It's Getting Hot in Here... (sermon draft 4/27/08)

Earth Day 2008

First of all, relax. There will be no slide show, nor will there be any invocation of name of Al Gore.

Because I’m going to make a major assumption here. I’m going to assume that we’re all on near about the same page on global climate change. I think we can all agree that it’s real and that it’s a problem. And I’m going to assume that we all feel that we have an individual responsibility to alter our CO₂ producing lifestyle, and also an obligation as communities—residential communities, as well as financial, industrial, religious, governmental, and scientific communities—an obligation to halt the damage already done to our planet, and to reverse the downward spiral before it’s too late. It’s our duty—our Christian duty.

How do I mean that? Well, you may have noticed that the Pope was in America recently. Hard to miss him. He had a lot to say about American secularism, materialism, and morality. And one of the things the Catholic Church under Pope Benedict has done is to declare seven “new” deadly sins. Harming the environment is one of them. Now, we as Lutherans don’t distinguish levels of sins, but it says something that the Mother Church takes pollution so seriously that wantonly causing it is a danger to the mortal soul!

For, speaking theologically, from both Lutheran and Catholic viewpoints, global climate change is essentially altering God’s vision of creation. God created things and saw they were good. So, think about the ramifications of what we’re doing to the earth. Bird and fish migration patterns are changing, permafrost is melting, a huge piece of the polar ice cap is poised to drop off into the sea, and coastal wetlands are disappearing due to sea levels rising. Twenty to thirty percent of plant and animal species are at risk of extinction. And global climate change is predicted to bring along with it increases in flooding, severe storms, and drought. That’s not good! In fact, it is indeed, sinful. Deadly perhaps in ways far more literal.

And we need to confess and repent of our sin. Repent both individually and corporately. Repent in the classic sense of the word, which is to turn around 180 degrees from our present behavior. In his explanation of the seventh commandment (which is confirmands…?), “You shall not steal,” Luther writes, “We are to fear and love God so that we neither take our neighbors’ money or property nor use shoddy merchandise or crooked deals to obtain it for ourselves, BUT INSTEAD—help them to improve and protect their property and income.” The actions resulting in global climate change are tantamount to stealing from God. Stealing the creation. We need to repent of that sin and instead help God protect and improve creation.

But before we talk about how we can do that, I’d like to address a neglected effect of global climate change. Poverty.

The National Council of Churches writes that,

“Although global climate change affects all human populations across the globe, it hits those living in poverty the hardest because they depend on the surrounding physical environment to supply their needs and have limited ability to cope [with] climate variability and extremes.

As temperature changes increase the frequency and intensity of severe-weather events around the world, impoverished communities, which often lack necessary infrastructure like storm walls and water storage facilities, will struggle to respond to increased disasters. Warmer climates will also increase the spread of diseases like malaria and impact the ability of impoverished communities to respond adequately to outbreaks when they can’t afford the medication for those infected. Perhaps the harshest consequence will come from changed rain patterns. This will increase the prevalence of drought in places like Africa, where only 4 percent of crop land is irrigated. The resulting decrease in food production will leave populations without food and limit their ability to trade internationally to generate income.

Global climate change reduces access to drinking water, limits access to food, and negatively impacts human health particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, developing countries are expected to suffer the most from the negative impacts of climate change.

For instance, Lake Chad, a water source for five countries and 20 million

people in Africa, is drying up because of droughts. In 1960, Lake Chad covered more than 26,000 km2. By 2000, it was down to 1,500 km2.2 When weather patterns change in Africa, crops fail and people go hungry. [In biblical proportions, one might say.]

The challenges of global climate change won’t just be in developing countries. In the United States, for example, the town of Shismaref, Alaska, with a per capita income around $10,500, will need to be relocated because of shoreline erosion, which is caused by the melting of protective sea ice.3

Global climate change poses one of the greatest threats to the most vulnerable among us, especially people in poverty. The impoverished and vulnerable do not have the economic and technological resources to adapt to the expected impacts of climate change. Addressing climate change must involve addressing the plight of those in poverty to be successful, while addressing poverty must involve environmental sustainability to be a long-term solution.”

Our call as people of faith—to protect the vulnerable and to be stewards of God’s Earth—means we must act to stop global climate change. Because the effects of global climate change are already impacting those who can least afford to deal with it, addressing global climate change is also a justice issue.”

Well, that’s what the National Council of Churches says. But what does scripture say about helping the poor, and what does it say about global climate change? The former I think we have a firm grip of—scripture over and over and over again cries out for justice for the poor and the marginalized and commands the sharing of resources with them from a standpoint of God’s abundance. But global climate change wasn’t even thought of in bible times, much less addressed. However, even in seemingly unrelated passages such as those assigned for today’s readings, we can find hints and glimmers of a theology of ecological accountability. Specifically, they remind us of God’s role in Creation, and our responsibility for it.

For instance, the passage from Acts tells us that God doesn’t live in a shrine or man-made object, but rather throughout all creation, for God made all things. The verses from St. Peter remind us that repentance and creation saving action will require sacrifice. But we should not fear this, for with God pleasing action comes God’s blessing. And God has blessed us with the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, so that we might discern the righteous pathway to follow in earthkeeping. Today’s gospel says that!

So, with the guidance and strength of the Spirit within us-how can we repent of the sin of global climate change and the resultant cycle of extreme poverty that it entails? Sins of commission as well as sins of omission?

No doubt you’ve heard plenty of ways already, but aren’t doing them. No doubt corporately we know what’s needed but aren’t willing to alter the bottom line in return for such an elusive and future-bound objective. Shame on us. Shame on our families. Shame on our businesses and industries. Shame on our governments. Shame on us. We need to act, individually, as a faith community, as a community of fellow beings on this planet. We need to act.

If ever there was a need for someone on every street corner wearing the sandwich board sign “REPENT! THE END IS COMING!” it is now. I ask that you turn to your insert and join me in the prayer of repentance…