St. Alban’s Year A Pentecost 6 July 17, 2022 – Deacon Craig Foster
The end has come upon my Israel;
I will never again pass them by.
This message from today’s reading of Amos is a dire one for Israel at that time. The shepherd and fig farmer was called by God to warn the people of Israel. Today we hear of the wealthy:
Trampling the needy;
Ruining the poor;
Going through the motions of the Sabbath and other religious rituals waiting to go back to the market and make a deceitful profit
While buying the poor cheaply and enslaving them.
The crimes of Israel are described throughout this book of the Old Testament, and today we also hear of the consequences:
The End is coming
The dead bodies will be many
The land will tremble and all who live on it will mourn.
The prophecy of Amos came at a time when Israel was at the peak of her territorial expansion. The country and the surrounding countries were prosperous, and many thought that God was smiling on Israel until Amos came along. He did not make friends with his harsh words. The leaders of the temple expelled Amos from the sanctuary and instructed him to stop preaching. He returned to his village and wrote down what God had shown him.
Amos lived about 2,800 years ago and was really the first prophet to claim God as universal, and God was more focused on moral purity and social justice than rituals and sacrifices. Many prophets have carried a similar message calling for purity and justice and not just rituals and sacrifices, including Jesus.
Can you think of any contemporary messengers similar to Amos?
Well, I am sure some come to mind, but I heard a similar message just this week. However, it was not from an iterant farmer from outside the main establishment. It was from our own House of Bishops. As you may know, The Episcopal Church General Convention concluded last week after only three days. This triennial meeting was delayed from last year due to COVID and shortened from its normal 10-14 day length. Most of the work on resolutions was focused on the business side of the church with very little policy work. However, the House of Bishops, at the very end of the convention did issue a ”Mind of the House” statement on Climate and Our Vocation in Christ.
Frankly, I found this statement so well written, that I considered reading all 1,000 words from the podium, but that would not leave much time to talk about our local condition.
I will quote or paraphrase some of the statements, and I encourage you to read the whole text. You can find it at the end of this sermon.
Early on, the statement says”
“We depend on God’s creation to sustain our life together, and by serving as good stewards of creation, we reflect God’s tender love for all that has been made. In caring for our earth, we return our love to God. This is our first vocation, made explicit in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible: together with God, together with one another, we care for God’s world.
We are only fully human and fully alive when we are in right relationship with the whole created order. Apart from each other and nature, we are not our whole selves. It is no surprise that once Adam and Eve surrendered to temptation and sought to grasp divine knowledge, to idolize and center the self over all else, that the whole creation began to suffer, and humanity along with it. Sin flowed forth in estrangement, exile, and eventually violence and death.
This ancient pattern of separation and sin is ours today. We crave and hoard what we do not need. We take and grasp what does not belong to us. We burden and dominate what was meant to be free. As a result, the planet and our most vulnerable neighbors suffer. This flows from our failure as human beings to live as the people made in image of God, bearing the sacred responsibility entrusted to us.”
Does that sound like an indictment of human society similar to what Amos had to say? I think so. So many of the problems we face today are linked to the impact of human-caused climate change. There is increased poverty and suffering, forced migration, and war related to the effects of climate change.
And much like Amos’s prophecy, our continuing to allow climate change to progress will have even more dire circumstances than we are currently seeing. The good news 2,800 years after Amos is that we are not bound to a wrathful God. Our God, in God’s own love, wisdom, and grace sent God’s son to dwell among us. Jesus came to live our life, to teach us, and to die for our sins. Jesus rose from the dead with a promise of new life when we follow Him. There is hope. Quoting the House of Bishops:
“If we hope to treat all human beings with dignity, we must address climate change, so droughts, floods, and extreme weather patterns don’t force people into exile and desperate, life-threatening migration.
If we hope to build peace, we must address climate change so that competition for scarce resources does not drive further violence.
If we hope to ensure that every child of God has enough to eat, we must address climate change so that our bountiful earth can continue to support and sustain food systems that nourish people and the soil.
We are a people of hope. Where do we find the hope that sustains, that dispels fear, that gives us the courage to love and to persevere? We find hope in the power and reality of the Resurrection. After Jesus had been buried, in the dark before dawn, Mary was in despair and utterly without hope, but as she was drawn from the tomb to the garden, she met the living Christ. Mary’s mourning turned to brilliant resurrection hope. From the garden, she ran to proclaim good news to Jesus’ confused and terrified followers.”
We can and must deal with this. And before we spend time increasing our work to do our small parts to address climate change, we are to listen to Jesus’s teachings and be in right relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Our Gospel readings have all we need to know to become right in this relationship.
Today’s Gospel has the much-repeated story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus. Martha welcomes Jesus and the disciples into her house and, as is the custom and expectation of women in Jesus’ time. Martha begins to scurry about preparing food. She knows it is the men who are to sit at Jesus’ feet and hear what Jesus has to say. Martha makes a justifiable complaint that Mary is not helping, and Jesus tells her there is need of only one thing, and that one thing is to sit and adore and listen to God’s Son. Love God and pay attention to what God is saying…. with all your heart soul and mind!
It is important that Jesus also defines who is to show God this love. Women were not allowed to sit at the feet of rabbis and hear the teachings. It was only for men.
Jesus is upsetting the way of the past and including all, and all means all.
- Women and men
- Poor and rich
- LGBTQ+ and straight
- Black, brown, and white–all the colors of the rainbow
- The undocumented and documented
This list can go on, but the point is all of God’s people are called to love God with heart, soul, and mind.
All means all.
Last week we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan which was the answer to the question of “Who is my neighbor?”
