Advent: Where Is Hope?

Advent has stunned me this year. The words of the prophets that we read during this season are more sobering than usual because they resonate so easily with what we are experiencing in our nation. News stories about the CIA’s use of torture and about the realities of racial injustice echo the most somber words of the prophets. Gun violence continues. A huge storm battered the San Francisco bay area, a big nor’easter hit the northeastern United States, and a “bombageddon” event pounded the northern part of the UK with high winds and high seas.

Here in Nebraska, we are just now returning to more normal December weather after breaking some records for high low temperatures, making it feel more like early spring than like December. There is little doubt that 2014 will go on record as the warmest year globally in recorded history.

But what has stunned me has not been the grim news reports nor the out-of-sync weather. What has stunned me is experiencing all of this against the backdrop of current climate news and analysis that at best might deepen our awareness of the need to repent of our blindness to injustice and cruelty along with plain old selfishness, and at worst might tempt us to a level of despair that keeps us from seeing the light that shines in the darkness and is never overcome.

I’ve not been blogging during Advent, and that has at least as much to do with the task of processing all of these things that have happened since Thanksgiving as much as it does with the busyness of the season or other duties. Where the events of this Advent have taken me so far is not easy for me to share, and I have wanted time to think things through and pray about them before beginning to write.

The Plan

Along with today’s post, the plan is to share this Advent reflection in three more posts:

The next post discusses two excellent essays and how they have clarified and nudged my own thinking: It’s the End of the World As We Know It by Randy Malamud, and Why #BlackLivesMatter Should Transform the Climate Debate from Naomi Klein writing in The Nation.

A post about some of the results from last week’s UN climate talks in Lima, along with today’s news that current models may have significantly underestimated the risk to Greenland’s ice sheet as global warming continues follows. The urgency of the latter underscores the disappointment in the former.

Finally, a look at the question: “How, then, should we live?” as followers of Jesus in this century brings us to speculation about where true hope lies for those of us who believe that the light shines in the darkness and will not be overcome.

An Unusual Disconnect from the Winter Holiday

An intentional observation of Advent is important to me. I love the quiet, the anticipation, the reflections on Christ’s coming that brings past, present, and future together in an eternal now, our custom of lighting special candles in the darkness of December, and Advent music. However, I also have a love of the winter holiday aspect of this time of year that goes back to childhood, when I was blessed to live in a snowy climate in an era when children had time and permission to go out and play in the snow. Snowball fights and snow forts, sledding, skating, and creating snowmen made the gray winter days in northeast Ohio fun. Despite despising driving in the snow, winter still  equals fun in my mind. The joys of a beautiful snowfall, coming indoors to warmth and maybe some cookies and hot chocolate, and many of the secular Christmas songs  that revolve around a winter solstice festival delight me. While I observe Advent and anticipate the holy wonder of the Feast of the Incarnation, I also enjoy the fun we bring into these dark weeks to warm us and make things seem brighter.

I was surprised, then, a couple of weeks ago as Bing Crosby sang White Christmas in the background and I stood at my kitchen window watching birds and animals on our bare lawn to feel a deep sadness instead of joy. I’ve celebrated Christmas without any hints of snow before, as our family lived in New Zealand in the early 1980’s, so this wasn’t just missing the experience of typical midwestern wintry weather in December. It was an awareness that there’s a good chance that whatever future Christmases I have in Nebraska are as likely to be green and above freezing as they are white with snow. I was glimpsing and pre-grieving the loss of the world as I have known and experienced it. Something I have loved is disappearing.

This Sunday, I started out driving to church on a foggy, rainy morning with temperatures warm enough that people were using the word “muggy” to describe the weather in Omaha. I was happy to know that the temperature was well above freezing and there was no worry about possibly icy streets. But I also had the UN climate talks on my mind. I had followed news of the talks until they ended at a late bedtime, and woke up remembering that it seemed as if another opportunity to take significant action on global warming had been squandered. Still, I was surprised at my reaction when I turned on the car radio and heard Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride. Driving along on a muggy December day in Omaha with the music bringing back memories of more typical winter days made our greater loss seem more real. Sleigh Ride isn’t the sort of song that brings tears to our eyes, but it did just that to me Sunday morning.

This evening the north wind is howling, and parts of Nebraska had snow today. We may settle into some more typical winter weather for a bit, or we may end up with a warmer than normal winter. We are, after all, only a small part of the world, and global warming can bring changes in weather patterns that could bring us some exceptionally large snowfalls in coming weeks. (Buffalo, New York, got a good dose of that a few weeks ago.) But we know where we are headed, that some changes are here to stay, and that a certain amount of global warming not only has already occurred but also is going to continue.

Next post we consider two essays that speak to our situation this Advent: one is an honest and clear-eyed look at our situation and its implications, and one looks at why those of us who are white people living in the United States or Europe and are deeply concerned about global warming seem to be outnumbered by people around us who don’t give it much thought.

Boston Pops: Sleigh Ride

Extraordinary Hope in Ordinary Time: Tipping Points, Extinction, and Conversion

“Ordinary time” is what we call the part of the liturgical year between Pentecost and the beginning of Advent. This long, (liturgically) green season that stretches from late spring to late autumn is “ordinary” because most of the Sundays are named using ordinal numbers — e.g. this Sunday will be “The Second Sunday after Pentecost”. 

Outside of the church, ordinary time (or ordinary times) simply refers to a time when nothing particularly unusual or noteworthy is happening. Some stretches of summer days can feel very ordinary; for some, those long, ordinary days  when we have a bit more time to relax and simply live are the best thing about summer. 

