The scriptures, both the Jewish and the Christian, present God’s concern for the poor (anawim). God has always been partial to the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. To practice care for the poor means that we identify with the poor, listen to their struggles to survive and the tragedies that they experience. In the segment “Crimes Against Nature” from the video series, Renewal, we witness how mountain tops are wastefully harvested through explosions, toxic chemicals polluting the water table and streams harming humans and other life. I am deeply touched by the testimony of the mother who bathes her child in water laced with arsenic and other toxins. We hear the cries of the land as the coal companies explode the mountain tops and the cries of animal and human life. Here the poor are the cries of the Earth community and all life, human and non-human. They are the poor, and they will be the ones to most suffer the climate changes of the future. The poor always suffer while the wealthy have means to escape the ravages. God’s option for the poor includes the Earth and all life that inhabits the Earth. Albert Schweitzer remarked, “Ethics means unlimited responsibility for everything existing and alive.”

I want to address how we as Earth-centered Christians might approach the scripture and try to listen to voices of the Earth in the Bible and how Jesus gives an example how we relate to the cries of the Earth and the poor.

The prophet Hosea utters these words some 2600 years ago, but they could today over what humans are doing to the land.

Hear the words of the Lord, O people of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness and loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land. Swearing, lying, murder and stealing and adultery break out; bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and who live in it languish, together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea. (Hosea 4:1-3)

This reading could be easily applied to human recklessness in mountain top harvesting of coal, destroying the environment, harming animal life and human beings alike for greed of energy. Here in Hosea we hear the land, the Earth voicing its indictment against humanity.

Humans are created in God’s image so they can exercise dominion of the earth. They ordered to subdue and dominate the Earth in Genesis 1. And this has become a human principle in dominating the Earth, exploiting greedily its resources, without any constraint or thought of future generations. Sallie McFague has three principles for human beings living with the Earth: Take your share (of resources), Clean up after yourself, and Keep the house (Earth) in repair for future occupants. These are good principles to remember as we live out vocation as “Green” or Earth-centered Christians.

First, Hosea states, ‘there is no faithfulness and loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land.” Because of the command to subdue and dominate in the account of Genesis, humanity has often attempted to dominate, exploit recklessly, and without any thought than short term profitability and greed. But what about life impacted? What about the future for later generations? Hosea’s indictment that “no knowledge of God in the land” points to the secular devaluation of the Earth and other life to serve its own purpose. It has forgotten the wisdom that our ancestors and native people have long known…
We have lost our ability to listen to the voices of the land, the plants and trees, and animals and the voices of the sea. We ignore the agonized cries of all those from the Earth-community. There is a profound selfishness that ignores the poor and homeless and blame them for their plight.

We listen to the voice of the Earth here and other places in scripture. There are six “green” or creation-centered principles that we need to be aware of when we read the Bible according to biblical scholar Norman Habel who has shepherded the Earth Bible Project:

1) The universe, the Earth and all its components have intrinsic worth. All creation is loved by God.
2) The Earth is a community of interconnected living things that are mutually dependent on each other for life and survival.
3) The Earth is a subject capable of raising its voice in celebration and against injustice.
4) The universe, Earth and its components are a part of dynamic cosmic design within which each piece has a place to play in the overall goal of that design.
5) Earth is a balanced and divine domain where responsible custodians can function as partners with, rather than rulers over Earth, to sustain its balance and a diverse Earth community.
6) Earth and its components not only suffer from human injustice but actively resist them in the struggle for justice. Introducing Ecological Hermeneutics

These Earth-centered principles are used by Jewish and Christian interpreters of the Bible. Such readings shift a human-centric reading of scripture and provides a more inclusive creation-centered perspective, that is, a perspective from God.
I read the first reading from Hosea 4:1-3 as the cries and mourning of the Earth and the prophet Hosea hears those cries. It points to our need to carefully hear the cries of the Earth community today and give them voice to those unable to listen to the Earth.

