Lenten experiment with plastic

         For lent this year our family decided to give up plastic, especially one-use plastic since it has become such a huge problem for our oceans and our environment.  I made this decision because I kept wondering how the Lenten disciplines of doing something that increases only personal devotion really touches all of those we are called to love equally with ourselves.  I felt that we needed instead to do something good for the world, no matter how small.  While this was the impetus, as with almost everything we do for others, I have found that I have been the one to gain the most through the learning, alone, that has come from this Lenten experiment.
         We are only half way through lent at this point, and yet the challenge of trying to extricate ourselves from plastic use has been almost impossible.  What I have learned is that plastic is all around us, in almost everything.  As a result, this one simple choice to try to avoid plastic has in fact been the hardest spiritual discipline I've yet tried.
        Beginning with food:  We found that much of the prepackaged food we are used to eating was completely off the list for lent.  I'll separate this out by food groups:
        Carbohydrates: Cereal, while boxed in cardboard, always has a plastic lining between the carboard and the cereal itself.  The exception was oatmeal, but even that came with a plastic lid. Friends suggested the bulk bins.  Two problems for us: the first was that the bags by the bulk bins were, again, plastic. We could bring in our own paper bags, though this was not appreciated by the grocery check out people.  The second was that the cereal selection was mostly limited to granola or mussily, neither of which are appealing to my kids.  Crackers, likewise, all came with plastic somewhere in the packaging.  The one exception we found to this was Goldfish crackers, which have become a bit of a staple for the kids during this time.  Pasta often is also packaged in cardboard: but almost all of it comes with a little plastic window so that you can see the pasta inside.  Breads and bagels - all sliced bread and prepackaged bagels came in plastic.  But we soon found that we were able to buy freshly baked bagels and breads directly from the bakery and put it in our own bags or in paper bags.
        Proteins:  This was, in many ways, even harder.  We are a dairy family.  We love our milk, our yogurt, our cheeses.  We could buy smaller containers of milk in cardboard (half gallon, when we usually buy full gallons of milk: about 5 a week!), but the only brand that did not have a plastic top was Clover, which is very expensive.  We looked for glass milk bottles and did find some in a health food store, and yet even those bottles had plastic lids.  Yogurt and cheese?  Nope.  Out for lent.  I simply could find no yogurt or cheese that was not packaged in plastic.  Some of our family are meat eaters.  We found we could go to the meat counter and ask for meat to be cut and prepared and wrapped in paper.  But we could not simply buy chicken or fish or any other kind of meat in any other way.  All of the prepackaged meat was wrapped in plastic.
        Fruit and Veggies: this was by far the easiest.  We have our own bags that we bring in for fruit and vegetables.  However, there were still limitations.  Cherry tomatoes were out.  So were berries.  Also, while I understand that Trader Joe's has now made a commitment to lessening plastic packaging, so far our local Trader Joe's has not made those changes.  So we can't shop there for our produce during lent.
        Other products were equally challenging.  My cats are extremely picky, I realize, but finding dry cat food that did not come in plastic that my cats would actually eat was a complete fail.  Likewise, we've been trying to get away from some of the cat litters that have so much dust and tracking problems.  But the alternatives all came in plastic.
