Environment Sunday Sermon

Sermon by the Reverend John Bradley, for Environment Sunday 2008

Note: 6th June 2010 is Environment Sunday. The following sermon from 2008 is as relevant as ever.

Isaiah 24.4-13 Matthew 11.16-30
Matthew 11.19 God’s wisdom is proved right by its results

I can remember a time when the word ‘environment’ was a technical term used only in geography, when few people had heard the word ‘ecology’ – let alone knew what it means – and to call somebody ‘green’ was not a compliment! It was when I learnt French that I realised that the root meaning of environment is what you see around you. The problem is that despite modern television news, many people only take notice of a small part of what surrounds them.

The crisis we are constantly reminded of today first came to my attention through a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. She was a lonely voice in the early 60s warning that if we kept on spraying our crops with pesticides such as Aldrin and Dieldrin which not only killed the agricultural pests but also the birds which fed on them, the day would dawn when there would be no birdsong left and the trees would bud in a silent Spring. Hers was a prophetic voice which was dismissed by the agri-chemical industry but a movement began which challenged the major powers. Until then, most people believed that modern technology was always a good thing and anyone who thought otherwise was just being old-fashioned.

But the movement grew and its prophets were largely secular. One ecologist actually blamed the growing crisis on the spread of Christianity. As long as people believed that divine spirits lived in every tree and river, he said, they treated them with respect. But when Christian missionaries came and taught them that there were no such spirits, only one God in heaven, this new teaching gave them permission to cut down the trees and pollute the rivers without fear. The criticism was valid but the answer was not to stop spreading the Christian Gospel but to make sure it was the whole Gospel. That includes the affirmation of the Psalmist that the earth is the Lord’s and everything that it contains. That statement underlies the Hebrew economy of the land where, at its best, land was not bought and sold as a commodity but lent for a while to those who would take care of it. In Israel, the people did not own the land because it all belonged to God. There are still some places in the world today, considered primitive by most Westerners, where individuals do not own land any more than we own the air we breathe. It works when everyone recognises their share in the responsibility for caring for the earth together.

Today, the threat of major damage to the earth is far greater than the extinction of songbirds. If we needed more evidence of rapid climate change, it is there on the news every week. The latest I saw was an expedition in northern Canada which found ice which had been rock solid for thousands of years is now starting to crack. Christian Aid has reminded us that the effects of this rapid change fall mainly on the poor. Subsistence farmers depend more than most on the regularity of the seasons and have no cushion to protect them against drought, flood or unusual temperature. In the past, we would have had confidence that the scientists would fix it. Still there are some who expect that one day soon a technology will be announced which will put it all right. But the sober message is that the disturbance of the world’s climate is under way and cannot be stopped. The best we can do is stop making it worse. We can change only three things: change the way we live, change the way we help the victims and change our understanding of wisdom.

It has often been explained that the burning of fossil fuels releases gases into the atmosphere which change the way its temperature is kept in balance. I once met Dr Jim Lovelock, a brilliant scientist whose book The Gaia Hypothesis showed how the earth and its atmosphere behaves as if it were one huge living creature, regulating and balancing the composition of gases in the air in order to maintain life. His theory was also dismissed by some at the time but it has now been developed into the science of geophysiology. Our modern economy is changing the atmosphere on which life on earth depends. We have become so dependent on burning oil, coal and gas that it will cost us more to find alternatives. Some proposed solutions have themselves proved to cause other problems. In America, thousands of tons of wheat are being converted into bio-fuel as an alternative to oil. But the side-effects have been an increase in the virgin forest being slashed and burnt to clear land for growing grain and a world-wide rise in the cost of grain for human consumption leading to food riots in many countries.

Even if the world stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, climate change would continue to happen for at least the next century. Pharaoh needed the wisdom of Joseph to prepare for seven years of famine. We have other means of predicting disaster. It means that in order to prevent large scale starvation, we will need to double at least our giving for world development and famine relief for the rest of our lives. If we do nothing, or just carry on doing what we have done so far, all the benefits of relief and development so far will be swept away. That is a hard message but we must be prepared to hear it.

The third change is the hardest and will be the most unpopular; we need to change our idea of wisdom. In some ways it is a return to a former wisdom which has been eroded and abandoned. But it is also a new way of combining the best of the old and the new. Jesus said that when a teacher of the law has become a learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a householder who can produce from his store things both new and old (Matthew 13:52). It won’t be easy because there is a huge industry out there which is dedicated to proving to you that what I am saying now is wrong. I like the version of Psalm 23 which begins ‘the Lord’s my shepherd; I have everything I need!’ but they don’t because they want to convince you that you need more things. Satisfied people don’t make good customers; their aim is to convince you that you need to buy things you never knew you needed. They don’t want children to grow up because the clamouring toddler, pestering its mother to buy sweets, is their icon of success. Combine that appetite for more things with the spending power of an adult and you have the ideal customer! Consumerism thinks the wisdom of God is foolishness. God’s wisdom shows that human beings need one day of rest a week and that a healthy society has a shared pattern of work and rest. But consumerism campaigned to end restrictions on Sunday trading and now Sunday is one of the busiest days at the ‘cathedral of mammon’ across the road! God knows we all need some things and will need to buy most of them. The wisdom is in keeping the buying of things in its proper place. Jesus taught us that if we make our priority the reign of God and the right relationships which come from that, all the rest will come to us.

There are still some people who question whether climate change is really happening, but they are becoming fewer. There are more people who see it happening but think there is nothing we can do about it. I believe we need the wisdom of God in this more than ever. God’s wisdom is proved right by its results but if we wait for the results of our present folly, it will be too late to save the earth. If we do nothing, in fifty years time our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will blame us for our selfish short-sightedness. When we lived in Devon, one day a letter came to the school where Marian taught addressed to ‘The Teacher Responsible for Saving the Planet’! It went around the staff room and ended up on her desk. So what about you today? You can’t do it all but you needn’t do nothing. Let us all renew our commitment to care for the environment, to reduce our own carbon footprint, to care for those who are already suffering most from climate change and to choose the wisdom of God rather than the foolish wisdom of this world.

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The glory of creation, throughout the universe,
So wonderful in essence, delightfully diverse.
Antarctica to Asia; the jungles of Brazil,
Established by the Father, with loving care and skill.

From mountain tops to valleys; in forests and in parks,
We watch the playful squirrels; we hear the joyful larks.
Wild orchids so unusual; bright parakeets so loud,
Rare butterflies so fragile; the tiger standing proud.

Deep mysteries, of oceans and unknown outer space,
Migration paths of swallows, the eagle’s nesting place.
The more we gain in knowledge, the less we understand
This world so rich and complex, created by God’s hand.

But crisis looms upon us; the planet’s under threat,
The global climate’s changing, the balance is upset.
The melting of the ice caps; diversity declines,
Extinction of key species; we’re overwhelmed with signs.

So Father please forgive us for spoiling Planet Earth,
Give us a chance to change it; to instigate new birth,
Let’s care for your creation, in details and in whole
Protect, preserve and cherish; may this be our new goal.

© Denzil Walton