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Dr. David D. Young
January 14, 2007
Hosea 4:1-10 and Revelation 21:22-22:5
"What About the Environment?"
Before I begin this morning I feel moved to share a pastoral thought about our recent increase of militarism in Iraq and I want to make it crystal clear that I am not speaking for you, I’m simply expressing my own feeling. But when it is said that failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States, I have to say, we have contributed to what has already become a grave disaster for hundreds of thousands of people and for that I am very sad.
I want to begin this morning by thanking Susie for getting us off to such a great start in our winter sermon series last Sunday. Her sermon explained why we are "Struggling with Tough Questions" and helped us consider the question, "What About Life?"
Today, as both children of God and co-creators with God, we will consider the tough question, "What About the Environment?" Susie was telling me that Hat’s Off has recently been studying a book entitled, A Small Wonder, by Barbara Kingsolver and in it I was able to read one of the stories – a beautiful story about a young girl. It’s actually a generational story with a grandmother and they are at the beach and the little girl finds this beautiful conch shell. I can’t get into all the details of the story but she wants to keep that shell more than anything but then discovers there is a hermit crab living inside. When she realizes that the hermit crab is not going to come out of that shell – it would give up claw or anything else before it would be pulled from that shell - she struggles, as anyone would, with what to do. Should she let it die and keep the shell or return the shell to the sea? It raises for that young girl as the grandmother watched – and for all of us the question – are we stewards or owners here on this earth? She finally made the decision – that the shell would be thrown back into the sea.
Don Marquis was an American newspaperman and humorist in the early part of the 20th century. He had a real gift for imagination and in one of his stories, this conversation took place between Archy and Mehitabel - an ant and a centipede.
"What people call civilization," says Archy, "always results in deserts. People are never on the square, they use up the fat and greenery of the earth. Each generation wastes a little more of the future with greed and lust for riches. North Africa was once a garden spot and then came Carthage and Rome and despoiled the storehouse and now you have Sahara, Sahara ants and centipedes.
People talk of money and industry, of hard times and recoveries, of finance and economics, but the ants wait and the scorpions wait. For while people talk, they are making deserts, all the time getting the world ready for the conquering ant."
We live on a threatened planet - and need only survey the landscape of each day’s newspaper or catch the news on radio, T.V. or Internet to sense the problem.
From the specter of nuclear arms proliferation along with what to do about mounting nuclear waste to all other forms of waste, toxins and pollutants and how they affect water quality, soil quality and air quality - a day doesn’t go by where environmental issues aren’t of paramount concern.
We have here locally some water areas and soil with PC B removal and we certainly know about the controversy of the "floating gas station" out on the sound. We all know of many such issues.
So...what about the environment?
I once heard of a father whose son had become a fanatic about cleaning up the environment. "For instance," he said, "my son screamed at me one afternoon when he yelled, ‘I can’t stand all this filth, pollution and trash!’ I looked at him for a moment, then said, ‘Okay, let’s get out of your room and talk somewhere else.’"
Sometimes it’s hard to get a vantage point that separates individual self-interest from community standards of environmental sanity. Lester Thurow, the MIT economist and past Newsweek columnist, put it this way:
"A developer is a person who wants to build a mountain cabin this year; an environmentalist is a person who built a cabin last year and wants no more development." I’ve even heard something like that right here in Greenwich.
What about the environment?
The present environmental crisis is the fruit of our technological advances.
There are two basic perspectives of our role in the world.
First, is the "inclusionists" one, which sees that we are a part of nature. We are completely included in and a part of the whole of nature. The Native Americans represent this perspective with their closeness to the land and all of nature. Much of our Biblical tradition recognizes the mystery of the creation and how it is all tied together.
But there is a second way of looking at things and that is the "exclusionist" perspective. The Indians have had a marvelous respect and rapport with the trees and streams, but they never moved in the direction of scientific and medical breakthroughs to extend human life.
One may appreciate a beautiful waterfall all afternoon long, but when one has a bacterial infection what that person wants is not mystery, but medicine developed by the scientific mastering of chemicals and anti-biotics.
We are surrounded by a technological civilization and there is no turning back.
Now, the "inclusionists" say it is precisely the manipulation of things done and made by humans which has caused the environmental crisis. On the one hand you have the "inclusionists" or naturalists who envision a clear mountain stream and a primitive cabin while the "exclusionists" or science fiction folk envision a huge plastic bubble where the environment is totally controlled by humans.
Our environmental dilemma is expressed by the advertising slogan on the side of an aerosol can of air freshener:
"Bring the clean, natural freshness of a country meadow indoors. Freshens the air in your home with a clean, back-to-nature scent - as refreshing as the summer grass and fragrant flowers of a country meadow. ‘WARNING: Inhaling the contents can be harmful or fatal.’"
So...what about the environment?
Let’s turn now to our first lesson that Pat Larrabee read for us from the prophet Hosea. The time is the 8th century before Christ and Hosea speaks of God’s displeasure with his covenant people, Israel:
Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel;
for the LORD has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or loyalty,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
Swearing, lying, and murder,
and stealing and adultery break out;
bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore the land mourns,
and all who live in it languish;
together with the wild animals
and the birds of the air,
even the fish of the sea are perishing.
