I’ve been following closely the news about the wildfires. Loch Leven - our camp and retreat center - was evacuated last week because of the El Dorado fire, and the fire has come right up to the very edge of camp; but the camp itself - so far (as of Friday) - is OK.
Up in the Sierras, the Creek Fire is currently raging out of control in an area where I have spent many summers, counseling boy scout camp, and going on backpacking trips.
In fact, just one year ago, on Labor Day weekend, I was up there backpacking, and if I had done that again this year, I could very well have been one of those who were stranded and had to be rescued by helicopter.
The Creek Fire is a monster. I think those camps where I once taught boy scouts how to identify red fir trees and mountain lupine and how to sit quietly and observe nature - I think they’re gone. The Creek Fire, and the other fires currently burning, are unprecedented in their destructive power and the speed at which they’ve grown.
And people on social media are arguing about why this is so, but as someone who has studied and taught nature and forest ecology, I can tell you that the forests were already in bad shape. Not too many years ago we experienced a terrible, multi-year drought, which left many of the trees in the forest weak and vulnerable. An infestation of bark beetles took advantage of these drought-weakened trees, and finished them off.
In the Sierra National Forest where the Creek Fire is burning, it is estimated that 80 percent of the trees died due to drought and bark beetles, and forests full of dead trees are very dangerous places when it comes to wildfire.
Some say that we should have more aggressively removed those dead trees - just gone in and, through logging or controlled burns, taken them out. However, removing dead trees allows grasses (many of them non-native) and other ground plants to quickly take over, and within a year or two, things become just as dangerous, if not more so, when it comes to wildfire potential. In fact, many areas where the Creek Fire is burning have been thinned out in recent years, but that did not stop or even slow down this fire.
So… years of drought, and bark beetles, and now, the record high temperatures we had last week - all the result of a changing climate - have made these wildfires worse than any we’ve ever seen. And I know you join me in praying for the firefighters, for those who lost homes in the fires, and for the earth itself. The earth itself is suffering. The earth itself is crying out.
And we would weep for the land, for the earth, and for those who suffer, but I’m afraid we’ve become just a little too numb to all that’s going on in our world. It’s just so very difficult, when each day brings new news of new horrors.
The COVID-19 pandemic has now killed almost 200,000 people in the United States, and 900,000 worldwide. Those are terrible numbers. And it’s made even worse knowing that there are some who think it’s all a big hoax, and even some of our leaders continue to ignore the scientists and health experts, and are even making statements and modeling behavior that is contributing to people not taking this seriously, which in turn leads to more deaths. Their callous disregard for human life and human suffering is sinful. It is evil.
Also - this week - the Department of Homeland Security said that white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the U.S., and will remain so through at least the first part of next year. TAs we commemorated the 9/11 attack and the lives lost, it turns out that, today, white supremacists in the United States are a greater threat than foreign terrorist organizations. And don’t forget, just one week ago, the Trump administration ordered that public schools stop teaching about racism and white privilege. Imagine if the schools were ordered to stop teaching about 9/11 - but this is worse.
This is sinful. This is evil.
Especially while African Americans continue to get unfair treatment in the courts and on the streets, and while voting rights - particularly for African Americans - continue to be taken away. During the primaries in Georgia last month, the average wait time to vote in predominantly white neighborhoods was 6 minutes while the average wait time in predominantly non-white neighborhoods was 51 minutes.
The rights of African-Americans to vote is being taken away.
And the attack on poor people continues. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and all the other super-rich in this country have greatly increased their wealth since this pandemic started, thanks to tax cuts and stimulus efforts that benefit the wealthy. Meanwhile millions of poor and even working class people are losing their jobs, losing their health insurance, and losing their homes.
This is sinful. This is evil.
And now we have these wildfires that get bigger, faster, becoming more destructive and more deadly; and we’ve also seen hurricanes, and storms like the one that hit Iowa last month, getting bigger, faster, and more destructive and more deadly; and we know that climate change is the reason.
