Rev. David Boyd

One of the political affairs commentators that I've always appreciated and valued is Gwynne Dyer. We see him two or three times a week in the Daily News. He usually has something challenging to say about politics, war, terrorism, global warming and the like. I found his article on Tuesday quite alarming. In essence he said that the global warming science experts that he interviewed in many different countries unanimously agreed that global warming is accelerating at a rate that is far faster than any governments want to believe. Dyer talked about how governments were talking in Honolulu last week about binding carbon emission reduction commitments—although Russia and India refused any mention of this subject in the final statement. Dyer said that even China is hinting that it might consider binding commitments in the long run. "But there is no sense of urgency."

Dyer quoted the journal, Science, saying that by 2030, southern Africa will no longer be able to grow its staple food item, maize; this represents 1/3 of Africa's main food crop. In Australia, there is already trouble; that nation can no longer grow the food it needs for its population. Dyer noted that all of the experts he interviewed felt that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change bulletin issued last year is far too conservative and that bulletin was alarming enough.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said this: its best estimate rises in global average temperatures will be between 1.8º and 4º Celsius by the end of the 21st century. The worst estimate would be an increase by 6.4º C. And the panel unfortunately didn't take into account new research as late 2006, let alone 2007. When once experts were predicting an ice-free Arctic Ocean by 2042, now it is 2013; that's 5 years from now. Dyer concludes with these words, "While high level climate talks pursue their stately progress towards some ill-defined destination, down in the trenches there is an undercurrent of suppressed panic in the conversations. The tipping point seems to be racing towards us a lot faster than people thought."

My purpose in beginning with Gwynne Dyer's thoughts isn't to frighten you; it is perhaps to motivate us all to galvanize our governments into urgent political action. The political climate has certainly changed in the last 2 years, but not nearly enough. Politics still gets in the way of this potential global catastrophe. Harper doesn't want to alienate the oil patch and the rosy financial picture in Alberta, so he doesn't go far enough. US big business is so dependent on the oil industry that the fear is that hard emission reduction targets will destroy the economy—read, destroy the wealth of many very rich people around the world. And I know we all want there to be a future for our children and our children's children. It should be alarming to everyone, including our world leaders, that many of these catastrophes will happen in our lifetime! They are happening already!

Part of why I raise all of this morning is for two reasons. The first reason is that we just heard a part of the story of the how the Jewish people thought of the beginning of the world. There are actually two stories, one of which is the grand story of the universe's creation in 7 days, a grand mythological story; and the second is the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, which really gets at why life can be hard and troublesome. There is a great deal to say about this story, but I want to say just one thing about the stories of creation in Genesis.

And what I want to say is that God created and saw that it was good. In Psalms we hear about the virtues of the world around us. Even the prophets spoke about God's creation and used it analogous ways to think about God and our place in God's scheme of things. There are some beautiful depictions of creation in the Song of Songs and in most of the books of the Bible. So where did we go wrong? Our Christian legacy, until perhaps 50 years ago was to accept Augustine's theology, taken to an extreme by some Reformation theologians including John Calvin, that the earth and its resources were to be exploited and used; this was because the material world was seen to be less important than the spiritual. And since creation was of the material world, it had no intrinsic blessing or worth in the spiritual realm. Augustine emphasized the virtues of the spiritual plain and the false separation, based on some Greek philosophies, between spirit and body, between soul and flesh, between human and creation. Humans were seen to be spiritual beings and the rest of creation merely material, and therefore inherently evil. This gave rise to the doctrine of Original Sin, which the Church has been trying to shake off for the past 50 and more years.

But was this God's intention? Were Adam and Eve to see themselves above the rest of creation as spiritual beings? Quite clearly, the answer is no. Jewish people did not create the same separation as Greek philosophers did, between body and spirit, between God and creation. There was a unity there that was important, and scholars like Matthew Fox, David Hallman, Dorothy Solle, and many others have pointed to the inherent goodness of creation, pointing to a new doctrine which Fox coined Original Blessing.

Unfortunately, Calvin based his economic and social theories on Augustine and the dominance of human beings over creation. Calvin, many believe, gave theological sanction to the industrial revolution. His thoughts led to many of our economic beliefs that are troublesome, like individualism, the protestant work ethic, competition, scarcity of resources, exploitation. Now, I'm painting a bit of an extreme picture here, but you get the point, I'm sure. We need to throw those ideas out and embrace the vision of creation that emphasizes jubilee, blessing, Sabbath, love, and the mystery of God that we see in creation, not separated from.

I had two theological reflection points that I wanted to make about Gwynne Dyer's thoughts on climate change. My second point relates to the testing story recorded in Matthew's gospel and also found in Mark and Luke. After his baptism, Jesus is tested in the wilderness by the tempter. On a superficial scale, this story is about temptation. Ultimately, it really isn't about temptation so much as it is about honour and Jesus' and even God's identity in the world. But putting that aside, let me offer some thoughts on temptation.

I believe that we are at a cross-road with respect to our life-style choices. What impact will our life style choices have—what impact have they had—on the world around us and climate change? In the West we are subjected to temptations day in and day out. Unless we throw away our computers, never watch TV, never listen to the radio, never go outside so that we might see what our neighbours are doing, and never talk to anyone about what is happening in the world, we might never have to hear about the latest things that will make our lives easier. We might never have to face temptation. But as we are social beings, we want to interact with others; we want to be progressive and modern. And ad agencies capitalize on that fact. And so we face temptations to buy things, to acquire things, to get the latest gadgets. And unfortunately, we are manufacturing things to be replaced in a few short years. Temptation abounds and those temptations have consequences.

But Jesus invites us, not so much to resist temptation, but to affirm God's place in our lives and the original blessing of all life. Jesus invites us to think about life styles and our choices and ask the simple question about the gift of life and is this sustainable in the long run. It isn't a question of "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do?)—that's far too superficial. It is a question, though, of thinking about God, God's gift of creation and our place in God's scheme of things each time we make a major decision. It is about thinking of the impact of our lives on our children and children's children. It is about thinking that we are part of the web of life. Taking these things into account will lead us to conclusions that will change global warming and begin to restore the balance in creation.

Many blessings to you and to this earth where we live. Amen.