‘You are the salt of
the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
(Matthew 5:13)
This report is a tale
of two futures - one of inaction and degradation of our environment, our
economies, and our social fabric. The other, to seize the moment and the
opportunities for managing climate change risks and making transformational
change that catalyzes more adaptive and resilient societies where new
technologies and ways of living open the door to a myriad of health, prosperity
and job-generating benefits. The path of tomorrow is undoubtedly determined by
our choices today. We must decide which path to follow. (Christiana
Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
discussing the IPCC impacts report)
A convergence of reports, increased news coverage, and
severe weather events in the past few weeks have helped more and more people
realize that climate change is real, it is now, and it is a topic that will be
gaining more and more of our attention for the rest of our lives.
In the past month and a half, a convergence of reports,
increased news coverage, and severe weather events have increased public
awareness of climate change. The IPCC reports on the impacts of climate change and mitigation of climate change were
followed in the United States by the National Climate Assessment. The
National Climate Assessment includes regional summaries (see the Great Plains here),
allowing us not only to think globally about climate change but also to begin
seeing what to expect closer to home. Meanwhile, a combination of severe storm
and tornado outbreaks, exceptionally heavy rainfall in some parts of the United
States, ongoing drought conditions, and early heat waves and fires in some
parts of the southwest have reminded us of what we can expect now that, in
the words of Don Wuebbles, coordinating lead author of the National Climate
Assessment report, “the old normal is broken”.
Yesterday’s reports of the irreversible collapse of West
Antarctica’s ice sheet and what that means for sea level rise beginning this
century underlined the urgency and importance of what these recent reports have
said. Here is NASA scientist Tom Wagner on the PBS NewsHour telling about the
research and what it means:
Does this mean anything for the church? What might people
who follow Christ do with this new information and this new normal?
The Daily Office Gospel lesson for today (Matthew 5: 11-16) tells us
that we are the salt of the earth; it also tells us that if we have lost our “saltiness”,
if we are instead bland and of no consequence to those around us, we may as
well be thrown out. In other words, if the church fails to respond to these
huge changes taking place in our world this century, we may as well close our
doors. Jesus goes on to remind us that lights are meant to shine, not to be
hidden. Christians are about letting our light shine.
UN climate secretary Christiana Figueres says the world in
general is at a point where we can choose either inaction and the consequences
of further degradation of our environment, economies, and social fabric, or
transformational change. The church’s response needs to begin with an
acknowledgement of the crisis and with bringing it into our conversations and
preaching and prayers. What we need to be about, though, if we are to remain
the salt of the earth and let our light shine is the business of transformational change. All the business of reimagining the church and sorting out our core
values and beliefs from traditions that may keep us from going where Christ
would lead us this century is essential business now.
What does the church have to offer that can serve as a
beacon in this century? What does the church continue to keep that prevents us
from responding to climate change and its impacts the way Christ would have us
respond? How do we let our little light shine?
