Earth Day 1990 — 22 April 1990
Malibu United Methodist Church
Rev. Larry J. Peacock
Earth-Keeping: More Than Tears
Psalm 24; Jeremiah 17:5-9; Matthew 23:37-3
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Morton Stoddard looked at the forsaken Nashua River near his home at Groton, MA, and said: "It's too thick to pour and too thin to plow." A poetically painful comment —and all too frequently true—we have polluted and abused this precious gift of Creation.
I find the tears come to the corners of my eyes easily. Easter sunrise on Zuma Beach, I spent the first five minutes picking up trash. I'm glad it was rather dark so that I couldn't see the extent of the litter. But I can see the statistics:
Each person creates 3.5 lb of garbage a day —1300 lb a year. Every year, 16 billion disposable diapers are tossed, as are 1.6 billion pens and 500 million disposable cigarette lighters. Of the 6000 landfills still open, 1/3 will be full within 5 years.
Tropical forests—home of half of the Earth's animal species and plants—are being destroyed at the rate of 1 football field a second.
The ozone layer which protects life on Earth from the sun's harmful, ultraviolet rays has decreased by 3-4% in the last 20 years, causing a rise in skin cancer.
With the approach of Earth Day, the information about our environmental problems is growing. It's easy to become overwhelmed and depressed—we can't drink our water, or eat fish caught off our shores, and driving to LA we see the smog layer, turning our stomach. What have we done to the Earth? Feel like Jesus in pain over Jerusalem and shedding tears for the Creation.
More than tears are needed. Most of the books and articles appearing suggest that we turn from tears to action. One of the most popular titles in bookstores is 50 Simple Things Your Can Do to Save the Earth, a marvelous collection well worth your time. But something is missing from much of the literature. It's the sense that the writer expressed in the 24th Psalm: The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and Those who dwell therein.
Taking care of the Earth is not only reasonable and in our own self-interest, it's also a way of worship. We believe that Creation doesn't exist separately from the Creator. This is God's world, God's handiwork. This "sparkling white and green jewel," as one astronaut put it, belongs to God. It's one of the gifts of the Creator, and as we nurture, tend and care for the gift of the world, we come in contact with the Creator, we are drawn close like a tree planted near the water.
Joseph Sittler, Lutheran theologian and preacher, puts it graphically, "Reason says that destroying the clean air is impractical; faith ought to tell us that it is blasphemous." We insult the Creator by abusing the Creation that was given to us to be good stewards of. Much damage has been done by people who have used the text in Genesis to "have dominion over, and subdue the earth" to give a blessing to the rape and destruction of the environment.
The Church needs to take a stand in the ecological parade and say that we do so, because it's in God's world, and as we preserve and care for this Creation, we discover the hand of the Creator—the tall eucalyptus, the delicate tulip, the pounding surf.
So, on this Earth Day I encourage you first to have Reverence. This is God's world. As Chief Seattle remarked, The Earth is sacred. the air is precious, the wind is the breath of life, the Earth is precious." And as the Psalmist says, "you gave all breath, they are created. We belong.
After the reverence, then come the tears. To feel the pain and hurt we have caused the Earth. We must let our eyes be offended by the litter on the side of the road, and our tongues be disgusted by the non-taste of the tomatoes. The tears are a sign that we care about the trees, the plants and the animals.
First, the reverence, second the tears—then comes com- passionate action. Two broad suggestions for us: First, find ways to touch the Earth...
This week we took the Bible Kids on a field trip to Decker Lake—our annual "sketching wildflowers" trip. This time it was different. We walked on the lake bottom and picked up fish bones—stunning visual grasp of the drought condition. Then we went to sketch the wild flowers. I got caught up in seeing, really seeing, a flower and trying to make pencil marks elicit beauty. We need more experience where we get our fingers dirty, where we walk slowly enough to see Carrie in A Trip to Bountiful—"If I could just get my fingers back in the soil, I bet I'd live to be 100." The Rev. Lois McAfee reflects:
It's been a long time since I was in contact with the earth. I head down the path to a place of Sabbath rest. The Earth greets the prodigal daughter and yields its beauty to my gradually reopening eyes. Mother Earth, it sounds presumptuous. I would like to help you with your healing, to accompany you and really see you. May I put my hand on you? I can't discern your answer, so will risk a trespass, I move to the ground. My hand comes down like acupressure applied to bleeding. I commit not to lift my hand. Palm presses pine needles, the Earth blanketed underneath. It does not protest... Mother/Father God, how do you take a Sabbath rest, when your Earth is hurting? Maybe you and Earth have an agreement—you carry her for six days, and she carries you for the seventh. For eons. It must be that love has the strength to stay when the novelty wears off...Will you carry any memory of my touching you?—Imprinted on my memory is your counterpressure against mine.
Touching the sacred Earth might just lead us to a step to preserve the beauty—recycling paper and cans, writing a letter to save the rain forest, using natural cleaners, avoiding disposables, joining Heal the Bay or Action for Safe Food. After the novelty is gone from Earth Day, we need to incorporate new ways of living into our life style.
The second act of connection is to care for our bodies... Last spring I went for four days of retreat in Alabama. Tried to take a walk if not raining. One morning I noticed the trash—pop cans, McDonald's wrappers, cigarette packages and butts. Struck me that the lack of care we give to our bodies is connected to the lack of care we give to the Earth. We ingest junk in our bodies, we throw wrappers on the ground. Both are acts of mindless dumping. So perhaps an ecological step for us is to put good food into our bodies, good sights and sounds into our minds and hearts. Greasy fries and mutant Ninja turtles are polluting our inner worlds. Junk food, junk TV and computer games perpetuate junking the Earth.
Thanks to Earth Day for sending us to our Biblical roots! This world is God's, and while we shed tears for the hurt, we try to live as good Earth-keepers beyond tears and to make our lives pleasing to God and good for the Earth.