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    Apr 17, 2016

    Environmental Justice

    Environmental Justice

    Passage: Luke 12:13-21

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: The Earth Is the Lord's

    Category: Environmental Stewardship

    Keywords: climate, environment, justice, poverty

    Environmental justice is a theological and biblical issue. Our use and abuse of the environment is part of a delicate system that provides food, water, and air for the human family. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, and Paul makes clear that we do not live to ourselves but as part of the Body. To live as Christ’s Body, we carry the responsibility to care for our neighbors by caring for the “home” that belongs to us all.

    I wonder if the guy in that parable was completely and totally oblivious?  He had a great crop and nowhere to put it, so he figured he needed to build bigger barns.  Could be a reasonable decision.  Can’t leave it out to ruin in the rain and heat.  And then there’s the livestock – don’t want them to gorge themselves.       

    But with a biblical story, there’s always context – right?  So what’s this parable really about?

    Oh, he was greedy all right.  He was also self-centered – and oblivious.  Oblivious to the needs of others.  Oblivious to how his behavior would affect others. 

    One of the publications for this year’s curriculum published by The Women’s Division of the United Methodist Church is Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action.  And a theme that runs through that study is how those of us who live in the US participate in systems that have a harmful effect on the Earth and also on people in other parts of the world – often people who are already vulnerable to the vagaries of job insecurity, food insecurity, even water insecurity. 

    Rev. Dottie Yunger, one of the pastors at the Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Washington, points to the first of John Wesley’s Three Simple Rules (as described by the late Bishop Rueben Job):  Do no harm.  She says: 

    It is important to note that Wesley’s examples about doing no harm aren’t only about avoiding harming others or ourselves, they are also ab out not participating in systems that harm others.

    She then notes that it is almost impossible for those of us living in the highly developed nations of the world to completely avoid doing harm.  She points out that Rev. Dean Snyder, now-retired and a good friend of mine, tried living those 3 rules as he preached a series on them.  Dean wondered aloud in one of his sermons if it is possible to live in America and to do no harm to creation. [1]

    Environmental scientists have been telling us for decades that our behavior and awareness matter.  We know that there are changes in climate.  We know that the seas are rising.  But do we realize the impact that these phenomena have on those who live with the greatest vulnerability?  That’s where environmental justice or climate justice comes in.

    So, let’s spend just a couple of minutes checking what we know about just one environmental issue:  rising sea levels.  NASA put a little quiz on its website, and we’re going to take the quiz together.  Ready?

    [On Sunday, we took this quiz as a congregation.  You may find the quiz at this URL:  http://climate.nasa.gov/quizzes/sea-level-quiz/]   

    People who live “downstream” from us and other developed countries are at much more risk from the effects of climate change.  I mentioned to Mark that I had heard a frightening piece on NPR about how many island nations are already feeling serious effects – such as disruption to their primary industry of fishing as well as disappearing land, so much so that island dwellers have had to move as their island homes are swallowed by the sea.  Island nations, yes, Mark said.  And then he said, and then there’s the Chesapeake Bay.  Islands are disappearing from Bay.  Fishing and crabbing have been disrupted – some years to the extent that there have been restrictions on what fish can be kept.

    The economic results are devastating.  In the book I referenced above, Norma Dollaga wrote this: 

    It is not common knowledge that it is actually the poor who pay the highest price for the environmental destruction, though they are not the main violators of ecological laws.  She quotes Paul Quintos:

    The poorest people in the poorest countries who contributed least to climate change are also the first and foremost affect by it.  While world leaders are haggling over emission reductions and who will pay for the mitigation and adaptation, millions of the world’s poorest populations are daily suffering the consequences of climate change – extreme weather events that destroy crops, livestock and homes, more frequent and prolonged droughts and floods, loss of freshwater supply, increase in pathogens, destruction of marine and coastal resources, ancestral land, food and water insecurity, energy insecurity, and so on.[2]

    Our VIM teams have seen the devastation wrought by monster hurricanes.  I am deeply grateful for the work of volunteers – and have worked on teams myself – to repair the damage.  But here’s the thing.  We need to also be working together effect the changes in policy as well as on reducing our own harmful participation in the systems that contribute to the causes of climate change and environmental disaster.

    I want to be really clear about something today.  This is a theological and biblical issue.  It is about being the Body of Christ.  In the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians we find these familiar words:

    God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

    Jesus calls us to unity as the Body of Christ – to care for one another – to love our neighbors.  At this time in the life of the human family, there is no more significant way for us to love our neighbors than to care for the Earth that feeds us all and supports every human life.

    How will you love your neighbor?  The ones you can’t see but are affected by our behaviors – oblivious or intentional.  There are so many ways that we can act.  There are several possibilities in this week’s study/devotional guide, some from the UMW and some from the Earth Day organization.  Whatever you do, love your neighbor!

    [1] Quotes in this message are from Pat Watkins, Editor, Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action. Copyright © 2016 United Methodist Women.  All rights reserved.  Pages 46-47.

    [2] Ibid., page 60.