But if we are paying attention, we know that despite appearances, we are living in anything but ordinary times. Recent climate reports tell us that we have passed the point where global warming can be prevented and are well into a series of feedback loops that point to catastrophic consequences beginning in this century unless we act very quickly in very significant ways. Biologists talk about a sixth great extinction, with a new study saying that species are now disappearing from the earth at a rate ten times faster than what they had though previously, which means that “plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene.” (See World On Brink Of Sixth Great Extinction, Species Disappearing Faster Than Ever Before) 

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday in the ordinary time after Pentecost. Our first lesson last Sunday morning was Genesis 1:1-2:4, the familiar “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth..” creation story. It names God as Creator and emphasizes the goodness of creation, repeating the sentence “And God saw that it was good”, until the work of creation is done, when “God saw everything that [God] had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) I decided to put my copy of the text in our bulletin aside and simply listen as the lesson was read; it is one I know well and one I enjoy hearing as it describes an ordered unfolding of the richness and diversity of creation. 

As I sat and listened to the lesson, I pictured the oceans with “swarms of living creatures”, the plants, the land animals, and the birds. I intended to sit back and enjoy this poetic listing of so much of what makes the world beautiful and life-giving, so much of what I love, but instead, I found myself holding back tears. 

I’ve read the climate reports, and I’m reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. I know where we are now, where we are headed, and that the sea creatures, land animals, birds, plants, and humans are all in various degrees of danger of disappearing. It is heart-breaking, especially in light of God’s pronouncement that it was all “very good”, and especially in light of Genesis 1:28, when God put humankind — us — in charge of God’s good creation. 

We who are alive today are living in a time so un-ordinary as to be nearly inconceivable even as we live in the midst of this reality. These times require from all of us an extraordinarily profound repentance and a deep change of life and heart. We have passed some tipping points. It is too late to prevent or reverse a troubling increase in global temperature, and it is too late to save us from some destruction from sea level rise. However, it is not too late to do everything we can to mitigate the destruction and to live as people who are sincerely repentant for our failure to rule wisely over God’s creation. 

Recent weeks have brought signs that conscious recognition of our situation and a willingness to turn ourselves around and make some changes may be increasing. The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate is a new essay by Al Gore written for the July 2rd-17th issue of Rolling Stone. In it, Sen. Gore begins by laying out the reality of where we are today, noting that as a result of the recent climate reports coupled with the news of the irreversible collapse of a portion of the West Antarctic ice sheet, “many — including some who had long since accepted the truth about global warming — had difficulty coming to grips with the stark new reality that one of the long-feared ‘tipping points’ had been crossed. And that, as a result, no matter what we do, sea levels will rise by at least an additional three feet.”

However, he offers signs of real hope, signs that we may be at a “turning point”, what we might call a point of conversion. He points to a big growth in the use of solar power worldwide, to a greater willingness for governments to put limits on carbon emissions, and to signs that September’s UN Climate Summit and the 2015 climate negotiations in Paris will produce something significant. (He notes that many regard the Paris negotiations as “the last chance to avoid civilizational catastrophe while there is still time”.) And he compares all of this to other movements for social change, quoting poet Wallace Stevens: “After the final ‘no’ there comes a ‘yes’/And on the ‘yes’ the future world depends.”

Closer to home is the reality of the series of tornadoes, storms, and flooding rains in parts of Nebraska this week and earlier this month coupled with a sign of our willingness to begin turning around: a report from Friday’s Omaha World Herald on OPPD’s plans to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency. 

We do live in extraordinary times, but everything depends on something Christians know in our bones: the ‘yes’ that is the the beginning of a deep conversion, a willingness to transform our hearts and our lives so we are more closely aligned with God’s will. Sometimes our hearts have to be broken before we are able to let go of our old lives and allow that transformation to happen.

This Sunday’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 10:24-39) ends with this: “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” We will find our lives, intertwined as they are with the lives of all other creatures, when we let go of a way of life that is no longer life-giving and say ‘yes’ to something new.

Easter Hope and Joy

 Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

I’m writing this after participating in the joyful celebration of the Great Vigil of Easter at Church of the Resurrection in Omaha this evening. Earlier today, I spent a couple of hours helping to staff Nebraska Interfaith Power and Light’s table at the Omaha Earth Day celebration. Meanwhile, along with posts about Easter celebrations and reflections on the end of Holy Week and the beginning of Easter, my Facebook feed has been full of the news that the State Department announced a delay in a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline permit. The delay is at least in part due to a case Nebraska landowners brought against the pipeline that is now going to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Last April, Easter was on March 31. The post I wrote on the blog that week talked about hope in the face of despair. Along with the celebration of Easter, the occasion for this reflection about hope was a planning meeting is to help pipeline opponents be well-prepared to testify at the State Department hearings later in the month. That was a year ago; the pipeline permit has still not been approved, and now we know there will be another delay in a decision. This is good news that brings hope with it. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy reading the post below from a year ago expressing hope in our ability to stop the pipeline despite incredible odds being against us.

Easter Week: Mistaken Identity, Keystone XL Pipeline, and Alleluias

In the Gospel lesson for the Tuesday in Easter Week (John 20:11-18), Mary Magdalene is so caught up in her grief over Jesus’ death and her despair over the disappearance of his body that when she turns around and sees Jesus, she doesn’t recognize him. Instead, she mistakes him for the gardener. She comes out of her grief and despair enough to see what is right before her eyes when she responds to hearing the risen Jesus call her by name.

