Sunday, September 4th: "I'm Not So Sure About - Climate Change

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First United Presbyterian Church

“I’m Not So Sure About…Climate Change”

Rev. Amy Morgan

September 4, 2022

Isaiah 24:4-6, 19-20

The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth.

 5 The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

 6 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left.

The earth is utterly broken, the earth is torn asunder, the earth is violently shaken.

 20 The earth staggers like a drunkard, it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.

This is how the world began: A people in exile, searching for their identity, lagging in hope, longing for connection to their culture and religion, remembered a story that had been told for a long, long time. In some ways, it was like the stories their captors told. In some ways, it was very different. The Babylonians told a story about chaos and violence, a weather god defeating a sea god in the form of a serpent to bring order to creation, with humanity serving as an unfortunate side effect. The Hebrews told the story of Elohim, the One High God, creating light and life, birds and creeping things, and all of it peaceful and good. Humans were created intentionally, in the image of God, for the specific task of ruling the creation as God would rule it. All of this was “tov ma-od,” very good.   

Around the same time, a prophet was writing, probably from Babylon, in the tradition of Isaiah, about the end of the world. Humans had broken God’s “everlasting covenant” and become so morally, religiously, and ethically “polluted” that their pollution would contaminate the whole cosmos and would result in the total devastation of the whole earth, a complete reversal of the goodness of God’s creation. 

Humans have developed numerous stories that tell us how the world began and how it will end. There are commonalities – floods and gardens, gods and snakes – and differences. These differences are important because they tell us a lot about the people who wrote them, what was happening to them, how they understood their place in the cosmos. These were stories – not of history or science – but of identity. 

And so, when scientists came along with stories that seemed to contradict those sacred narratives, it was not simply a matter of accepting or rejecting science, rationality, or logic. These scientific stories endangered the very identity of people of faith. 

But this has not been the stance of all religiously-minded folks. 

In the late 1920s, a Christian priest named Georges Lemaître began to tell a new story about how the world began. Other scientists who rejected Lamaitre’s hypothesis derogatorily entitled his story “The Big Bang.” Other Christians attacked his story for being contrary to scripture. Lemaitre was quiet about commitments to both faith and science, but his contribution to the story of how the world began eventually exploded in popularity and in controversy. 

Lamaitre believed (along with St. Augustine) that the Bible is not a science textbook and was never intended to be. He believed that science was not in conflict with faith, that we don’t have to choose one over the other, and that their truths are not mutually exclusive. He also believed that science was not distinct from faith. We can’t compartmentalize our intellect and passions into science, on the one hand, and faith, on the other, and not invite conversation between the two. Finally, he did not believe that science affirmed or was in total concordance with faith. He did not want his scientific discoveries used as an apologetic for the Judeo-Christian belief about the earth’s origins. Lemaitre rejected all the traditional modes of relating faith and science: conflict, compartmentalizing, and concordance. 

For Lamaitre, the two stories of creation he passionately believed in – the story of Genesis 1 and the story of the Big Bang – were equally true, not contradictory, and distinctive. He could hold the tension of that paradox in a way many people today cannot. 

And that is a sad and dangerous thing for people of faith and for the planet we live on. Because we now have a new story about how the world will end. The greenhouse gas effect was discovered more than 100 years ago. Over the last century, the scientific community has sought to understand the impacts of human activity on the climate. Scientific consensus is now overwhelming that the climate is warming, and that human activity is the primary cause. 

But for many people of faith, this story either contradicts what they think the Bible says, doesn’t matter to people of faith, or must somehow support or be supported by the Biblical narrative to be acceptable. Many Christians cannot hold the tension of two stories that are equally true, not contradictory, and distinctive. So if science claims the world will end with a hot, slow extinction instead of with God’s sudden and final judgment, their very identity as Christians is threatened. They cannot accept this science and so will discredit or dismiss it. 

But this has not been the stance of all religiously-minded folks. 

One Christian evangelist asked: “Why should we be concerned about the environment? It isn’t just because of the dangers we face from pollution, climate change, or other environmental problems—although these are serious. For Christians, the issue is much deeper: We know that God created the world, and it belongs to Him, not us. Because of this, we are only stewards or trustees of God’s creation, and we aren’t to abuse or neglect it. The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). When we fail to see the world as God’s creation, we will end up abusing it. Selfishness and greed take over, and we end up not caring about the environment or the problems we’re creating for future generations.” 

That evangelist was the late, great Billy Graham. 

An article on the website for BioLogos, an organization founded by Dr. Francis Collins, the recently-retired director of the Human Genome Project and National Institutes of Health, recognizes that “To some Christians, ‘creation care’ can sound like we value the planet more than people. But caring for the planet really is caring for people. The effects of environmental degradation on human health are devastating. Malnutrition from food shortages, higher rates of tropical disease, cardiorespiratory distress from pollution, and conflicts over natural resources are just some of the ways environmental problems impact the lives of real people.”

To help us hold the tension of multiple stories, maybe we need to tell the story of climate change in a different way. It might go something like this:

In the beginning, God created the world – in a sudden flash of light and energy, and also slowly, deliberately, intentionally. The world God created was good, a delicately balanced and inter-related ecosystem. And the humans God created were given special gifts and responsibilities for tending to the needs of the creation. 

And then…the climate changed. 

Humans broke their relationship with God and creation. They became consumed with greed and forgot their place as caretakers of the creation. The pollution of their sin contaminated the whole earth. Species disappeared and extreme weather devastated cities. Famine, drought, and wildfires increased. And the humans simply argued, and shifted blame, and denied anything was wrong, and ignored those who cried for help. 

The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.

The writer of these verses was not talking about a warming planet, about climate science. But he was talking about climate change. He was talking about the change that had occurred in the climate of his society, and he prophesied the cosmic effects of those societal sins. 

The Bible won’t tell us if climate change is good science. But it does testify to the impact the changing climate of our society has on the whole creation. Human sin has cosmic implications, not just personal consequences. You don’t have to believe in climate science to believe that the climate is changing. Over the weekend of Black Friday, what Americans spend on consumer goods is half of what they give to churches in an entire year. More money is spent on fashion accessories than college tuition. Houses in the U.S. contain more televisions than people. And those televisions encourage us to buy more, feel like we deserve more and better, and tell us who is to blame for what we don’t have.

You also don’t have to believe in the Bible to know that we need to change the climate of our society before we can change the climate of the earth. We must stop insisting that our stories, our truths, our beliefs are in conflict and mutually exclusive. Like the Hebrews in Babylon, we can tell our distinctive stories even as we see where they intersect with others. We must find comfort in the paradox that our stories can be equally true, not contradictory, and distinctive. This is the only way we will be able to listen to one another, define our common values, and chart a path toward health and wholeness for the whole creation. 

I believe this story has a happy ending. The prophet of Isaiah offers a vision of a glorious new creation, where people “shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD-- and their descendants as well… The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox…and they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” The Bible begins in a good garden and ends in a good garden, so if we are not in that good garden right now, it simply means it is not the end of the story. 

The story we tell right now is crucial. Because this story will define who we are in relationship to God and the creation. And in this current climate contaminated with  division and fear, this climate polluted with scapegoating and denial and blame, this climate choking on the fumes of unchecked greed and consumption – we are the villains in this story. 

But if we remember the story the Hebrews told a long, long time ago, perhaps we can reclaim our role as loving caretakers of the good creation. If we heed the warnings of Isaiah, perhaps we will change the climate of our society and the climate of the earth. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.