Spirit of Power (Ephesians 3:17-21)

Did you hear the news that REI, the outdoor gear and sporting goods retailer, will be closed the day after Thanksgiving? When the announcement was made a few days before Halloween, I thought it was a joke, one of those internet news stories that people pass around that is nothing but a hoax. I mean, a big retailer, giving its employees the day after Thanksgiving off, with pay, so they can spend a day in the great outdoors with their families?

But yeah, it’s true.

More people spending time in the outdoors is a great thing. Our boy scout troop is currently on its way back from Joshua Tree National Park. I didn’t go this time, but I did go last year. What an amazing, beautiful place. The rock formations are amazing; you don’t have to be a geologist to be awed by them.

And the life: yes, in the desert, there is life, and some of it is quite unique. Coyotes, eagles, hawks, and twelve species of bats…tarantulas, antelope squirrels, and zebra-tailed lizards…snakes and tortoises, mountain lions and geckos, chuckwallas and tree frogs!

And all of it is sacred.

Last week, I talked about the spiritual revolution currently taking place, and how old ideas of God are being transformed. For example, whereas God was once thought of as being on a mountain or in heaven, far away, distant, and inaccessible, in the current spiritual revolution, people are rediscovering a God who is near, present, in everything, and as close to us as our own breath.

So: God is in the rocks and the trees and the cactus and the many specials of animals… In fact, in the book of Romans, it says: “God’s eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things God has made” [1.20].

And not only that, but God is present in the interactions between these different parts of the ecosystem. The desert willow provides food and shelter for hummingbirds and insects, lizards and snakes. The hummingbirds and insects feed on the nectar, and the lizards and snakes feed on the insects. Nearby there may be some milkweed, which provides food for monarch butterfly caterpillars. In just a few square feet of land, an entire community of diverse life forms may be flourishing.

All these interactions form a web of life. Now, multiply that by similar mini-ecosystems throughout all of Joshua Tree National Park, and at work all across the planet: in oceans, jungles, and mountains. All of these communities are connected to each other, and all of them are connected to us.  You don’t have to ponder these connections for very long until you see in them God’s eternal power and divine nature – until you see… God.

The theological term for this is panentheism. Panentheism is different from pantheism. Pantheism is the idea that everything is God. A single leaf is God. A single insect is God. That’s pantheism, a nonbiblical idea that is not a part of Christian understanding.

Panentheism, on the other hand, states that God is in everything. See the difference? A single leaf is not God, yet God is in the leaf. A single insect is not God, but God is in the insect.

And in the relationship between the leaf and the insect, how one nourishes and sustains the life of the other, God is most definitely present. In the relationship between that leaf and you, God is present. You, of course, depend on that leaf for oxygen, and the leaf, the plant, depends on you. There are countless such relationships in our ecosystem, which connect everything to everything else.

And speaking of oxygen... In her book Grounded, Diana Butler Bass describes how, 2.3 billion years ago, an organism called cyanobacteria began to engage in a process called photosynthesis, using energy from the sun, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.

Most of the life that existed on earth then was anaerobic; oxygen was toxic to it. With cyanobacteria pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, these anaerobic life forms began to die off. They were replaced by creatures that breathe oxygen.

Meanwhile, some of this oxygen travelled way up into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, where it formed an ozone layer. This ozone layer became a shield of protection that keeps us safe against harmful ultraviolet radiation.  

Scripture speaks of God as wind, breath, and air; and also as creator, protector, and sustainer of life. The ozone layer is a layer of “air” that protects and sustains life.

Don’t you see? God is in the air we breathe. God is in the ozone layer that protects and sustains life.

Diana Butler Brown writes: “It is impossible to think of God without considering the atmosphere. Our experience of God, our very life, cannot be separated from our need for air.”

She then writes: “What happens… if God can’t breathe?”

“In the same way that 2.3 billion years ago a species began throwing oxygen into the earth’s climate balance, we human beings are now causing more carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere than can be ignored.”

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, historically, have been around 275 parts per million. Scientists say that current forms of life on earth can probably tolerate a mixture as high as 350 parts per million. But we are pumping so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that today, it’s at 400 parts per million.

