Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent
12 December 2004
Recorded for BBC TV at St Faith's Great Crosby, Liverpool
Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins
I saw some graffiti on a wall "Smoking stunts your growth" and someone had written underneath "Now he tells me!"
The City of Liverpool is the first Council to vote to ban smoking in public places. We're now more aware than ever of what smoking does to your health and how it damages the lungs. When the lungs don't work the body is in deep trouble.
The reason that the forests of the world are so important is that they are the lungs of the earth. The trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out the oxygen that we need to live on this planet. Chopping down a tree isn't wrong but it is if you don't plant another one. Over the last ten years the Amazon Rain Forest has lost an area the size of Wales! Slowly but surely we're turning the earth into a desert!
Ever since Adam disobeyed God by stealing the fruit from the Tree in the Garden of Eden the human race has been abusing and punishing the earth.
When God made Adam and Eve he told us in no uncertain terms to care for the earth. After all, he made Adam out of the soil of the ground and gave him the name Adam which means "Earthling" or "The one hewn from the earth".
But when Adam and Eve turned their backs on God something dreadful began to happen. God told them that because of their actions the earth was now under a curse.
Although this is told in the Bible in the book of Genesis you don't have to be a believer to know that the earth is as it is because of what we the human family are doing to it day by day.
More and more experts are telling us that unless we start to change our ways the future of the earth is doomed. The only way that the earth can be relieved of this curse is for Adam's descendants, you and me, to seek God's forgiveness and to treat the earth differently.
That's why Jesus came to us with this extraordinary promise "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins".
I love these words. I love the healing power of God's forgiveness. In my own walk with Jesus I'm often turning to him asking again for forgiveness. I'm amazed by his amazing grace. No end to his patience, no limit to his love, no boundary to his forgiving. Constantly coming to me, to us with mercy melting our frozen hearts.
But what I see now more clearly is that when we're healed then the earth that we have cursed can begin to breathe again.
God's forgiveness stirs us to live differently, less selfishly, more caring for the whole of God's creation.
Some of the things that need to be done can be achieved only by Governments working together. The problems of global warming require international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. But there are simple things that each of us can do in our own lives. When we go shopping we can use the LOAF principle and wherever possible buy things that are local, organic, animal-friendly and fairly traded. We can use some of our resources more carefully. Next time you brush your teeth put the plug in the basin and see just how much water you use - and waste! By cleaning your teeth differently you can save one of the earth's most precious resources.
These may seem trivial things but added up they reveal our attitude to God's earth. They show up either our selfishness or our willingness to live a life that puts God first and all of God's creatures before ourselves.
Either way, ever since Adam our actions have had an impact on the earth.
When Jesus came it was not just to save our individual souls but to save and redeem the whole of creation.
Do you remember what happened when Jesus died on the cross for our sins? The earth quaked! Before they laid his body in the heart of the earth there was a great earthquake. Do you recall what happened when God then on the third day raised Jesus from the tomb? The earth quaked again!
The earth wasn't a silent witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It was as if the earth somehow knew what was going on.
As Jesus died to take away the sins of the world the earth joined the chorus of creation groaning for its liberation from the bondage of decay, knowing that this was bound up with the liberation of the children of God.
The forgiving of the human family is the cure that relieves the earth of Adam's curse.
When John the Baptist came announcing the coming of Jesus he was described as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness". He lived in the wilderness of Judea, a desert barren of trees. His job was to prepare the way of the Lord, the one who would renew God's creation. The treeless desert was a deliberate contrast to the new earth that Jesus will one day recreate.
So in this season of Advent let us thank God for his forgiveness and let us with John look forward to the glorious light of Christ shining not just on us but on and over the whole earth.