Slideshow image

The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.   Psalm 89:11

As World Environment Day, June 5th, approaches I find myself reflecting on Qualicum’s youth presentation last week to the Qualicum City Council on the Climate Crisis.  As a person of faith, as a Christian, I care deeply for God’s first call to Adam to care for God’s creation.  Can I as a Christian be more faithful to God’s first and primary call to our kind?  

After all these centuries many Christians still wonder why they should, as Christians, care about the climate crisis.  After all Jesus never mentioned it. It wasn’t an issue in his day, but he did preach and advocate for justice.   The climate crisis is jeopardizing the health and well-being of our most vulnerable neighbors around the world and in Canada.  This is a matter of serious injustice—it’s not fair that the people who do the least to cause the problem bear the burden of the crisis first and worst. And because we believe in a God who calls us to steward the earth wisely and pursue justice and peace, caring for God’s creation and God’s people is a deeply Christian issue. 

As Christians, God calls us into a journey of sacrificial, transformative discipleship in order to become more like Christ. To respond faithfully and compassionately to the suffering caused by the climate crisis is to participate in this journey. 
We can take the first step by making thoughtful life- style choices that minimize our individual impact on the climate crisis—like buying and using less, reducing our energy use, eating less meat, recycling, and composting. You can find your individual footprint and discover ways to reduce it.  This is personal disciple- ship.   We can go deeper in our journey by taking action for the well-being of our climate-affected neighbors—praying for and petitioning our members of Parliament, municipal councils, to prioritize climate, advocating for policies that address the climate crisis, supporting and voting for local legislators who share this concern, and even voting with our feet in the streets through direct action. This is public discipleship.   This is what the youth of Qualicum did so bravely last week.

When we tune into the litany of climate disasters happening at such a massive scale and speed, it can be so easy to slip into despair and apathy. And yet biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann reminds us that the basis of Christian hope is the reality that God is a real character and effective agent in the world.  Hope is created when we partner with the living God, bound to God’s vision of a transformed, renewed, and reconciled world where all creation can flourish. What better way to experience that reality than to stand alongside our brothers and sisters on the frontlines of the climate crisis and advocate for justice? 
In the process of participating in this ministry of reconciliation, we recognize we too are being transformed into the likeness of Christ. We recognize that commitment to climate discipleship in community will involve creativity, talent, and compassionate sacrifice from each member of this body. Climate discipleship will also require seasons of rest, art, resistance, and joy as we build this movement. That is hope against hope. 

For more on this please read Sojourner’s article:   https://sojo.net/sites/default/files/climate.qa_.pdf

How do you partner with God, with Jesus, to transform, renew and reconcile God’s world where all creation can flourish?

Photo by Seth Cottle on Unsplash