And the climate as we know it is breaking down. It’s collapsing. We’re creating a world with melting poles, dying forests, acidic oceans, killer storms, and devastating droughts.

At Joshua Tree National Park, the Joshua trees themselves are dying. It is estimated that 90 percent of the Joshua tree forests will be gone by the end of the century, due to climate change. In other parts of the park, pinyon pines and junipers are also dying.

And the rate of this change is unprecedented. Other changes to the earth’s climate, such as that caused when cyanobacteria began emitting oxygen, took place over tens of thousands of years or longer. But what humans are doing to the climate is causing changes taking place in just a few decades.

Even at Loch Leven, our camp in the San Bernardino Mountains, you can stand in lower camp and look up toward Inspiration Point, and see that most of the pine trees on that mountain are dead or dying. The oak trees seem to be doing ok, for now; but there are definitely signs of a changing climate at our own church camp.

In the face of an issue as big as climate change, it’s easy to feel helpless. As we watch species after species go extinct, as we hear in the news about hurricanes and droughts becoming more and more devastating, as the web of life is destroyed and the climate breaks down, it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing we can do.

And yet, we have the power.

Scientists agree that humans are causing these changes. The only scientists who disagree are those who are paid by energy corporations to disagree. All the rest agree. And if humans are causing these changes, then humans can stop them.

Plus, we have the power of the Spirit within us. With every breath we take, the Spirit’s power fills us and empowers us to do God’s work, the work of bringing healing and wholeness to a fragmented world.

The web of life is becoming more and more fragmented, but we have the power to put it back together.

The apostle Paul knew the power of God’s Spirit. That power helped him accomplish the impossible. We already heard what he said: “Although I am the very least of all the saints, grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”

Think of how seemingly impossible Paul’s task was: he had a reputation as a persecutor of Christians, and now his task was to be the one who shared the gospel with the world. The fact that he was able to succeed, he knew, was only by the power of the Spirit working within him.

To the Philippians, he wrote: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength [4.13].

To the Romans, Paul wrote: The Spirit helps us in our weakness [8.26].

Back to Ephesians: By the power at work within us, God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine [3.20].

 And also: I pray that God … may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that…you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe [Ephesians 1.17-19].

And in his 2^nd letter to Timothy: Rekindle the gift of God that is within you… for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power [1.6-7].

We have within us a spirit of power. We can do this. We can stop the destruction of our climate.

I’m inspired by the work of Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. When he was six, he started asking, “What kind of world is my generation being left with?” He started reading about climate change, about the effect it would have, on droughts, hurricanes, catastrophes, and he said, “I have the power and the responsibility to do something about it, not just for myself, not just for my generation, but for every generation to come, because climate change is the biggest issue we have ever had to face as a human race. Even though it sounds scary, it is possible… to create a healthy, safe, habitable planet for future generations.”

In his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, Xiuhtezcatl worked with a group of other kids to get the city to ban plastic grocery bags, and to stop using pesticides in city parks. Today, at the ripe old age of 15, he and his fellow activists are working on a statewide ban on fracking; they just sued the U.S. government for burning fossil fuels; and Xiuhtezcatl works to educate youth through hip hop songs, spreading his message by speaking at TED lectures and even the United Nations.

Churches are getting involved: the United Church of Christ, our partner denomination, has divested from fossil fuels. Within our own denomination, the Green Chalice program works with congregations to become more conscious of environmental issues, and to work for the healing of the earth.

Even something as simple as the language we use for God can make a difference. After all, if God is “up there,” far away from us, in some celestial realm far above the earth, then caring for creation has little to do with a life of faith. But if we rediscover and reclaim biblical language about a God who is present with us, present in the earth, the ground, the water, and the air, then caring for creation becomes one of the most holy, sacred things we can do.

We can do this. We can vote for leaders who will protect the environment, and write to them when they are in office. We can engage in simple, everyday practices, like bringing our own bags to the store, our own cups to the coffee shop (or coffee hour), and buying more fuel efficient cars. We already know the answers. We know what to do. And we have the power of God at work within us, the power that is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can imagine.

We can do this. We can protect God’s creation. We can ensure that this good and beautiful creation that has thrived for billions of years will continue to thrive for generations to come.