       When it comes to bathroom and cleaning products, the challenges were even greater.  Toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, soap dispensers for laundry, dish, hands and body, feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, deodorant:  all of it comes in plastic.  With some serious research, I was able to find products I could order on-line for most of these things.  There is a company that makes toilet paper out of bamboo (grows faster and is therefore more renewable) that also wraps the paper in bamboo packaging.  I also found a company that makes shampoo, conditioner and deodorant that comes in a bar form and therefore can be packaged in cardboard.  I am trying that out and will let you know how that goes.  There are also alternatives to laundry soap and dish soap.  Many companies advertise that they are "better" in terms of their plastic use but in fact they aren't.  One, for example, states that it produces less plastic waste by sending you a glass bottle and then liquid soap to fill the bottle in plastic bags.  Those plastic bags are still plastic, so I'm not sure who they think they are fooling.  All of this required research and ordering from companies that don't sell their products in local stores.  The toothpaste alternatives, as well as most household cleaning alternatives mostly seem to involve making your own products. Cleaners are mostly baking soda and vinegar.  There are tooth powders, yet, interestingly, almost all still came in plastic, which made me question the point.  Also the textures of these alternatives (and the concern over a lack of fluoride in the toothpaste) were really distasteful.  Still, it challenged me to think about how far I was willing to go with this, even just for lent.
         Other things were just not an option.  I could not find batteries, for example, without plastic packaging.  While there are alternatives to toothbrushes and hair brushes, on most the bristles still appear to be plastic, even when the backs are bamboo or wood.  Razors are mostly plastic, or have plastic components.. they all come packaged in plastic.  Antibacterial cream comes in plastic.  While you can buy spices in glass, they all seem to have a plastic top under the metal lid.  My children are no longer packing their lunches into plastic bags, but the alternatives we've been using are the Tupperware (plastic) in our cupboards.  Better, but still plastic. One more helpful site: here.
        Mostly, the experiment is requiring a change of lifestyle.  For example, when we had my daughter's birthday party, we needed to use real plates because all paper products are packaged in plastic. This might be a no-brainer, except it meant spending a good part of the party washing already used dishes so that there would be enough for the next "course" of whatever the kids were eating.   I've found it necessary to carry in my purse my own mug and my own metal straw (not that straws are ever really necessary) so that when I eat out with friends or even attend meetings at other churches, I can still drink without using a plastic cup.  I went to a day long conference and needed to think through food ahead of time because I knew they'd be bringing in food mostly in plastic containers, with plastic utensils.  For that day, a set of utensils also went into my purse.  Web-sites that encourage limiting plastic use say we should bring our own containers to restaurants for left-overs.  At that point, my purse was just too big to carry!
      As I said, we are only half way through lent.  I will continue to explore alternatives and let you know at the end of the best products we find.  It's been a good challenge for all of us to really look at our plastic use.  Not easy, but good.  The challenge of picking something for lent that actually serves something bigger than ourselves has been great.  I hope that next year we can come up with something equally challenging, eye-opening, and hopefully even more helpful to the earth.

