Monday, March 25, 2013

Religion begins with wonder


This post is reprinted with permission from our friends at COEJL.  You can see it in its original here.
Passover: The Four Signs of Climate Change Action

By Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz

“… for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)
One: Religion begins with wonder. We stand in awe of the universe around us. We sense the miracle that is existence. Abraham Joshua Heschel called this spiritual feeling “radical amazement.” Such amazement, he taught, is the root of religion and the responsibility that flows from it. We want to preserve that which is precious; safeguard that which we deem sacred. We sense a calling; an obligation. The spiritual is prelude to the ethical.
Passover is a statement of radical amazement. Later, Passover comes to commemorate the miraculous rebirth of a people, but at its most ancient heart, the holiday celebrates the miraculous rebirth of the Earth as it emerges from the dead of winter to the glory of spring. In the same way, the people of Israel emerge from the dead of slavery to the glory of redemption. These foundational stories of radical amazement are retold year after year, generation after generation, to keep the motivating spirit of Jewish identity and responsibility alive.
Moses experiences his own transformational moment of radical amazement while in the embrace of nature. He arrives to a great mountain and on that mountain side beholds a burning bush that is not consumed. Precisely when Moses turns aside to marvel at this sight does he hear the voice of God. Moses feels summoned in that time and place. He hears God call him by name. Moses responds with that classic affirmation of presence, “Hineni” — here I am.
Is it because Moses feels so truly awed and humbled that he removes his sandals in recognition that he treads on holy ground?
Do we recognize the miracles around us? Do we turn aside to marvel? Do we hear the commanding voice? Do we affirm our presence? Do we acknowledge that the very ground upon which we stand is holy?
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God!
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”  (Elizabeth Browning)
Two: The Torah tells us that Moses is “tending his flock” when he comes upon the place that is called “Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Indeed, Moses has withdrawn into the wilderness of his personal isolation. At this point he is far from family and community, minding his goats and his business. He has observed the desperation of his people, reacted impulsively to the injustice before him, but now has withdrawn from the fight. The encounter on the mountain changes something at his core. Moses is still reluctant and afraid. Yet inertia is no longer a plan; apathy is no longer an option.
“God says to man as he said to Moses: Put off thy shoes off thy feet — put off the habitual which encloses your foot and you will recognize that the place on which you happen to be standing at this moment is holy ground.” (Martin Buber)
Moses has come upon a sacred place of understanding that compels him to act. The rest, as they say, is history. The Exodus hinges on this pivotal moment. Moses reengages the fight. He returns to the belly of the beast. Against all odds he will overcome not only the heartlessness of Pharaoh but the despondency of a broken people.
One would like to think that the memory of a mountain, of that amazing encounter that birthed the vision of a covenant restored, sustained him through the darkest period.
That mountain of God is identified as one and the same with Sinai. Moses’ personal epiphany foreshadows the grand event of communal revelation yet to unfold. An entire people will experience their moment of radical amazement. Like Moses, they will be changed forever — not completely, not perfectly, but enough to dare to dream of a different destiny.
Three: The dreariness of winter and the renewal of spring; the dark of Egypt and the light of Sinai; the crush of despair and the release of hope: All this propels the mixed multitudes forward during the long and winding trek toward the promised land.
The eternal rhythms of the Earth, echoed by the story of a people, will animate our ancestors in their annual celebrations of the cycle of the seasons. The Torah commands that the first of three great pilgrimage festivals shall be “…in the month of spring, the time when you came out of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:14)  Radical amazement at the turn of the Earth, and the turn of history, cannot be missed.
“Arise, my darling;
My fair one, come away!
For now the winter has past,
The rains are over and gone.
The blossoms have appeared in the land;
The time of singing has come…”  Song of Songs 2:10-12
The flowers push through the soil to greet the sun.
“Fueled
by a million
man-made
wings of fire
the rocket tore a tunnel
through the sky —
and everybody cheered.
Fueled
only by a thought from God —
the seedling
urged its way
through the thickness of black —
as it pierced
the heavy ceiling of the soil —
up into outer space
no
one
even clapped.”  (Marcy Hans)
Flowers, flocks, family, community — all is reborn. Pesach applauds the miracle of the seed of life sprouting anew. Of course this festival also memorializes the dark side of degradation — the winter of discontent is an inescapable part of the story — but it does so in the context of the stirring song of spring.
Four: When we sense with radical amazement this spring awakening we will reengage both the fight for the planet and the fight for humanity.
We understand that a more responsible environmental policy in general, and a drastically more disciplined energy program in particular, is called for to insure that “so long as the Earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)
During Passover, with close proximity to Earth Day, a discussion on the perils of ignoring energy conservation and the spiraling consequences of climate change as a series of modern day plagues can be provocative. So too can an exploration of our personal enslavements to habit and inertia, coupled with the entrenched indifference and hostility of modern day bureaucracies that echo Pharaoh’s insecurities and hardened heart.
Signing on to an energy covenant as a family and as an institution becomes an ethical imperative and a sacred task. Passover shows the way — the reawakening of the Earth to new life, the reawakening of our spirit to new possibilities, the transformative recognition of self-empowerment — for we stand on holy ground…and our name is called.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Barry Schwartz is the CEO of the Jewish Publication Society. He has served on the grassroots advisory committee of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and he helps lead the environment committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He was a founding member of the Washington chapter of Shomrei Adamah, the first national Jewish environmental organization. Schwartz is also the author of several books, including Judaism’s Great Debates: Timeless Controversies from Abraham to Herzl.
The Jewish Energy Guide presents a comprehensive Jewish approach to the challenges of energy security and climate change and offers a blueprint for the Jewish community to achieve a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by September of 2014, which is the next Shmittah, or sabbatical, year in the Jewish calendar.
The Jewish Energy Guide is part of COEJL’s Jewish Energy Network, a collaborative effort with Jewcology’s Year of Action to engage Jews in energy action and advocacy. The guide was created in partnership with the Green Zionist Alliance.
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Monday, March 18, 2013

