Sermons Online
Reverend Bob MacDicken
Who Will Inherit What Kind Of Earth?
This is going to be a short sermon, somewhat disjointed, with lots of loose ends. I simply want to share with you some of my concerns about our planet, and ask you to keep paying attention to anything we can do to heal it.
In Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town, Emily, who died giving birth to her second child, arrives in the church yard on the day of her funeral. Instead of settling in with the rest of those who have died, she bargains to return to Grover's Corners and relive one day of her life. Unable to finish the day, she begs to be taken back to her grave.
"But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners . . . Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking . . . and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths . . . and sleeping and waking up. Oh, Earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."
As the scene closes, Emily turns to her mother-in-law. "Mother Gibbs?" "Yes, Emily?" "They don't understand, do they?" "No, dear. They don't understand."
We have known for a long time that the earth is in trouble, but I'm not sure we have understood how much trouble it really is. The energy crisis of the 70's made us pay attention, for a little while. Then things got better, and we tended to relax our concerns for conservation.
In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development called for a fundamental reordering of the world's priorities, and in 1992 the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro called on governments to concentrate on sustainable development, to free our children and grandchildren from the fear of living in a world that could not provide their needs.
American Indians have told us to think ahead, to the seventh generation. Rio told us that the seventh generation wouldn't make it if we don't do something.
And indeed, the nations of the world began to respond, cutting PCP's, cutting toxic waste, and cutting the expansion of carbon emissions. We're finding new ways to use recycled materials. It is a start -- and it is not nearly enough. We have slowed the decline, but things are still getting worse.
Here in North Carolina, waste disposal per person has increased 14 percent in the last eleven years. We recycle, but not enough. Governor Easley has established new standards for cutting pollution by electric utilities. Will it help? Probably -- but it won't be enough.
At the risk of being too political, I do want to say that I am extremely unhappy with the pro-business, anti-conservation stance which seems to come out of Washington these days. Maybe the Kyoto Protocol on climate change wasn't a great agreement, but why throw it out while US carbon emissions are growing more than twice as fast as those of the rest of the world? Maybe it isn't a good idea to be dependent on Middle East oil, but at what expense do we drill in Alaska, or in the ocean?
We are already the richest nation in the world. Maybe we need to think twice about the price the planet, and our great grandchildren, will pay for us getting richer. Isn't there a way to live comfortably and help the restore the planet?
The religious guidance we need here is as old as religion itself. We need to hold the earth sacred. We need to walk on the earth remembering that we are responsible for the way that the seventh generation from now finds the planet. We need to remember that no matter what we think about God or heaven, we can make life hell for future generations. The earth is sacred -- and it is our sacred trust.
I kept looking for a translation of the first chapter of Genesis that did not imply that humans are commanded to conquer all of the rest of life -- but I couldn't find one. The closest I came was some commentators who pointed out that the Genesis text seems to say that God intended all of us to be vegetarians, Frankly, I kept thinking that the Bible got it wrong here. We can't be about conquering the rest of life.
Native Americans seem to have it right. Buddhists seem to have it right. Pagans seem to have it right. What is wrong with our Judeo-Christian tradition? Then I read comments by a Rabbi, who pointed out that when God chooses us, he doesn't give us privilege, he gives us responsibility. And that makes sense.
As humans, we are not privileged to run around and destroy. We are responsible for doing what God would do, working though our hands, our arms, our voices, to restore the earth.
So regardless of what you think about God, or power, or wisdom, or anything else, we are the only hands and arms they have. I like Thomas Aquinas' image - God wants order in the universe.
We need to have a new paradigm - not to conquer and subjugate everything, not to have science teach us how to win over nature, but to be responsible representatives as we seek to restore order. I seriously question how anyone can claim to be religious, or spiritual, or even a good person while intentionally choosing to ignore the need to heal the earth.
The answers are not simple. I certainly don't know what most of them are. The spotted owl controversy in Washington State pitted conservationists against laborers who were struggling to make a living. Owls or jobs? But somehow, we have to believe that human productivity can only continue as we align ourselves with the productivity of nature. And we have to keep vigilant.
What is the least we can do? Keep learning, keep looking for answers, keep erring on the side of caution -- and love creation. Hold all creation as sacred.
This poem is from the Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoyevsky:
Love all Creation.
The whole and every grain of sand in it.
Love every leaf,
and every ray of light.
Love the plants.
Love the animals.
Love Everything.
If you love everything
you will perceive the Divine Mystery
in all things.
Once you perceive it
you will comprehend it every day.
And you will come, at last
to love the whole world
what an all embracing love.
Blessed be.