The bad news first

       We just returned from two weeks of vacation, during which we drove up to Canada, spent a week there and then drove back along the coast.  We saw a lot, met some wonderful people, had good family time, and returned exhausted but full of our adventures.  I will write more about all we saw and did at a later time.  But today I want to start by writing about some of the negative, and some of the harder things I'm taking from this vacation.
       We experienced quite a bit of stupid on this trip. At one point we had stopped on the Oregon Coast at a vista site off the highway: a very high cliff looking over the ocean.  We were separated from the cliff by a small stone wall, with clear signs written all over it, "Danger!  Erosive area.  Do NOT go beyond wall."  But, despite the postings, and the obvious danger of a cliff that dropped straight down, there were people on the other side of the wall.  One boy, probably around 13 years of age, was actually sitting on the cliff, feet dangling between two large boulders under which there appeared to be nothing but air.  I freaked out.  My father yelled at the boy to not be stupid, which finally roused him to back up a little.  His parents eventually noticed him and read him the riot act.  After seeing that the boy's parents were trying to get him off the cliff, as well as my dad, I tried to get my own kids back in the car.  I didn't know why the boy was acting like this, but I didn't want my kids to see this kid fall to his death. I didn't think they needed that image forever plastered on their minds.  I get the thrill of risk-taking.  But there is a line...
      Two days ago we were driving in Oregon on Hwy 101.  Hwy 101 is very curvy in places, lots of blind corners, but still a highway with 55mph speed limits for much of the road.  We were driving on a section that was three lanes wide: two lanes going South (where we were driving) and one lane heading North.  The road was divided by a clear double yellow line.  I was driving in the left of the two lanes heading South because there was a car in the right-most lane that was going about 50 mph and I wanted to drive closer to the posted 55 limit.  We came to a blind curve and as I turned, I saw an oversized pick-up in my lane, going North and heading straight for me.  Fortunately, I was not yet next to the car I was trying to pass, so I very quickly swerved into the right lane, so quickly that I over-corrected and had to swerve back a little to stay on the road.  There wasn't time to honk, and my father, who had been driving behind me, also nearly missed the guy but was able to swerve back into the right lane.  My father was able to honk, which "woke" the guy up who then went back into his correct lane.  I missed the truck by only a foot or so.  It was close enough that I had to pull off the road because I was shaking so hard at this near head-on collision.  I don't know why he was driving in the wrong lane.  Playing chicken?  Drunk?  Sleeping?  Whatever the reason, that "stupid" nearly got all of us killed.  All of us.  Killed.
       We also experienced meanness on this trip.  We spent one night in a small harbor town in Canada.  David and I walked down early in the morning to try to find a place for the seven of us to get breakfast.  We walked into the only open café at that time and saw that there were about 4 people standing in a line at the register.  Next to this line was a display case with pastries and other food items showing what they had for sale.  So David and I walked over to the display case to see what was available, and if there were foods that all of us could eat (my mother is a diabetic, my daughter is a vegetarian, my son has sensory integration disorder and doesn't eat very many foods).  We walked up to the case when this very tall (at least 6'4") man shouted at us, "Hey!  There's a line you know!"  I turned around simply astonished.  "We were just looking to see what the café has" I said.  To which he shouted, "Well I can't see around you!" after which he ordered his food from the cashier, clearly not needing to "see around me," though I found it astonishing to think this huge person could not see around me, even if he had "needed" to.
          Later that day, after a lot of driving and museum hopping, all seven of us tried to find a place to eat.  The first place we went was closed (no notice on the web-site about it, but it was closed).  The second place was hard to find.  The third place looked a little pricey, but by this time we were all just really, really hungry.  (Did I mention my mother is a diabetic?  Not smart to go too long without eating.)  We stepped inside and told the host that there were seven of us.  He took one look at us and said, "well, we are going to have to move some tables together, so it will be a half hour wait."  I could see a number of empty tables behind him, so I said, "well, we can split into two groups.  Each group can pay for the people at their own table.  Therefore it's like two different groups.  Can we be seated faster that way?"  "I'll have to ask my manager," he nonsensically replied.  I tried to explain again.  "We would be just two small groups.  I see there is room.  Can we be seated sooner if we come in just as two smaller groups: one of three and one of four?"  "I'll have to ask my manager," he said, looking me up and down in a way that made it very clear that he didn't want to seat us because we didn't look fancy enough.  We were dressed casually, as in tourist mode.
        Still later that same day, at a hotel back in the US now, we were in an elevator when we were joined by a transgender couple.  They were talking really loudly about how all Christians are horrible.  It took me a minute to realize I was wearing my "Clayton Valley Presbyterian Church" shirt.  I understand why they would feel that way.  But just as they do not like assumptions to be made about who they are based on their orientation or gender, I would hope they would practice this same policy and not make assumptions about what all "Christians" think and believe.  We got off the elevator and I was talking to my dad about logistics of our trip when I looked up and saw another woman giving me the most hateful glare I have ever, ever seen.  This time it was not shirt related as I had my sweatshirt on.  I don't know why she was looking at me that way.  I have no idea at all what possessed her to be so angry in my direction.  I tried to smile, and the fury and hate just deepened on her face.
