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April 20, 2008
Choosing Green
Deuteronomy 3:15-20
Morning has broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird…
In a little article called Meditations on Familiar Hymns , the author points out that when the alarm clock rings, people everywhere begin rushing… Others will turn on a morning talk show or sit and read the paper. Still others will review our lists of thing-to-do as we get the kids ready for school. God has created the world anew. Will we notice?” 1
When Eleanor Fargeon wrote the words to this popular hymn in 1931, not knowing that singer-guitar player, Cat Stevens would popularize it for a generation of Baby-Boomers decades later, her inspiration apparently came from Jeremiah. This is surprising for anyone who knows the gloomy prophet of exile, who, in the book Lamentations, goes on and on about what is wrong with the world – illness, exile, hunger and misery; crime, ravage and ruin are his basic themes. Yet, midway through this inventory of woe, the prophet paused to affirm his trust in God, whose mercies are “new every morning.”
One of the unique and wonderful aspects of our Biblical story is the balance it seeks to establish in the course of relating the saga of the human experience of God and of life with each other. That is to say, there is always portrayed a balance between good and evil, blessing and curse – woe and wonder. “New every morning” – out of the crucible of suffering, time and again, God is able to bring forth redemption and change. From the deep and crushing despair of Jesus agony on the cross, the dead end of crucifixion God brings forth in Christ resurrection – a new beginning.
A letter to the editor in a religious journal says, “Maybe I'm paranoid, but the news lately about the state of the world seems to be increasingly bad – global warming, possible epidemics, deepening poverty and such. Does anyone see any sign of hope?” 2
The “Mood du Jour” may be despair, the editors respond, because of the nature of prophetic speech. Al Gore's film, “An Inconvenient Truth” for example, presents graphic evidence of the ultimate plight, namely, a changing global climate unsuited for sustaining life as we know it. “Gore has a bit of the Old Testament prophet about him, describing the situation in terms so graphic that the choices facing us are clear, compelling and hair-raising.”
From the Mediterranean to Alaska to the Soviet Union to the Persian Gulf, we encounter news of ecological disaster. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Topsoil is being destroyed around the world at an alarming rate - six billion tons per year in North America alone. The world's forests are fast disappearing-largely to satisfy First World appetites-and in these forests dwell incredibly diverse species of plants, animals, and birds. As forests go, species go. Some believe that the only parallel to this pace of extinction is found in the geological and climatic upheavals of the ancient past. 3
It was Mark Twain who once described someone as “a good man in the worst sense of the word.” Sometimes it is possible to be so good at anticipating problems, so analytical and diagnostic about relationships that it kills the spirit. Whether it is issues of global warming or persistent famine, HIV/AIDS and Malaria epidemics, or the statistics about the number of young men from urban areas, particularly African-American men who are in prison, those who play Jeremiah are often so good at articulating the nature and the extent of injustice that they can unintentionally establish a mood of hopelessness. Hopelessness can breed paralysis and inaction…it can foster anger and blame as well, which does little to redress injustice.
For generations, the church has responded to bad news by offering the succor and comfort of a personal savior who, at least, would watch over us in the midst of the maelstrom and help us find our way. In another “garden hymn” this is the Jesus who “walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am his own…” This comforting reassuring voice has brought many a person through incalculable odds in life, and this is good. Rarely, however, does it lead to action or to transformation.
Our biblical story, asks us to incorporate a more complete view our relationship with God and with our neighbors that results in a more active form of faithfulness. The seminal story of our Hebrew ancestry, of course, is the Exodus event which is recalled by our Jewish brothers and sisters this weekend in the observance of Passover. In the book of Deuteronomy the saga of the journey from slavery to the Promised Land is retold. This morning's reading from that part of the ancient TORAH depicts a final charge to the people of Israel from their leader Moses.
As he gathers them on mountainside to look over the “verge of Jordan” into the long sought “promised land” he asks them to consider, we have continued to learn of God and the nature of God's desires for the nation of Israel and for the children of God. We have also learned about our own natures, our fears and our petty disputes: our jealousies and our greed; our lust for power and our will to dominate. We have learned about our natures in these 40 years of wandering...and we have learned about God's nature. We have experienced the “curse” of our waywardness and we have been lavished with the gifts of God's grace. God has not bound you by agreement. God has not sought you as slave and God has promised never to leave you in slavery again. God has set you free from bondage...of all kinds...so that you might choose. It is not a contract or agreement which the Lord requires...it is a covenant of love.
Now you know the world, Moses says, and you must choose. Moses' plea to the people as they prepare to take their leave and enter into nationhood... “Make a righteous choice for life.” It is this gift of freedom...this covenant of relationship that is life-giving!
There is also another stream of the biblical faith as we have received it. In Colossians, Paul writes of the Cosmic Christ – which in our post-Enlightenment, rationalistic world may be a hard image to understand. Yet, this is the Jesus Christ of the early Church. Not the personal savior only, but the savior of the world, he is depicted in the domes of the great basilicas of Constantinople and ancient Rome. A colossal image with open hands, embracing all aspects of God's world. He is the image of the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15, 16)
We honor the Cosmic Christ, in whom everything in heaven and on earth is created…and, yet, Mother Earth is dying before our eyes. 4 The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970. Now 38 years later, the crisis, if anything, seems more immense and urgent…to dwell on that immensity is to paralyze. But here our word from scripture gives us a way to honor the Lord of all creation, a way which it was ordained there on the edge of the Promised Land that becomes, in fact, the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggaman summarizes Deuteronomy as a source for a special vision. It is an alternative vision that 1) reminds the people of Israel that they must be attentive to matters of heart or they will fall under the power of the secular cultures which surrounded them; 2) it is also a vision of hope which believes that “neighbor” relationships can come from transformed relationships. It is a vision which arises from imagination instructed by faith. The world will become the Promised Land when the faithful imagine and act in the world in a new way. Therefore, choose love, choose faithfulness, choose justice, choose life, said Moses, that you and your children might live and prosper in the land and the world that the Lord is giving you.
The dilemma of faith is often cast as a contest between praising the Lord and changing the world. This is a false dichotomy – for, echoing the words of Moses to the people, we have set before us all things at the hands of God…both blessing and curse…all things. “While God offers life, there is a sense in which we also create that life as we respond by choosing life. If we reject it, we have chosen death and by so doing then we create a death in the world that consumes us." 5 To choose life is not only to accept life but also to create life; it is the ultimate way to honor our Christ through whom all things were made.
As we look into the world of the future, the prophetic voices ask us to acknowledge the negative – take stock of the ways in which our human appetites have led us to use up the gifts of God's creation – and then celebrate through our interactions with each other and all the activities of our lives that God's way does not end at the cross. Each of us has been given the gift – the choice to act in a different way….if you will, therefore, on this Earth Day 2008 – choose Green! Choose life, that you and your children, your children's children might live in the world that the Lord has given us! Amen
1 Pam McAllister, “the Contemplative Christian” The Progressive Christian , May-June 2007, page 49
2 “Ask Sy and Harold” is part of the “Perspective” section of the journal, The Progressive Christian , May-June 2007, page 39.
3 This description of the crisis in the ecology of the world is taken from an article about Matthew Fox, who originated what is called “Creation Spirituality” written by Wayne G. Boulton , “Bringing Matthew Fox in from the Cold,” Theology Today Vol 48, No. 3, October 1991
4Wayne G. Boulton , IBID
5 William R. Long, Commentary on Deuteronomy 30, found on his Website, <Studying the Bible> www.drbilllong.com
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