ never fails to reap what he has sown. For, “light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart” (Psalm 97:11). In your creation care ministry now is the time to sow, to prepare and till the ground. Now is the time to take first steps, engage others, spend time in what the Lord has made, take care of your own stewardship, learn about the impacts of environmental degradation on the least among us. Start somewhere and fear not for the Lord is with you!
According to Jesus the true “sower sows the word” (Mark 4:14). And so our celebration of Creation Sunday must begin with an understanding of how the Lord would have us sow and build.
We find in 1 Corinthians 4:5-8 that Paul exhorts us to prepare our sowing and building carefully “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to has labor.” And later in the same chapter “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone build on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay stray– each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, buy only as through fire.” We build on the foundation that Christ has laid. Work that supports the foundation, materials that the foundation can hold are the only materials to be used, for any others will not do.
So as you look to sow and prepare the ground be careful to only sow the word the gives you live. Be careful to only sow those items that bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a warning to not sow, but to sow carefully, for we sow discord and the seeds of death in our current stewardship of creation, now it is time for us to sow the seeds of life. To tend and till as Christ would have us tend and till.
So who shall we turn to? Only the Lord Christ who exhorts us to come to him all who are weary for he will give us rest. Christ is strong to save and strong to redeem our stewardship of creation. In Romans 8:19 we find that “the creation waits for eager expectation for the Sons of God to be revealed.”
So take some small steps, use this Creation Sunday to get back to the basics, return to Christ for he will not fail you.
2009 resources will be up soon. But resources from previous years can help you prepare as well. Click here for more information.
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