Defeating doubt with hope

 The Doubting Thomas of Climate Change

“Unless I see a mountainside burn from west to east and smolder for a month, unless I put my finger to the ashen ground where wildflowers once bloomed and put my hand into the dry hole where a spring once gushed forth, well, even then, I will not believe!”

I wonder. Do you think Thomas was a bit of an Eeyore? Bush pilot Dave Olesen, reminiscing on a 1977 conversation with climate activist Edward Abbey, wrote, "Big soft-spoken man--he seems almost depressed...." Then a quote from him to underscore this: "I'm an optimist. Things are a lot better now than they will be."

Ed, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

If Thomas was at all like this, no wonder he was disbelieving of what the other disciples told him. 

And if we were the kind of “optimists” Edward Abbey claimed to be, we might decide the story ends right there. 

But we are children of the living God and so children of hope. 

As it says in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."

Today’s Doubting Thomases close their minds to the actionable knowledge that forms the impetus for our response. And if we were the kind of “optimists” Edward Abbey claimed to be, we might decide the story ends right there. 

But the story of the Apostle Thomas does not end in desperation. It is a story of restoration. It is a story of renewal and, ultimately, it is a story of resurrection

Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see the blackened soil. Reach out your hand and touch the ground. Feel the smoldering heat. Smell the ash. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

We are not Ed’s optimists, we are Christ’s people - and we know, even after he ceased appearing to those first followers of the gospel, his story continues. His challenge, and his promise. 

And becomes our own.

Almighty and everlasting God, you made the universe with

all its marvelous order, its atoms, worlds, and galaxies, and

the infinite complexity of living creatures: Grant that, as we

probe the mysteries of your creation, we may come to know

you more truly, and more surely fulfill our role in your

eternal purpose; in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP page 827)

Written for Climate Change Forum V as closing meditation and prayer. 4/30/22 JRL+

Published in the Arizona Daily Star, Sunday May 15, 2o22, page E3, as "Defeating doubt with hope". 

"Rev. John Leech. The Rev. John Leech is ordained in the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement and has served as a pastor in Northern California and western Washington, and now in Southern Arizona."

The Doubting Thomas of Climate Change

Bighorn Fire, Santa Catalina Mountains

“Unless I see a mountainside burn from west to east and smolder for a month, unless I put my finger to the ashen ground where wildflowers once bloomed and put my hand into the dry hole where a spring once gushed forth, well, even then, I will not believe!”

Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see the blackened soil. Reach out your hand and touch the ground. Feel the smoldering heat. Smell the ash. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

 

the planet is burning

The planet is burning. I have that on good authority. The secretary general of the United Nations said so, in his annual state of the planet address. And his report was based on the best available science. The intergovernmental panel on climate change has been providing the science to policy makers and the public for years. You can read the reports for yourself or listen to the scientists - some of the best are right here in Tucson, at the University of Arizona. So there are the facts. The hard physical facts. 

Now what are we going to do about it? That is the soft side of the issue, the hard to measure side, except perhaps for sciences like sociology. It is values, culture, beliefs, ethics, morals, and religion. 

So it seems like we’ve come to the right place, if we are contemplating climate change as people of faith. As a community of believers, we hold these values to be self-evident, and well worth repeating. Our life is a gift from God. All that is, is a gift from God. We are called, as all human beings are called, to enjoy the earth - as all our fellow creatures are, but beyond that to care for the earth. We have as human creatures a unique consciousness, an awareness, not only that we are creatures - and we rejoice in that - but that we have the joyful burden of responsible creaturehood. Beyond stewardship we are called to full participatory partnership with God in the care of creation.

Now how do we do that, right here on the local level? We each of us in our abundance and scarcity, aware of our independence of will and our total dependence on the Creator for all that gives, sustains, and fulfills life - we can do and act and advocate and take on practical personal, communal, and congregational, national and international, public, political, nonprofit and voluntary association, and for profit (as we do well by doing good) business: we  can make a difference. Let’s get started. Let us look at what we are doing already - individually, and together. 