We can get so deeply into grief and despair that we miss signs of hope that are right in front of us. Just as the mismatch between the sorts of hopes and expectations Mary Magdalene had imagined and the reality of Jesus’ resurrection led her initially to fail to recognize the wonderful reality standing before her, the mismatch between our imagined expectations and a wonderful reality can keep us from recognizing that reality even when it is unfolding. Those of us who pay attention to the degradation of the earth and particularly to the discouraging math of global warming find ourselves at times grieving the plants, animals, eco-systems, and way of life we know and love that are beginning to disappear or change, and we can feel despair when we see the enormity of the challenges we face compared to the lack of political will to do enough soon enough to make much of a difference to a our future.

One of the many joys of Easter in our tradition is the restoration of the alleluias that disappear during the somber Lenten season. Some parishes do a sort of ceremony of burying the alleluias on Ash Wednesday to help children grasp something of our Lenten practices. When Lent ends, our alleluias at the fraction and at the dismissal bring notes of joy and hope and renewed energy that can remain with us as we go into the week to love and serve Christ.

Most of us experience the return of the alleluias as a welcome return to a spiritual norm of joy, while others, especially in times when we have faced a great loss or difficult challenges, when we are grieving or in despair, may find ourselves more in tune with the quieter but no less faithful wilderness walk of Lent. But Easter comes along whether or not we are ready for it, even when we are so deeply into grief or despair that we can’t imagine finding hope or joy again.

Yesterday evening I attended one of the planning meetings for people opposed to TransCanada being given a permit to build the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to transport Alberta tar sands through the central United States, including Nebraska, to Gulf Coast refineries. The purpose of these planning meetings is to help pipeline opponents be well-prepared to testify at the State Department hearings scheduled to be held at the Heartland Event Center in Grand Island on April 18.  The pipeline fighters face huge odds given the money and political power of the oil industry. It’s one of those daunting challenges that could make the alleluias ring hollow.

And yet when I listened to leaders from the Sierra Club and Bold Nebraska , and when I heard the discussion by those who plan to be at the hearings either to testify against the permit or to support those testifying against it, it felt like an alleluia response. We know that grassroots opposition to the pipeline has delayed its construction so far. We know that landowners, environmental activists, people of faith, and others will keep fighting the construction of this pipeline and the expanded mining of the Alberta tar sands. There is something very good and life-giving here.

Even if President Obama denies the permit to build this pipeline, the challenge of keeping greenhouse gas emissions to a level that gives us a chance of a sustainable future is a huge challenge. If our expectations and hopes are of a future that resembles today’s business as usual, we may not recognize whatever signs of a realistic hope we might encounter. That doesn’t mean that hope isn’t there; it doesn’t mean that grief and despair are the only valid responses to our situation.

When Bill McKibben’s Do the Math tour visited Omaha, he said that he became discouraged at first when people pointed out that he was involved in a David and Goliath situation, but then he remembered how that story ends. Easter tells us the end of the story, and it calls for an alleluia response.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

****

For another dose of hope, come to Nebraska Interfaith Power and Light's conference on religious environmental work next Saturday at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. The theme is Creation Care for Congregations. More information and online registration is available on the Nebraska IPL website.

Faith in Action: Comment on Keystone XL Pipeline

Tomorrow is Earth Day; in our liturgical calendar, today was the Fourth Sunday in Easter. In the Gospel reading for today (John 10:22-30), Jesus answers a question about whether he is the Messiah by pointing to his actions: “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me”. He goes on to talk about his followers, his “sheep”, those who know who he is. Jesus says his sheep hear his voice and follow him. Just as Jesus’ identity was revealed in his actions, our identities as Christ’s own are revealed in our actions, in our following him. Our actions are important.

Tomorrow is also the deadline for submitting comments to the State Department about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Many people testified in opposition to the pipeline before a State Department hearing in Grand Island on Thursday. Written comments are still being collected.

Bold Nebraska has a page devoted to collecting comments to send to the State Department; the page includes links to background resources to help find a focus for your statement and check the facts before writing, and also includes a form that makes it easy to submit a comment.

Anyone can submit a comment. Doing so would be a fine way to observe Earth Day, and doing so to defend the integrity of God’s creation and the welfare of God’s people is a fine way to put our faith into action.

My statement is centered on moral and spiritual issues; others are writing about particular concerns about the impacts on land, water, and agriculture, about landowners’ rights, and about other issues. Focus on whatever piece of this project strikes you the most. Here’s what I wrote:

Statement of Opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline
  

I’m a resident of Hastings, Nebraska and an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church serving as Deacon at St. Stephen’s Church in Grand Island, Nebraska, and as Archdeacon of the Diocese of Nebraska. My general area of ministry is environmental stewardship and how that connects with our spiritual and physical well-being. As the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere increases, the amount of Arctic sea ice decreases, and as we continue to extract more fossil fuels from the earth, my ministry focuses increasingly on the moral and spiritual aspects of the climate crisis caused by our ongoing use of fossil fuels. The effects of climate change, including droughts, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and melting permafrost all have ill effects on people, often on some of the poorest people in the world who can least stand these added stresses. These effects along with the disregard for the integrity of God’s creation bring this argument into the sphere of religion and ethics.
 

