Sunday, March 24, 2013

Matters of the Earth




Luke 19:28-40
Preached at Prescott American Baptist Church
March 24, 2013
 
We gathered on Ash Wednesday, a few weeks ago, and received ashes on our foreheads—reminders that from dust we have come and to dust we shall return. It is true that our bodies are made of the same atomic structure as dirt. If you break our bodies down to the basics—we are carbon and water. 70% of our body is water. Our lungs receive oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. When we die and the air leaves our lungs, the water evaporates—we are dirt.

I look at you. You look at me. We like to imagine there is so much more to us than dirt, water, gases. It’s important for us to recognize the similarities and the connections between us and the other matters on this planet. It’s important because we do have the most complicated brain. Consequently we have the most responsibility when it comes to being inhabitants of the earth.

The universe is 13.8 billion years old. Our home, Earth, is special in that we have this blanket of atmosphere that holds light and warmth around us. We can breathe and plants can grow here. Clouds form, rain falls and evaporation occurs. Cycle after cycle sustains life as we know it. 

David Roberts tells us in his You Tube TEDX Talk called “Climate Change is Simple,” that the Earth’s climate has been stable for 10,000 years. The temperature has remained the same plus or minus 1 degree Celsius. During that 10,000 year period we have known the dawn of agriculture, invented the wheel, come to appreciate the printing press and grown to depend on the internet. 

But things are warming up now and the warming has been going on since the pre-industrial age. It is related to our digging up carbon (scurrying for gas and oil) and throwing greenhouse gases up into that life sustaining blanket of atmosphere that surrounds us. Currently there has been a rise, 0.8 degrees Celsius, in our temperature. 

Scientists say the threshold of danger is 2 degrees Celsius. But they are trying not to scare us with that prediction. The real safety concern will come when the temperature reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius and it is a certainty that we will reach that temperature and blow past it. In fact we will reach 3 degrees Celsius during this century-- just from the momentum of the last century and its green gas emissions.

So, out of curiosity, what will things be like on Earth when the temperature reaches 4 degrees Celsius? Hell on Earth. The sea level will rise at least three to six feet, 40% of the earth will exist in persistent drought conditions, half of the known species will be extinct and hundreds of millions of refugees will be on the move looking for shelter and food.
According to scientists we are on track to hit 6 degrees Celsius within this century.
What does all of this science have to do with our Christian faith and this Holy Week, our journey with Jesus into Jerusalem? 

I believe that Jesus gave his life and love not only for human beings but to redeem all life: algae on the surface of the pond, weeds that border the highway, robins that scurry from worm to worm, old dogs tied to chains in the back yard, rivers choked by urban trash and small gray stones that cry out for life and love to be nurtured and respected forever and ever.

As people of faith and responsible neighbors to our trees, mountains, rivers and icebergs, we can respond in helpful ways to the current climate crisis. It all begins with us and our faith in the one who created us—along with everything else. We have been created in the image of God and that means we have the compassion of Christ, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the love of God within us. We have the capacity to be healing and redemptive agents in this world.

First we have to care. It begins with caring about the dirt, water, air and plant life.
Bill McKibben (in his Rolling Stone article in July 19, 2012) says, “If you told Exxon that, in order to avoid wrecking the climate they couldn’t pump out their reserves, the value of their companies would plummet.”  The Exxon CEO, Rex Tillerson recently said that the company intends to spend $37 billion a year (that’s $100 million a day) searching for yet more oil and gas. There is no intent on the part of the fossil-fuel industry to cease and desist in the destruction of our Earth.

We do not have an engineering problem. Environmentalists and engineers know how to turn this ship around and slow the process, cool the climate. We do not have an engineering problem. What we have is a greed problem. There’s just way too much money being made on oil, gas and coal.  Those who are making the most money and enjoying the most economic power will not be the ones who start the movement to tenderly and respectfully care for and redeem our mother, the Earth.



