From Someone Else’s Nature Journal(!) -- "The Last Sparrow in the Last Forest: Communities of Faith Must Lead the Rescue"

It has been quite some time since I have shared a guest on my blog, but my great friend, entomologist Bill Matson, is writing for his Lutheran church in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and I asked if I could share this. 

Bill is the activist I wish I was! He’s also brilliant when it comes to God’s creation. He and Sheri are fast friends and it seems the times we spend together always go by way too quickly. 

I share here a recent column he posted in his church newsletter. With fine writing like this, and its crucial message, I hope their church at least has the ability to share his work with their larger diocese. I agree with him wholeheartedly that faith communities must take the lead on earth’s stewardship. God calls us to it. And if we leave earth care only to those without faith, its Gospel foundation can be lost – the truth that it is part of God’s redeeming work to transform all of God’s creation. So here we go…

The Last Sparrow in the Last Forest:

Communities of Faith Must Lead the Rescue

Our blue planet has always been in continuous change, even before humans arose from harmless obscurity.  However, as our populations and technologies exploded over the last forty millennia, so did our impact. Today, the consensus is that we have driven the world to a precipice of disaster. Decades of science have warned that we humans are triggering a snowballing catastrophe of mayhem and death.  It’s now especially acute in nature where there have been alarming losses of life-supporting organisms like bees, birds, trees, and ocean fish. Already, millions of displaced humans are desperately seeking refuge because of the unprecedented flooding from melting glaciers, ocean thermal expansion, and storms, as well as from record-breaking droughts and forest fires.

Lutherans strive to live by the mantra of God’s Work, Our Hands, dedicating our church body to care for others.  But, humanity’s recklessness reveals that too many hands are desecrating creation, not caring for it.  Will it come down to the last sparrow in the last forest before we can discern our grave mistakes?  A many decade’s old popular song summarized our predicament in its lyrics, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Rector Ragan Sutterfield in the Christian Century magazine (Sept 2021) asserts that fixing the planetary crisis requires that we must first reconcile human life with all of creation. This demands radical transformations in life styles and governance from top to bottom. Big money and technology alone will not rescue us.  Rector Sutterfield urges that the Church step forward to become a leader of the rescue.  Planetary healing, he argues, can arise from a united effort by all communities of faith, where green, healing ripples will emanate from hundreds of thousands of green parishes. Ripples can become healing waves spreading into communities, and beyond. 

At least five, step-wise changes are recommended at each and every parish (abbreviated here):  Withdrawal to stillness, contemplation, discussion, and then to prayerful action.  Cast aside business as usual. Think deep transformation. Ecological Neighborhood Awareness is the establishment of a parish’s ecological footprints, its place in the local ecosystem matrix that sustains it.  Congregants will learn about its flora and fauna, becoming real partners with all of our brethren.  Sanctuary is the idea of every parish, every parish member creating sanctuary, sacred refuges for God’s creation in private and public spaces.  Skill and Tool Sharing means that congregants share their essential knowledge, skills, and tools so that all consume less and create life’s essentials locally. Think of growing/canning food; repairing, not discarding.  Mercy and Grace are generously offered balms badly needed in the midst of coming social and ecological upheavals.  

The aforementioned are merely the early seeds of transformation.  All of us must engage and offer our gifts.  Let us pray that all communities of faith will unite, renew and transform themselves and claim their crucial roles in the rescue and healing. God help us. There is work to be done.

~~ With thanks to Bill, 

RGM, January 28, 2022

P.S. An idea: where I live in Washington state, I am occasionally able to take part in a group called Greening Congregations Collaborative, a group of folks from several area faith communities who are meeting together monthly to resource and inspire each other to shared earth stewardship projects in their churches. Shouldn’t every church have a ministry team of some sort, official or ad hoc, that keeps earth care before its congregants as a discipleship practice? Mightn’t it be a great help to share these ideas between churches? Think about it. “The earth is the Lord’s… (Psalm 24:1),” and we are the Lord’s stewards. 

From My Nature Journal: “Behold the Earth” -- A Review

Time for a blog shout-out to a new resource brought to my attention by a new friend here in our new digs. Sorry, that’s a lot of new, but the issue the resource presents goes back to the beginning. The very beginning. As in, the Garden of Eden beginning.

Namely, it's a simple video resource/documentary released recently called Behold the Earth. BtE is a music-rich film that explores the subject of earth stewardship/creation care as a critically important spiritual practice for all people of faith, and asks tough questions about church engagement with environmental issues.

Do you think of earth care as one of the core issues of Christian discipleship? Many church-goers do not, and, I'm very sorry to say, perhaps particularly us evangelicals. I cannot begin to count the number of times people have expressed their surprise to me in meeting an evangelical concerned with creation care. What a sad reality. And I'm not sure what the deal is here. Is it some evangelicals' sole preoccupation with personal salvation, or at least that perception from others? Is it poor exegesis on our part with Jesus' admonition to 'love not the world' (1 John 2:15), which isn't referencing creation care at all? Is it the evangelical error of equating the issue with 'liberalism' (whatever that is)? Or do we limit the stewardship idea to the traditional mantra of time, talent and treasure? If so, then I'm flummoxed: if God's creation is not also treasure to us, I'm not certain what is. Of all people, evangelicals, as 'people of the whole book,' should be at the forefront of the issue.

How is it that we forget that the charge to steward creation is the very first commandment in the Bible? Yup, Genesis 1:25 and 2:15. And don't get hung up here on the words dominion and subdue; the words are far richer and more complex than appear on the surface, surprisingly so if we truly get into them. But I'll write on that another time.

OK, end of sermon. Sorry. I am likely preaching to the choir. Let me highlight the resource.

Set with lovely videography and provocative music, Behold the Earth features conversations with legendary biologists Edward O. Wilson, Theo Colburn and Calvin DeWitt, interspersed with the perspectives of emerging leaders Katherine Hayhoe and Corina Newsome, and founder of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action Ben Lowe. Yet this is no talking head documentary. In addition to the stunning video, it is full of fabulous Appalachian-style folk music, a pleasure to listen to in its own right, featuring Grammy winners and musicologists Rhiannon Giddens, Dirk Powell, and Tim Eriksen. Extensive music is interwoven in such a way as to give the viewer a contemplative opportunity to reflect on the verbal material just presented, and, if you're like me, in addition to the subject matter, the music is the thing you will remember long after the documentary has finished, and may be the thing you want to come back to again and again. It has certainly spurred my interest in these artists.

One final thing. I've gotten involved here in our new Washington community with a cooperative of churches called Greening Congregations Collaborative. It consists of members from numerous area churches who want to bring a greater awareness of earth stewardship to their congregations by creating and sponsoring cooperative events, initiatives and presentations that highlight creation care as a critical part of Christian discipleship. Does your church have such a committee or team, even a small group of people interested in championing this concern in your church fellowship? This simple, one-hour movie can provide you a quality way to introduce this subject to your church leadership and your friends. It's not intended to resource those of you who are already advocating for this issue in your sphere, though it can inspire you, as it has me; it's intended to touch those who may not yet be there, and is a great discussion starter. Here's the trailer.

~~ RGM, May 31 2019