Our existential denial of global warming – accepting the science intellectually but going on with life as if climate change were not happening – is one of the puzzling responses that point to a spiritual danger.  If we know what causes global warming and what we need to do to mitigate its effects and how very soon we need to stop burning fossil fuels, how can we even entertain the thought of building something to enable the release of the amount of carbon in the Alberta tar sands? What does the fact that we are considering approving the project say about the state of our souls and the state of our national climate policy?  The very real effects of extracting, processing, and burning the tar sands on humans and on the ecosystems that sustain all life on this planet is reason enough to deny a permit for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
 

Reading the Environmental Impact Statement, I’m struck by a sense that this study was carried out in a state of existential denial about climate change and many other things. That there are real people living in Nebraska whose livelihoods depend on the integrity of the land and water that they have conserved and protected for generations because their lives depend on doing so seems to be another reality that is ignored. It’s as if the EIS were developed in a world where fossil fuels area the ultimate good, the only thing worth considering, while they are in fact the biggest threat to the future of humankind.
 

We are well aware that there are always people who will do just about anything – even sell their own souls – if they’re offered thirty pieces of silver, even if the offer of the silver turns out to be an empty promise. I’m proud to live in a state where our ranchers and farmers keep their priorities straight and stand up for the stewardship of our land and water that Nebraskans have practiced for generations. The land and water not only sustain our agricultural economy, but they ground us spiritually. The threat of this pipeline to our land and water is reason enough to deny a permit for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Even though people opposed to the pipeline talk about climate, the Ogallala aquifer, the fragile Nebraska Sandhills ecology, tribal rights, and the rights of landowners, when we talk about a project of this nature we are in the end talking about ultimate things. We usually look to theology to figure out what we believe about ultimate things, but when we consider projects that put profits and the possibility of some short-term gains for a few ahead of all else while pushing the agricultural economy of Nebraska and the survival of life as we have known it on this planet toward the brink of disaster, we can look at our political decisions to learn about our true beliefs about ultimate things. It comes down to a moral question, perhaps the most important moral question humankind has ever had to ask ourselves: Will we set aside business as usual and do all we can to mitigate the warming of our planet, or will we continue to act as if the will of the fossil fuel industry is the ultimate authority in our lives?
 

We have a choice to make between death and life. Deny this permit and choose life so that we and our descendants may live.


Respectfully submitted,

The Ven. Betsy Blake Bennett
Hastings, Nebraska

  

Easter Week: Mistaken Identity, Keystone XL Pipeline, and Alleluias

In the Gospel lesson for the Tuesday in Easter Week (John20:11-18), Mary Magdalene is so caught up in her grief over Jesus’ death and her despair over the disappearance of his body that when she turns around and sees Jesus, she doesn’t recognize him. Instead, she mistakes him for the gardener. She comes out of her grief and despair enough to see what is right before her eyes when she responds to hearing the risen Jesus call her by name.

We can get so deeply into grief and despair that we miss signs of hope that are right in front of us. Just as the mismatch between the sorts of hopes and expectations Mary Magdalene had imagined and the reality of Jesus’ resurrection led her initially to fail to recognize the wonderful reality standing before her, the mismatch between our imagined expectations and a wonderful reality can keep us from recognizing that reality even when it is unfolding. Those of us who pay attention to the degradation of the earth and particularly to the discouraging math of global warming find ourselves at times grieving the plants, animals, eco-systems, and way of life we know and love that are beginning to disappear or change, and we can feel despair when we see the enormity of the challenges we face compared to the lack of political will to do enough soon enough to make much of a difference to a our future.

One of the many joys of Easter in our tradition is the restoration of the alleluias that disappear during the somber Lenten season. Some parishes do a sort of ceremony of burying the alleluias on Ash Wednesday to help children grasp something of our Lenten practices. When Lent ends, our alleluias at the breaking of the bread in the Eucharist and at the dismissal bring notes of joy and hope and renewed energy that can remain with us as we go into the week to love and serve Christ.

Most of us experience the return of the alleluias as a welcome return to a spiritual norm of joy, while others, especially in times when we have faced a great loss or difficult challenges, when we are grieving or in despair, may find ourselves more in tune with the quieter but no less faithful wilderness walk of Lent. But Easter comes along whether or not we are ready for it, even when we are so deeply into grief or despair that we can’t imagine finding hope or joy again.

Yesterday evening I attended one of the planning meetings for people opposed to TransCanada being given a permit to build the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to transport Alberta tar sands through the central United States, including Nebraska, to Gulf Coast refineries. The purpose of these planning meetings is to help pipeline opponents be well-prepared to testify at the State Department hearings scheduled to be held at the Heartland Event Center in Grand Island on April 18.  The pipeline fighters face huge odds given the money and political power of the oil industry. It’s one of those daunting challenges that could make our alleluias ring hollow.

And yet when I listened to leaders from the Sierra Club and Bold Nebraska, and when I heard the discussion by those who plan to be at the hearings either to testify against the permit or to support those testifying against it, it felt like an alleluia response. We know that grassroots opposition to the pipeline has delayed its construction so far. We know that landowners, environmental activists, people of faith, and others will keep fighting the construction of this pipeline and the expanded mining of the Alberta tar sands. There is something very good and life-giving here.

Even if President Obama denies the permit to build this pipeline, the challenge of keeping greenhouse gas emissions to a level that gives us a chance of a sustainable future is a huge challenge. If our expectations and hopes are of a future that resembles today’s business as usual, we may not recognize whatever signs of a realistic hope we might encounter. That doesn't mean that hope isn't there; it doesn't mean that grief and despair are the only valid responses to our situation.