We call the Samaritan bood, but we need to see Jesus’s point here as well. Jesus saying love your neighbor as yourself was not a new concept to the people of Israel. However, the concept of loving a Samaritan was. The Samaritans shared a common heritage but followed God in very different ways. The people of Israel did not like them and thought themselves better, yet Jesus said to love Samaritans as your neighbor. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. I can make the list again, but the point is
All means All.
I will also make the argument that our neighbors are not just human beings. If we love God’s animals, insects, flowers, birds, water, land, the air we breathe… if we love all of God’s creation, we are then loving our neighbor.
Here all truly means all.
So there it is. Becoming right with God is our first step in addressing climate change.
Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself remembering that all means all.
And finally considering the Gospel we heard two weeks ago, go out like the seventy Jesus sent out and proclaim God’s love for God’s creation. Encourage and teach others to be good stewards of this Earth, our island home. We have no other home. And just like the seventy, you will find joy in the work
As the House of Bishops said last week:
“As members of The Episcopal Church, we are committed in baptism to resist evil, seek God’s will, treat all people with dignity, and strive for justice and peace. Living into these promises, we must face the climate crisis for the sake of love of God and neighbor”
In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier
Amen
Appendix: Expressing the Mind of the House on Climate and Our Vocation in Christ
God is the source of all creation, and we, humankind – made in God’s image – have been given the gift of life and responsibility to care for creation. We depend on God’s creation to sustain our life together, and, by serving as good stewards of creation, we reflect God’s tender love for all that has been made. In caring for our earth, we return our love to God. This is our first vocation, made explicit in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible: together with God, together with one another, we care for God’s world.
We are only fully human and fully alive when we are in right relationship with the whole created order. Apart from each other and nature, we are not our whole selves. It is no surprise that once Adam and Eve surrendered to temptation and sought to grasp divine knowledge, to idolize and center the self over all else, the whole creation began to suffer, and humanity along with it. Sin flowed forth in estrangement, exile, and eventually violence and death.
This ancient pattern of separation and sin is ours today. We crave and hoard what we do not need. We take and grasp what does not belong to us. We burden and dominate what was meant to be free. As a result, the planet and our most vulnerable neighbors suffer. This flows from our failure as human beings to live as the people made in the image of God, bearing the sacred responsibility entrusted to us.
Climate change and environmental degradation are manifestations of our turning away from God. The effects of this willful separation from God resonate across our collective lives: All areas of justice are either worsened or made better depending on the health of the planet. A changing climate and degraded environment worsen the conflict, forces human migration, and cause food insecurity. These related crises increase the rate of violence, cause more natural disasters and humanitarian crises, and deepen the wounds of those already suffering from racism. People living in poverty are plunged further into poverty by the deteriorating condition of the planet.
As people of faith, we are not without hope, but the sustainability of God’s creation demands our action. Confronting climate change and environmental degradation has never been more urgent. As members of The Episcopal Church, we are committed in baptism to resist evil, seek God’s will, treat all people with dignity, and strive for justice and peace. Living into these promises, we must face the climate crisis for the sake of the love of God and neighbor:
If we hope to treat all human beings with dignity, we must address climate change so droughts, floods, and extreme weather patterns don’t force people into exile and desperate, life-threatening migration.
If we hope to build peace, we must address climate change so that competition for scarce resources does not drive further violence.
If we hope to ensure that every child of God has enough to eat, we must address climate change so that our bountiful earth can continue to support and sustain food systems that nourish people and the soil.
We are a people of hope. Where do we find the hope that sustains, that dispels fear, that gives us the courage to love and persevere? We find hope in the power and reality of the Resurrection. After Jesus had been buried, in the dark before dawn, Mary was in despair and utterly without hope. But as she was drawn from the tomb to the garden, she met the living Christ. Mary’s mourning turned to brilliant resurrection hope. From the garden, she ran to proclaim good news to Jesus’ confused and terrified followers.
And so it is for many of us today. We, God’s faithful, are called to share the hope that will empower change. Many of God’s people – especially our children – are in despair as they observe the frightening shifts in our environmental narrative. The risen Christ continues to send us out to proclaim the Gospel to the whole of Creation (Mark 16:15). Like Mary, we go out to all proclaiming God’s love in deed and word. It is our work to lead the way for change, to model good stewardship, and to move forward with courage and purpose.
We are already at work spreading hope and effecting change: We are creating “Good News Gardens”; installing solar panels on church properties; hosting transition programs for coal miners who need help adapting to a changing economy; cleaning up toxic hot spots, like the Salton Sea in southern California; helping to eliminate the terror of food insecurity; setting aside land for the restoration of damaged ecosystems; planting trees, mangrove stands, and prairie grasses; advocating for policy change; fundamentally transforming our way of life from one centered on self to one centered on the flourishing of the whole creation – in these ways and so many more, we can follow Jesus’ call to “preach good news to the creation.” (Mark 16: 15) In these ways and so many more, we embrace the original vocation God gave us, to care together for the world God made.
Dear God, Creator of the earth, this sacred home we share;
Give us new eyes to see the beauty all around and to protect the wonders of creation.
Give us new arms to embrace the strangers among us and to know them as family.
Give us new ears to hear and understand those who live off the land and sea, and to hear and understand those who extract its resources.
Give us new hearts to recognize the brokenness in our communities and to heal the wounds we have inflicted.
Give us new hands to serve the earth and its people and to shape our beloved community.
For you are the One who seeks the lost, binds our wounds, and sets us free,
And it is in the name of Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen.
(prayer from the 2019 meeting of the House of Bishops, Fairbanks, Alaska)