Testing the Lord


Rev. Cheryl Pyrch of (PA IPL member) Summit Presbyterian Church graciously shared her sermon from the 2013 National Preach-In on Climate Change.  For the non-Presbyterians out there wondering how she chose this reading from the many, many possibilities: many liturgically-based Protestant Christian denominations use the Revised Common Lectionary, a three-year schedule of Bible readings that specifies the texts that will be preached on a particular Sunday.  If your time is short today, skip to the last 3 paragraphs.  I have no doubt that you'll come back for the rest.


Testing the Lord
Luke 4: 1-12


         I wonder what the devil thought, as he watched Jesus being baptized.  Now, we don't know that he was there  - none of the gospel writers mention him  - but if he wasn't, surely he had an informant. An informant who told him about this man from Nazareth who had the Holy Spirit descend on him like a dove.  About the voice from heaven that said, "You are my son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased."  Was the devil jealous, or did he just realize Jesus would be a really big catch?  Either way, during those forty days in the wilderness  the devil did his best to tempt Jesus into disobedience.  To undermine that father/son relationship.   To perhaps make Jesus a little less beloved.  We aren't told about all the tricks he used in those forty days, but at the end of them he made three final offers.

         "Since you are the Son of God, turn this stone into bread."  It must have been tempting.  Jesus was famished.  But he remembered  scripture, and he knew that he didn't receive the  power of the Holy Spirit to satisfy his own needs.  So he replied, "it is written, one does not live by bread alone."

         Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  "To you I will give their glory and authority; it will all be yours, if you worship me."  It must have been tempting.  Jesus could do a lot of good as ruler of the world's kingdoms.  But he knew that to worship the devil he'd need to disown his true parent.  So he replied, "It is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."

         Finally, the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written "He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you," and "on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone."  Jesus must have been tempted.  He wouldn't get hurt -- the scriptures said so. That  would shut the devil up.  But Jesus knew that putting God to the test, making God "prove" his love, was no way to treat his father. So he replied, "it is said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."  And then the devil departed from him until an opportune time.
                      ___________________________________________________

         In climate change activist circles over the past few years there's been a lot of discussion about how to "message" climate change.  The message that scientists are giving us is straightforward:  if we continue with business as usual, if we don't turn from fossil fuels, we're toast.  The rising seas will wipe out the world's major port cities.  Droughts and floods will kill crops.  We can expect large-scale famine, especially in Africa.   One third of all plant and animal species could be wiped out as eco-systems collapse, our oceans acid wastelands.  Studies and predictions differ on the details.  There's uncertainty about the future, and a lot depends on what we do or don't do.  But most agree:  climate change could wipe out the human race completely.    It probably won't come to that -- glaciologist Edward Alley calls human beings the greatest weed on the planet -- but it could.  More likely, our civilizations -  - organized communal life on a large scale - will come crashing down.   And we have very little time to prevent catastrophe.  We've already put into motion change that we can't yet see.  When disaster is clearly upon us it may be too late.  And those are cautious, sober scientists speaking.