When Bill McKibben’s Do the Math tour visited Omaha, he said that he became discouraged at first when people pointed out that he was involved in a David and Goliath situation, but then he remembered how that story ends. Easter tells us the end of the bigger story, and it calls for an alleluia response.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

St. Stephen's Crane Celebration

Traditionally the Fourth Sunday in Lent has been a time to remember that the discipline and somber tone of Lent is in preparation for the joy of Easter. We call it Rose Sunday or Refreshment Sunday. A little over halfway through Lent, it’s a time to look through Lent to Easter. Once again this year, what has become an annual crane migration celebration at St. Stephen’s in Grand Island falls very appropriately on Rose Sunday.

A couple of days of predicted warmer weather before the weekend should bring more of the Sandhill cranes into our area by the weekend. St. Stephen’s worship on March 10 at 8:00 and 10:30 is planned to help us celebrate the wonder of the cranes’ return and to reflect on the spiritual meaning of this and other wonders as we prepare for Easter.

Sunday’s Gospel text (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) is the parable of the prodigal son. In this parable, the repentant prodigal son returns home, where his father welcomes him warmly and extravagantly simply because this is his long-lost son and he has come home. The parable illustrates God’s unconditional love for all of God’s children; simply because we are God’s children, God loves us and rejoices when we return to God.

The parent-child relationship is deeper and stronger than any circumstances or conditions that strain that relationship. The prodigal son’s father cares very much about this young man who has strayed, but has no special concern for other young men who bear no relationship to him. We care most for those with whom we have an established relationship. Going out and becoming acquainted with the world around us, including the birds migrating through the Platte valley in the spring, establishes a relationship between us and the land, water, plants, birds, and other animals in our ecosystem. As we spend more time outdoors, that relationship grows, and our care for the environment deepens. Since all of this is God’s creation, strengthening our relationship with the natural world around us also strengthens our relationship with God.

Weather permitting, the St. Stephen’s Green Team invites you to join them on Saturday evening, March 9, at the Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center (just south of the I-80 Alda interchange) at 5:00 for a guided footbridge tour to view the cranes on the Platte River at sunset. The tour is open and accessible to everyone ages 12 and up. People are free to leave the tour at any time, but cannot go back to the bridge once they have left. Cost is $15 plus tax. These tours fill up on weekends, so reservations should be made as soon as possible by calling 308-382-1820.  We will begin gathering at 4:00 for a short evening prayer service at the nature center, either outdoors on the patio area behind the building or indoors in their conference room.

Praying the News

February 16, 2013

In our prayers, we thank God for the wonders of creation, pray for those parts of creation that need repair and healing because of our carelessness, and ask for the wisdom, will, and courage to preserve and protect the biosphere that makes human life both possible and rich.

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect For the Conservation of Natural Resources (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 827)

Please pray for:

Relief from the ongoing drought on the Great Plains.  This week’s US Drought Monitor report shows some improvement in this part of the country, but as their map shows, most of Nebraska remains in extreme or exceptional drought conditions. Coupling prayers for seasonable weather with prayers of repentance for our part in creating the greater issue of climate change might help us find our way forward.

The Arctic sea ice and eyes to see and minds to understand the significance of the loss of ice. The UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) has confirmed earlier estimates of a collapse of the sea ice in the Arctic. Total sea ice volume in the Arctic is one-fifth what it was in 1980. Analyst Andy Lee Robinson has put the data in graphic form that shows the spiraling collapse of the sea ice:

From http://haveland.com/share/arctic-death-spiral-1979-201301.png

 People in Washington, DC, for Sunday’s Forward on Climate rally. Thousands of people are expected to rally in Washington tomorrow to ask President Obama to lead on addressing climate change, beginning with denying a permit to complete the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Several Nebraskans will be part of this, carrying with them our concerns about the this pipeline that would cross Nebraska. Pray for protection as they travel and rally, for peaceful hearts and effective voices, and for wise leadership from our President and other leaders; and offer prayers of thanksgiving for these people willing to speak with their voices and their presence at this gathering.

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer In Times of Conflict (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 824)

O God, our heavenly Father, you have blessed us and given us dominion over all the earth: Increase our reverence before the mystery of life; and give us new insight into your purposes for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in making provision for its future in accordance with your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer For the Future of the Human Race (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 828)

As we pray for others, we might also pray for our own hearts to be open so we can see the needs in the world around us and gladly respond to those needs:

O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty; Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for Joy in God’s Creation (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 814)

Advent 4: Magnificat

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:51-53)

The 4^th Sunday of Advent we remember Mary’s visit to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-55)  and the joyful Song of Mary, the Magnificat. Mary's song begins with praising God and talking about what God has done for her; the middle of the song describes God’s inversion of the economic and political order – casting down the mighty while lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry with good things while the rich are sent away empty -- and it ends with a reminder of God’s promise of mercy. It’s a song about God creating something that’s very new and yet grounded in God’s eternal care and love for God’s people.

The Magnificat has come to us through the centuries not only in Scripture but in beautiful choral settings. While an analysis of the song reveals these three parts, it has an integrity to it that suggests that we should be careful not to take one part of this passage without the others. We tend to focus on the relationship between Mary and God or on the fulfillment of the promise to Israel, but the inversion of the economic and political order will be omitted in the preaching or teaching in many churches tomorrow morning.

The effects of climate change are especially harsh for people in less wealthy developing countries. Perhaps tellingly as we speak reverently of Mary the mother, some studies say that climate change impacts differ by gender as well as by location; women in developing countries are especially vulnerable to these impacts. (See Impacts on Vulnerable Populations on the EPA webpage about international impacts and adaptation in reference to climate change.)

