Creation Season: Desolation

Mark 11: 12-20; Jeremiah 14: 1-9; Revelation 6: 12-17

Our readings today really are a depressing subject. Yet, when looking over these readings I was struck by how apt the reading from Jeremiah really is. It describes a great drought and a parched land. The author of Jeremiah describes the nobles and elites sending their servants for water, to find that there is none. The farmers despair and the natural world – depicted as the doe and the donkey – starves and wilts as the plants are diminished. How similar that feels to the record-breaking summer we have endured this year, the constant heatwaves and the dead gardens.

Our farmers are struggling with a greatly reduced harvest, which will, no doubt, impact the already high costs of food later in the year. Perhaps it seems like we’re back to normal after some wet weather, but we’re not. Just this week it has been announced by meteorologists that it would take seven months of rain to bring us out of drought conditions by Spring next year.

Throughout Europe, this summer’s heatwaves have resulted in an estimate of over 30,000 more people dying than would have normally been expected. We are left with the brutal reality that the Climate Crisis will make extreme and dangerous weather far more likely, and that if there is not rapid action to help our world then the future we leave to our children and grandchildren becomes all the more bleak.

Be under no illusion, the extreme weather of Climate Change is brought about by humanity. Yet, our response to the disasters is to cover our eyes and bury our heads into the sand. In our response to the Climate Crisis, we have ended up in a spiritual drought as well. We pass off our concerns, ignore the problems or hold up our hands and declare we are powerless.

Yet part of the message of Christianity is the uplifting of the powerless. When Jesus gave his disciples their great commission, he was speaking to perhaps just eleven people. His disciples, minus Judas Iscariot. Eleven people, from which the world now holds around 2.5 billion Christians. Roughly 30% of the Global population.

Around the world, action taken by small groups of people can have an incredible result. In Niger a project managed by local farmers worked to preserve and improve soil quality using traditional forestry techniques and rain harvesting. They not only improved food yields by up to 30% but added nearly 5 million hectares of tree cover.
Across Asia, local people have been brought together to nurture and care for vital coral reefs. Ordinary people, making structures for coral nurseries which boost the biodiversity and increase the fishing yields, resulting in more sustainable food and mitigation of some of the impacts of the climate crisis on their seas.

A project by Earth watch called Tiny Forests, gets local communities to plant dense woodlands of native plants the size of a tennis court in urban areas. Local volunteers build and maintain these outposts of nature, boosting air quality, people's mental health and helping to lower ambient temperatures in the area.

In Scotland, projects at Loch Craignish have resulted in hectare after hectare of seagrass meadows in the loch being restored. Resulting in a flourishing improvement to the biodiversity.

And here in Norfolk, there is extensive work being done by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust to help local initiatives respond to the climate crisis and help restore the natural biodiversity of this wonderful region.

It’s why here, at St Peter’s we’ve partnered with them not only to raise much needed funds to support their work, but also to improve the church grounds.

In short, we are all able to take action. God called humanity to care for and protect His creation. Something which we have failed to do. If eleven disciples could result in 2.5 billion Christians, then imagine what could happen if 2.5 billion Christians sought to protect our planet. Every small act, every small deed that you or I could do is a small stone that helps to set off an avalanche of change.

There is a choice that lays before us. Do we continue to ignore the warning signs from our world? Do we continue to cover our heads like the nobles in Jeremiah? Or, do we take action? We can sit in the drought and the desert, or we can follow our call from God and from Christ to respond to the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced.

The desolation we see around us can become restoration.

Amen.

Rev. Iain Grant.
Eco Chaplain, Diocese of Norwich