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A compelling devotional by Day1 host Peter Wallace, designed to help people of all ages connect meaningfully with God as revealed in the Psalms.

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Topic Features About Ecology

The Rev. Dr. Janet Parker
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From Apocalypse to Genesis

Ezekiel 36:22, 24-36; John 3:1-10; Revelation 22:1-5

August 26, 2007

The Rev. Dr. Janet Parker (UCC)

The sermon you are about to hear was first preached at my church during a worship service in honor of Earth Day, a service that focused around the theme of God's gift of water, and it included a ritual for the renewal of our baptismal vows. This service held a lot of meaning for my church because it was the first time we had celebrated Earth Day as a congregation. Thankfully, more and more churches are beginning to observe Earth Day, and more and more ministers are taking up the challenge of preaching on issues relating to eco-justice and our Christian call to care for God's creation. The day before our Earth Day service, our whole community had turned out for our first-ever Earth Day festival, a symphony of creative and inspiring activities that demonstrated our love for the Earth and many ways that we can care for creation and work to minimize our harmful impacts on the planet. The mood was celebratory and fun, as it should be. But Earth Day is also implicitly a recognition that something has gone wrong in our relationship with the natural world, something that needs fixing-something that we might describe in religious terms as a call to repentance, and even conversion.

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