Luke 12:49-52
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Sermon Notes: 

I don’t think Jesus was threatening us with a fire that wipes out homes and acres of  land due to heat and lack of rain…..or was he?  He also could be talking about the lack of fire in our hearts, in our passion, …..in our very lives for that very real threat….no, not threat any longer, the real disaster of global warming that is happening to our world right now.  Read the text again, Page 3, with global warming in mind……certainly appears to be right on target with our present time ecological catastrophe.

Now is not the time for peaceful little teaparties where one sips and sighs, even rants and raves, about the world’s problems.  Now is the time to ACT!  “You hypocrites,”  Jesus cries, “you claim to be able to predict all kinds of circumstances for the future.   But you can’t even predict the dire outcome of what is taking place now!” 

Those are words that should make us sit right up in our chairs!  I believe Jesus is speaking to us who are doing NOTHING about this dire situation.  We are letting all kinds of lobbyists, who work for corporations that care more for their profit bottom line than the citizens of this world, set our laws or lack of laws.  

Some countries have responded.  More than a hundred countries participated in the Earth Summit in 1991.  But it is not all good news.  Although the U.S. signed a Clean Air Act in 1990, two years after it was passed , a new rule allowed mfgrs. To increase by 245 tons hazardous pollutants in the atmosphere.  How to quiet us who do nothing:  The “global warming” report was changed by the order of the White House to minimize its danger.  All kinds of money has been paid to organize groups and spokesmen to deny the science.

Pope John Paul II rebuked the wealthy classes of the industrialized nations for creating the crisis.  But it apparently had little effect on the church’s members.  Some of them count among those who felt the “economy” was much more important than abiding by the proposed specific levels and time tables the European Community and Japan proposed…..which would have made a difference!  Need I add that the U.S. is the largest polluter! 

As evidence became stronger in the late 80’s that renewable energy sources….water, wind, sunlight….could produce more usable energy than nuclear plants, which were dangerous and expensive, the Reagan and Bush administration made deep cuts….90percent during Reagan’s term…. in research for renewable energy possibilities. 

In 1992, another Earth Summit conference revealed that the armed forces in the world were responsible for 2/3 of the gases that depleted the ozone later.  The U.S. refused to take up the issue. 

All 27 member states of the European Union have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, as has the EU itself. In 2000 the European Climate Change Programme was launched to provide a strategy to implement Kyoto: the targets assigned for each member state vary, with western states cutting emissions more than eastern ones – to make an average cut of 8% by 2012, 20% to 30% by 2020 and 50% by 2050.[4] Some member states have agreed to further cuts in greenhouse gas emissions; Germany had already cut emissions by 17.2% in 2004, so is pressing for tougher targets in future, and the United Kingdom parliament has proposed a Climate Change Bill to cut GHGs by 60% by 2050 (several parties including the Liberal Democrats have pushed for 80% reduction targets).[5] All vehicles produced in the EU from 2012 will have to emit less than 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre (equivalent to at least 47 miles per gallon for diesel, 55 mpg for petrol): the most stringent law in the world.[6]

Some people have tried.  One of the more striking meetings was hosted in the summer of 1989 by Robert Redford at his ranch in Sundance, Utah. Redford proclaimed that it was time to stop the research and begin acting. Barbara Streisand personally undertook to support the research of Michael Oppenheimer at the Environmental Defense Fund.  Meryl Streep made an appeal on public television to stop warming. But they were not enough. 

More than 20 years have passed and still the greatest polluters are not responding with sufficient force to solve the crisis! Since 85% of all U.S. Citizens claim a religious affiliation, shouldn’t we the U.S. citizens particularly be asking………Where are the churches?  Why aren’t they preaching on the subject…….marching in the streets….insisting on alternatives to fossil fuels to save the earth?  We are talking destruction of God’s world here!  We are talking about our children and our children’s children having an earth to call home!  Can't we influence our politicians to act?

Did you realize according to Pew Research only 3% of our churches preach anything on the environmental crisis? 

View The Most Terrifying Video You Will Ever See ….seen by more than 7 million people:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ&feature=related

Bring a presentation board along with your sermon on the environment and God’s world…………..talk to the people!  Let’s not be one of those that Jesus would call a hypocrite. 

Please view the following videos to help understand the depth of the problem. 

Several videos that explain the problem by National Geographic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJAbATJCugs

The Doomsday scenario by National Georgraphic….only 6 degrees more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8qmaAMK4cM&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGgQIqRK48&feature=pyv&ad=5447809449&kw=global%20warming

Please think about it. 

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