“In his beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irre­sponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.”

– Pope Francis, Laudato Si‘: On Care for Our Common Home

Beloved of God,

The record-breaking warmth we’ve experienced this spring has accelerated the growth and flowering of our region. Some of us have enjoyed the extra days of shorts and t-shirts, while others have pined for the cooler springtimes we remember.  Our experience here in the Northwest is by no means unique.  All over the globe temperatures are rising.  Climate change is upon us, and that’s no hoax.[1]  With it come consequences in every sector of life.  One simple example:  As prices for air conditioning drop and the demand in developing countries grows, a new estimate suggests that 700 million air conditioners are expected to be installed by 2030, and 1.6 billion by 2050. The average air conditioning unit in American homes releases about two tons of carbon dioxide each year.  Do the math. [2]  Seattleites start complaining when temperatures approach 80 degrees—imagine living in Phalodi, India, where a new record high of +123.8 degrees was recently set![3]  As temperatures rise, who can begrudge people who live in unbearable conditions the option of buying air conditioning?  (Understand, it’s only those who can afford to purchase their way to comfort who will benefit; for the vast numbers of people living in abject poverty around the world such choices remain elusive.)

It’s easy to get lost in the statistics. As people of faith we need a place to be grounded as, together, we face the truth about what human actions and choices have done to place our planet home in peril and build strategies to turn the boat around.  Those strategies have to be about more than buying stock in air conditioning companies.

Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si‘: On Care for Our Common Home, gets at the heart of the matter. A group of us from Peace and Calvary, in addition to other friends, participated in a study of Pope Francis’ circular letter earlier this spring.  One of the outcomes of that study was an urgent desire to affirm what the Pope said and to place our own stake in the ground.  As a result, a letter to Pope Francis authored by study participants has been written.  (You can read an excerpt in the pages that follow.  To read the complete 3 page letter, follow this LINK).  A tree honoring the spirit behind his encyclical will be planted on Peace property on June 5th—the first of four Sundays in this year’s Season of Creation.

In his book, LENS TO THE NATURAL WORLD: Reflections on Dinosaurs, Galaxies, and God, Ken Olson, a retired ELCA pastor and paleontologist, uses analogies to help us comprehend how we human beings fit within the scope of Earth’s long history.

“One could represent [earth’s] 4.6 billion years with a line fifteen miles long. In that scheme, the last 6,000 years from ancient Mesopotamia to the present, which brackets what we usually call “civilization,” would be represented by just the last single inch.  In vertical scale, if the history of the earth were a cliff a mile high, all of historic time would occupy just the uppermost 10th of an inch, and a single lifetime less than the thickness of the finest hair.”

These analogies seek to help us grasp that is essentially ungraspable—the immense expanse of deep time that forms the backdrop to this universe in which we find ourselves, and the infinitesimal portion of time our species has been alive by comparison. Yet, in spite of our brief existence, we homo sapiens have had an outsized impact on the health of the planet’s natural systems.  There are many factors that have led to the reality now confronting us.  Myopic greed and runaway hubris are two of them.  In the words of Pope Francis:

“We have come to see ourselves as [Earth’s] lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. The Earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail.’”

Many studies document the impacts of human choices on Earth’s health, but Pope Francis’ letter frames the impacts in ways we can both intellectually grasp and viscerally feel. I encourage you to read Laudato Si‘. (Follow this LINK to the Vatican website.)  More than that, I invite you to join the conversation taking place at Peace, and to come to worship during the month of June as we once again celebrate the Season of Creation.  Our worship themes this year revolve around the FOUR ELEMENTS: EARTH, AIR, FIRE, WATER, and will incorporate excerpts from Laudato Si’. When you come on June 5th, be prepared to get your hands dirty! After all, putting our hands in soil is a sacred activity! The sacred, fecund soil (Hebrew: adamah) from which God first fashioned the first Earth-people (Hebrew: adam) will be the focal point of our activity during worship, so dress casually.

It is in our worship life where God promises to meet us, re-grounding us in God’s intentions for us and for this world. In Christ’s Meal gifts of grain and grape become sacred emblems of Christ’s presence in our midst. Our eating and drinking unites us with Christ and reconnects us to the Earth from which these sacred gifts come.  In sharing this food we become what we eat: the body of Christ for the world.

The letter to Pope Francis includes a reference to the ELCA Social Statement “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice” (1993), which states:

“Humans, in service to God, have special roles on behalf of the whole of creation. Made in the image of God, we are called to care for the earth as God cares for the earth.”

The letter to Francis goes on to conclude thus:

“Despite current differences in theology and politics, there is no excuse for waiting to cooperate. These environmental and social crises we face need immediate and frank discussion, cooperation, and action.  Let this now be a rock on which we can stand together as brothers and sisters in order to level the playing field between rich and poor, embrace the best scientific research, and work toward a cultural change of consciousness which can lead to renewed care for our common home.”

