Creation Care: God’s Stewards Psalm 8 (NIV) Lord, our Lord,     how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory     in the heavens.  Through the praise of children and infants     you have established a stronghold against your enemies,     to silence the foe and the avenger.  When I consider your heavens,     the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,     which you have set in place,  what is mankind that you are mindful of them,     human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels     and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands;     you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds,     and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky,     and the fish in the sea,     all that swim the paths of the seas.  Lord, our Lord,     how majestic is your name in all the earth! Creation Care: God’s Stewards Rev. David Patton, M.Div. Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

Creation Care: God’s Stewards Jesus wept. 365.8 trillion million gallons (10^18) ~10 trillion million gallons of fresh water 33 years = ~12,000 days 8 x 8 oz. glasses of H2O = 1 gallon/day recommended 1.27 x 10^26 molecules of water/gallon 10,000 gallons = ~1.27 x 10^30 water molecules 3.47 x 10^9 3,470,000,000 or 3.47 trillion molecules/gallon molecules in a tear = 1.67 x 1021 water molecules 4-5 molecules/gallon of water on earth Creation Care: God’s Stewards Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies

(Jesus uses many other teaching forms, didactic, poetic, etc.) The Lamp Under a Basket (5:14-15) The Wise and Foolish Builders (7:24-27) New Cloth on an Old Garment (9:16) New Wine Into Old Wineskins (9:17) The Strong Man (12:29) The Sower (13:3-9) The Tares (13:24-30) The Mustard Seed (13:31-32) The Leaven (13:33) The Hidden Treasure (13:44) The Pearl of Great Price (13:45-46) Drawing in the Net (13:47-50) The Householder (13:52) The Lost Sheep (19:10-14) The Unforgiving Servant (18:23-35) The Workers in the Vineyard (20:1-16) The Two Sons (21:28-32) The Wicked Husbandman (21:33-41) The Great Banquet (22:1-14) The Budding Fig Tree (24:32-35) The Faithful Servant (24:42-51) The Ten Bridesmaids (25:1-13) The Talents (25:14-30) The Sheep and the Goats (25:31-46) Parables in Matthew (Jesus uses many other teaching forms, didactic, poetic, etc.) KEY Natural/Ag = Underline Gift/Treasure = Ital. Stewardship = Bold

Who is my neighbor? My family Whittier Community Minnesota Tribal Communities Iron Range Mining family Trump voters Donald Trump Trump’s grandkids Emerging Economies Future Generations

STILL THE SPARROW FALLS… -Mary Doria Russell Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matt. 10:29-31 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Matt. 6:26-31 STILL THE SPARROW FALLS… -Mary Doria Russell

Who is my neighbor?