Rev. David Holwick ZP Modern Controversies #8
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 16, 2012
Isaiah 11:1-9
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I. An ark in Long Island.
A. Oyster Bay's creation.
Noah had about 100 years to build an ark.
Hollywood has done it in six months.
For the upcoming movie "Noah," starring Russell Crowe,
carpenters have built a full-size replica on Long Island.
Birds, reptiles and mammals each get a different level.
Insects will be grouped with the reptiles.
Right after they filmed the deluge scene, the real thing
arrived - Hurricane Sandy.
300 trees in a nearby park were toppled but the ark remained
intact. [1]
B. What does an ark have to do with Christmas?
1) More than you would think.
a) Both events portray important truths about our salvation.
b) Both also show God's concern for the animal kingdom.
c) And the themes of both are tied together in the
Old Testament prophets.
2) This is why you always put animals in your nativity set.
a) How many animals does the Bible put at the nativity?
b) Only the shepherds' sheep are explicitly mentioned.
But Jesus was born in a place where animals were kept,
assuming the manger (feeding trough) was inside.
A donkey would certainly be appropriate for that
period.
And you would certainly want the donkey to face the
baby Jesus, unlike William Sullivan's arrangement
of my nativity scene.
And don't put hippopotamuses in your nativity set.
I don't think there were any hippopotamuses in the
stable, no matter what that dumb song says.
C. Some of the best Christmas stories are not in the gospels.
1) Today's passage, Isaiah 11, deals with Christmas 700 years
before it happened.
2) The prophet foresees what the natural world will be like
when the Messiah - Jesus - returns to earth.
a) There will be peace, prosperity and salvation.
1> Both the human world and the natural world
will be transformed.
2> The scene with a baby Messiah playing with formerly
ferocious animals has had a big influence on
nativity displays.
b) Jesus is not just the Lord of us.
1> He is the Lord of everything!
II. Christians have often taken a very narrow view of creation.
A. The principle of dominion has been popular.
1) In Genesis 1:28 God tells Adam:
"Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and
SUBDUE it.
RULE over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and
over every living thing that moves on the ground."
2) Notice the language of dominance and control.
a) We are not even very good at it.
b) Look at all the debris we have poured on top of a
garbage dump up our hill, and it still stinks to
high heaven.
3) One writer has commented,
"The biblical claim that humans have dominion over creation
has shaped the typically western ... view of nature:
that the natural world exists solely to meet humans needs."
(Douglas Moo)
4) An atheist was a little more blunt over 150 years ago.
German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach said,
"Nature...has no value, no interest for Christians. The
Christian thinks only of himself and the salvation of
his soul."
B. It is an important topic.
1) Just think of all the discussion about climate change, and
back-to-back hurricanes in New Jersey.
2) Many people who are concerned about the environment assume
born-again Christians will always be opposed to them.
3) Some liberal Christians have gone in the other direction.
a) They have replaced theology with ecology.
b) They are embarrassed by the cross and a literal reading
of the Bible, but put solar cells on their roofs.
In 2006, the Church of England launched an ecology
crusade.
They handed out a booklet to members that encouraged
them to (quote) "shrink their footprint."
Some ideas: share rides on the way to church, put in
efficient new lightbulbs, and don't flush your
toilet at night.
I guess every little bit helps.
#28601
III. Your worldview does matter.
A. Some environmental extremists have become anti-human.
1) A true story from Boulder, Colorado, where Rebecca lives.
About 20 years ago, mountain lions were increasing
near Boulder.
The locals opposed deer hunting and mountain lions moved
in to take advantage of it.
Experts warned the city to take some measures, but
they were ignored.
The locals had the attitude that they were "one with
nature," so nature would be kind to them.
One day, a teenage jogger was attacked and killed by a
mountain lion.
Colorado wildlife officials expected to get a lot of
criticism.
Instead, the locals were more concerned about the lion.
In fact, one of the teenager's teachers complained that
his body should have not been picked up, but left for
the mountain lion to eat.