Hosea observes, that the land mourns over those who live in it languish. Rather the Earth mourns the subversion of God’s created order depicted poetically in the creation account in Genesis. This time creation is reversed, from humanity to wild animals, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea. Israel. Now modern humanity, has upset the balance of God’s created order. So the Earth indicts humanity and mourns the degradation resulting from human destruction. Humanity has the destructive power and now the capability because our technology and industrial waste released into the atmosphere, into landfills, and into the oceans, we can undo the evolved created order of the evolution of a balanced Earth capable to support diverse life.

In Genesis 2, God gives humanity the mission to serve. God cares for all creation. How do we move from a human-centric perspective of acting towards the Earth to identify with the Earth community as siblings and seek the voices of the Earth community who are our sibling relatives?

There are several places in the scriptures to look for answer to my question. I want to look at Jesus an example. Certainly, Jesus was not aware of the environmental issues of today’s climate change, environmental degradation, and the extinction of species during his life. However, he had first-hand experience of domination by the Roman Empire and its colonization of Galilee and Judea. He witnessed the impact of conquest, spiraling indebtedness of peasants and their displacement from their farmlands, religious fundamentalism, and burdensome Roman and religious taxation, and so. Given the choice between domination and service, we see in the gospels that Jesus chose service. Here is his words in Mark 10:42-45)

You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not among you: but whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Child of Humanity came not to be served but to serve and give his life as ransom for many.

Jesus’ commitment to service and compassionate care for the poor can be extended to the Earth and all life. Biblical scholar Norman Habel writes,

The way of Jesus –serving rather than dominating—clearly stands in tension with the mandate to dominate in Genesis 1. I would go so far as to say that the way of Jesus supersedes the mandate to dominate. (Habel, An Inconvenient Text)

The principle of Jesus is service as a slave. Jesus is freely choosing service as a slave, the lowest and humblest position in his society. His introduction of his disciples and his audience into the new ways of God’s reign is that of serving, not being served. Serving has the built-in notion of listening and caring for the needs of the “other.” Jesus chooses to serve rather than the path of domination and ruling.

He models for us in the 21st century how we might care for the Earth and its community of interrelated life. As the incarnation of God, Jesus models the most profound image of God. He defines God as who is other-centered in love and compassionate care.

I want to end with a story:

The Maori of New Zealand reenact the arrival of their ancestors from across the ocean more than a thousand years ago. They are confronted by four fierce guardians of the volcano, the ocean, the forest, and the wind. As they come unto the land, they hear the cry of mother Earth: will you be guardians of my land? Their call echoes the cry of the Earth in Genesis 2. Will you be my guardians? (Habel)

Indigenous peoples like the Maori are more in tune with listening to the voices of the Earth—the plants, the animals, ocean, forest, volcano, and wind. Indigenous peoples factor in their ability to co-live with the Earth; they focus their attentiveness on living with and maintaining the existence of other beings because other beings are our siblings and have the right to exist.

Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff has spoken for the indigenous peoples of Brazil. He tells us modern folks we need to recover a shamanic consciousness:

Inside each of us lies the shaman dimension. That shaman energy causes us to stand speechless in the face of the immensity of the sea, to sense the eyes of another person, to be entranced on seeing a newborn child. We need to liberate the shaman dimension within us, so as to enter into harmony with all around us, and to feel at peace.

Will you follow Christ and use his principle of service to care for the Earth? Will you commit yourselves to be guardians of the Earth community this climate Sunday?

Join Me in the following Earth Covenant:

We, the MCC / United Church of Christ in the Valley, proclaim our love for God’s Creation and profess our belief that the Earth and all life are an interconnected part of the sacred Web of Life. We acknowledge we too are part of the Web of Life.

We covenant together to commit ourselves as a church and individuals in the great work of healing, preservation and justice as we strive to reduce our individual and collective negative impact on the environment and to repair the damage that has been done to God’s Earth. In worship and church life we will express our appreciation and give praise for the Earth and display a reverence for the Earth community of life. We commit ourselves to principles of taking only what we need, cleaning up our damage to Earth we do, and keeping the Earth in repair for the future.

We make this covenant in the hope and faith that through our Earth care we will be able to help improve and sustain the health of the land, air and water for the benefit of all current and future inhabitants of this Planet. Amen!