Note: These are the notes Denise Giardina used for her keynote address at the Christians For The Mountains Conference, "The Earth is the Lord's" on Friday evening November 11 at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Although these are notes from her talk, they will provide a reader a good understanding of the content of her speech. It should be noted that Giardina's talk was referred to many times during the subsequent work of the conference.

Thank you, Denise, for teaching and inspiring us!

I. PRAY FOR THE ENEMY

Luke 5: 43—“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” 

We should not wish ill upon our enemies.  Indeed, even if it were right, it would do no good.  We are reminded that the rain falls on the righteous and righteous alike, and the sun likewise shines on both the evil and the unjust.

But love for the enemy does not mean we cannot condemn what they do.  Nor should we hesitate to name them enemies, for they do everything in their power to destroy creation.  To deny what they do is to grant them “cheap grace.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of cheap grace in The Cost of Discipleship.  “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentence, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

We cannot call for cheap grace for ourselves, and we certainly should not grant it for our enemies.  But we are also called to pray for them.

It has been said that it is difficult to convince someone of something when their making money depends upon their not believing it.

When speaking of enemies, I would distinguish between two types.  1) There are those who run the machines, the employees of the coal companies destroying the mountains.  They are desperate for jobs.  Or they have bought into the American dream of conspicuous consumption, of depending on SUVs, boats, RVs for happiness.  In any case, they are turning a blind eye to what they are doing to earn their pay.

2) There are the people who control the coal companies.  This is the real, and powerful, enemy. 

We should not wish them ill – but ill is upon them.  Their lives are bent on destruction.  Destruction is their life’s work.  They are cut off from community.  They are cut off from beauty.  They are cut off from God.

This is my definition of hell. – You do not have to die to go to hell.

We must pray that these people find their way out of hell and stop mountaintop removal

II. DO NOT WAIT FOR JESUS TO MAKE EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT

JAMES WATT, former Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan, was famous for the following statements – “I don’t know how many future generations we can count on until the Lord returns.”

“We don’t have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand.”

“After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back”

We Christians live in hope.  But this is NOT the hope we live in.  Such views negate the creation, rather than cherish what God has given us.   It reminds me of a child that destroys a toy it has been given in hopes it will be replaced with a better one.

Describe JAMES WATT CARTOON

There will be consequences in this life and this world for our mistreatment of the earth.  God’s creation is intricate, and the punishments for misusing it are built-in.

III. The Christian must live in hope.  The Kingdom of God is here with us now.  Only when we live in hope do we make it visible.

Where is our hope?  In our Lord Jesus Christ.

Either God was made man, was crucified and raised from the dead –

OR he was not.

If he was not, our hope is in vain.  When we die, that is the end.  When the mountains are gone, they are gone.

BUT if Jesus Christ defeated death, then we share in the victory over death.  The creation shares in the victory over death.  That includes the mountains.

ROMANS 8

Mountains still exist in the mind of God.  We are promised a new heaven, but also a NEW EARTH.  We are promised WORLD WITHOUT END, AMEN, AMEN.

The dead will return to us, and we will return from the dead.  As T.S. Eliot wrote, “We die with the dying.  See, they depart, and we go with them.  We are born with the dead.  See, they return, and bring us with them.”

And, I would add, they bring the mountains.

How can we understand this?

D-DAY analogy – On D-Day, the Second World War was over.  Not literally, of course.  Soldiers still fought to the Battle of the Bulge and beyond, and many still died.  But the reality was that the victory had been won on the beaches of Normandy.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, the victory was won.  And yet, as with World War II, we cannot sit back and do nothing.  The rest of the war must still be fought.

We live in the Kingdom of God, by acting as though we live in the Kingdom of God.  To do nothing is to live outside the boundaries of the Kingdom.

And so, we advocate for the mountains.  Only if we protect God’s creation can we claim the blessing of God’s creation.

Only when we declare “Thy kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven” -- ONLY THEN IS IT SO.