Perhaps it's not as easy to pick up on the more subtle differences in other places, but in every town and city across America and throughout the world, there will be slight changes in the smell or in the properties of the air, and the same is true with the water. Although I don't notice it now, the water tasted different at first between Altoona and Oak Ridge, and if you go to South America and drink microbes that you're body isn't used to - instant Montezuma's revenge! We are products of the particular air we breathe and the particular water we drink - even if we think of it as just air and just water.

Here in Oak Ridge the air we breathe and the water we drink and the soil that grows local produce are perhaps studied more than in some other kinds of places. It's important to this community to be able to show that the environment is not polluted with radioactive waste and that the water is safe for the inhabitants of this city to drink. Even if it's the safest place in the world, Oak Ridge's reputation of being the "atomic city" I'm sure produces some anxiety for those who would consider living with the world's largest nuclear reactors in their backyards. In fact, during my interview, Pat asked me if I would be fearful about living here. Although I answered "no," I must admit that it meant looking up some sites on the Internet and reading the city's water report pretty thoroughly just to be sure.

We are conditioned to be products of our environment whether that is pleasing news to us or not. Living in Oak Ridge is not the same as living in Altoona, or in Morgantown where I went to college, or Westernport where I grew up. Therefore, we have a direct responsibility to live up to the new slogan of environmental responsibility by "Thinking globally and acting locally."

Biblically, there are also precedents for thinking that it's important to care about where we live and for being concerned about the other life to which we are connected. The metaphors of breath and water are signs of the continuity of life in scripture. God breathed into Adam's nostrils and humanity came to life. Jesus offers us water to drink, but it isn't just ordinary water, it's the water of new life. So maybe it's important to pay attention to our quality of air and the purity of our water for more than just reasons of sanitation.

John Calvin's Institutes are not just the rantings of a man passionate for change to happen in religious traditions; they are also the blueprints for the beginnings of the Reformed theological tradition that birthed the Presbyterian Church. For his day, Calvin was very much a part of the scholarly elite. He was trained as a lawyer and studied in scripture, biblical languages, and all the prejudices of the educated. There weren't many groups that didn't get blasted somehow in Calvin's writings, and he was inclined to refer to the masses as stupid and ignorant. But he makes one observation of these "stupid" people that I find fascinating. In his chapter titled, "The Knowledge of God Shines Forth in the Fashioning of the Universe and the Continuing Government of It," Calvin says, "The universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible. The reason why the prophet attributes to the heavenly creatures a language known to every nation is that therein lies an attestation of divinity so apparent that it ought not to escape the gaze of even the most stupid tribe. The apostle declares this more clearly: 'What [people] need to know concerning God has been disclosed to them, …for one and all gaze upon [God's] invisible nature, known from the creation of the world, even unto [God's] eternal power and divinity.'" For Calvin it is a no-brainer. When we make observations about our world, we are also making observations about our world's Creator.

That being said, he also has an unkind word for those who would make nature into a God. He fully believes that studying the stars or delving into the depths of the inner workings of human beings are noble pursuits, but they can be scarred by our sinful nature. He thought that to say it is "by chance" that we are distinct from brute creatures is a pretense for ignoring the stamp of God's image on our souls. In his day, scientific findings were just beginning to take on a "truth-telling" role on their own accord - apart from God, and Calvin was recognizably leery of this split.

I must admit, for my own liking, the split has gotten out of hand. I don't stand in Calvin's position with everything to lose from my classical training including my credibility. I don't have to save the face of recognizing that the world is neither flat nor made up of three stories, heaven being the uppermost floor. Certainly theologians and pastors are not considered the scholars that they were during the 16th century when they were one of but a few of the educated professions. In fact, today there are a number of theologies out there that are notably "unintellectual," and pride themselves on being as far removed from science's aberrations as they can possibly get.

But being that science and religion are both in the business of attaining knowledge about the truth of our world, I think we can position ourselves more like Calvin in saying that although natural events cannot be substituted for God, they certainly have a lot to teach us about God - even those of us who fall into that "most stupid tribe" category.

Getting back to where I started, we are creatures who depend absolutely on the air we breathe and the water we drink to keep us functioning. But after dabbling in a bit of Calvinist theology, we also discover that the air we breathe and the water we drink are also what keeps us ALIVE. We are products of our own limitations of time and space, and yet we are more than that, we are the ones who can make critical observations about our world and learn God's part in it. We are spiritual beings as well as human beings.

The question comes up in our own time frame, "Can we have intelligent and insightful knowledge about our universe and about God at the same time?" The answer, I think, is "Yes, we can." The Presbyterian Church has always considered "intelligence" as one of God's gifts to humankind. But that gift of intelligence is also to be balanced by energy, imagination, and most of all, love.

Thanks to our own pride and self-determination, we now have the capability of destroying our world in a multiplicity of ways: some intentional, some consequential because of other creature comforts we've grown accustomed to. The use of our intelligence has not always been balanced by holy motives - but then again, we might not be where we are today without going forth headstrong into the future. We are at a crossroads where we are beginning to see the impact of our actions. We have choices to make if we want a future that is hopeful for all people, rather than for the minority who have money and power.

When we look to the heavens, when we probe the depths of our genetic make-up as people of faith, we find that God is there. What we choose to do with that information is then up to us. We ought not hide our intelligence under a rock somewhere, but then again, we cannot let the motive for our doing something simply be "because we can." We are responsible for being our brother's keeper, our sister's caretaker. Because Christ came to show us the fullness of our human potential, we can drink deeply of the living water and discover the very breath of God within us.

I am fascinated to now be taking in the breath of this community where the environment simply begs to synthesize the understandings of various sciences in such profound ways. I can only hope that the reason you continue to be a part of a faith community, and maybe in particular, this faith community, is because you believe, like I do, that God is a part of all of life, and the more we understand our lives, the more we will understand God's hope for our future.

I am fully convinced that God puts particular people in particular environments for particular reasons. Telling life what it "should" be doesn't seem to work, but allowing life to show you what it intends to be opens up some pretty fascinating opportunities. I want to be open to what it is God has put me here to learn, and I believe that what I am here to learn is linked to the life-blood of this community. So I want to hear your stories, today, tomorrow, in the future. You are part of a community that places an extraordinary value on learning, discovery, and influencing the future. I want to know - How does that play out in your lives - particularly as you struggle, like we all do, with the desire to be faithful stewards of God's creation? As we begin to answer that question together, we will certainly become closer to knowing God's intent for us as individual people, but also we will be led by the Spirit to discerning our call as a church, what it means for us together to be God's body in the world. Amen.