       We experienced the pain of people on this trip:  We saw a number of "tent cities" in Canada.  And while I was glad that the dispossessed and homeless had places where they were able to set up their tents without legal harassment or worse, the sheer number of people in these tent cities was astonishing.  I was struck again and again with the cruelty of the fact that people do not care for or about other people.  We are okay with people being this poor.  We do nothing about cities that have no clean water.  We allow children to be taken from their parents.  We send people who are threatened with violence or extreme conditions at home, back to those horrible situations.  We don't see one another as connected to us, we don't understand that your poverty is my poverty and your pain is my pain.  We forget that we are interdependent on one another and we fail to treat each other with respect, love and dignity.  We accept unacceptable conditions for others.  We accept it, we make policies that enforce it, and we don't blink an eye at the intense suffering of other people.
       On our trip we went to a number of history and science places because that is what my father, in particular, likes to do.  But at each one of these the lessons were the same.  It started with the fact that we are cruel to each other.  I'll let you in on a secret.  I hate being white.  I hate it.  I hate being part of a group that has wiped out native peoples, enslaved and continues to enslave people of color, takes away the rights of those who do not look like us and then claims we are the ones being threatened.  I am sorry about the attitudes and destructive behaviors of my ancestors and people who look like me.  I am sorry for my own privilege and the ways in which I have it and use it without even being aware.  I read again and again about the destruction of this tribe, that tribe, this group of folk and that group of people, and it is my people who did this: people who look like me.  I have the rights and privileges I have because of what my people have done to others.  All I have has been earned off the backs of people who have not been given opportunities and have had their resources taken away from them at some point in time.  It breaks my heart.
      And then it went deeper.  Because we don't just destroy other people.  Every science center and museum we went to talked about the destruction of the environment.  We destroy long term growth forests.  We destroy species.  We take up their natural habitats and make it impossible for them to live.  We are causing the environmental destruction not only of the water, of the air, of the forests, but also of our weather systems.  We are destroying the world not only for ourselves but for every other living thing.  Humans are a virus: we grow beyond what the earth can support, we devour everything in our path and we even destroy our host planet.
      Every story I've shared today is about entitlement.  The boy felt entitled to risk his life on the cliff, the truck driver felt entitled to drive on the wrong side of the road, the man in the café felt entitled to yell at strangers, the host at the restaurant felt entitled to turn us away because he didn't like how we looked, the couple in the elevator felt entitled to judge and criticize every person of a group that has some people who are awful (as does every group), people feel entitled to have nice houses while others are homeless, white people have felt entitled to take the land from natives and to take other people as slaves and servants, and all people have felt entitled to using the earth for our own purposes to the point at which we are destroying her and everything on her.  The greed of humanity makes me not only wish I were not white, but frankly, wish I were not human.  I feel helpless to stop this.  But I also feel very clear that none of this is what the Divine, whatever that means to you, wants.  People are not entitled.  We are not entitled.  We are just greedy and selfish.  God does not love us more than the earth, or than other species or than other plants or than other people.  We are called to love all of it: all of the earth, all of each other, ALL.  And our inability to do so will lead to our own destruction.  Given how awful I feel humans are right now, that isn't such a tragedy to me anymore.  What is a tragedy is that we will take the planet with us when we destroy ourselves.
      I know that as a pastor I am supposed to write blogs that encourage, that support, that tell the Good News.  And I know there is Good News out there... there are people who care, there are people who are fighting and standing up for the earth, for other people, especially the poor, disenfranchised, oppressed and marginalized.  There are changes being made, although slowly. God loves all of us, and wants the best for us, even when we mess up. There is Good News.  But I will tell you the truth, I don't always feel hopeful, and it is hard to share Good News when I worry that perhaps those working for change are too few and too late. Many of us who really care feel impotent to help, to make real change. I come back from this vacation not only sad about being white, but sad about being human.  And that is real.  It may not be comfortable to hear, but it is real.
       I post this because I believe we have to start from truth.  Going forward with a Pollyannaish attitude will not help us.  We have to start with the reality of who we are as a people, as a species.  We have to start there in order to move forward with wisdom and hope.  So I speak my truth today.
         Our vacation was a good one.  But perhaps not in the way that I had hoped or intended.  It sobered me up, even more than the last year and a half have done, to the reality of who we are.  I turn over this truth to God and ask for guidance through it all.