Faith is a verb. As people of faith we are called to practice what we preach, to live what we profess, trusting that the Triune God is with us in the midst of the muddle; breathing life into us at every turn, as God once breathed life into our first ancestors.

Pastor Erik

[1] Some prefer the term “climate breakdown” as a more accurate description of the realities at hand.

[2] http://www.wnyc.org/story/uptick-air-conditioners-impacts-climate-change

[3] http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/20/asia/india-record-temperature/index.html

Lord, send out your Spirit– and renew the face of the Earth! Psalm 104

Children of the Spirit,

May is packed with meaningful events within our life together – the blessing of the quilts (5/1); the photo shoot for our first pictorial directory in 7 years (5/3-5); the Peace/Calvary Women’s Retreat (5/6-7); the Rite of Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday (5/15); the annual NW WASH Synod Assembly (5/20-21); the baptisms of 3 little ones on Trinity Sunday (5/22); and—to top it off—Scholarship Sunday (5/29). Occasions for celebrating the Spirit’s living presence among and between us abound!  You can read about all these and more in the pages below.  But I hope you’ll do more than read—I hope you’ll choose to be part of many of them.  After all, our community is not the same without you.

“Come, let us build a city…and make a name for ourselves.”

Genesis 11:4

As the Day of Pentecost approaches, the story of the Tower of Babel comes to the fore (Genesis 11:1-9).  One of the ancient legend stories of Genesis, the story tells how humankind sought to use the newest technology (brickmaking) to gain control of its destiny.  Underneath the text is a not so veiled desire for a homogeneous identity: we would rather stay with our kind, within the homogeneous tribe or national identity or lingual bond that we know, rather than venture beyond them. Juxtaposed with that story is the story of Acts 2, when the promised Spirit of God comes suddenly and powerfully upon the disciple community in Jerusalem.  Instead of scattering peoples and languages, this Spirit unites them.

In the contemporary film BABEL filmmakers Alejandro Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga trace the consequences of one impetuous act which sends shock waves through the lives of four different families on three different continents, linking them to each other in a chain of tragic events that changes their lives forever. When two Moroccan goat herding brothers, testing the limits of a new rifle, randomly hit a tourist bus, it quickly becomes an international incident with lasting ramifications for the brothers, for an American couple on board the bus and their Mexican nanny and children back home, and for a Japanese businessman and his deaf-mute daughter.  Events spiral out of control in “a whirlwind of rash judgments, linguistic barriers and sheer bad luck.” (Neil Smith)

In a world that grows smaller with each technological advance, and at a time in history when communication is—supposedly—easier than ever, the film portrays how isolated and apt to miscommunicate we truly are.  And how quickly our cultural biases and presuppositions become avenues for confusion, fear and violence.  Using the Tower of Babel parable as its starting point the film shows, on the one hand, how interconnected our lives have become, and on the other hand, how limited our ability remains for reaching across barriers to create and sustain human community.  If we need any further corroboration of this, we need look no further than this year’s election rhetoric!

Language can coerce or it can liberate.  It can deceive or it can reveal.  It can manipulate or it can illuminate.  Human hubris, says the story, forever desires to (1) make a name for itself, (2) maintain control, and (3) resist change. The human chorus rising up from the ancient plains of Shinar (quoted above) confirms these tendencies.

Amazed and astonished they asked,   “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native tongue?”

– Acts 2:7, 8

But for all of us who find communication challenging; for all who struggle to find the right words for the right time—words that bridge the gap, that build relationship instead of tearing it down—Pentecost, is a day of hope. God’s Spirit is unleashed, bringing not only a new energy to God’s people but a fresh capacity to listen and to understand. God opens ears, loosens tongues, and links people to each other in a chain of gracious events that changes lives forever.  On this day, people from different countries, races and cultures, speaking scores of different languages, find their ears and their hearts open to one another in a way that was never before possible.  On Pentecost the voice of the OTHER, whose thoughts and experiences had been beyond reach, comes in crystal clear through a miracle of the ear, and the tongue of fire becomes a flame that has kept burning in each generation since.

During a retreat last month, we asked our confirmands to articulate how they intend to live out the five baptismal promises/practices as they move forward with their lives of faith.  I was impressed with what they wrote.  Their vision of participation and servanthood reflects the lively, inclusive, and compassionate flame that ignited the Christian movement 20 centuries ago.  On Pentecost Sunday we will celebrate the Spirit’s work within the lives of these five young women as we gather to bless them and pray for the Spirit’s continuing accompaniment.

Then, on the Sunday following Confirmation, three infants will be brought to the waters of the Font by their parents, and the whole gracious chain of events will begin once more!  We all have a place and a role in that circle.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Pastor Erik