Today\u2019s scripture readings are replete with hopeful images and stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In today\u2019s psalm, David exalts God who has lifted him \u201cout of the depths,\u201d healed him, and brought him \u201cup from the grave.\u201d God turns David\u2019s \u201cwailing into dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the reading from Revelation, millions of angels sing in a \u201cloud voice.\u201d Imagine being there and hearing the preposterous thundering beauty of such a chorus, all singing praise to God\u2019s lamb, Jesus. And then imagine the rest of creation, \u201cevery creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea\u201d joining the chorus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acts tells the story of Saul\u2019s conversion\u2014from one issuing \u201cmurderous threats\u201d against the early Christians to one proclaiming the gospel throughout the known world. If Saul can be converted, it seems safe to say, any one of us could be as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, the Gospel of John paints a beautiful picture. It\u2019s dawn. Jesus stands on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius. Seven of the disciples had been fishing the previous night. It must\u2019ve been a calm morning as the disciples heard this stranger call to them from 100 yards away. He tells them to drop their nets one more time on the other side of the boat, and for the first time that night their nets fill to overflowing. What\u2019s even more hopeful than the great catch, of course, is that the murdered Jesus was alive, had been raised from the dead, and was there on the shore, roasting fish for them over an open fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s appropriate that our readings today contain such images and stories of hope. After all, we have just celebrated Easter\u2014we\u2019ve gone through Lent to the unlikeliest outcome imaginable: that we are, along with Christ, raised from the dead; that a conversion like Saul\u2019s is possible for us as well; that we can be released from our own prisons and be made whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the celebration of Easter, Earth Day comes along. The timing, frankly, seems a little off. Those who proposed and celebrated the first Earth Day probably didn\u2019t consult the Christian calendar. If they did, they may well have chosen to mark Earth Day during the season of Lent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Lent? Well, because Lent is often characterized by words like reflection, sacrifice, repentance. Lent is the time set aside to acknowledge our limits. After all, the season begins with a smudged cross on our foreheads and the reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We are earth and to earth we shall return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earth Day needs to call us to a stance not unlike that of Lent: a day to reflect on how our own lives and our society\u2019s economic practices impact God\u2019s creation. A time to reflect on our own call in relationship to God\u2019s creation, human and non-human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what is our call here? It\u2019s perhaps the most foundational question to ask, for if we believe all of creation is simply here for our own use and abuse, then it doesn\u2019t really matter how our own lives or our economy impacts God\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what is our role? Consider, for a moment, that it is to serve, not just other humans, but all of God\u2019s created order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the second chapter of Genesis we read that we were put in the garden to \u201ctill and keep\u201d or to \u201cwork it and take care of it.\u201d If we take a look at the Hebrew word often translated as \u201ctill\u201d or \u201cwork\u201d or \u201ccultivate,\u201d we find the word abad<\/em>. Abad<\/em> is the Hebrew word for \u201cserve.\u201d It\u2019s the same word that shows up in the profound words of Joshua: \u201cAs for me and my house, we will abad<\/em> the Lord\u201d\u2014meaning we will \u201cserve\u201d the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s telling to note that, by and large, we humans don\u2019t think of \u201cserve,\u201d as appears in that second chapter of Genesis, as the best descriptor of our role in relationship to God\u2019s earth. Rather, it\u2019s safe to say that more of us think of \u201cdominion,\u201d as appears in the first chapter of Genesis. That\u2019s the more famous verse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s briefly consider dominion. This verse was written within a Hebrew culture, and within that culture kings were those who had dominion. As Calvin DeWitt points out in his book EarthWise<\/em>, a good Hebrew king exercised dominion with \u201cmercy, justice and compassion\u201d on behalf of his constituents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, as Christians, we proclaim Christ as \u201cKing of Kings and Lord of Lords.\u201d Christ has dominion. But Jesus was always turning things on their heads\u2014including what it means to be a king with dominion. One of the places we see that most clearly is in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus says, \u201cFor even I \u2026 came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our role here on God\u2019s good earth is to be servants of creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The litany of evidence suggesting our service is not going so well is indeed long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Species, expressions of God\u2019s abundance and creativity and love, are going extinct at a rate not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. They are disappearing at 1,000 to 10,000 times the \u201cbackground rate\u201d or natural extinction rate. Human activity, particularly habitat destruction, is the cause of such extinctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2005 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, or \u201cMA,\u201d was released. Carried out over a four-year period, the report brought together nearly 1,400 experts from 95 countries. The assessment focuses on the benefits people obtain from ecosystems\u2014such as food, water, pollination, and climate regulation. The bottom line of the MA findings is that \u201chuman actions are depleting Earth\u2019s natural capital, putting such strain on the environment that the ability of the planet\u2019s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the debate in the United States goes on, it\u2019s hard to look into the eyes of a Pacific Islander or Alaskan coastal native or Filipino farmer and say climate change is not real. Leaders of the Anglican Communion in the Philippines recently wrote the following in a letter to a justice network in the Diocese of Olympia:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA year ago, our own Bishop of our Diocese of North Central Philippines, Rt. Rev. Joel A. Pachao, said in a meeting with some of our foreign partners, \u2018We are doing all these environmental stewardship programs so that you can continue to drive your SUVs.\u2019 It was an expression of anger \u2026 over the fact that it is us in the so-called \u2018developing \u2026 countries\u2019 who are suffering most from the effects of climate change which can be attributed to carbon \u2026 emissions, the bulk of which are from the western developed countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It starts to become clear why it seems like Earth Day belongs in the season of Lent, marked by repentance and humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But isn\u2019t there something missing here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, there is; and it\u2019s the fact that Earth Day can also be a day of profound celebration. Think of all the beauty in the world: say, a newborn babe cradled in its mother\u2019s arms; a glacier lily springing up from underneath spring snow; a basket of fresh collard greens; a walk in your favorite place; a fresh corn tortilla; your favorite bird song; you and your community taking care of the green space at the end of your block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this beauty and goodness is a gift from God and God\u2019s creation. The great ecologist E. O. Wilson believes we are all lovers of that creation; we are hardwired, he says, to love life. He calls this \u201cbiophilia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, recently told an audience at Southwark Cathedral in London that people had allowed themselves to become \u201caddicted to fantasies about prosperity and growth, dreams of wealth without risk and profit without cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those fantasies have disconnected us from our innate biophilia. Williams contends that those fantasies lead to a lifestyle where the human soul was \u201cone of the foremost casualties of environmental degradation.\u201d He went on to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of the things which have moved us towards ecological disaster have been distortions of whom and what we are and their overall effect has been to isolate us from the reality we\u2019re part of. Our response to this crisis needs to be, in the most basic sense, a reality check.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So perhaps part of the really good news of Earth Day is that it offers the opportunity to heal our disconnection from that which we love so deeply. The distortions of who and what we are will begin to heal; we will reunite with that innate biophilia; no longer will we quiet the song of another species, or of a babe in arms. The angels and all the creatures surrounding the throne depicted in Revelation will be healed and proclaim praises in full voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May it be so. It may sound utopian, but it is something Jesus believed in so much that he was willing to die for it\u2014for such will the Kingdom of God be like. Maybe Easter is, after all, an appropriate season for us to mark and celebrate Earth Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s scripture readings are replete with hopeful images and stories. 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