Earth Day at Emmanuel

April 22, 2012

Earth Day

The Rev. Marguerite Alley

 

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

The world and all who dwell therein.

For it is he who founded it upon the seas

And made it firm upon the rivers of the deep.

Psalm 24:1-2

In some ways, our Gospel for today seems in direct contradiction to the idea of conservation and the reason for our Earth Day celebration today. “Consider the lilies”, Jesus says…..do not worry about tomorrow…..”On first glance, it might appear that Jesus is saying that God (through the world) will provide all that we need…over and over again and that we, as “rulers of creation” should expect this and concern ourselves with conserving. I would suggest  though that a better interpretation might be that if we aren’t worried about tomorrow, then we won’t  take more than we need. If we aren’t worried about tomorrow, then we CAN share with everyone in need. I suspect that interpretation is more in line with what Jesus had in mind.

Somehow, at least to me, it seems more urgent this year that we pay some serious attention to what we do to and for the planet we inhabit. Maybe I am just dwelling on the scary news I have heard recently. Let me share with you some of what I have picked up in the news. The population of Chinstrap penguins is declining because many of the newborn pups are not surviving. The krill they eat thrives below the ice and the ice is not there. Without the little crevasses that are naturally in ice pack, the krill can’t survive to full growth either…so less food for the penguins.

Polar bears are also looking for food and drowning while trying to get to it.. There's talk that they are approaching endangered species status. The ice floes they rely on as more or less “rest stops” between feeding places are further and further apart because they are melting….. so the bears drown from exhaustion trying to get to their food which is already diminished because of the lack of krill.. While I was in Alaska last summer I learned that 84% of the artic glaciers have retreated in the past 50 years and the average temperature has increased by 4 degrees.   One large glacier has actually shrunk by a record nine miles since 1993, surpassing anything ever seen or expected. The warming oceans have caused giant icebergs to calve off, tumbling into the water. It is a pretty amazing thing to hear and see.

In many ways it is easy to say…what do I care about global warming…I have A/C. Or why should I worry about krill and chinstrap penguins? I don’t eat them….so my food source is safe. I don’t wear them…so I am not going to freeze to death. I don’t see them…so I needn’t worry about them. It is easy to blow them off. This next bit of news may put a finer point on it, though. Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a Canadian Inuit. She recently traveled to Washington, D.C., hoping to get the attention of the United States government with a simple and clear message: climate change is killing her people. They rely on frozen ground and ice to get to the animals during hunting season. The ice has been unusually thin. More of her people have died this year than in recent memory; deaths that are the result of thin ice; thin ice that is the result of climate change. Inuks (inuit individuals) go back significantly farther than we do. They are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, who emerged from western Alaska, after crossing the land bridge from Asia, around 1000 AD and spread eastwards across the Arctic.….Researchers  find no evidence of significant ice melt in their history. If those folks who have lived on and work the ice for over a thousand years say that the ice is melting, who am I to argue? But again….it is easy to blow it off. After all, how many Inuks do you know?

Joe Barton, a Texas congressman believes that we should stop being alarmists and look at the benefits of global warming. If it gets warmer in places like Siberia, they can have a longer wheat season. I am sure the Pacific-Islanders like the folks in Maldives, would probably not agree…as they are already making plans to vacate a couple of their islands as the water continues to rise. But I am sure that having a longer wheat season in Siberia is a worthwhile trade-off for them.

It is hard not to worry a little bit.  But it also hard to know what to believe. Everyone at the table has a stake in the argument. So all of this has been in the back of my mind as I tried to write a sermon that would convey the sense of urgency I feel. What can I pray for, hope for in this season that is traditionally a time of honoring the earth, celebrating new life, rebirth and the return of spring?

No simple song singing the earth's beauty will do. No honoring of the season's turning is possible without acknowledging that there is a certain urgency for us to change how we care for “this fragile earth, our island home”. And that is my stake in the argument. I do believe that we have been gifted with a home and that the best way to show our gratitude is to care for it and to take the care of it seriously.

There can be little doubt that since we arrived on the planet we have “taken it” as our own but are we responsible for caring for our home? The ancients who honored the solstices and the equinoxes did not share the same sense of certainty that we seem to take for granted—the certainty that spring will come again. Perhaps because we feel we have a better scientific understanding of our world, we seem certain that we will enjoy spring year after year after year. In the days before Christianity was widely accepted, the Spring Equinox was kind of a big deal. After a winter of darkness and cold, we welcomed the light of spring like a conquering hero. In ancient times we honored our “Mother Earth” and gave thanks for what the earth provided for us….food, warmth and shelter. Now it kind of feels like we are disappointed in our planet for “giving out”.  At least for me, celebrating spring is tempered with a bit of fear and a sense of urgency. It is the fear that we cannot count on spring. We cannot count on the earth's capacity to renew itself. We cannot count on this season of rebirth and renewal to return year after year after year. Not at the rate we are going anyway.

As a Christian and as an Episcopalian I stake my life on the idea of our interdependence—the connection of everything of which we are a part. Everything draws sustenance from earth-centered traditions that guided and still guide the lives of many peoples and cultures.  We really need, now more than ever before to honor that  connection and interdependence and the wisdom of our ancient relatives. 

Our pioneering spirit and sense of individualism—whether as people or countries—has led us to act as if our own personal needs and our lifestyles are more important than those in need and we can take care of them when we have time, we can conserve a little when it is convenient and use as much as we “need”  for our comfort. 

As you knoaw we are in an economic crisis. I however, see very little evidence of it, apart from those who remain unemployed. No doubt, there are people in this very community who desperately need and want a job. However, as I said, I see little evidence. Here is my reason for saying that. Our student parking lot is still full. Every day. They are driving  Suburbans, Navigators, Sequioia’s, and Blazers, not Smart Cars, Minis and Bugs.  Students are still driving 1 block, or 1 mile to school in a big gas-guzzling SUV that gets 8 miles to the gallon. If families can afford $125-150 in gas each for Jr. to drive to school, then we are not in an economic crisis especially when the school bus is free.  I know that will make me really unpopular with our teens! If we aren’t eating out less, not buying $125 tennis shoes, or spending $200 a month for cell phone plans, we are not in an economic crisis.

This spring, in this season of rebirth and renewal, maybe we need to pay more attention to our own practices. Perhaps we can be a bit more generous to those with whom we share the planet and not take more than we need by remembering our interconnectedness in our prayers and reflections. Maybe we could spend a little more time together as a family, say watching TV together in one room…rather than in separate rooms on separate machines. Maybe we could drive a car that seats 4 rather than one that seats 8. Maybe we could walk to the post office or the store instead of driving 1 block. There are so many little things we can all do that would make a difference. It just requires that we pay attention and have the desire. This planet, as never before, depends on us because in a very real way we are all on thin ice.