The other day was Earth Day. The first Earth Day was in 1970; Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson saw the devastation caused by a massive oil spill in the ocean near Santa Barbara, and he convinced Republican Congressman Peter McCloskey to join him in chairing an event that would teach and inspire people throughout the United States to care for the earth.
Earth Day has been teaching & inspiring us ever since.
We’ve gotten better at keeping the Earth’s waters clean; but we still have a long way to go.
About two weeks ago I was substitute teaching a high school science class, and part of the lesson plan included me showing the students a video about how important water is to life. At one point, the person in the video said that water is so essential to any form of life, that when scientists search other planets in our galaxy for signs of life, the first thing they look for is water. Because if the planet has no water, then the assumption is that it cannot have life.
And I thought, Wow! We sure do take water for granted. Don’t we? We forget how precious water is. How essential.
Water is life. Without water, there would be no life. And life is the most precious gift we have.
How fortunate we are that we live in a place where the infrastructure is such that safe, clean drinking water is brought directly into our homes, and all we have to do is turn on the faucet.
Not everyone is so fortunate. In that same video, it talked about how scientists are constantly at work, trying to devise efficient, inexpensive ways to treat water in parts of the world where clean drinking water is hard to come by; because in many places, the water is not safe to drink. In many places, the water is polluted. In many places, the supply of fresh, clean water is unreliable, or disappearing due to climate change.
In the Bible, we get a glimpse at the importance of water. Wells were important, and feature prominently in a number of Bible stories. And water - because it is so essential to life - is also an important metaphorical symbol in scripture.
Jesus once said that what he has to offer is “living water” for those who are thirsty. The metaphor works, because those to whom Jesus spoke understood how precious and miraculous and life-giving water is.
And in Psalm 23, the shepherd leads the sheep to green pastures and still waters - water that is good to drink; water that provides life, water that even those green pastures depend on. Without water, those pastures wouldn’t be green.
A few days after I showed that science video, I accepted two substitute teaching assignments in Avalon, on Catalina Island. The first was a week and a half ago, and the most recent was just this past Friday.
These were my first trips to Catalina to teach in-person since the start of the pandemic.
On the boat ride over, I always try to get a seat by the window. You never know what you might see. On Friday, as the boat was leaving Catalina and starting the journey back to Long Beach, I saw a sea lion relaxing on the surface of the water. Other times I've seen dolphins swimming alongside the boat.
The sea lions and dolphins are reminders that the oceans themselves are full of life. And there’s so much more, below the surface, that I can’t see...
The giant exhibit that greets you at the end of the main hall of the Aquarium of the Pacific is meant to simulate the Blue Cavern State Marine Conservation Area, just off Catalina’s northern shore. For people like me who aren’t really into scuba diving, that exhibit is a great way to glimpse the incredible display of life in the ocean.
However, on these two most recent trips to Catalina, I wasn’t just thinking about the video I had shown my students, about the importance of water to life; and I wasn’t just thinking about the incredible diversity of life in the ocean over which I was, at that moment, traveling.
I was also thinking about a news report I had read, a news report about something that was, at that moment, fouling the water beneath me.
On April 12, news media reported about the existence of a massive toxic dump site in the ocean between Long Beach and Catalina Island. Scientists discovered that there are literally hundreds of thousands of barrels of toxic industrial waste lying at the bottom of the ocean.
For a long time, scientists had an idea it was there. There were rumors.
Also, scientists knew that an astonishing 25% of sea lions in the region have developed cancer. 25%! That doesn’t just “happen.”
Now, they have found it, that toxic dump, and they have confirmed the existence of this incredible source of pollution.
It was all there, literally right below me, as I travelled between Long Beach and Catalina. And it made me so sad, the way we have treated something so precious, so valuable, so necessary to life as water.
The Bible doesn’t talk much about pollution, environmental destruction, or climate change. I don’t think it was even imaginable to Biblical authors that we humans could so drastically affect our world on such a large scale, or that our actions could have such devastating consequences. Those biblical authors just assumed that the pastures would be green, and the gently flowing water would always be clean.
But if those Biblical authors could see what we humans are doing to the earth today, I’m sure they would have some words to say.
After all, scripture repeatedly emphasizes how the earth belongs to God, the one who created it and pronounced it good.
And scripture writers often marvel at the beauty and wonder of creation, from the winds that allow a boat to sail across the sea, to the lilies of the field, to the mighty cypress trees of Lebanon, to the stars in the sky, to animals as diverse as birds and snakes and hyenas and fish.
