The Creation Season, 2024
Today is the last Sunday of our 2024 Creation Season. The Creation Season which first began in 2023, is still new to the Episcopal Church. The standard lectionary did not change, so it is interesting to consider how our readings for the month, many of which have been about women, may help us in our efforts to be more aware of Creation and better able to understand, care for, and protect it. As we begin our reflections this morning on Creation, I want to draw on this past month’s Old Testament lessons about women, along with the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading.
Two weeks ago, we read about Wisdom in the book of Proverbs. In Solomon’s Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as a woman and a prophetess. Not only does Wisdom bring life, riches, and honors to those who listen to her and follow her advice, but as Solomon’s proverb explains, Wisdom was with the Lord from the very beginning of time and had a role in the Creation Story. “The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens, by knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds drop down the dew.” Solomon’s words suggest that Wisdom, who has been with God since the beginning of time, was a co-creator with God. In Proverbs, the themes in the Wisdom narrative compare the Creation Story with a birth story; the birth of the earth, a born and living being. Creation is not an object to be bought and sold, and not a slave to do our bidding, but a living being to be loved and cared for. A living being that gives so much of itself for our care.
Being a prophet is very difficult. People do not usually want to hear what the prophet is saying because the truth is inconvenient, change is hard, and, besides, look how great we are doing.
Surely, times are not as frightening as the prophets warn. Wisdom complains, “I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded; you have ignored all my counsel.” Wisdom observes that people hate knowledge, so she warns them. “Waywardness kills the simple and the complacency of fools destroys them.” Being an environmentalist in our world is a bit like being a prophet. No one wants to hear their messages of doom and gloom.
You may already know that I have been part of a community of environmentalists my entire life. Growing up, I was taught by my grandfather and my father to observe, learn about, and care for God’s gift of creation. In their minds, Creation was a precious and delicate system that gave us life and deserved to be protected for the good of Creation, as well as for the good of humans. Unfortunately, their values of appreciation and conservation were kicked to the curb in my lifetime, which saw the mass development of industry, the advent of huge corporate farms and technological farming techniques, along with the conversion of millions of acres of wildlands into residential and commercial developments. Environmentalists watched as Creation was attacked and destroyed from all sides. Our air, land, and waters were polluted by toxic chemicals and plastics; poisons that will never go away because, on our little planet, there is no away. The Earth’s habitat was systematically and intentionally conquered and destroyed, leading to the decline of animals, birds, sea creatures, and reptiles; creatures that will never come back.
In Proverbs, Wisdom is so disgusted with the fools who hate her knowledge, she claims she will laugh at our calamities when they come and mock us as panic, distress and anguish come upon us. Today, environmentalists are observing the destruction they have warned us about for decades. Indeed, the very things we worried about 50 years ago are actually happening today.
Sadly, no one is laughing.
Which brings us to the words of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel today. Jesus shares a harsh message. “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” His message becomes gruesome. No one wants to hear that we must cut off our limbs and maim ourselves, should we be tempted to sin. However, the harsh advice Jesus shares may actually be the best way to think about the kinds of changes we must make if we have any hope at all of bringing Creation back from the brink of destruction.
Although Jesus is focused on human issues and never mentions our responsibility to care for God’s Creation, his words this morning provide a relevant, though difficult, perspective to consider as we reflect on Creation. As we engage in this discussion, it is important to hold fast to the faith that Creation will live on, despite what we do to it. The issue we are dealing with here is whether we, as a human species, will still be able to live on the planet after we have messed it up so badly. Many of us sitting here this morning will be leaving Earth in the next decade or two, so the destruction we are seeing will not, necessarily, harm our own generation.
It is the future generations, our grandchildren, who will pay the cost of our crimes against nature. We really are putting huge stumbling blocks before our own little ones. I want to share a couple of examples of current practices that are so terrible, we probably do need to cut them out of our world.
