Earth Sunday - April 18, 2021
Sermon for Earth Day 2021, April 18: Called to Flourish, by Carolyn Smith
What a hopeful tune that was - and our choir friends, determined still to be Church and still
SING!! I sense that - with a deep breath, we ask for grace right now... For a reminder of joyful
times, that we are connected in spirit to one another.
It is a GOOD thing that Easter happen right now, in the midst of this lockdown and the
turbulence of the world, it’s a gift to reconnect us and experience this awakening - this
resurrection of our spirit. Maybe this Spring time, and with Earth Day this coming week, it
should feel like a fresh New Year, a place to start from, with resolve, a place to grow from. Like
tiny green shoots, and buds slowly swelling, and some early colour emerging here and there, it’s
a remembering in a way of what life is capable of growing through.
It’s a bewildering time though - as we heard from Margaret who read our scripture in an familiar
but empty sanctuary... seeing the pews empty. And our story - Bewildering like the disciples
felt, in the short time since the crucifixion, here they are career fisherman, in the wee hours of
the morning, casting their nets, coming up empty. Friends who just days ago sought justice and
saw change parading in the streets, then witnessing, enduring the execution of Jesus their friend.
The crucifixion of hope and all that is good. And then twice now, witnessing -somehow, of Jesus
alive amongst them! Bewildering.... . So what else to do but get on with life, back to work, fill
the nets, sell the fish? But whatever they do, it’s not working anymore and the net is empty.
Some figure through the dawn mist 100 yards away calls to them. I did some homework. 100
yards is like standing on the front sidewalk at the church, on a foggy morning, seeing a figure
waving from the far end of the building. If they could hear him at all, why were they compelled
to listen, and haul in the large net and recast it on the other side? Frazzled, discouraged, maybe,
or maybe nervous, in case it was Roman soldiers scouting the lake, quelling any residual unrest
in the little fishing village that had been so bold. So, frazzled or fearful, maybe that’s why they
followed the unreasonable direction: by all calculations, it was pointless to try the other side of
the smallish- 10person boat. It was the same boat, same spot in the lake, same time of day, same
net. But they listen, and with great effort on that heavy net, they try something new, And now,
I’m picturing the sun rising above the horizon and the clouds, the water roiling and the net
teeming with fish in such abundance, too many to haul onto the boat, and they all KNOW - it’s
Jesus, in the mist, again in their midst. Imagine the rush of joy and revival. And what next?
Not our Easter trumpets and Triumph but a quiet reunion, a campfire on the shore and a yummy
breakfast. He took the fish, and took the bread and gave it to them. Quiet, safe, renewing,
abundant. Food for the uncharted journey ahead.
Right now, looking around, our uncharted journey feels tangled. This has been a year of racial
uprising, of political and economic exhaustion, of a pandemic, and science attacked, of
rainforests callously destroyed and plastic pollution, of isolation, loss, grief and bewilderment..
What we’ve been doing up to now isn’t working anymore.
What is there for us, the Easter people when so many tasks are entangled? We humans need to
come to reason! To untangle them and sort it out, make sense of it all and count the costs. But
wait.... For now, Instead of tangled, let’s see them as entwined, as interconnected,.
There is a reason we mark Easter in spring, in the awakening from a dead world to alive, at the
same time as Earth Day. Of course, every day should be earth day, but April 22 - Earth day is a
chance to name it, a day for me, that connects all these things, a day that recalls our Creation and
our Call. We’re called to flourish as a planet, to Build Back Better, but that’s feels like an
impossible task. Bewildered is just part of it, we lean towards cynical and defeat. We know so
much, but none of it seems to work anymore.
Dare I say, that is not the spirit of an Easter people... but it is real for me sometimes, and we
hear it in social media comments and distressing anti-mask rallies and in mockery of hopeful
problem solving or subsidies or modern-day prophets. And more quietly, it looks like fatigue, or
“Oh well, I’m just one person.” It is too common that we give up on hope and eagerness and
courage.
An example is Earth Hour from last month (PHOTO) - my favourite night of the year - drawing
millions in 190 countries around the world, but here in Canada it is often belittled because “the
power you save amounts to nothing.” Or “ the grid hardly notices,” and “no one listens anyway.”
But yes, people do. People like us who find our way to communities of hope or faith. These sort
of events are not about counting the impact on the hydro meters, they’re about remembering the
vistas of this planet that take our breath away, and the ecosystems that literally give us breath,
connecting the prayers and the Spirit of the people, giving voice to the pain we sense and share
with the voiceless planet. Millions of Shared voices naming what is sacred, and inspiring
change. Like we all love candlelight at Christmas. And ritual, and shared prayer, and moments
of silence at times like funerals, and Remembrance Day -It’s why we celebrate a new year with
sparkles and resolutions. We mark moments as holy and that awakens hope to rise and resurrect
within us. That’s where we find real courage to try new things, and brave uncharted paths, and
speak up, and that my friends is how we change the world together.
Some people have the gift of prophecy like Jesus that inspires change. Here is 2 minutes
Prophet David Attenborough - filmed early in January this year.
—-
(VIDEO) https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=838816180240025 (A call to a New year
resolutions with passion and focus for all the inhabitants of our perfect planet, ahead of the
Glasgow Climate Summit in November. )
—-
Our perfect planet... from a perfect creator.
Something we know as church folk is the holy space created with our reverence. The power of
naming our longings and our prayers. Some have discovered that sacred reverence in the natural
world. IF we are to heal this perfect planet, to bring about heaven on earth, we do it by
reconnecting each to another, in the fullness of all life on earth. Maybe we impact the Glasgow
Summit, or Ontario greenbelt policy, or maybe we’re just called to inspire our neighbours, but it
will be by our Spirit and courage in new things, casting nets in new places, expressed in our
voices, inviting others into abundance. Our Easter call, the Easter promise. Thanks be to God.