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April 16-23, 2008

Saving the world and serving the Lord

Warm-up Question: 

What is the most impressive church you have ever been in? What caught your attention?

  

Is it possible to serve the Lord, protect the earth, and save money for your congregation -- all at the same time? A growing number of religious organizations think that this is not just a possibility but a mission that every congregation can accomplish.

All over the United States, faith-based initiatives are growing that promote conservation, stewardship, and environmental action. They base their commitment to green issues on their understanding of the sacred in nature and on their appreciation for God’s good creation. Green Faith of New Jersey, for example, is an interfaith organization that attempts to connect the theological with the environmental. Speakers in their lecture series educate believers about the relationship of their particular expression of the faith and the environment. They go to the respective houses of worship and use the language of the particular religious tradition of their listeners in order to show that care for the environment is an issue that unites all faiths. They also offer participants free installation of solar energy systems.

Installing solar panels on the roof of their houses of worship is not the only measure congregations take in order to protect the environment. Some cut down the size of their weekly bulletins to save paper. Others started recycling efforts and no longer use Styrofoam cups. Most begin by installing energy-efficient bulbs.

Preliminary statistics proof that all of these efforts, as small as they may be, do not just help protect the environment but save money, too. Energy Star for Congregations says that congregations can cut utility costs by 25-30% when committing to energy savings. And the U.S. Department of Energy added up that if all 307,000 U.S. worship buildings would cut their energy use by 25%, 5 million tons of CO2 emissions could be prevented and $ 500,000,000 could be spent on other congregational activities rather than on electricity and heating.

Don’t worry about shivering in the dark. All of these savings could be accomplished by energy conservation and efficiency measures, not by simply turning off the lights and turning down the heating system.

 

Discussion Questions

  1. What specific things, if any, has your family done to preserve energy or to go “green” on a larger scale?
  2. Do you recycle soda cans, paper, plastic containers, or anything else?
  3. If you were to build a house for yourself, would you be concerned about energy efficiency and “green” issues? What measures would you take to make your house environmentally friendly and energy efficient? What things would be easy to do and what things would be big dreams?

Further information abut green activities in church institutions:

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, April 20, 2008.
(Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year A at Lectionary Readings.)

Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 (5)
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Scripture Reflection

1 Peter 2:2-10

Church buildings are very important to us Christians. They are the spaces created by faithful people for the purpose of encountering the Risen Christ in preaching and prayer, service and song, holy washing (baptism), and holy eating and drinking (Eucharist). The word ‘church’, in fact, comes from a Greek word that means ‘house of the Lord’. And, ever since we have been renovating and building houses of the Lord, we have been taking them very seriously.

We react very emotionally about our ‘house of the Lord’. Either we like it just the way it is or we want to reshape it so it can best serve our worship and community needs. We try, sometimes with great pain and frustration, to adapt ‘houses of the Lord’ that were acoustically made for pipe organs and choirs into suitable ‘houses of the Lord’ for rock bands and videos projected on walls. In some, we remove the pews so the community can sit and move around in the ‘house of the Lord’ according to ancient and modern liturgies and rituals. In other places, we move doors, bathrooms, pews, and stairs to make participation both easier and welcoming for persons with disabilities.

New ‘houses of the Lord’ are being built all the time. Some congregations are relocating to bigger and more suitable sites. Other communities of faith are renovating and reshaping. These efforts cost time and resources; all in the hope of having ‘houses of the Lord’ worthy of what it is we are trying to do as the Body of Christ in the world. Some critics would have us never spend another dime on our places of worship and give all that money to the poor. And, while that is, of course, a very noble and important goal, congregations realize they also have needs for spaces and places to call ‘home’.

Our epistle text from 1 Peter 2:2-10 takes the image of a house (vs. 5) and uses it as a metaphor for our life together in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “living stone, rejected by humanity but in God’s sight chosen and precious.” Jesus is the living foundation. We are also encouraged to be like living stones built on this living foundation. We are not, however, just gathered together like a disorganized pile of rocks on the foundation of Jesus Christ. We are, instead, built up into a spiritual house.

Our spiritual house is designed for a special purpose. Just like the ancient Jewish Temple, our new spiritual house of living stones should provide a connection between God and the world. We are meant to be a holy priesthood that offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. We as living stones -- mistakes and all -- offer up our very lives for the sake of the world so that all may know God’s love in Jesus Christ.

What does a spiritual sacrifice look like? The time we dedicate in prayer and service to people, communities, and nations in need. Our wealth shared with people who have less. Our abilities and talents put to use for the benefit of our families, our congregations, and the world. All of that from each and every one of us make up a unique spiritual house, the ‘house of the Lord’, for the world to see and experience… that says something about the God we worship and why.

A church is both physical and spiritual. We need both if we are going to serve effectively in a world that is both physical and spiritual.

Discussion Questions

  1. What do you like about our ‘house of the Lord’, our church? What would you change about our church?
  2. How do you fit in with the ‘spiritual house’ of your congregation?
  3. Which ‘living stones’ (people of faith) in our congregation do you admire? What types of ‘living stones’ do you think are missing from our congregation?
  4. How does our ‘spiritual house’ connect God and the world? How does the world experience God through you as a ‘living stone’?

Activity Suggestions

  • How many Lutheran youth does it take to change a light bulb? (no joke)
    In preparation for this activity, find out the costs both for regular and energy efficient light bulbs at the store. During the Sunday school hour or meeting time, have your students count the light bulbs in your church. Then, figure out the costs if all bulbs had to be replaced with regular or with energy efficient light bulbs. Compare that to the energy savings if energy efficient light bulbs would be used. (You might want to ask the maintenance person or somebody from the building committee for help with this activity.)

Brainstorm how the money saved might be redirected for ministry, caring for others, changing something about the church building or property, starting something new, etc. Share your ideas with the property, building, worship, stewardship, etc. committees, and any ways you’d like to help implement them.

  • What are we doing?
    Invite the pastor or a council member to your session. Find out whether your congregation takes any efforts to conserve energy or go “green” and whether there are any plans to do more for the environment.
     
  • Walking through the house
    Go on a tour through your entire facility and list all of the physical aspects of your buildings (Sunday school room, sacristy, narthex, fellowship hall, main entrance, cry room, offices, etc.). At the same time, list what building blocks of the ‘spiritual house’ take place in these locations. As a second step, identify and discuss if there are physical aspects that your spiritual house still needs or changes that the church would benefit from? Don’t forget to consider the needs of the surrounding community/neighborhood and what changes it might benefit from.

Closing Prayer
The following closing prayer is inspired by a "Prayer of Dedication" at Peace Lutheran Church in Philomath, Oregon. Peace Lutheran Church was the first congregation in Oregon to install a solar photovoltaic system.

Heavenly father, we thank you that we can come together as a community to worship you freely and regularly in this place and in this house. Our church and our property is dedicated for your use, God, creator of the universe, and given to us as a gift. May your divine protection shield us from all evil and harm, all storm and destruction. And may we also dedicate ourselves and renew our hearts and minds to love your creation. Amen
 

Contributed by Pastors Claudia Bergmann and Scott A. Moore
Eisleben, Germany

Permission to reproduce for local use. Copyright © 2008 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ELCA Youth Ministry. 1-800-638-3522, ext. 2447. To offer your comments or responses to Faith Lens, e-mail:  rod.boriack@elca.org.

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