Chief Seattle said it many years ago and I am sure you have heard it before:
Teach your children
What we have taught our children—
That the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth
Befalls the sons and daughters of earth.
If men spit upon the ground,
They spit upon themselves.
This we know.
The earth does not belong to us;
We belong to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected
Like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
Befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.
We did not weave the web of life;
We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web,
We do to ourselves.

Joan Chittister says we should all be on suicide watch right now, our belts, knives, all glass and access to heights removed from us. Until we come to our senses and learn to truly care. Care about life.

For life Jesus walked on into Jerusalem. For life Jesus gave his body and blood. For love of life on this earth- Jesus stretched out his arms and died. 

People and the earth are connected throughout our stories of faith: That colt, tied up and waiting. It knew somehow that it would play a part in redemption’s story. In Genesis we read that because of the sin of Adam and Eve the earth produced thorns and thistles. The prophet Isaiah tells of a time of peace on earth when cows and bears will graze together, a time when lions and lambs will lie down side by side. Matthew tells of a star that used its light to announce that the Messiah had come to earth. The earth shuddered and quaked when Jesus died. The Bible reminds us repeatedly that all life is connected and all creation belongs to our story of faith. 

Here we are, creatures made of dirt and knowing that to dirt we will return. We gather together to worship our God in this nice church building, seated comfortably in pews that guarantee we will not fall on the floor. We trust the wood. Gravity holds us in our seat and promises us that we will not float upward and bump our heads on the ceiling. We trust the physics. Our lungs fill with oxygen over and over again as we worship. We hardly think of it nor do we worry about whether or not we are taking too much oxygen from the atmosphere in this room. We trust the abundance of oxygen to keep us alive. 

It is that trust that will motivate and empower us to be faithful ambassadors for the Earth and its future. We have been given grace and mercy. We know it. That’s why we’re here and willing to walk with Jesus. We want to be part of his redemptive story and love—even though we know the cost. We care. With this one little life we’ve been given—we care. 

As we walk with Jesus this week let’s pay attention to the things we love, the things that love has given us. The soft arms of our partner embracing us and beginning the day. The smell of coffee brewing. The encouraging songs of the birds. Trees budding and flowers blooming. Colored eggs that speak of new life. The eager eyes of children. Music that gives rhythm to our work and play. Food and drink that sustains and excites us. Friends who know us and continue to love us anyway. Our pets who look at us with adoring eyes. 

Praise God. Praise God. Praise God for this place we call home, our Earth, and all the beauty on it. Give the stones a break. Give the earth a chance to survive. Follow Jesus into Jerusalem and give your life for all the things you love.

Amen



 Benediction: The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-- the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver, The House Light Beacon Press Boston, 1990.



Credits
God Speaks in Many Tongues, Joan Chittister, Benet Vision, Erie PA, 2013
Luke, Interpretation Series, Fred B. Craddock, John Knox Press, Louisville, 1990
“Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math: Three Simple Numbers that add up to global catastrophe—and that make clear who the real enemy is” Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone Magazine, July 19, 2012
David Roberts You Tube on climate change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ktYbVwr90

Learn, Connect, Respond…
Read: “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math: Three Simple Numbers that add up to global catastrophe—and that make clear who the real enemy is” Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone Magazine, July 19, 2012

Watch: David Roberts You Tube on climate change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ktYbVwr90

Co-sign an open letter to President Obama calling for bold climate action at http://350.Org

Contact and join the local Sierra Club. http://www.sierraclub.org

Demonstrate against the Valero oil refinery here in Memphis, one of the key players in the Keystone XL Pipeline Project and the main refiner of Bakken crude from the fracked field of North Dakota and Montana.  

The University of Tennessee plans to lease a portion of the Cumberland Research Forest lands held in public trust to private companies for extracting oil and gas through the practice of fracking.
 Sign the petition:

Talk with your family, friends and groups about how much you love the earth. Discuss your love for life and how you can be a faithful servant for life and love.

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