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Who are we humans in the face of climate change?

 Susan Adams reflects on the kind of approach to faith that will help us tackle climate change 
Rev Dr Susan Adams

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Who are we humans in the face of climate change?

Transcript
As I mentioned, just a group of about 15 people are. So that's been meeting for the last few weeks to explore. What might comprise a faith for today able to sustain us and Empower Us in the face of the issues and the context of our time in history And from our conversations this morning sermon has been drawn. So if you want to talk about any of the sermon content find one of those people who were singing from the conversations, however it it has clearly come to mean letting go of most of the doctrinal statements that have comprised of right Faith until fairly recently. We're giving consideration to what we might put in their place. I'll work together as provocative and a little scary but it's serious theological work. That is unsettling for many of us. It's hard to let go Notions words, images and metaphors. That have that have we've held since childhood? Things like God, the Father who will forgive us and judge others who will reward our efforts and respond to our prayers, who will fix things when we get them wrong. Things like the Son of God who died on the cross to save us. And even the angels who might watch over us? And over the last couple of weeks, we've been, considering our Theology and our faith in the light of the current climate crisis. Because this crisis now shapes our time and history and our Theology, and our faith must speak to it. And offer us resilience to face it. And so we ask Who are we, who are? We humans And who knows? God. we haven't found the definitive answer yet, but the question has, to be asked In one first testament story, you'll be familiar with found in the book of Exodus from about the 15th century BCE, Moses asked God, what his name is. So he'll know what to tell those who ask God's reply is translated as I am who I am though, these days, it is thought, I will be, who I will be maybe more accurate. The latter shifts, the idea of God, from being a finished, being to an unfinished, be coming to a God, always in process of becoming in response to the needs of the people. And the times, whether that be from swarming locusts or plagues droughts, or floods war or famine, so, we ask Who are we humans? And who now has God? We know that we are consumers of the resources of the earth. We are the big consumers. And we inherited a theology that set us on that path long ago, along with stories that gave us dominion over all the Earth and over all the Earth creatures, we assumed all the resources of the earth were for our use and benefit. those of us from the religious tradition that became known as Christian, there is We humans produce nothing. We contribute. Nothing of substance to the well-being of the Earth's life-sustaining cycle. Until we die and we could decompose apart from that, we fool ourselves with Notions of creativity and our capacity to produce things. But in reality we translate transform or transmute. The resources of the Earth from one substance or thing to another by application of our amazing imagination. Everything we use is sourced from the Don'ts of planet Earth from the plants that convert carbon and minerals into food from the rocks and soil from sand and water from the Nettles and carbons under the Earth. Even our very selves in all our amazing complexity are made from the substances of the Earth. Humans from the hummus. Accela make fake says, in her book, a new climate for theology. We are born of the Earth and the Earth will be our tomb. We are of the earth, we belong to the land as Maori wisdom suggests. It does not belong to us. Paul declared to the people of Corinth, who was struggling from their different experiences to understand who this God of his that he was speaking about, could possibly be And he says to them. in whom we live and move and have our being many notable theologians have pondered this image of God in whom we live and move and have our being What could a point us toward today? Who are we? And who now is God? We are of the earth and not separate from it. We are not different in substance and are totally dependent on it for our living. So what of God Of the Earth 2. Do we live and move in God as fish, move in the sea. What can we expect of God then or of ourselves in the face of the climate crisis? There is little doubt. We humans have created the crisis and continue to exacerbate it with the carbon emissions. We're still pumping into the atmosphere. The Earth can no longer clean up our mess at a fast enough rate to ensure our well-being. Eventually acid rain will make its impact droughts and floods affect Food Supplies air pollutants, including pollen will stop breathing, all these things we are seeing and experiencing already and as Nikki byzant says, in the herald this morning, there are no healthy people on a ravaged planet So, who are we humans? And who now is God? There is a thread in our Christian story that differs from the dominant dominion over story with its location of humans as the Pinnacle of God's creation and the suggestion that we've wholeheartedly embraced that the world and all it is. And all that is in. It was made for us. The other thread suggests living well together, respecting and caring for each other and caring for the Earth. We not too keen on this alternative thread because it goes against the grain of all we've been told for the past 400 plus years culminating in post-war consumerism. You know the one that says I am important and I deserve, all I can get the individualistic Theology. And the concomitant psychology as has worked to separate us from each other and to put boundaries around ourselves and our positions, we have divided up the Earth and set boundaries around bits of it for the individual possession of those who have the money to buy it. Well, the means to patrol the borders. As Nations where even setting boundary markers in the oceans and claiming it for our position. We have turned the generous Earth into commodity to produce profit for our individual selves instead of food and commodities for the well-being of communities. The thread of our story, the second thread of our story that we must re complaint must reclaim is that we are mutually dependent. On each other, and with the Earth. That the struggle for justice includes Justice for the Earth. that it is in God that we all live and move and have our being to this end. Our endeavors demand, we stop privatizing and start commenting to use a phrase. I heard it a lecture last week and the protesters at a who motto are an example close to home offering this wisdom. Our imaginations must turn from how we accrue private wealth to how we share common wealth. This is possible if we give deep consideration to the questions, who are we and who now is God? Theologies cause is to help us shape, meaning value, and purpose to shape the questions and ideas that will guide us to living well together and to help us understand who we are and a little more about God. The wisdom of our Christian Heritage. Offers us a way of looking at all. This it offers us a lens through which to look when searching for how we can live well together. The Jesus story suggests, the lens should focus on all Humanity, all living well together in harmony with the Earth. And not only a rich few or the nation's with the most powerful military force, able to dominate others and secure borders. Perhaps as Christians, one of our key contributions to today's climate crisis is to actively promote this other vision of a world in which we all share in a sustainable Earth. it will mean, some of us will have to consume less it will mean knowing ourselves as part of the whole it will perhaps me knowing god as the Matrix of all that is and in which we live and love and have our being As one member of our group said, life within life. When preaching the common wisdom is never to give the last word to someone else was to keep it for yourself. But this morning I want to give my last word to a powerful Prophet. Not a familiar profit from our past but a profit from our future. I want to give the last word as it were to Greta, Thornburg A 16 year old Swedish climate crisis activists to paraphrase what she said when addressing the United Nation leaders at an assembly on climate. She said, I don't care about offending people or being politically correct. I only care about the survival of the Earth's capacity to sustain life for future Generations. I'm not worried about doctrinal correctness but rather the well-being of planet Earth and all who inhabit the Earth human and non-human. I'm concerned that we might all live. Well, and so, I invite you to ask, who are we humans? And who now is God?