In Mary’s song, we hear her joyful faith in God’s mercy and in God’s love for those lacking power and privilege. People in developing countries suffer from climate change that results from greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries.  Where is our merciful and loving God when the needs of some of the poorest people in the world are sacrificed to the agendas of the rich and powerful? God’s promises endure; God calls us back again and again to live in harmony with God’s intentions for our world. There are people working hard to end this injustice and mitigate climate change to ensure a better future for all of us who share this planet. Activists are pushing for institutions to divest from the fossil fuel industry; others are working to stop the mining of tar sands and to prevent the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico; others continue to press our politicians to pass legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  God is working through these people and through all of us whose words and actions bring the needs of all people – and all species – to the attention of the rest of the world.

The November State of the Climate Report from NOAA is not encouraging. Among other things, there was this:

The 10 coolest Novembers on record all occurred prior to 1920. November 2012 also marks the 36^th consecutive November and 333rd consecutive month with global temperature higher than the long-term average. The last month with a below average temperature was February 1985, nearly 28 years ago.

 And even though it’s hard to imagine on this chilly weekend in Nebraska, 2012 is expected to end up as the warmest year ever recorded for the United States. 

None of this makes our efforts so far look successful, but then Mary’s baby in the manger didn't look like a king. God works with and through whatever is available. What is available to God are people – scientists, activists, people of faith – who are willing to look at the science of climate change, look at the people who are affected first and worst by climate change, and then do what we can to change things. Mary had no power or influence, and yet because of her faith, God was able to use Mary to change everything for all of us.

While this week’s blizzard made travel difficult and caused some hardship, the moisture is welcome and the beauty of snow-covered fields, especially in the sunny days since the blizzard, has given us an opportunity to renew our joy in God’s creation. Our souls might well magnify the Lord out of sheer joy!

This is the time for people of faith who find joy in God’s creation and comfort in God’s promises to listen carefully, watch carefully, and see where God is calling each of us to speak and act.

The Least of These and the Environment

“Not a secular fuss imported into the church”

Hurricane Sandy brought home to Americans the human suffering that often results from the kinds of extreme weather that are becoming more frequent – and more extreme – as climate change caused by global warming accelerates. This huge storm, of course, was not the first instance in 2012 of U.S. weather extremes affecting people’s lives in important ways. An active and destructive wildfire season impacted parts of Nebraska, and the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado destroyed 600 homes. A Midwestern drought also impacted much of Nebraska. This drought, the most extreme in 50 years, has caused a rise in food prices that is felt far beyond the Midwest. (See A year of extreme weather – and little climate change talk   from The Washington Post.)

Around the world, the personal and economic consequences of climate change impact people. Those who already know that lack of food or clean water can threaten their security now face additional burdens as a result of floods, droughts, or storm damage. Haiti, for example, was not directly hit by Hurricane Sandy, but Sandy’s heavy rains resulted in at least 52 deaths and destroyed crops. (See Yet Another Blow to Haiti from A Natural Disaster .) 

Both a forum at the recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Auckland, New Zealand, and a resolution from our own recent Annual Council speak to the moral imperative for the church to do more to address environmental degradation and to lead in environmental stewardship.

Archbishop Rowan Williams chaired a public forum about environmental change at the ACC meeting. (The story from the Anglican Communion News Service – worth reading in its entirety -- is available here.)   The Archbishop said that “running out of a world to live in is a mark of our unfaithfulness”, and made it clear that environmental issues are moral issues for Christians, and not “a secular fuss imported into the church”. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Southern Africa said “This is not a social problem, it is not an economic problem, it is not an environmental problem, it is a moral problem and it needs a moral response.” 

Something else Archbishop Thabo said resonates with the resolution entitled The Least of These that we passed at our Annual Council. This is the resolution that asks all committees, commissions, and parishes to prayerfully include as part of every meeting in calendar year 2013 the following agenda item: “How will what we are doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?” Our impact on the environment needs to be included in our reflections on this question.

Thinking about environmental change and the underlying issues of water, food, and energy, Archbishop Thabo asked a similar set of questions around what we do in the Eucharist. According to the report, he asked:

“When you are receiving Communion, have you stopped to think about the water that we use to mix with the wine? Where has it come from? How clean is that water? Have you stopped to think about...those who do not have access to basic and of the resultant illnesses that go with poor sanitation and water? When you receive...wafers, have you spared a thought for those who do not have food?

“During the service, out of the small chalice, you are all able to share. Have you not thought that you could replicate that, that there is a plenty in the world and no need for others to suffer?”

Children, Melting Ice, Fires, and More

August

Platte R. near Grand Island 8/9/2012

At St. Stephen’s in Grand Island, August began with a one-day Vacation Bible School with the theme “Recycling God’s Love”. With Psalm 24:1 – “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein” -- as our organizing Bible verse, we talked about the responsibility we have as God’s children to care for the earth and all the gifts God has given us. Our music director, Dan Korensky, wrote an energetic song for us based on the verse. Dan’s help was enlisted by his wife, Brittany Korensky, who took charge of VBS this year with help from other Christian education volunteers and the parish Green Team.

We talked about what happens to things we throw "away" and what happens to things we recycle, and we did “audit” of the waste from St. Stephen’s church and community center, separating out the recyclables that had found their way into the trash.

Gathering in small groups, the children wrote or drew the things in creation for which they are thankful. We gathered these together in a paper “quilt”, and Fr. Peek gathered their responses into a psalm to use in worship Sunday morning.

