Jeremiah 4.23-28, Mark 15.33-39
In and around the year 2007, the wider ecumenical church
agreed to set aside a portion of the church calendar to recognize the amazing
gift God has given us in the form of all aspects of the environment—our diverse
ecological systems, the waters of the oceans, lakes and rivers and all of God’s
flora and fauna—even, I reluctantly add, spiders. This time set aside is named the
Season of Creation. The colour for this Season is orange and when the United
Church of Canada introduced Creation Time into the liturgical year in 2010,
this symbol was designed for the occasion. There is the tree of knowledge, the
circle of wholeness, the four colours of the elements of creation: earth-brown,
air-white, fire-orange, and water-blue. In this year of the three-year rotation
of themes, we are celebrating the beauty and magnificence of the sky, of the
mountains and of humanity. And the fourth Sunday of this Season, September
30th, we will be celebrating animals and we invite you to bring in a photo of
your pet or pets so that they may be blessed during the service. We will be
celebrating all these things but we will also be exploring the many ecological
issues and concerns that exist for each of these aspects of God’s great
Creation. Knowing that humanity was given dominion over the earth and all of
inhabitants, that we are to be stewards for all that God has created, we ask
ourselves, how have we been holding up our responsibilities? If God were to
speak to us as God spoke to the first male and female, and if God were to ask,
so…what have you got to say for yourselves in how you’ve managed this Earth of
mine, how is it that we would explain our actions? The actions of our
ancestors, the actions of our leaders, the actions of ourselves?
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| Taj Mahal, 2007 |
This Sunday is Sky Sunday, which I think is a lovely way to
begin Creation Time because, wherever you are in the world, whether you are in
Zambia, or Peru, or Palestine, or Ireland or India or in the Northwest
Territories of Canada, each and every one of us has the experience of looking
up to expansiveness of the sky. Of course if you are in Zambia or Peru, the
night stars are different from what is seen from the northern hemisphere. And,
depending where you are in India, you may not see the actual sky in very
populated places for the abundance of smog and smoke. What Calgary had for
smoke blotting out the sun this summer, is how many Indians live, day in and
day out. The sky is one of the few aspects of nature that all the earth has in
common—we are connected to one another across the world in that each of us
experience day and night, the sun always rises in the east and sets in the
west. For many Christians, it is to the sky that we glance when we speak of
Jesus ascending after his resurrection, and when we wonder about heaven and speculate
where God might possibly reside, should God be such that God needs a resting a
place.
It is in this connection to one another through our sky that
makes our responsibility to care for the sky and the atmosphere all that more
great. Albertans well know that what happens to the sky in some other location
has the potential to severely impact our living here at home. The smoke from forest
fires make it easy for us to see and feel how missteps in care for the
environment can reach far and wide around the globe. There was more than once that
we woke up in the morning and decided to restrict our outdoor activities last
month due to the smoke. In fact, when I stepped outside and smelled the smoke,
I was instantly transported back to the UCZ’s Theological University, where we
stayed last year on the youth trip. Instantly I could feel the grass beneath my
feet and feel the cool morning air on my arms. You see, for lack of centralized
garbage removal, the Zambians burn their garbage at night and the smoke lingers
until the morning. There are many concerns about wildfires these days that did
not seem to exist a few decades ago. Humanity is spreading further and further
from town and city centres which restricts allowing natural forest fires to
burn. We know that forests need fire now and then for its life cycle but we are
disrupting those cycles. As well, there have been an increase in droughts over
time which means the forests are drier now and more susceptible when someone
throws a cigarette butt out of a car window or when a campfire is not properly
extinguished or when an ATV’s hot exhaust ignites dry brush.
One valuable takeaway from our smoky summer (I understand
that the smoke from the wildfires in BC even reached PEI and Ireland) is a
physical reminder that what we do to the environment has an impact that is far
more reaching than just the immediate area, whether we can see it in the moment
or not. I am not sure if the ancient Hebrew people had concerns for their
environment, but there are many metaphors used in the Bible that use various aspects
of creation to make a point about the behaviour of humanity and the nature of
God. The prophet Jeremiah lived in a time that rife with instability and
discord. Impending doom and destruction was about to befall Judah—it can be
confusing, but after King Solomon’s death, the twelve tribes of Israel divided their
lands into two kingdoms, Israel to the north and Judah to the south—which
included the city of Jerusalem. As the Bible tells it, people of Israel were
not behaving well and God allowed them to be taken into captivity by the
Assyrians. Fast forward a hundred and fifty or so years later and Jeremiah is
watching the world around him fall apart. Remember, a prophet is someone who
can anticipate or predict a certain future outcome based on current and past
actions. Prophets anticipate what the future might hold if current attitudes
and behaviours are maintained. One simply needs to imagine what the trajectory
of such decisions might have beyond their immediate impact and what unintended
consequences might rise up as a result of those decisions.