Sunday's Sermon - Stewardship of the Earth AND Care for one another.

Genesis 1:1-2:2

Acts 17:24-25

Today we are celebrating earth day, and the charge we have been given to be good stewards of the earth.  This has been planned for weeks, that today we would be talking about our relationship to the rest of creation.  And yet we’ve had events in our church community that also call for our attention this week.  So I’ve found myself with the interesting and dubious task that many pastors face of how to keep with the planned program but also speak to the current reality that we are living with.

But I found, as I reflected on this, that these two things DO tie intimately together.  Today’s passages, as with all passages, tell us many things, but there are two things that we will focus on today.  The first is that what God created is good.  And that includes creation, and it includes one another, people who are diverse and different in so many ways, blessed by those differences, blessed by that diversity.  God has created it all, as we are told in Acts.  And it is GOOD.  And the second thing that we are told by these passages, especially the Genesis passage, is that we are called to take care of that creation.  The word that we often translate “dominion” is better translated “stewardship”.  It is a word in Hebrew that implies care, not over something wild and distant, but over that which we know.  It is not a word that implies we must dominate or subdue (another mistranslation – better translated “cultivate”) an enemy or something chaotic, but instead, like a parent, like someone who loves and truly sees and understands the other, we are called to care for, tend to, bring out the best in, the world that God has given us.  It is very similar to the way God works with us.  God tends to us with love, with care, always working to bring out the best in us.  We are called to do the same towards the earth that God loves.

The same is also true for how Jesus calls us to care for each other.  The question, “am I my brother’s keeper” should actually always be answered with “yes”.  We are the keepers of each other, but again, not as enemies, not as guards, but as people we are called to look after, to approach with compassion, never to judge (as Jesus said again and again), but always to love with the same unconditional love God extends to us.

We have been given the charge as people of faith to care for God’s creation, including all of God’s people, to watch over creation and each other, to love, to tend, to care for.  We have been given the charge of loving rather than using the beauty that surrounds us.  Not always an easy charge, especially because we often have very little to hold us accountable.  It is easy to use and misuse that which won’t catch up with us.  It is easy to judge and condemn and even abuse others, especially when we are in a group of like-minded folk who support and encourage our fear, anger and hatred.  Like children who don’t think what they do is wrong unless they get caught, we have, for quite some time, been in a place where we could take what we wanted from the earth, use what we wanted of the earth, and frankly from certain groups of people, without consequence and without fear of recrimination. 

But more recently this has begun to change.  In the last century, we have started to become aware that even the way we care for, or fail to care for, the earth, and for each other, has consequences for us as a people, for humanity as a whole and for each of us as individuals as well. 

            In terms of the earth, one of those wake-up calls came for Cleveland On June 22, 1969. On August 1, 1969, Time magazine wrote this about the Cuyahoga River: 

Some River! Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gases, it oozes rather than flows. "Anyone who falls into the Cuyahoga does not drown," Cleveland's citizens joke grimly, "He decays".  .. . The Federal Water Pollution Control Administration dryly notes: "The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life, not even low forms such as leeches and sludge worms that usually thrive on wastes." It is also -- literally -- a fire hazard.

Because of this fire, Cleveland businesses became infamous for their pollution, a legacy of the city's booming manufacturing days during the late 1800s and the early 1900s, when limited government controls existed to protect the environment. Even following World War II, Cleveland businesses, especially steel mills, routinely polluted the river. Cleveland and its residents also became the butt of jokes across the United States, despite the fact that city officials had authorized 100 million dollars to improve the Cuyahoga River's water before the fire occurred.

And this fire in 1969 was not the first on the river.  The Cuyahoga had burned as early as 1868 and over the years about 13 more fires before 1952 had caused more than $1.5 million in damage.  Humans had begun to pay for not caring for the earth.  Still, until the 1969 fire, little attention had been paid to the river or the pollution. 

The 1969 river fire was different, though.  It attracted media attention like never before.  And the results were very positive.  Cleveland began to clean up the water.  But the fire also brought attention to other environmental problems across the country, helped spur the Environmental Movement, and helped lead to the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972.

The result was that the river has been and continues to be cleaned up.  “When they checked the river at the time, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency found 10 sick gizzard chad. Period. More recently when checked they found 40 different fish species in the river, including steelhead trout, northern pike and other clean-water fish. Now, even the most polluted areas of the river generally meet aquatic life water quality standards.  There is still work to be done, but it continues to happen, thanks in large part to the fire in 1969."

What does this have to do with us, as people or as Christians?  Well, in many ways I see the fire of 1969 as a Good Friday in Cleveland’s environment, and in our care for the earth.  We had done such a poor job of looking out only for ourselves and not caring for the earth, that the earth itself was being destroyed through atrocities such as a river burning. 

But the resurrection is for all of creation.  The promise of new life and new birth is for all of creation.  Easter is for all of creation. 

