SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 2024 - CREATION CRIES OUT: LOVE ME!
September 8, 2024
Deborah Laforet
Creation Cries Out: Love Me!
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
In the letter Emma read for us, we heard, “For if a person with gold rings and in fine
clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if
you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place,
please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” 4 have
you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (2:2-3)
I’m sure we all hope that we would never treat folks differently based on their cleanliness
or prosperity, but I think sometimes we are trained to look at the shiny, the fashionable, and the
opulent, and to see it as valuable and best. We are taught from a young age that we are
responsible for our own lives and that we can do and be whatever we put our minds to. The
other side of that coin is that if we don’t become successful, meaning if we don’t have a high
paying job, a healthy and well family, a three bedroom home with a garage, than we have not
tried hard enough or that we are defective in some way. Unfortunately, judgments come easily
and it is a lot of work to look beyond the book cover or beyond that first look, to not only look
deeper into what we are seeing, but to get past our own coloured lenses and preconceived
notions.
In churches, when someone new arrives that appears to be less than what is expected, we
may not tell them to sit over there, but instead we might offer to help them, whether they’ve
asked for help or not. When a single parent arrives, we assume they needs a respite and offer to
take the children. When we see someone with a visible disability, we assume they need extra
support and sometimes even assume what that support is without asking first. When someone
who looks like they have been living on the streets walks into worship, its assumed they are
looking for a handout. In fact, we sometimes miss those who actually need extra support
because we assume they don’t need it. Their disability is invisible or their family life looks
perfect, or because they look so put together and beautiful.
Assumptions get made. We're human and that’s what we do. It’s why we have to
constantly question our assumptions and try to see each person as a child of God first and as one
worthy of respect and dignity. It’s why reading our scripture, gathering as a community, and
staying aware of our world is so important. We can be reminded of our assumptions and we can,
together, question the assumptions of the world around us and its values. Together we can learn
who are the vulnerable and we can learn to be allies, which means we don't assume what they
need. We listen, we watch, and we ask, we build relationship. Only then can we be allies and
advocates and together walk towards a more just world.
Today we begin the Season of Creation, which technically begins on September 1 and
ends October 4th, but we tend to make the season work for us, which means starting the Sunday
after Labour Day and going right to Thanksgiving. It’s a time when we focus on God’s creation
and how it’s connected to our faith and our faithful actions. This year, we are blessed, because
you will get to hear from more than just me and Carolyn. Isla Sheridan-Jonah, a young person
from St. Paul’s, was hired this summer as a Climate Motivator with the United Church of
Canada. This means she got to spend time with other United Church youth who learned about
being an activist for the world’s climate crisis. She heard from activists inside and outside the
United Church, and, at the same time, developed her own project to raise awareness of the
climate crisis, from which we will benefit. You’ll get more information during announcement
time and in the newsletter.
Now, you might wonder how the Season of Creation connects with what we heard from
those verses from the letter from James. Did you know that the world’s most vulnerable
nations are already on the frontline of the climate crisis? Not only do they contribute the least to
carbon emissions, but they continue to suffer disproportionately. When we talk about our climate
crisis, we often talk about buying electric cars, recycling and composting, creating less waste, but
the climate crisis hasn’t hit us with the urgency that it has for others.
In some ways, Canadians, Americans, and other wealthy nations are given the best seat in
the assembly. They are given the most attention, the most value, and hold the most power. They,
or we, are the ones wearing the gold rings and the fine clothes. The smaller, less wealthy
nations, those without the privilege that we have, are seen as poorer and dirtier, and often asked
to stay there or to sit by the footstool. They create the least impact on our earth but are affected
the most by the climate crisis, and have the least power to enforce necessary change.
When Isla and I were talking about this, she told me to look up Tuvalu and Kiribati. Both
are island countries in the Asian Pacific.
