Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E123 | Everyday Eurasia | Caleb Cray Haynes

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S1-E123 | Everyday Eurasia | Caleb Cray Haynes · Eurasia Region Podcast

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Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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many different places around the world.
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Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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day. Through this podcast, you'll
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hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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This week, we will join Reverend Caleb Gray Haynes.
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He directs Ness Rings for Creation Care.
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He has written multiple books on creation care, including his
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newest book, Urban Christian. Caleb host the Econ Christian
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Podcast and service on the Board of Directors at Creation Justice
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Ministries. Greetings friends, this is
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Reverend Caleb Grahanes. 1 area of creation care that I love
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talking about is garbage. We can all relate to garbage.
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One of my books is called Garbage Theology because I think
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there's just so much there. We need to have a garbage
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apocalypse today, don't we? What do you think?
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An apocalypse is? Literally when something is
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unveiled, uncovering all that's been hidden.
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Jesus spends a lot of time telling us about how the Kingdom
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of heaven will be apocalyptic, in that it will uncover all that
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has been hidden, all that stuff we've tried to sweep under the
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rug, all that stuff we've attempted to discard.
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All things will be made known, brought into the light.
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Jesus says so. I believe part of the important
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work for us as Christians is shining a light onto all the
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sinister forces at work, harming our world today and harming
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God's creation and then working toward redemption.
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I'd like to begin posing a question for us today for you to
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marinate on with me. The question is, what is waste?
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You see, there's a difference between something just being
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called garbage or trash rather than waste.
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Trash is what maybe just kind of under my kitchen sink, but
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calling something waste has more of a weight to it doesn't.
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It's kind of serious. Waste is a word that we reserve
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for something that no longer has any value in it.
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Waste is what we call something that is worthless or without
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purpose, ready to be discarded, good for nothing, or maybe
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unredeemable. And so when we talk about
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something being waste, we usually mean that this element
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has intrinsically lost that original affirmation that God
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bestowed upon it. In essence, it's no longer good
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as God named it to be. So let's just toss it out.
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You know in Jesus time and place when you had something under
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this category it went to this place called Gehenna or
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literally translated the Valley of Hinnom.
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This was a valley on the South side of Jerusalem where all the
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waste, filth, and even dead animals were thrown and burned.
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Gehenna was a landfill if there ever was one.
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If something was thrown out, this is where it was going.
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Continual fires and weeping and gnashing of teeth were actual
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descriptions of this place as trash burned and wild dogs made
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their rounds day and night. Of course we know Gehenna is the
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New Testament term that we translate as hell.
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I don't think that there is any coincidence that Gehenna, this
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horrible place that gradually became the ultimate landfill and
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dump, was heavily used by the 1st century Jewish community as
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a means to talk about a hell like place.
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In other words, this is what it looks like when you're living
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outside the scope of God's Kingdom.
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It begs the question, what if hell happens as creation is
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treated as waste? That what God made good becomes
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something good for nothing. We shouldn't be too surprised to
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discover Satan is ultimately trashy.
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But let's be honest, do you think that there is any piece of
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creation that God is OK with us calling waste saying sure, let's
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get rid of that. Actually when God creates, it's
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wasteless isn't it? Everything feeds everything
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else. Everything feeds everything
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else. Nothing is wasted when God
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creates. God created it this way, unless
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we secretly missed that verse in day 7 where God's like, hey, you
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know, he like throws away the packaging or something.
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No, when God creates, it's, it's beautiful.
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There are no leftovers, There's no accidental parts on the
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floor. There's not even a little bubble
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wrap. Another way to think about this
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though, is, is God's Kingdom of heaven a zero waste Kingdom?
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Is there really waste in heaven? The question for us and for you
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and I today, how are we participating in systems of hell
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on earth or heaven on earth? What and where are the systems
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of waste that are around us today that we might be able to
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take notice of as God's people? Because waste is not a noun, is
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it? No, it's more like a verb.
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It's something that we participate in when the waste,
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when a posture of waste is active in the world.
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What do you think it looks like? It looks like things like
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planned obsolescence, right? Mass produced cheap goods.
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It's a throwaway culture. I always come back to what Paul
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writes in Colossians. Paul writes he, Jesus, is the
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image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
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For in Him all things in heaven and on earth were created,
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things visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or
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rulers or powers, all things have been created through Him
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and for Him. He Himself is before all things,
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and in Him all things hold together.
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He is the head of the Body, the Church.
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He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that he
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might come to have first place in everything.
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For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and
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through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things,
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whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the
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blood of His cross. All things, friends, our God is
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about the reconciliation of all things.
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Should we be surprised that Jesus is the ultimate recycler?
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Because what the world is discarding, that's what Jesus is
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shopping for. Are you with me?
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This is good news, friends. What we find in Scripture is a
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God who comes to us in the person of Jesus, The incarnation
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born in a body, places his hands in the dirt, eats food from the
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ground, interacts with matter. God's physical presence on earth
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comes and reminds us that all matter matters and every
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belonging belongs because it's all part of God's creation.
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Let's pray, God of all things, set our gaze on the holy
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reconciliatory work You are calling us to participate in as
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Your people. Help us to be a people more
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interested in your Kingdom coming to earth and less
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interested in growing the Kingdom of this world.
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Soak us with Your love so that it may then spill out of us for
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the flourishing of all creation in which you have graciously
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included us in. Open our eyes so that we may see
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the deeper good work before us left to do.
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Help us engage in the Ark making and covenant keeping work before
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us as we seek a New Balance between human and non human
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creation in the flooding world. Amen.
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Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast
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Inspiring Faith for Everyday. For more Everyday stories,
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