Well friends I have to confess that when I sat down to plan this week’s service to mark Earth Day, the first thing I felt was a deep sense of despair… which is not really the place a preacher wants to be when writing a sermon. In a world that can often feel like there’s despair around every corner, one of my roles here to sift through the texts and traditions and voices of our faith and lift up kernels of hope beside the situations we face day to day. Sometimes it’s easy and obvious, and sometimes it’s trickier, but this week it felt particularly daunting. I read and re-read the scripture reading from Job: “ask the animals, speak to the earth…. and they will teach you” and it just felt like the animals, the plants, the water, the earth, they’ve all been trying to teach us for DECADES that we need to do things differently and it feels like nothing is changing.
And I’m not the only one feeling this way. Jim and Jeanie Strathdee, hymn writers famous for such peppy favourites as “Draw the Circle Wide,” “Dance with the Spirit,” and “Come Let Us Sing to the Lord Our Song” shared a video this week with a song that they wrote called “Earth Dreams” and it was a terribly sad tune that included the line: “we cannot stop the changing climate, fueled by poisons in the air, nor the course of Earth’s destruction that our children have to bear.”[1] Not much hope to be found there, unfortunately, and thinking about our kids and what the planet may look like in their lifetime made me feel even worse.
Now normally when we feel hopeless, one of the things we can do to combat that is to DO something. Anything. One small action added to all the other small actions can change the world, after all. But when I think of all the small things we are all already doing – things like reducing our water use, growing our own gardens or shopping locally when possible, recycling what we can, trying to be wise about our fuel consumption, using bikes or public transit, getting more energy efficient appliances or solar panels or improving the insulation in our homes… it all seems so insignificant compared to the huge climate problem that we are facing. The changes that we can make in our own lives feel so small compared to the inaction of our governments and corporations world wide whose sole focus continues to be profits over people and short term wealth over our long term ability to live on this planet. It just feels so out of our control and like nothing we do as individuals matters.
So why not just give up? Why not just enjoy the time we have left – use all the plastic we want and throw it into the ocean, burn every bit of coal on this earth, use up every forest and every drop of fresh water? Why not, as the saying goes, “fiddle while Rome burns” – to enjoy yourself or continue working as normal and not give any attention to something unpleasant that is happening that you should be taking action to prevent.[2] Sounds good to me. Hakuna Matata, as Pumba from the Lion King tells us – it means no worries for the rest of your days. A problem free philosophy. Sign. Me. Up.
Now here’s the part of the service where you may be thinking “did I really get out of bed on a Sunday morning for the preacher to tell me there’s no hope, let’s just give up?” and let me tell you, when I was writing this reflection earlier this week I was starting to panic thinking this exact same thing.
So I turned to a friend and colleague, who in turn did what she so often does when she’s panicking… and if you’re thinking “she turned to the Bible!” don’t worry, that part is coming, but no, first she sent out a group text.
She sent a message to her nearest and dearest, teenagers and seniors and in between, asking for help. She said “I’m thinking about Earth Day and feeling hopeless. If you can, send me something hopeful!” and, as always, they delivered.
They sent her an article about the “Swiss Grannies” who just last week won the first ever climate case victory in the European Court of Human Rights. They took Switzerland to court, arguing that the country failed to comply with its duties to stop climate change and protect their rights to life. The ruling shows that weak climate policies violate fundamental human rights. This could have worldwide repercussions for court cases involving climate change.[3]
After that she read about how, for the first time ever, the State of Texas got more electricity from solar than coal last month. “The competitive benefits of low-cost clean energy technologies have shined especially brightly in Texas. The wide-open spaces and ample wind and sunshine help, too. [4]
She received messages about how the company Smart Wool is collecting old socks – those single socks that have no match, or a hole – and turning them into new products, how friends are taking their 4 and 6 year old kids to a “clean up the park” event this Saturday, and a short film about a runner who started an event 12 years ago called “Running Up for Air” in Salt Lake City, which is the location of some of the worst air quality in the world. What started as a group of friends running up and down a mountain to raise money to improve air quality has turned into a worldwide event with thousands of participants, all who are passionate enough about air quality to run up and down a mountain as many times in a row as they can. [5]
She learned about a startup in California that is dedicated to making a sustainable alternative to single use plastic using seaweed, [6] how a group of ex-shark-fishermen are working with schoolkids and tourists in Indonesia to learn about conserving the ocean, [7] and how there’s a newly discovered species of oak tree that is helping to save the endangered Tapanuli Orangutan. [8]
All this is to say… people are out there doing things. They’re doing a LOT of things for this Earth, and certainly have not given up hope. Which made me a little curious about what is motivating them. What is giving them the hope and the energy to keep on keeping on when the condition of our planet seems to be getting consistently worse instead of better?
Today we read from Psalm 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of God’s hands.” As prairie people we are used to the idea that the sky can proclaim just about anything it wants – from the whispered joy of a sunrise to the shocking beauty of the Northern Lights to the rumble of an approaching summer storm, our eyes and ears and tuned to what the skies can tell us. But it’s not just the skies that are shouting out to us – in Luke 19:40, Jesus says “the stones themselves will cry out” in praise of God, and in his letter to the Romans Paul writes that “all creation has been groaning” for freedom and glory. And then, tucked away in the book of Job where you wouldn’t really expect it, this little gem:
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish in the sea inform you.”
The animals, the birds, the earth, the fish… they all have something to teach us. Creation has never been silent, and when we listen and learn from the sea, the skies, and the earth, THAT is when we are able to act with a sense of hope. In the Christian faith, we would call it the core conviction that we are called by our Creator to care for, advocate, and act for climate justice, and in all these texts God is calling to us through the voices of creation itself. Of course, not everyone working for climate justice and environmental protection is motivated by Christianity or even faith, but the idea of learning from the earth and listening for what it needs is broader than just these verses in our holy texts.
In Canada, faith-based organizations have come together under a unified banner to mobilize education, reflection, action and advocacy for climate justice. This initiative, called For the Love of Creation includes the United Church of Canada as well as Anglicans, Lutherans, Quakers, Mennonites, Presbyterians, and many different Roman Catholic orders,[9] and is grounded in the belief that love of God and neighbour also includes love of the earth, and their focus is on “Act, Learn, and Pray” for this year.
I remembered this week that not only do we need to listen and learn from creation, we also need to listen and learn from each other. Where I was feeling discouraged, I leaned into others who felt hope – and that’s the whole point of living in community and being a part of something bigger than ourselves. When we hear about people running up and down mountains and collecting socks and cleaning parks, when we know that our friends and colleagues and children are listening to the earth and what it needs, our despair is often lifted and we are reminded, once again, as always, that we are not alone. God is working with us and through us to make change on this beautiful planet, so don’t give up my friends. There is hope to be found and we don’t even have to look very hard to find it. Amen!
[1] “Earth Dreams” song by Jim & Jean Strathdee, 2015. https://strathdeemusic.com/EarthDreams.html
[2] Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fiddle-while-rome-burns
[3] https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/european-human-rights-court-climate-1.7167866
[4] https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/texas-got-more-electricity-from-solar-than-coal-last-month
[5] https://upforairseries.org/
[6] https://swaythefuture.com/
[7] https://www.thedorsaleffect.com/
[8] https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/newly-described-oak-from-sumatra-could-be-vital-for-threatened-orangutans/
[9] https://fortheloveofcreation.ca/about-us/
