Saving the planet... Or not

I read an article this morning that really got me thinking. In a recent issue of my local suburban Chicago newspaper, there was a story about a local author living in Westmont, Illinois, Joel Greenberg, and his campaign to raise awareness regarding the one-hundredth anniversary of the demise of a local species, the passenger pigeon.

Now you may be wondering why such an article would interest me. After all, there are a number of species that no longer exist, from the ancient dinosaurs to the more recent dodo bird, so what makes the passenger pigeon so special? The answer's simple, really... I'd never heard of the passenger pigeon!

True environmentalists (or simply those better informed about such things, including members of the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, etc) are probably now shaking their heads at the appalling extent of my ignorance. As a matter of fact, anyone who grew up east of the Mississippi may be wondering if I slept through something they'd learned about in public school or on a grade school field trip. Unfortunately, I did not grow up in the Midwest, which is why this story interests me so much.

Generations ago, off the coast of my home state of California, literally billions upon billions of sardines swam in enormous schools. Steinbeck wrote about them in his novel "Cannery Row", and my paternal great-grandparents actually worked in the Monterey, California-based canneries that provided the basis for Steinbeck's novel. Every year, millions of sardines were pulled out of the Pacific Ocean, packed in oil, canned up in easy-opening tins and shipped across the globe. An industrial machine was created that sustained thousands of fisherman and cannery workers. California's sardine industry grew into such a powerful engine of wealth that, when the sardine market collapsed, it continued on, simply grinding the sardines into fertilizer instead of food.

The story of California's sardine industry is well known to me, but the surprisingly similar (and even more cautionary) tale of the passenger pigeon was not. As the article strikingly highlights, between 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons once made their homes here in the United States, "their vast numbers when in flight stretching for miles and literally obscuring the sun." Initially viewed as a ready source of food for individual hunters, the massive numbers of passenger pigeons later inspired competitive hunts where, to win, hunters would have to kill 30,000 birds. The passenger pigeon even created an industry of sorts, where birds were hunted so that they could be shipped across the sea and sold for food.

Unlike the sardines off the coast of California, which now exist in significant (though hardly historic) numbers, the passenger pigeons are now completely extinct. Out of upwards of 5 billion birds and flocks that once "literally obscured the sun", not a single flock flies above our purple mountains majesty, not a single pair of wings takes flight above our amber waves of grain... Nor have they since the last bird died in 1914.

The 100th anniversary of this one American avian's demise is almost upon us, and I'm sure you can now see why author Joel Greenberg wants everyone to remember it... A date not to be celebrated, but rather remembered and reflected upon, so as to help prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again. If you agree, please take a moment and help spread the story.

A Creation Care Sunday Devotional

NOTE: This devotional was written to be presented during an upcoming Creation Care Sunday service in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where my church's Earthlings group will be distributing free battery recycling containers and accepting donations for reusable bags, rain barrels, bee houses, and other environmentally-focused projects.

Good morning, everyone.

This morning, I'd like to share a few words about Creation Care, and why it's important to me. Let me start off by sharing that devotions don't come easy to me. You see, my faith is an intensely personal, intimate part of who I am. Such feelings have always made it challenging for me to evangelize as scripture calls us to do… Which is perhaps why I became active in church service.

Starting with my ordination as a deacon of First Presbyterian Church of Tracy, California many years ago, I've never felt the same discomfort evangelizing through service versus word. I guess I've always simply appreciated how blessed I've been to be offered the opportunity to serve others and make a difference, in small but important ways, a blessing received through the grace of my various church families. Whether delivering Thanksgiving baskets to the underprivileged of Tracy, California, or serving those in need at Hessed House in Aurora alongside fellow members of Knox Presbyterian Church of Naperville, such opportunities have reinforced the importance of my church families both to me personally, as well as to our greater communities at large.

As members of First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn, we're blessed with a wealth of service opportunities. From assisting with worship to helping staff our PADS shelter, or participating in our church's many other ministries and missions, our church family offers each and every one of us opportunities to serve God, our congregation, and our community in ways that best suit who we are as individuals, or where we are in our own personal, spiritual journeys. One particular opportunity I'd like to share with you all today, on this Creation Sunday, is that of Creation Care.

To me, Creation Care is very similar to serving my fellow humanity. For service to our world is service to all, as we each share this wonderful gift our creator has bestowed upon us, this Earth. And, as we all share the many blessings of our creators gift, from the planet's natural beauty to the bounty of it's harvests, so too do we share the responsibility of it's stewardship. Practically every decision we make on a daily basis impacts the world God's gifted to us, from the transportation choices we make to the things we buy, how we chose to dispose of life's castoffs to how we help nurture our natural surroundings. All these things and more have a significant impact on the world we share and the lives of those who follow.

With that, I would like to personally invite each and everyone in attendance today to accept the heartfelt invitation of the Earthlings of First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn to participate in this, our congregation's Creation Sunday. As you leave today's service, you'll find a number of tables set up in the Welcome Center with fun and informational items (some of which are FREE) that you and your families can use to thank God for the many wonders that surround us.

In the words of John Calvin, “...let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved. …The creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite and the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells us of God.” Let us remember those words and our shared role as creation's stewards as we exit the doors of our church today and step out into the grandeur that is, perhaps, God's greatest gift... A gift that both enables and encompasses life itself.

Thank you.