After lunch and games, the children used paper from discarded magazines and newspapers to make two collages. The results were stunning!

It was a good way to start a month that brought news of Hurricane Isaac, record temperatures, floods, melting Arctic sea ice, and more, and that is ending here in Nebraska with fires in the western part of the state. (See more information about the fires from the Lincoln Journal Star and KQSK radio  in Chadron.)

On August 20, the American Meteorological Association released an information statement about climate change. The concluding portion of the statement says:

There is unequivocal evidence that Earth’s lower atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are warming; sea level is rising; and snow cover, mountain glaciers, and Arctic sea ice are shrinking. The dominant cause of the warming since the 1950s is human activities… Prudence dictates extreme care in accounting for our relationship with the only planet known to be capable of sustaining human life.

On August 26 the extent of the Arctic sea ice fell below the record for minimum ice cover that was set in 2007. (See this from the NASA Earth Observatory.) Along with giving clear evidence of warming, affecting life for plants, animals, and humans in the Arctic, and opening more open water to absorb sunlight and accelerate the warming cycle, there are effects on the stability of the climate for the entire planet that are of grave concern. (See Why the Arctic Sea Ice Death Spiral Matters  by Joe Romm.)

Some parishes do a blessing of the backpacks (and of the children who carry them) at the beginning of the school year. We send children off to school hoping that they will learn and grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually, hoping they will grow to have meaningful and productive lives. We assume that they will experience many of the pleasures as adults as we do in Nebraska today: comfortable homes, access to clean water and adequate food, stable governments and institutions. So much of what we hope for our children depends on a stable climate!

Jesus taught us that children are important. Jesus loved the children, and we say we do, too. Talking about climate change, learning all we can about it, and making it an important issue in our common life is a way to truly love the children in our lives and around the world.

St. James, Scallops, and Drought

The church today celebrates the Feast of Saint James. It’s perhaps fitting that as we observe the feast day of one of the two brothers that Jesus called “Boanerges” or “Sons of Thunder”, we have a chance for thunderstorms in parts of Nebraska that are sorely in need of rain and cooler temperatures.

The scallop shell is the traditional symbol for St. James. A Google search for “scallop shell, St James”   yields more than one explanation for the association of this shell with St James. There are some fine legends behind these explanations; some involve knights and/or their horses falling into water, being fished out, and then being seen to be covered in mollusks. Whatever the historical reason for the adoption of the scallop shell as the symbol for St. James, one delicious result has been a tradition of eating Coquilles St. Jacques (St. James Scallops) on the day.

We know now that shellfish of all kinds are endangered by ocean acidification. Ocean acidification and global warming are related; both are caused by an excess of carbon in the atmosphere, and both could be mitigated by controlling carbon emissions.  The ocean serves as a carbon sink; this helps make the effects of high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere milder than they would be otherwise, but it also means that the ocean has absorbed a considerable amount of carbon, leading to a less alkaline ocean. (A recent Scientific American blog guest post – The Flames of Ocean Acidification by Matthew Huelsenbeck  -- explains some of the latest findings.) Some call what’s happening in the oceans “the osteoporosis of the sea” because of the effect of this change of chemistry on the shells of all sorts of mollusks.  When scallops and other shellfish lose the protection of their hard shells, they cannot survive.

The shellfish in the sea and the plants, animals, and people suffering from the heat and drought in Nebraska are connected as all living things are connected. It’s no surprise, then, that carbon emissions that harm one also harm another. This summer’s high heat and drought conditions have helped many people finally see the connections among climate change, greenhouse gases, and hardship for living things. As we wake up to what is happening, we might take a cue from the Sons of Thunder and make sure our leaders hear us when we ask for action that would ensure a more stable climate. And maybe, if we make deep changes soon enough, there might still be Coquilles St. Jacques for someone to eat some July 25 in the next century.

Shade and Shelter

Settlers on the Great Plains had a special appreciation for trees, planting and caring for them so generations to come might enjoy them and have the benefits of shelter from the wind and sun, fruits and nuts, and beauty through the changing seasons. With our tradition of tree-planting in Nebraska, today's meditation (May 23) in Forward Day by Day may be especially meaningful to us. 

The author is writing on Isaiah 4:2-6:  "[The canopy] will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain." She writes about the canopies of trees and some of the reasons we should care for trees, suggesting that they have such importance for us that they should take precedence over some other things that more often than not get our attention and our resources:

As we move to include stewardship of the earth and its resources as a mission of the church, we must begin by listening to the voices of the trees and the whisper of the leaves, and not to the voices of the corporations whose only goal is to grow their wealth.

Read the entire meditation here ; follow links for May 23 if necessary. And say a prayer of thanksgiving for a favorite tree!

Reclaiming Rogation: Day I

The Rogation Days – traditionally the three days preceding Ascension Day – are a time for prayers of petition. The roots of these days in rural England is reflected in the timing of the days to coincide with the planting of crops in that part of the world, in prayers for the land and crops, and in the tradition of Rogation processions to bless the fields. In our current prayer book, readings and collects for the three days focus on these traditional rural concerns the first day, commerce and industry the second day, and stewardship of creation the third day.

Even though Rogation Days are ignored by many in the church today, we are blessed to have inherited the tradition of setting aside days to pray for the conditions we need to grow good crops, for industries and commercial ventures that are responsive to God’s will and that provide workers a just return for their labor, and for stewardship of creation. Rogation Sunday – the Sunday before Ascension Day – and the Rogation Days can be more than a wistful nod back to a charming tradition. This season of Rogation can be reclaimed to give us a time to talk about, think about, and pray about some vital issues.

