FEATURE
21
A few years back, preaching on
an environmental theme was
fairly radical. Now it is more
common but people still can feel
daunted about where to start.
Sometimes you may have
a dedicated sermon on the
environment, either as a stand
alone or in a sermon series.
T
he Genesis and Romans passages (see
next page) are especially useful for this
context. If you preach regularly, you will
see environmental dimensions in many
biblical passages once you are sensitive to
them. I try not to be too much of a ‘green vicar’,
bringing the environment into every sermon!
However, regularly explaining environmental
aspects to passages can have a bigger impact
long term than one-off dedicated sermons. It
is important to make sure that your preaching
is not accidentally anti-environmental
from inherited teaching that only looked
at Christianity in terms of people and God.
Understanding God’s love for creation, and the
three-way relationships with God, people and
the wider creation, makes a huge difference
to the context in which we work out our faith.
The middle passage in John 1 (see next page)
tackles some of these issues and shows how
environmental teaching can form part of a
more general sermon.
With a dedicated sermon, it is good to start
with something to give a sense of awe and
wonder about the natural world. The global
environmental situation is extremely serious
and issues like climate change and biodiversity
loss can lead to a bleak message that leaves
people feeling helpless. Starting with a positive
message and a glimpse of God’s beautiful
creation will lift people’s eyes at the start.
Each of the passages below will have far
more content than can be conveyed in one
sermon. I have identified the key themes and
hopefully given some new thoughts from an
environmental perspective.
LWPT8462 - Preach Magazine - Issue 2 v2.indd 21
09/01/2015 14:36:08