Yet too many people who have a callous disregard for human life and human suffering continue to ignore the science and insist that we keep burning coal and oil and gas, and that we keep subsidizing the burning of coal and oil and gas, even though clean, sustainable forms of energy are becoming increasingly available and cheap. There are jobs for people in clean energy, and there is life for people in clean energy - but we’re still stuck on fossil fuels, and fossil fuels are literally killing people.
This is sinful. This is evil.
And it’s easy to become numb in the face of all this oppression, all this suffering, all this death. What can one person do? What can a small church do? What difference can we possibly even make?
Is there even any point in trying?
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I wonder…
I wonder… if Moses felt this way.
Moses saw the horrible suffering and the oppression of his people in Egypt.
Exodus chapter one says the Egyptians harassed and oppressed the Hebrews, and looked upon the Hebrews with disgust. The Egyptians made their lives miserable, and were cruel to them.
In Exodus 2 it says that the Israelites were groaning because of their forced labor, and that they cried out to God.
Moses saw their suffering; Moses heard their cries; and Moses tried to intervene, when he killed that Egyptian.
But it only made things worse.
So Moses fled to Midian. He didn’t see the point of even trying anymore. After all, what can one man do in the face of such. great. evil...?
But then we come to the part in the story where God appears to Moses at the burning bush; and one of the things we learn from this story is that God, also, has seen the suffering of the people; and that God, also, has heard their cries.
And as we hear other stories from scripture, we discover that this is actually a key component of God’s very identity: Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - the God we worship - is a God who sees the suffering that takes place under oppression, and a God who hears the cries of people who suffer under injustice.
The very first time God is named in the Bible, God is called El Roi, “The God who sees.” It is Hagar who names God this way. Hagar was a slave who belonged to Abraham and who was mistreated by Abraham and his wife Sarah, especially after Hagar had given birth to her son Ishmael. God saw how Hagar was mistreated, and God heard her cries, and God responded.
And we know from Luke, chapter one, how God saw the suffering of the people under Roman rule - saw their oppression, and heard their cries.
The oppression of the people is personified in Mary, the mother of Jesus. She, like her people, was poor and oppressed, yet God took notice of her and blessed her, to bear the one who would confront the oppression and suffering of the world by “pulling the powerful down from their thrones and lifting up the lowly; by filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty-handed.”
This is the God who comforts you in difficult times. God sees what you’re going through; God hears your cries of lament. God is especially aware of the injustices committed against you and against your neighbors.
Which means God sees and God is aware of all that’s going on in the world today.
God sees the effects of climate change, God hears the cries of those who have watched their homes and their lives burn in the fires or be swept away by wind and floods; and God is aware of the evil committed by those who do not act to prevent this suffering when it is in their power to do so.
And God sees the effects of racial injustice, and God hears the cries of those who suffer under racism; and God is aware of the evil committed by those who commit racist acts and pass racist policies while denying that racism even exists.
And God sees the effects of economic oppression, and God hears the cries of those who have lost jobs, lost insurance, lost homes; and God is aware of the evil committed by those who continue to commit class warfare against the poor and vulnerable in our society.
And God sees the effects of the ongoing pandemic, and God hears the cries of those who have lost loved ones; and God is aware of the evil committed by those who prioritize their own desires and their own power over the health and wellbeing of others.
God sees. God hears. God comforts.
“Do not fear,” God says to those who suffer, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you pass through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
“When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched, and flame won’t burn you. I am the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior...Because you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you.”
Isaiah 43.
And just as God did with Moses, God calls up people and prophets today, to proclaim a word of freedom, to proclaim a word of hope, to proclaim a word of liberation - to say to the oppressor, “Let God’s people go” - to demand justice, and insist on what is right. And even now, God works through God’s church, to let the world know that God sees, and that God hears, and that you are not alone.
God is with you.
To comfort you when you need comforting.
To strengthen you when you need strength.
To give you hope when hope seems lost.
God is with you. You are not alone.
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