The Fifth Mark of Mission: TEND

I’ve been preaching a series of sermons this summer on The Five Marks of Mission. Today we get to number five, the last in this series. But let me review and back up and offer a rationale for this series and then we will talk about creation care.

I see a difference between being a called rector and an interim. Much of the work is the same, of course. Over the past eleven months we’ve had baptisms and weddings and funerals. We’ve had tartans kirked and we’ve celebrate both of the two great Christian festivals together, Easter and Christmas.

But the primary work of an intentional interim, which I am trying to be for you, is to focus on healing past wounds so that the parish can begin to move together again as one body. Toward that end, we need to remember who we are and return to purpose, so that when a more settled rector arrives she or he can focus on some longer-term goals.

Back in January when we remembered Dr. King, I shared his sermon on “Guidelines for a Constructive Church.” The reason for this summer series was to build on that, but in truth all of my preaching here at St. Michael’s has been towards this end: to return to the basics, to remember who we are and to reflect on where God is calling St. Michael’s next. You are not a blank slate upon which a new rector will make his or her mark. You are already moving forward and the next rector will join you in work we’ve begun, and with God’s help you will be changed for good over time.

You’re far more likely to find the right priest for you in this time if you have some clarity about the work that lies ahead.

So the Five Marks of Mission are not a sacred text. But they represent some core values and that’s why I’ve taken the time to unpack these this summer. I hope it’s been helpful. To review, those marks are as follows:

1.    To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.

2.    To teach, baptize and nurture new believers.

3.    To respond to human need by loving service.

4.    To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation.

5.    To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

So today I have a very simple task, maybe the easiest of these five to preach on: to convince you that as Christians we care about this “fragile earth, our island home” and we know that we are called to be faithful stewards of it.

There is a strain in the Christian tradition that misses this point and we need to name that. Decades ago, some of you may remember a Secretary of the Interior named Jim Watt. He was an evangelical Christian who was quoted as saying that God gave us the earth to use and after the last tree is felled, Christ would return.

I think he was wrong in the same way that people try to force Christ’s return by manipulating foreign policy in the Middle East are wrong. I prefer the theology of dear old St. Francis, who was reportedly asked one day while hoeing a row of peas in his garden, “Francis, if you learned that Christ would return this afternoon, what would you be doing?” Francis didn’t miss a beat: I’d like to finish hoeing this row of peas!

So it is true that in the Revelation of John, God makes a new heaven and a new earth. But God gets to be God and it’s the worst kind of arrogance to think we can force God’s hand. Let’s all be like Francis and do the work God has given us to do until our last breath. That includes being faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to us in the meantime.

From the beginning, literally, in the Book of Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, humans are given the responsibility to tend the garden. I know some of you are gardeners yourselves as my spouse and my mother are. I see how labor intensive it is. God gives us this good earth and sun and rain and seasons but God also invites human laborers throughout the Bible to share in the work of tending the garden.

We see an important image from the prophets that Jesus uses in his parables as well: the image of the vineyard.

Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

Now the reading goes beyond this and in truth I could have done a part two of the fourth mark of mission on this reading, because what Isaiah is saying is that human beings have missed the mark on doing justice and there are consequences for that. But I want to just focus on the vineyard itself.

Have you ever stood in a vineyard? I have. A close friend got married in Tuscany years ago and we all stayed at a vineyard there which was exquisite. Years later I did wedding at the vineyard in Truro, Mass. Hathy and I have also done a few trips to Napa and Sonoma Valleys.

I love vineyards because, well, honestly I love good wine. I love the end product. But you don’t get there without a lot of things happening and the key difference is between good grapes and not-so-good grapes. You can’t get a stellar wine from bad grapes! So it takes work, and skill, and practice, and love. It takes human and divine cooperation.

The word stewardship tends to get used mostly when we are talking about what we do with our money but it’s also about what we do with our time and our talents. Followers of Jesus are called to be faithful stewards of the gifts entrusted to us. This includes this good earth that God has given us.

It is counter to everything our faith teaches to trash it and then think that will bring about the second coming so that Jesus can fix it. It simply doesn’t work that way. As members of the Episcopal branch of the Jesus’ Movement we care about clean air and water and the earth. More than care – we are responsible for these gifts.

As with so many things, people of good will will continue to debate about the details on how best to do that. We can let science take the lead on that. But to dismiss the care of creation totally is not an option. We need to be very clear as people of faith that this is part of the work of being the church, one of the five marks of mission.

So there you have it friends.

• TELL the story of Jesus.
  
• Invite, welcome and connect new believers to this faith community.
• Respond to human need by loving your neighbor.
• Do justice, and seek peace and reconciliation.
• Care for this fragile earth, our island home. 

When we are doing these things, we are living more and more into our calling to be the Church, always with God’s help.