Our psalm today - one of the most familiar passages in the entire Bible - Psalm 23 - mentions green pastures and still waters. (Those are waters that are gently flowing; waters that are restful; waters that are clean and good for health.)
Clean pastures, and still waters.
The prophet Ezekiel also talks about pastures and water...
In Ezekiel, the prophet says:
“Is feeding in good pasture or drinking clear water such a trivial thing that you should trample and muddy what is left with your feet? But now my flock must feed on what your feet have trampled and drink water that your feet have muddied” [Ezekiel 34:18-19].
And because of this passage, I know that, if Ezekiel were around today, Ezekiel would be an environmentalist.
Ezekiel is upset by inconsiderate neighbors who have muddied the water that his flock drinks from. I can only imagine how much more upset Ezekiel would be if Ezekiel were around today, and if Ezekiel could see what we have done to the earth.
And I have no doubt that Ezekiel would be striking for climate every Friday, or that Ezekiel would join a march through the wetlands to demonstrate to our leaders how important it is to protect the earth, or that Ezekiel would pronounce God’s judgment on governments and corporations who allow toxic waste to be dumped into the middle of the ocean.
And because climate issues and justice issues are so closely connected, I know that Ezekiel is not the only one from the Bible who would be fighting for the climate today. In fact, Jesus himself would be. I’m sure of it! Because climate destruction disproportionately affects those who are poor and those who are most vulnerable.
They are the ones who will suffer the consequences of climate change and environmental pollution first, and indeed, in many places, they already are. Climate change is making them even poorer, even more vulnerable. They truly are “the least of these,” the ones most near and dear to Jesus’ heart.
In other words, justice and healing for the earth is directly tied to justice and healing for all those who are oppressed and vulnerable in our world today. This is why organizations like the Poor People’s Campaign have not ignored climate issues, but have made them an important part of their message.
Justice and healing for the earth is directly tied to justice and healing for the oppressed and vulnerable.
I know one of the challenges we face is figuring out what we can do. Can one person, or a small group of people, really make a difference?
I believe we can.
We can vote for politicians who are serious about tackling our biggest climate challenges. Politicians who understand that creating a new, green economy will not only help the earth, but it will help create jobs and provide long-term economic stability and sustainability.
Politicians who refuse to do so because they are worried about losing jobs in coal, jobs in fossil fuels, etc., are short-sighted. Long-term economic prosperity depends on green, sustainable solutions.
There are also countless other things we can do on an individual level. You know the saying, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” But you may not realize that the order is important.
Reduce comes first, because reducing the amount we consume is the best thing we can do. Buying less. Buying things that last, so they don’t have to be replaced as often.
The next best thing we can do is reuse. If you do have to buy something, buy something that can be used and reused over and over. Try to avoid buying anything that is disposable, especially if it is made of plastic.
Then, finally: recycle. Some people think recycling is the best solution, but it’s really not. Long Beach recycling says that they can’t even accept many types of plastics. It’s just not feasible to recycle them. Anything soft, like ziploc bags, produce bags, or a lot of the soft packaging that frozen foods come in, they say we should place in the trash, not the recycling bin. Only large, hard plastics, like milk jugs and beverage bottles and liquid laundry detergent bottles.
So, we should still recycle what we can, but far better is to reduce what we buy and get rid of in the first place.
So: what’s one thing you are going to do? What is one change you can make?
Can you stop buying bottled beverages? Can you request that drinks you get at a restaurant not come with a straw? Can you avoid fast-food places that serve their food in a bunch of disposable plastic packaging?
These are all little things you can do. Things I’ve done at home is switch to using toothbrushes made out of bamboo instead of plastic, and placing a bar of soap on the sink counter for handwashing instead of buying liquid soap that comes in plastic bottles. (Just like the old days!) These are little things, but they’re good things.
If you want to take things to the next level, though, you’ll want to figure out how to reduce the amount of fossil fuel you use, and you’ll want to reduce the amount of meat in your diet. Those are the two most significant things you can do to help fight climate change: use less fossil fuel, and eat less meat.
And I admit: making these changes is not easy. We’re addicted to fossil fuels, and most of us can’t imagine going a day without meat. But just like everything else, the way of Jesus requires repentance. The way of Jesus requires radical transformation.
And even if we can’t make the change all at once, we can move in that direction. We can do it one step at a time. We can do it, because we love our neighbor, and we know God calls on us to bring healing and justice to the world. We can do it, because the green pastures and clean, still waters are a gift from God that we should preserve and protect.
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