Day I

The Collect for today, the first of the Rogation Days, is entitled “For fruitful seasons”. This Collect and the readings for today focus on a petition for harvests “of the land and of the seas” and the conditions necessary for sustaining good harvests.  This is something we understand in Nebraska, where our economy is based on agriculture! Climate stability, clean and plentiful water in our rivers, creeks, and aquifer, and soil conservation are all part of what we pray for when we pray for good growing conditions.

In one of the options for the Old Testament lesson for this Rogation Day (Jeremiah 14:1-9), Jeremiah describes the effects of a severe drought. The drought affects people – “the farmers are dismayed” – and wildlife – “Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn because there is no grass.” The passage ends with a plea for God’s help and a reminder of God’s presence. In a similar way, the passage from Romans (Romans 8:18-25) talks about living in hope while "the whole creation" is groaning. Paul reminds the Romans that hope is hope only when we can’t see the very thing for which we are hoping: “Now hope that is seen is not hope.”

In a time when severe weather events have been increasing, when the amount of greenhouse gases associated with climate change is increasing, and when the aggressive extraction of fossil fuels threatens not only our water and the Sandhills eco-system in Nebraska, but also water, land, and air quality in many places, these passages can remind us that we can live in hope even when the chances of turning things around seem to be slim.    

For fruitful seasons

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, pp. 258-259)      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Tar Sands: The View from Canada

I've just returned from a few days in Vancouver, British Columbia, where our son was participating in a conference. On Sunday, we visited Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. Among the many exciting and inspiring things going on there was an announcement from The Environmental Group. They were inviting parishioners to join them for a “Compassion for Creation” discussion following a showing of a video from TEDxVictoria (November 19, 2011) by photographer Garth Lenz on the tar sands. 

The video contrasts the beauty and value of the boreal forest ecosystem with photos of the tar sands mining project and the threat it poses to the ecosystem and to the value that Canadians have traditionally placed on the forest and the people, plants, and animals that call it home. Garth Lenz says that the tar sands project represents “the antithesis” of these values.

As Nebraskans, our greatest concern about the tar sands mines has been the possibility of the Keystone XL pipeline coming through our Sandhills region and endangering our land and water. This video talks about that pipeline crossing this rich agricultural region as one of many concerns about plans to continue increasing the mining of the tar sands and production of oil from the bitumen. Because of the way oil is produced from tar sands, use of this oil results in more greenhouse gas emissions than those from any other source of oil.

It’s good to know that our Anglican sisters and brothers in Canada are also concerned about the tar sands, and it’s good for us in Nebraska to know that the effects of this project go way beyond the concerns we have about the proposed pipeline crossing particular parts of our state. Whatever route is proposed next, the environmental costs of tar sands oil are too great.

Garth Lenz talks about the effects of tar sands mining experienced by people living downstream from this area, then adds: “We all live ‘downstream’ in the era of global warming and climate change.” Please watch the video of his talk and pray that all of us might hear what God is calling us to do. 

Mother Nature and Her Groundhogs

Feast of the Presentation

Depending on your viewpoint, February 2 is Groundhog Day, the Feast of the Presentation, Candlemas (for those preferring the old name for the Feast of the Presentation), or some combination thereof.  Of Americans who know February 2 is some sort of special day, probably more people are familiar with the secular Groundhog Day than with the liturgical day. (See Feb 2 2011 post Candlemas Light  for more about the Feast of the Presentation.)

Groundhog Day is when “the groundhog” – traditionally any old woodchuck, real or imagined, that happened to poke its head out, but increasingly taken to mean a specific groundhog kept in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania – looks out after a long winter’s sleep. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it goes back in for six more weeks of winter; if it doesn’t see its shadow, it sticks around for an early spring. It’s the sort of folk observance that can be fun; it’s only when people take it as seriously predictive that it stops being fun.

Sandhill Cranes, Hall County, January 2012

We have a winter storm on the way this week, but so far this winter has been mild, with some temperatures above average and precipitation below average. While we have been experiencing our pleasantly abnormal weather, other places have experienced unusual weather patterns that resulted in the sorts of severe weather and floods we might expect in spring rather than winter. If we do have a mild end to winter – an early spring – we would do well to look for causes other than a woodchuck afraid of its shadow.

It’s common for weathercasters and the rest of us to talk about Mother Nature controlling the weather. No doubt someone this evening is saying, “Mother Nature has some winter weather in store for us”. The personification of natural forces in Mother Nature goes back to ancient times and its part of our language, but we know that changes in weather have causes other than the whims of an unseen woman. We run into problems when people stop at the playful explanation and lose interest in reality.

The Gospel reading for the Daily Office on the Feast of the Presentation is John 8:31-36: “…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The reference to the truth in this passage is to the essential, saving truth in Christ’s word. The Greek word translated as truth is the negative noun form of a word meaning to keep hidden or secret, to lie. Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus, using the same word, says, “I am the truth”. Christ is the personification of truth; belief in Christ and belief in truth are bound together.

The future of humankind might very well rest on our paying serious attention to things like the extremes that have been so apparent the past several months. (See for example NOAA: 2011 a year of climate extremes in the United States.) Most climate scientists think that there is a connection between climate change and these extreme events; the question is the degree to which climate change is involved. If that’s the case, then our weather will become increasingly extreme.

We will be in much better shape to respond to what is happening and to take care of ourselves and our global neighbors if we quit hiding the truth behind Mother Nature’s skirts and bring ourselves to look at reality.