#26797
2) Some environmentalists thinks the world would be better off
with zero humans.
a) Instead of erasing the distinction between animals
and humans, they make us the bad guys.
B. Christians should be pro-human and pro-environment.
1) We can acknowledge that humans have often made a mess of
the world.
a) Just think of all the toxic waste dumps in our state.
2) But humans have the God-given ability to fix problems.
IV. People can devise solutions.
A. God has given us the ability to fix problems.
1) Little things like new lightbulbs do make a difference.
2) We often cannot anticipate what solutions will appear.
B. America has actually reduced its pollution.
1) Due to "fracking," a special way of drilling, we
now have abundant, and clean, natural gas.
a) We may even be energy independent in a few decades,
something that was thought to be impossible.
b) This was the result of capitalism and innovation
rather than a particular government program.
2) It doesn't solve every problem.
a) Many people are concerned about intensive drilling.
b) But don't ignore a very big benefit.
1> America did not sign the Kyoto environmental
treaty that demanded we reduce emissions.
2> But we have exceeded those goals anyway!
3> It is the Third World that poses the greatest
danger to the environment right now.
C. It doesn't have to be doom-and-gloom.
1) Our planet certainly faces some very big problems.
2) Remember that human capabilities are big, too.
a) For generations, pessimists have assumed we would
starve ourselves to death.
b) Other have believed we would use up all our resources.
c) None of this has happened yet.
V. There is no doubt that Creation is broken.
A. The Messiah has come, but the perfect world hasn't.
1) Even tamed animals often turn on their owners.
2) As Tennyson put it 150 years ago, nature remains cruel,
red in tooth and claw.
3) Nature is not your friend.
Sir Richard Burton was a famous British explorer of Africa and the
Middle East.
In 1869 he was made the British ambassador in Damascus and moved
there with his wife Isabel.
Isabel had a special dream, and she began to work at it.
Their biographer Edward Rice writes:
The Burtons had stables filled with horses.
Isabel said, "I know everything they say, and think, and feel;
and they know also what I say to them."
Her special forte was rescuing animals.
She had donkeys and a camel, turkeys, bull terriers, as many as
50 pye-dogs, lambs, pigeons and goats.
Isabel had a white Persian cat, a pet lamb, chickens, geese,
guinea fowl, a panther so tame it would eat from your hand,
and, as her husband remarked, "other notions."
Isabel spent many hours trying to train natural enemies to love
each other.
But the panther ate the lamb and chased the goats, one of which
jumped into the river and drowned.
The birds ate the seeds and flowers in the garden.
The cat killed the birds, and the dogs worried the cat.
Isabel Burton surveyed the carnage and noted that the survivors
of her zoo became "a really harmonious family."
#4800
B. Romans 8:22 - all creation groans until our redemption comes.
1) That redemption IS coming.
2) Until then, all our solutions will fall short.
3) Only God can make things perfect.
C. That perfection will be bigger than our minds can grasp.
1) Not only our salvation, but peace in nature.
2) Nearest to God's throne are the Living Creatures.
a) They are supernatural, but have worldly features.
b) Their multiple faces are human and animal.
c) All of us are part of God's eternal plan.
3) The Spitzer’s Christmas tree.
a) Our Executive Minister's tradition is to hang a new
ornament with a photo of each of their two children.
b) As their kids have grown up and moved on, the Spitzers
now create ornaments with pictures of their dogs.
c) God loves them, too.
1> But he loves you in a very special way.
2> Have you been redeemed by him?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “The Pictures - Afloat.” The New Yorker magazine, November 26, 202,
p 21.
# 4800 “An Unpeaceable Kingdom,” Edward Rice, from his book “Captain Sir
Richard Francis Burton,” page 409.
#26797 “Fatal Visions: How a Bad Worldview Can Make You What's For Dinner,”
Charles Colson, BreakPoint Commentary, January 23, 2005.
#28601 “Environmental Successes: Telling the True Story,” Charles Colson,
BreakPoint Commentary, April 18, 2005.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
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