And so I’ll tell a story for you who know the limits of your means. There was an energy crisis. But I was in college. And I saw my neighbor Kevin returning to the dorm, strolling across the quad. And I called out to him,

-- Kevin. There’s an energy crisis.

-- Yeah, John.

-- But we don’t have cars. We can’t drive slower. What are we going to do?

-- Well, John, I’m walking slower, and I’m talking slower, and I’m …

   … thinking slower.

See? You can always do something. But thinking faith may tell us more is needed now than simple self-control. My friend Roger the Arctic explorer, that is, the physical oceanographer of the Arctic Ocean, has been for many years traveling to the North Pole. In addition to my letters to Santa, he has been carrying measuring instruments, and monitoring and reporting on physical changes in the composition of the ocean: temperature, pressure, salinity. And by now you have probably learned what he and his fellow scientists have seen and heard directly and have written home about. 

Open water where once there was solid ice. Great glaciers melting and calving icebergs into the sea. Those icebergs are made of fresh water. And that ice, melting, plunges into the sea a cold stream of fresh water forming and moving between Greenland and Canada, pushing the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream south, and weakening the current. This means that particular places like Europe and the Isles of Ireland and Britain will be getting colder water than they have enjoyed for, oh, thousands of years, or before people learned to make fire or chip rocks for tools. So things are changing in a big way. And there is no planet B. And Mother Nature bats last. 

Is this the ball game? Not yet. There is hope. We can do something about it. And if we don’t - the next generations coming up are going to make sure we hear about it. But we will be able to see for ourselves - if we’re spared. So go forth, enjoy the earth, and take care of the planet. It’s the only home we’ve got.

JRL+

"Enjoy, care for the Earth," Keeping the Faith, Home + Life, Arizona Daily Star, Sunday May 2nd 2021, E3.

https://creation.azdiocese.org/dfc/newsdetail_2/3207530

Earth-maker

Chiura Obata

Upper Lyell Fork

Near Lyell Glacier, High Sierra, Calif., U.S.A.

We bless you, O Lord our God, creator of the Universe, for the gift of earth, from whence we come and to which we shall return. We ask your blessing on the ancient peoples who first enjoyed this land and ask your blessing upon us as we join the traditional stewards of this land in its ongoing care. 

And care for us, Lord, as we contemplate our mortality, our absolute dependence upon you, and as we prepare ourselves for life beyond death in the hope of the resurrection. Amen.

The planet is burning. I have that on good authority. The secretary general of the United Nations said so, in his annual state of the planet address. And his report was based on the best available science. The international panel on climate change has been providing the science to policy makers and the public for years. You can read the reports for yourself or listen to the scientists - some of the best are right here in Tucson, at the University of Arizona. So there are the facts. The hard physical facts. 

Now what are we going to do about it? That is the soft side of the issue, the hard to measure side, except perhaps for sciences like sociology. It is values, culture, beliefs, ethics, morals, and religion. 

So it seems like we’ve come to the right place, if we are contemplating climate change as a community of believers. As people of faith, of Christian faith, a church community, we hold these values to be self-evident, and well worth repeating. Our life is a gift from God. All that is, is a gift from God. We are called, as all human beings are called, to enjoy the earth - as all our fellow creatures are, but beyond that to care for the earth. We have as human creatures a unique consciousness, an awareness, not only that we are creatures - and we rejoice in that - but that we have the joyful burden of responsible creaturehood. Beyond stewardship we are called to full participatory partnership with God in the care of creation.

Now how do we do that, right here on the local level? We each of us in our abundance and scarcity, aware of our independence of will and our total dependence on the Creator for all that gives, sustains, and fulfills life - we can do and act and advocate and take on practical personal, communal, and congregational, national and international, public, political, nonprofit and voluntary association, and for profit (as we do well by doing good) business: we  can make a difference. Let’s get started. Let us look at what we are doing already - individually, etc. 