We have fallen in love with plastics and we use them for everything from food storage, to clothing, to personal care products, then we throw them “away” into landfills, where they break down slowly — so slowly — leaching microplastics into our soil and water and into the bodies of animals and humans. Tests reveal that microplastics exist in most of us and we are just starting to learn how our bodies will react to this alien substance floating around in our blood stream. Plastics need to be eliminated from our world, but the loss of plastic will hurt.
The women of St. Hugh, with their efforts to eliminate the use of plastics here at church, have shown us how difficult it can be to change. They have committed to eliminating the plastic wrap we used to use to wrap up the delicious baked goods we sell at our sales. They have purchased a new dishwasher and taught folks how to use it in their efforts to eliminate our use of plastic plates and utensils. The change has not been easy. Alternative products have been challenging to find and are more expensive. Honestly, I imagine the volunteers who manage our dishwasher do not really enjoy staying after church events to wash our dishes, but they have made the commitment and are dealing with the changes.
Another example, even more complicated than plastic, involves chemicals and reproduction. (Sounds fun, right?) In the past one hundred years, we have put chemicals to work in all kinds of new and innovative ways and have used chemicals to improve our living conditions. Around the world, we have been using chemicals to grow more and better food. We have created chemicals to stimulate growth in plants and animals, to confuse and stop pests from breeding, and to preserve our food. These chemicals were designed to alter reproduction systems. At first, the amounts of these chemicals were miniscule, and so were their impacts. But, decades later, the amounts have become significant. What happens when these chemicals enter our human blood streams and the developing bodies of babies?
We now have tests that allow us to identify and measure the heavy metals in our bodies and begin to trace the impacts on our health. The findings are terrifying. Most of us now have higher concentrations of these chemicals in our bodies than ever before. Studies are showing that young women around the world are entering into puberty earlier in age, while young men are showing decreased levels of sperm counts. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting the “Trans” movement in youth is complicated by the possibility of biological reactions to the chemicals being introduced in their bodies. Young people are experiencing higher cancer rates at younger ages than any generation before them. This is exactly what the chemicals were designed to do in plants. Unfortunately, we did not consider the fact that the accumulation of chemicals in water and food systems would enter our bodies and create problems for humans.
The youth of our world are already living the effects of our chemical experiments. We have laid stumbling blocks in front of our little ones. Now that we know the devastating impacts of some of the chemicals we are using, we need to eliminate the use of those chemicals. Given the widely pervasive and popular use of chemicals in our world, it will be difficult to cut them out of our lives. It will be painful, but cut, we must.
This week, we read the story of the wise and courageous Queen Esther and how she saved the Israelites from being hunted down and killed. Last week, we read about the capable wife in the last verses in Proverbs. So, what do these stories tell us about our role in caring for and protecting Creation? Queen Esther shows us how we must ask, listen, and learn about injustices, change our own behavior so we do no harm, and have the courage to talk with those who can help us make a difference.
It might be interesting to ask that capable wife from Proverbs what her approach to Creation care would be. Perhaps she might tell us how “she does good, and not harm,” by anticipating what resources are needed to produce a product, considering the quality of the goods she seeks, and intentionally investing in safe products and healthy people. According to Proverbs, by turning away from the deceits of charm and the vanity of beauty, the capable wife uses wisdom and focuses on excellence, kindness, and dignity. Based on this description, it sounds like the capable wife is an informed consumer, which is exactly what we need to become.
As consumers in our world, we are often treated as though we were mindless, thoughtless, and greedy; people to be marketed to, but insulated from the complexities and harsh realities of ingredients and production processes. Yet, as consumers, we may be the only ones who can actually demand and achieve change. Our part can be the fun part. Once we do the research, we get to go shopping, demand with our dollar, and tell our friends. Wisdom stretches out her hand to us. We have access to knowledge. We are learning how our choices impact God’s Creation, including the people we share Creation with. Our efforts to change will require wisdom, courage, dedication, and many prayers.
The theme for the 2024 Season of Creation is “to hope and act with Creation.” Together we pray: Lord, let us be a source of hope and action for the little ones we share Creation with.