This text from the Gospel of John is used frequently in funerals and memorial services. The words are ones of comfort, especially v. 2 where Jesus tells his followers, “In God’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” It is part of a much larger section in John known as the “Farewell Discourse.” John has gathered with his followers, he has washed their feet, Judas has left them, but Jesus has not been arrested. For four chapters, Jesus talks to his disciples about what is to come, encourages them to continue his work, and offers them words of comfort, promise, and hope.
We continue to need words like these. Words that offer us a vision of a time when things will be made right, of a place where we will be reunited with loved ones and at one with God. At the end of the book of Revelation, after all the scary and odd visions, John of Patmos has a final vision. In chapter 21 he records, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; . . . And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” He describes how God will dwell with the people, and “death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” He provides descriptions of water ways, and trees planted for healing in this new heaven on earth. He describes a city with lit by God’s presence and with no need for fortifying walls for safety.
Sometimes, my desire for a new earth is also strong. A desire to just start over, to live in a place where God is the light, where there is no more crying or pain. Although Jesus may prepare many places for us where he is going, we only have one place here. And when the vision of the afterlife takes on too much importance, it is often at the expense of our life in this world. The rest of the Farewell Discourse focus on what Jesus’ followers are to do in this life, and in this world. And, in general, the whole Bible calls on us to live in this place, to live this life, and to do it with responsibility to each other, in relationship with God, and with a reminder that in creation, we were given stewardship of the earth.
Our actions in this life may affect our life to come, but they also affect this life, and we need to pay as much, if not more, attention to that.
Last fall, public radio had a week-long feature called “Consumed.” All of their programs, outside of the news, dealt with the issue of what we consume and the effect our consumption has on us, each other, and the earth. In preparation for this focus, they created an interactive game called “Consumer Consequences.” (http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/consumerConse...) I decided to play the game, in part because I thought I’d do pretty well. After all, I turn out lights when I’m not using them, I recycle, I try to eat lower on the food chain, I try to buy used where I can, I use rechargeable batteries, I try to buy locally, and I keep the thermostat turned down in the winter and up in the summer. So I found the game, and I created my first Avatar! Which tells you that I do not play very many computer games at all. My avatar had sunglasses, curly hair (which I’ve always wanted), wore a baseball cap, and got overalls. I always like how they look on others, but not how they look on me, but they looked good on my avatar. I started answering questions about my energy consumption, the sources for my food, the size of my house, etc. As I answered each set of questions, a little box up in the corner told me how many worlds it would take if all the people were my avatar. It wasn’t long before I knew my avatar was in trouble. Obviously, I wasn’t as green as I thought I was. When it was all over, I found out that it would take 3.7 worlds to support my avator, err, support me. I was discouraged and disappointed. I thought I was doing so well, but obviously . . . Then I saw the place where I could compare myself to how others answered. One of the options was to compare myself to public radio personalities. I like Krista Tippett, think she’s pretty cool, so I compared myself to her. Hah! It takes 5.7 worlds to support Krista! But then I found out that I was average for those in my age, gender, and the state of Minnesota. About 4 worlds to support a population of mes. I guess it’s a good thing that Jesus is preparing many dwelling places, because apparently, I’m going to need more than one of them!
The game gave me lots of suggestions about how to get a little more green, and many of them are things you already know or can find out for yourself on some of the websites suggested below.

And although there are many things we can do as individuals, this seems like the appropriate time to talk about what we can do as a community. The Bible is rarely addressed just to an individual. It is almost always addressed to a community of people, encouraged to act together. There are a number of things that we have done together, as a church, to be good stewards of both our money and the resources of the earth. All of our new light fixtures have fluorescent light bulbs. And as bulbs burn out in our older fixtures, we are putting compact fluorescents in them as well. The new windows we installed are high efficiency. We have begun to use cups at coffee that can be washed and used again. In our new kitchen, the appliances are more energy efficient than the ones we had before. In high-traffic areas, we chose to use carpet squares so we can replace sections of our carpeting when necessary, instead of an entire room. Our building is heated in zones, with programmable thermostats, so that our offices, where people mainly just sit, are slightly warmer than the gym, where people mainly run around and sweat. And the sanctuary is heated or cooled only when we are using it, not all the time. In the renovation, we decided to utilize a hot water recycling system throughout the entire building. We have recycling containers throughout the building as well, and encourage people to look for them, throwing only trash in the trash containers, but all recyclable materials in the blue bins. And we serve Peace Coffee at coffee hour, coffee that is organic, shade-grown, fair trade, and is delivered by bicycle to the distributers. We use Kay to do most of our in-house catering, and Kay makes our meals predominantly from scratch. And, of course, there is the campaign we are starting today to encourage people to get the newsletter electronically.
What more can we do? As my avator found out, lots, I’m sure.
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein recently wrote an economics book called Nudge. To explain their theory, they use the example of men’s public bathrooms. Someone noticed that men’s public bathrooms are, well, disgusting. But what to do about it? The Amsterdam airport hired an architect to help them out. He did not recommend that they post signs that said “We Aim to Please. You Aim Too, Please.” He did not recommend that they broadcast a voice that reminded people, “Your mother does not work here.” What he did do was paint a very realistic looking fly near the drain of each urinal. As it turns out, men come in, see the fly, aim, and viola, the public restrooms at the Amsterdam airport are less, well, icky. 80% less icky.
I don’t want to make a list for us of what we can do to make our church a better steward of the environment. I do want you to think about what your “nudge” is. Maybe it’s making a paper airplane out of your bulletin and aiming for the recycling bin. Maybe you really like coffee, find our cups to be a little small, and begin bringing your own mug for all events at the church. Maybe you add some exercise to your plan by ending your time at the church by walking around the area where you’ve been and making sure the lights are out if no one else is using the area.
I invite you to think creatively. If you have an idea about what we can do together, and that falls along the lines of “Nudge” economics, let me know. Because we have been given the responsibility of stewardship of the earth. And we are in this together. Amen.