And so, the prophet Jeremiah, living in Judah, is witnessing
the society around him crumbling. 2 Kings, chapter 17 tell us, Judah also did not
keep the commandments of their God but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. The
people of Judah have forgotten to know and to find ways of living with hearts
of justice, community-mindedness and compassion. Jeremiah, knowing full well
his history, knew that those very customs of Israel had resulted in Israel’s captivity.
It did not require a Magic Eight Ball to understand that the seize of Judah,
this time by the Babylonians, was close at hand. In our scripture reading
today, Jeremiah is telling these people they have become vulnerable to powers
and principles other than the one true God and their actions and behaviour have
consequences for all of Creation. Creation suffers and bears witness to the
consequences of humankind living only for self and forgetting their hope in
God. Jeremiah reminds everyone that God sees what’s happening and God is not
pleased. In the verses right before Daniel began reading, God likens humanity
to stupid children who have no understanding. Says the people are skilled in
doing evil but do not know how to do good. Don’t hear that in the sanctuary
every day do you? This is one of those instances that the Lectionary
conveniently skips over. Jeremiah goes on, with the piece that Daniel read, and
tells the people that God is watching the very Creation that was gifted to
humanity, the very Creation that was given to humanity to have dominion over,
for them to be stewards of, that Creation is being undone because they have
forgotten God and allowed themselves to ruled by self-interest and desire
rather than the virtues that arise from relationship with God. Because of their
selfishness and greed, fear and cowardice, the earth was waste and void. All
the birds of the air had fled. The heavens above grow black. The sky became
black just as it did the moment Jesus died upon the cross that was used to
torture and execute him hundreds and hundreds of years later. Our behaviour has
consequences that reaches far beyond that which a simple apology or monetary
fine or bucket of water or a Band-Aid can fix.
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| Me standing at the top of Mount Sinai at sunrise |
It is often said that even if one experiences the presence
of God at church, one can always find God out in nature. The feeling of being
in the mountains or surrounded by grain fields, at night, far away from the
lights of city so that the magnitude of milky way can be seen, near the ocean,
along a stream, with the elegance of a hawk or falcon soaring high overhead,
the magnificence of a huge flock of birds flying together across the sky, the
sun rising and setting, the moon, full and enormous, right at our doorstep. I
love to travel. I love to go see other countries and cultures. But when I am
away, I miss being at home. I miss my people. I miss them a lot. And sometimes,
when wifi and the phone are not available, I can sometimes feel untethered from
the family and friends that I wrap around myself and my life, giving me a sense
of comfort and stability. And, in these moments of feeling unmoored from my
particular place in the world, no matter where I am, what continent I’m on or
what nation I am in, I go outside and I look up. I look for the sun and know
that yesterday that very sun rose upon my people at home and I feel their love
traveling with it. I look up and see the moon and know that very moon will soon
be making its way through the sky to put those I love to bed and I send my love
with it. The sky is important. The sky protects us from cold of space. The sky
holds for us the very oxygen we need for life. And it is up to us to keep that
source of oxygen healthy. Because, believe it or not, on Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs, air is more fundamental to our well-being than free wi-fi.
I was fretting about what to say here because it seems so
difficult for an individual or those who are not involved at a high level in
corporations or government to make a difference over how our air quality is
maintained. So much of the damage to our air and sky that has resulted in
climate change has been because of industry and manufacturing. It can seem too
big of an issue for us to manage as simply being citizens of the world. But
then I had this funny experience this week. I am invited, now and then, to be
filmed preaching sermons from the recent past so that those congregations
without a minister can put together a worship service and have a preacher give
a message. On Thursday, I pulled out and adapted a sermon for this coming
Advent—from the Book of Luke, where John the Baptist is saying we need to make
the roads straight, bring the mountains low and raise up the valleys in
preparation for the Messiah’s arrival. It was weird to be preaching Advent in
September but the long and the short of it was, I was hearing myself say that
this specific piece of scripture tells us that we are to be co-creators with
God for the coming of peace in this world. Only by our participation and
involvement in the bettering of our world, can true peace be known. And, as it
turns out, I was preaching to myself because in that moment, I remembered that
we cannot abdicate our responsibility for a healthy sky and for clean air, we
cannot abdicate our stewardship of the very sky that God breathed into the
world at its beginning. We cannot. So, even though we may not be decision
makers in industry or with the government, we must still do our best to affect
change.
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