How amazingly contemporary it is - when the covenant is broken between human and human. There is swearing, killing, lying, stealing and adultery and then the land mourns...the land mourns. The natural environment is disrupted and all of life both social and natural is out of harmony with the source.
Each one of you listening has experienced that moment of mystery in nature when the sun is setting or rising...when the water is perfectly still or barely rippling...the birds are fluttering and you experience a sense of inner peace. But, you can’t live there forever any more than you can surrender to technological mastery as the only answer - for that leads to environmental chaos.
Listen to this thoughtful insight by the physicist Niels Bohr:
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
In the Biblical perspective we are a part of nature and yet made in the image of God. We are born in nature and yet we transcend nature and that is our great power and that is our great problem.
Mystery and mastery are our dual destinies. And so, for Hosea, "inclusionists" and "exclusionists" give way to covenantal relationships where humility and modesty are called for in the midst of mystery and mastery.
Hear the first verse again,
"There is no truth or kindness or knowledge of God in the land."
Truth, kindness, and awareness of God - these are the dimensions of covenantal relationships which must be honored, says Hosea, if the land is to be healed. Since the land mourns in our day as it did in Hosea’s - so too, does the land need to be healed.
For Hosea said, "There is no kindness in the land." As people of faith, we know kindness (hopefully) from our friends, family and church family - but most assuredly we know kindness because we have experienced it in Jesus Christ our Lord.
"Blessed are the kind," said Jesus, "for they shall receive kindness."
And then comes the plea for knowledge. Many people think of knowledge as a string of facts. "If I know this, this, this, and this - then I have knowledge."
In the Biblical perspective true knowledge is an understanding and receiving of our relationship with God.
When knowledge is seen as a string of facts, there will always be one fact that escapes us - like that legendary ship’s captain who overheard one of his crewmen ordering another to sweep the floor and he said, "Don’t you know anything? On a ship it’s not called the floor, it’s the deck. And that’s the bow and that’s the stern and that’s starboard and that’s port. And if you don’t learn all this I’m going to throw you out that little round window over there."
The key to addressing the question of: "What about the environment?" is not amassing one more fact. The facts abound. You study the issue and you will be drowned in facts. No, the issue is judgment. From what perspective will we proceed to care for the earth with our actions?
I am not an expert, but I know that when we dump toxins and chemicals and refuse into our rivers, lakes and oceans we are polluting our waters in ways that harm ourselves and much of the life on our planet. I am not an expert, but I know that when contaminants seep into the soil plant life and vegetation are compromised for decades to come. I am not an expert, but I know that when more and more fossil fuels are burned and green house gases are released we are jeopardizing our future existence here on earth. I am not an expert and while I am not convinced that this unseasonably warm winter we have been experiencing is completely attributable to global warming – neither I am convinced that it is completely unrelated. It’s not that we don’t have enough facts. We do. We could wait until we have all the facts or until we comprehend them all – but I’m afraid that will be too late.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," cries Hosea. (4:6)
The missing knowledge is the fragile connection of knowing God.
So...what about the environment?
Our ecological situation and challenges will never be addressed solely by an "inclusionist" perspective where all of nature is reduced to mystery nor by an "exclusionist" perspective where all of nature is subject to our arrogance that we can master and fix everything. Rather, our environmental crisis calls for a renewal of a relational perspective with its accompanying humility where the call to truth, the call to kindness, and the call to God awareness is witnessed to and shared in the common life.
We are called together to struggle to care for the earth in the beginning part of this new millennium so that we might pass on the gifts of this earth to the generations that are to come.
If you go to the UCC website and search for the energy and environmental task force, you will find resources and resolutions showing what the United Church of Christ and many of our churches are committed to and are already doing. Our church has just retrofitted many of our lighting fixtures to fluorescent bulbs, which is good for the environment and our energy consumption. This is a good step toward many things we could do to become a green church.
It is an inconvenient truth to know that we as individuals, as a society, and as a world are called to behave differently.
So… "What About the Environment?"
In the majestic vision from Revelation of the new Jerusalem of God:
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
"What About the Environment?"
The prompting is for a renewing of the vision that all we possess is a gift from God and that the Tree of Life which God sets in the midst of the vision is for healing and wholeness - that the land might be renewed and our lives empowered by the truth, the kindness, and the knowledge of God - the giver of all gifts.
In the powerful prayer posture of Dag Hammarskjold:
"Thou who art over us,
Thou who art one of us,
Thou who art – also within us,
May all see thee – in me also,
May I prepare the way for thee,
May I thank thee for all that shall fall to my lot,
May I also not forget the needs of others,
Keep me in thy love
As thou wouldest that all should be kept in mine.
May everything in this my being be directed to thy glory.
And may I never despair.
For I am under thy hand,
And in thee is all power and goodness.
Give me a pure heart – that I may see thee,
A humble heart – that I may hear thee,
A heart of love – that I may serve thee,
A heart of faith – that I may abide in thee."
Amen.
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