Sermon Video: We are made in God's image - Genesis 1:26-31

At the culmination of Genesis' Creation account, God pauses to explain that his creation of humanity will differ from all the other living things that have come before, for this living thing will be made in the very image of God.  What does this mean?  The implications are plentiful but they include: (1) We are intimately connected to God, (2) equal to every other human who has ever lived, (3) and qualitatively more important than all the other living things that we have been tasked with stewardship over.  In addition, we owe our creativity, delight in beauty, logic, and ethics to the way in which God created us.

Pope Francis is attacking Capitalism and defending Environmentalism; why aren't you cheering?

In his recent trip to South America, Pope Francis has given several speeches that have been have been critical of Capitalism, and supportive of Environmentalism.  In his speech, he called the "unfettered pursuit of money" the "dung of evil", he also called world leaders "cowards" for not working harder to protect the planet.  The response from many Americans, particularly conservatives and/or Republicans will be to call the Pope a Communist and dismiss his concern for the poor and God's creation.  Some of the reaction against the Pope will be good old fashioned anti-Catholic sentiment, some of it will be a holdover gut reaction to the anti-Communist rhetoric of the Cold War, and some of it will be a genuine lack of compassion for the plight of the poor, whether that be locally or in the Third World.  The backlash against Pope Francis is predictable, but it is misguided, because if you have a problem, as a Christian, with Pope Francis defending the poor by speaking out against greed, or defending the planet by speaking out against wasteful uses of resources (which hurt the poor the most, given that much of the worst environmental practices take place in resource rich but exceedingly poor countries), then your problem isn't with Francis at all, its with Jesus.
That ought to be a problem for American Christians who are blessed with both freedom and a high standard of living.  We ought to feel an obligation toward the less fortunate, a passion to help whenever and wherever we can, and outrage when the powerless are exploited by the powerful.  We ought to feel these things, and take action, because they were the themes that Jesus returned to again and again as he defended the lowest members of his society against the high and mighty.  Pope Francis didn't decide that the mission of the Church is to care for the "least of these", Jesus did.  Pope Francis didn't decide that Christians need to respect our planet, our Creator did.
If Jesus is the root of the fiery passion that the Pope has for these issues, why haven't you joined your voice in support of his?  If you don't really care about the poor, and are fine with cheap consumer products made through exploitation of Third World labor and resources, your heart is far where Jesus commanded us to be as his people.  To care about the poor, to do something about their plight, and to believe in conservation of the planet is not a political stance, it is a Biblical one; Capitalism is the best system we've found through a long history of trial and error, but it is far from perfect, as would be any system created by and run by fallen humanity.  We, the Church, need to stand with the least and the lowest, it is our place in this world, for it is the place to which our Savior knelt to be the servant of all.