And so I must tell a story for you who know the limits of your means. There was an energy crisis. But I was in college. And I saw my neighbor Kevin returning to the dorm, strolling across the quad. And I called out to him,

-- Kevin. There’s an energy crisis.

-- Yeah, John.

-- But we don’t have cars. What are we going to do?

-- Well, John, I’m walking slower, and I’m talking slower, and I’m …

   … thinking slower.

See? You can always do something. But thinking faith may tell us more is needed now than simple self-control. My friend Roger the Arctic explorer, that is, the physical oceanographer of the Arctic Ocean, has been for many years traveling to the North Pole. In addition to my letters to Santa, he has been carrying measuring instruments, and measuring and reporting on physical changes in the composition of the ocean: temperature, pressure, salinity. And by now you have probably learned what he and his fellow scientists have seen and heard directly and have written home about. 

Open water where once there was solid ice. Great glaciers melting and calving icebergs into the sea. Those icebergs are made of fresh water. And that ice, melting, plunges into the sea a cold stream of fresh water forming and moving between Greenland and Canada, pushing the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream south, and weakening the current. This means that particular places like Europe and the Isles of Ireland and Britain will be getting colder water than they have enjoyed for, oh, thousands of years, or before people learned to make fire or chip rocks for tools. So things are changing in a big way. And there is no planet B. And Mother Nature bats last. 

Is this the ball game? Not yet. There is hope. We can do something about it. And if we don’t - the next generations coming up are going to make sure we hear about it. But we will be able to see for ourselves - if we’re spared. So go forth, enjoy the earth, and take care of the planet. It’s the only home we’ve got.

Together we pray:

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever.
Amen.

–from A New Zealand Prayer Book

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

25 April 2021
Fourth Sunday of Easter

• Acts 4:5-12
• 1 John 3:16-24
• John 10:11-18
• Psalm 23
• https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Easter/BEaster4_RCL.html

Take care of it

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/885/earth-from-space

Earth Day 1970
Earth Day 2020

Bitter Water Made Sweet

I am the vine, you are the branches. (John 15:5a)

 

Again and again the words in the Bible encourage its listeners and its readers to put their trust only in God and they will receive life.

In the Exodus story as the people fleeing bondage are being forged (unbeknownst to them) into the core of a new people, they get this message again and again - the hard way.

There they are in the wilderness newly escaped from the chariots of Pharaoh and all they can think about is their immediate need: water.

Well, yeah.

Again and again though God provides for them as in the Exodus story, as at the waters of Marah - bitter water turned sweet. 

I wonder. 

Is this how it is?

Is there any other source of nourishment, of life, of provision for life's necessities, besides God?

Oh.

Earth Day brings it home to us. Sometimes I have paraphrased God's message to the primordial Human Being, Adam, in Genesis, as "Take care of it - don't wreck it!"

50 years ago today we the members of the Carlmont High School Sierra Club along with our fellow students walked to school. Not the only time I'd done that, but this time with a purpose: to remind ourselves and those around us of our dependence on nature to survive, and our need to care for the earth to thrive - and more than that it was our responsibility.

Not just for a reward. It's common sense. And our job.

At least Adam thought so.

 * * *

As usual I take the opportunity of the anniversary of Earth Day to express my gratitude for the organizers of the Carlmont High School Sierra Club - including Stan Fishburn and Paul W. (Bill) Leech; the organizer, Paul deFalco, regional director of the US Federal Water Pollution Control Administration (FWPCA), of the New Year's Eve 1968 conference in Oakland Civic Auditorium about clean water, clean air, and the environment, and the Ecology Action people there present (perhaps including Bill and Betsy Bruneau of St Francis in the Woods Willits). The high school Sierra Club encouraged our fellow students to join us and walk to school that day... and take some extended hikes through the local mountains and forests, which further raised awareness of our natural environment.