Earth Day

I dig your scientific minds but use them with care.

You're breaking down my ozone layer up in the air,

your hyped-up farming's turning southern soil into stone,

and some are eating meat while some don't even get bones.

I told you to be fruitful and you sure multiplied,

but the rich took all the land and never learned to divide, so...

Refrain:
Take, take off your shoes You're standing on Holy Ground.
Take, take off your shoes You're standing on Holy Ground.
The Earth is the Lord's And the fullness thereof
From the waters beneath To the heavens above,
So take, take, take off your shoes
You're standing on my Holy Ground,
You're standing on my Holy Ground.

Last Sunday I started the sermon by reading this song (refrain then all three verses). The chief question of the sermon that followed was "what would it mean to live as if we truly believed we were walking/living on Holy Ground?"

In the past much environmental rhetoric has pushed us to take care of the Earth because it would benefit us (or because failing to do so would hurt us). But I think eco-theology calls us to care for the Earth just to care for the Earth. It isn't ours after all.

The benefit and the challenge of this POV is that it relly pushes us to ask how far we go. IF we are only seeking what will benefit us most/cause least damage to us then we tend to stop when the cost/benfitof change balances out. If we are seeking to do what is best for the whole creation (which is a gift from God) then the cost/benefit analysis changes. True environmental change pushes us to make changes that will hurt. True change pushes us to pay real prices, to rethink our base assumptions about how the world works.

What does it mean to live as if we are on Holy Ground? Because we really are you know, n Holy Ground that is.