         But that message hasn't gotten a lot of traction.  (Much like the nuclear threat).   Although things are beginning to change, Obama is talking about it, our national leaders act like there's no danger.  The candidates were never asked about it during the election.  Everyone "agrees" there's no way a climate bill will be passed by this congress.  But it's not just politicians.   Even those of us who believe the climate is changing don't talk about it much, or go beyond changing lightbulbs.  There are exceptions, of course, including the thousands marching on Washington today.  But still, especially in the United States, we aren't acting in a way commensurate to the threat.  Stephen Colbert had a very funny spot this past week.  He noted that certain pundits who've been denying the reality of climate change were beginning to acknowledge it, but in the same breath  saying there's nothing we can do about it -- blaming China, everyone's favorite scapegoat.   As Colbert put it, they went through the 5 stages of climate change grief:  Denial, denial, denial, denial, acceptance.  I think that's hilarious, but we have to admit it doesn't just apply to conservatives.  Most of us, in actions if not words, seesaw between denial and acceptance. 
          
         There are many reasons for our passivity.  A well funded disinformation campaign that says there's no danger.  Paralyzing fear.  Other ministries, causes and responsibilities.   Well-founded suspicion of change.   Scientific illiteracy and the still rather abstract and future nature of the threat. .  .   But I also believe we're listening to the devil quoting scripture in our ear; the wily serpent who says, "God will command his angels concerning you.  God won't let humankind destroy itself. God will deliver mankind from the snare of the fowler, the deadly pestilence.  God will protect you and your descendants, and show God's salvation.  God  promised never to send a flood upon the earth again.  Christ will come in clouds of glory.  Have faith.  Those prophets of doom are alarmists."   

         In other words, we're putting the Lord our God to the test.  We're putting the Lord our God to the test with every thoughtless turning of the key in the ignition, and with every shrug of our shoulders when we hear about the melting arctic ice or drought in the Sahel.   It may be that God will protect us from extinction, and I believe we can trust in God's love and a future with hope.  But stepping to the edge of the parapet and leaning over isn't faith.  It's no way to treat our heavenly father.  It's no way to treat our divine mother, the giver of life and creator of the earth and the stars.  We're called to love God, not to test him.  
        
         Our first scripture today, although dated in  specifics, tells us how to love.   By taking care of the land, this earth that God has given us to live on, and by caring for all God's people upon it.   By giving thanks.  By standing with the alien among us.  By remembering the poor, the oppressed, the refugee -- as God remembered our ancestors in Egypt.  So let's follow the example of Jesus.  Let's take ourselves off the pinnacle.  Let's  repent from our self-destructive ways and raise our voices together.   Let's renounce evil and its power in the world, and love God with all our heart, and mind and strength, loving our neighbors as ourselves.  Let's fight climate change.
Rev. Cheryl Pyrch
Summit Presbyterian Church
Luke 4: 1-12
February 17, 2012

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Working in unison


Become a Better Steward and Trustee of the Earth

The members of the Baha’i Faith in Harrisburg, PA held a very inspiring and educational event on February 9, 2013 as part of their "Devotionals and Firesides" series. The goal of this event was to study and reflect on the Holy Scripture of the Baha’i Faith which teaches how the universe and the earth were created. The earth was formed very similarly to the human body in that every organ and segment of it has a critically important role for the life of that creation. We also have to understand the importance of the ecological balance of nature which sustains all lives that depend on it.

Also, there were displays with pictures, graphs, and statistics showing the effects of the climate change on the earth. Another display showed examples of how we all can reuse, recycle, and make useful things with those items.

We will have another gathering to see The Hungry Tide DVD sent by Interfaith Power & Light, followed by discussion and planning for future actions and programs. 
Submitted by
Behzad Zandieh