And so today, as we celebrate earth day and the fifth Sunday in Easter, I want us to take some time to look at the resurrection of the earth as well.  We created Good Friday for the Cuyahoga river, just as we killed Jesus on the cross, and just as we harm our brothers and sisters with our judgments, anger and hatred.  But out of the death, we see God’s active hand, creating anew, bringing new life.

God created the resurrection.  But when it comes to the life around us, when it comes to the earth, we are invited to be part of ushering in the new era.  We are called to be part of the resurrection that is for all of creation and all people.  We are called to be part of the new creation that we celebrate at Easter.

The passages we read from Genesis and from Acts remind us that God has created everything and created it all beautiful, but has put it at our feet for us to care for, and to be stewards of. God created everything good, to be loved, to be enjoyed, to experience delight in.  When we abuse God’s creation, whether it be the earth or God’s people, we are insulting the creator, we are not honoring the God who delights in God’s creation.

We don’t actually have a lot of choice about it.  Either we are part of the new creation, or we are part of the Good Friday that precedes it.  Either we are part of destruction or we are part of creation and new life.

This applies to how we treat God’s earth, but it also applies to how we treat any of God’s people.  When we decide that any group of people are unacceptable, are expendable, are worthy of our judgment and condemnation, can be discounted and thrown off, we have failed to remember that it is only together that we are the creation God calls us to be.  When we leave people out, it is like trying to put together a puzzle with some of the pieces missing.  God calls us to be family to one another.  When we reject part of that family it is, very simply, failing to follow the call of Christ to love everyone, even your enemies, as yourself.  When we would alienate or leave out anyone, including our enemies, including those who would harm us, from love and forgiveness, we also are failing to do what God asks us to do, failing to tend to, care for, and be stewards of all of creation, which includes one another as well.

There is a story that I’m sure many of you have heard about the difference between heaven and hell.  In hell, there is a big feast spread out on the table, but the people sitting at the table have no elbows.  They desperately try to feed themselves, but are unable to get the food to their mouths because they cannot bend their arms.  In heaven the picture at first glance looks very similar.  There is a big feast spread out on the table, and again the people sitting around the table have no elbows and are still unable to feed themselves.  The difference, though, is that at the table in heaven, everyone is feeding each other. 

We cannot afford to fail to feed one another.  We cannot afford to house anger and fear and hatred in our bodies.  We cannot afford to be unloving or unkind to any of God’s people.

I am reminded of a story: 

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall

To see the farmer and his wife open a package.

"What food might this contain?"  The mouse wondered.

He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.  (slide)

Retreating to the farmyard,

The mouse proclaimed this warning :

"There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, (slide)

Raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse,

I can tell this is a grave concern to you,

But it is of no consequence to me.

I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, (slide)

"There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said,

"I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse,

But there is nothing I can do about it

But pray..

Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, (slide)

"There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you,

But it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house,

Head down and dejected,

To face the farmer's mousetrap

. . . Alone.. . ...

That very night

A sound was heard throughout the house

-- the sound Of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see it.

It was a venomous snake (slide)

Whose tail was caught in the trap.

The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital.

When she returned home she still had a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever

With fresh chicken soup. (slide)

So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard

For the soup's main ingredient:

But his wife's sickness continued.

Friends and neighbors

Came to sit  with her

Around the clock.

To feed them,

The farmer butchered the pig. (slide)

But, alas,

The farmer's wife did not get well...

She died.

So many people came for her funeral

That the farmer had the cow slaughtered (slide)

To provide enough meat for all of them

For the funeral luncheon.

 And the mouse looked upon it all

From his crack in the wall

With great sadness. (slide)

So, the next time you hear

Someone is facing a problem

And you think it doesn't concern you,

Remember ---

When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life.

We must keep an eye out for one another

And make an extra effort

To encourage one another.

I am also reminded of a quote by Anne Lemott: "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

            The bottom line is we are called to be stewards.  Stewards of creation, stewards of humanity, stewards of love and care for the earth and for each other. We walk that by caring in each moment about how are actions impact others.  We walk that by caring in each moment about who will be hurt and who will be lifted up by our actions.  We walk this by choosing to be kind to all we encounter and that includes the beautiful earth God has given us.  We walk this by living as Jesus taught us, with love, with generosity, with compassion, and with grace.  Amen.