Kiribati is a nation of islands and could be the first nation to be submerged under the
ocean water because of climate change. Kiribati is experiencing air and sea temperature rises,
storm surges, high winds, erosion, drought, and flooding. This poses direct and indirect threats to
human health, including injury, disease outbreaks, and malnutrition. In June 2022, the
government declared a state of emergency because of prolonged drought. Surrounded by water,
but only sea water, their drinkable water is replenished by rainfall, but when there's no rain,
people's access to clean water is limited, and sometimes their rain water become contaminated by
ocean water.
Tuvalu is a small island nation that houses just over 11,000 people. In addition to rising
sea levels, Tuvalu is increasingly battered by more frequent and severe weather events, such as
cyclones and storm surges. These events further erode the delicate balance of the island’s
ecosystems, making life increasingly precarious for its residents.
In 2021, in a poignant and symbolic act, Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe recorded
a speech for the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, standing knee-deep in seawater.
Standing in a suit and tie at a lectern setup, the Minister said, “We stand here today, not as a plea
for sympathy, but as a call to action. The rising waters that surround us are not just threatening
our homes; they are a stark warning for the entire world. Tuvalu is on the front line of climate
change, but we are not alone. The fate of Tuvalu is intertwined with the fate of every nation on
this planet.” In response to this and to the pleas of many other vulnerable nations struggling with
climate change, delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference held this past December, agreed
to formally establish a loss and damage fund to support especially vulnerable countries dealing
with the effects of climate change.
The most vulnerable are usually the ones left behind, sometimes because they don’t have
a voice, sometimes because they have very little power, and sometimes, because people with
privilege or those in power make the choice to turn away, close their eyes, and deny their
struggle and even their existence. The Indigenous people of Canada have experienced this, as
nations within our borders that suffer from lack of clean water, lack of resources, historical
trauma, and loss of homes, some due to the climate crisis.
In his letter, James says in order to follow the law of scripture, we must love our
neighbour as ourself, and sometimes that means not showing partiality.. “What good is it,” he
writes, “if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save,
can it?” He gives an example of someone who is naked and lacking daily food and being told,
“Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” but not being offered a blanket or food. He says,
“what good is that?” James doesn’t discount faith, or say that one has to work for their salvation,
but, he does write, that “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
Everyone of us has vulnerabilities but we also experience multiple privileges. We might
complain and some of us are more privileged than others, but for the most part we all have
access to clean water, to an abundance of food, clean and dry shelter, and most of us are not
experiencing the affects of climate change. Don’t get me wrong; we will experience the affects
more and more, but, right now, we don’t have to worry about having clean water or about
droughts, or be afraid of our homes and even our whole country being washed away. We need to
start paying attention though. Loving our neighbour as ourself has become an imperative in the
fight against climate change, as our whole earth grows warmer and the effects become more
severe, and what happens to our neighbour will soon affect us.
This was not an easy sermon to write as these are hard truths to share and not the good
news we like to hear at church. So here is the good news. This earth on which we live, this
beautiful blue and green planet, that teems with such a diversity of life, is a treasure and a gift.
May we appreciate the abundance of this planet. May we offer our praise and thanksgiving for
the wonders of this earth. May we value all the life this planet supports, not being partial to just
parts of it, but treating all life as precious, connected, and worthy of our care and our love. May
it be so. Amen.
James 2:1-10, 14-17
(Introduce yourself.)
I am reading from a letter by James. Many are unsure of when this letter was
written but many think it was written after the letters of the apostle Paul, but before
many of the gospels were written. Some people think that James wrote that one is
saved through one’s good works, but actually James believed that good works
come from a strong faith. “Faith by itself,” he writes, “if it has no works, is dead.”
I’m reading from the second chapter, the first ten verses, then verses 14 to 17.
2 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while
showing partiality. 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your
assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice
of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,”
while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” 4 have
you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to
be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love
him? 6 But you have dishonoured the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you?
Is it not they who drag you into the courts? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the
excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your
neighbour as yourself,” you do well. 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and
are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but
fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does
not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? 15 If a brother or sister is naked
and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat
your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So
faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture. Amen.