Day 20, Monday, 5th March: Jeremiah 14.1-9
On ABC radio this morning I heard that tonight's edition of 4 Corners will address the effect climate change is already having in Australia, and the sorts of things that Australians, in government, the private sector and in the general population are already suffering from and are already doing to meet this gigantic challenge. Average temperatures are rising. Heat waves are growing more prolonged, more frequent and more severe. Average rainfall is decreasing. As significant a company as the wine producer Brown & Bros, has decided to re-situate it cold temperature wine grape growing from the mainland to Tasmania. That is as far as they can go. Nobody envisages being able to relocate again to Antartica!
Brown & Bros' decision reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with an environmental lawyer I fell into conversation with at a function in Delhi several years ago. She happened to live down the Himalayan Valley some 50 km from where I was living. She had married into a family that had taken over much of the apple orchard business the British had started in the nineteenth century. Kullu, with an average elevation of a little under 1,300 metres, had had the ideal climate for apple growing. No longer! This woman told me that because of the warming climate her husband and his family had decided to relocate their orchards northwards and uphill to Manali, where my wife and I lived, and where the average elevation is a little over 2,000 metres. Whether they planned to plant new apple trees or to uproot and move the old ones I do not know. Quite likely they would try to continue apple production in the current orchard while growing new apple trees. Each of these possibilities would entail great expense. How families without the resources of companies like brown & Bros and these Indian orchardists will cope with climate change hardly bears thinking about.
Jeremiah 14 is an interesting passage because of its ecological slant. Verses 1-6 inform us that like Cape Town at the moment there was severe drought. The prophet Jeremiah laid the blame for this parlous state of affairs at the feet of the people:
"our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you."
At the same time Jeremiah called upon, indeed expected God to come to the rescue:
“Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name's sake;"
He called God "hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble".
And with amazing boldness the prophet challenged God:
"why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveller who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should you be like a man confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot save?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not leave us.”
Well AMEN!
I find that the great, current environmental discussion tends to be dominated by denial (by those who are benefited by the status quo), recrimination (by whose temperament bent is in this direction, and who employ the politics of guilt), and (calls to) activism (by those of an activist bent).
Christians properly bring to the ecological discussion a commitment to truth that names denial for the nonsense it is; a theology of sin, repentance and forgiveness that as a response leaves recrimination in the dust; and a belief in a good, loving, activist God who is vitally involved in the affairs of this world and whose steadfast purpose for thousands of years has been to restore it. This is a God who welcomes the very challenges his prophets put to Him. This is the source of our hope and our necessary ecological activism.
Brown & Bros' decision reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with an environmental lawyer I fell into conversation with at a function in Delhi several years ago. She happened to live down the Himalayan Valley some 50 km from where I was living. She had married into a family that had taken over much of the apple orchard business the British had started in the nineteenth century. Kullu, with an average elevation of a little under 1,300 metres, had had the ideal climate for apple growing. No longer! This woman told me that because of the warming climate her husband and his family had decided to relocate their orchards northwards and uphill to Manali, where my wife and I lived, and where the average elevation is a little over 2,000 metres. Whether they planned to plant new apple trees or to uproot and move the old ones I do not know. Quite likely they would try to continue apple production in the current orchard while growing new apple trees. Each of these possibilities would entail great expense. How families without the resources of companies like brown & Bros and these Indian orchardists will cope with climate change hardly bears thinking about.
Jeremiah 14 is an interesting passage because of its ecological slant. Verses 1-6 inform us that like Cape Town at the moment there was severe drought. The prophet Jeremiah laid the blame for this parlous state of affairs at the feet of the people:
"our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you."
At the same time Jeremiah called upon, indeed expected God to come to the rescue:
“Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name's sake;"
He called God "hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble".
And with amazing boldness the prophet challenged God:
"why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveller who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should you be like a man confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot save?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not leave us.”
Well AMEN!
I find that the great, current environmental discussion tends to be dominated by denial (by those who are benefited by the status quo), recrimination (by whose temperament bent is in this direction, and who employ the politics of guilt), and (calls to) activism (by those of an activist bent).
Christians properly bring to the ecological discussion a commitment to truth that names denial for the nonsense it is; a theology of sin, repentance and forgiveness that as a response leaves recrimination in the dust; and a belief in a good, loving, activist God who is vitally involved in the affairs of this world and whose steadfast purpose for thousands of years has been to restore it. This is a God who welcomes the very challenges his prophets put to Him. This is the source of our hope and our necessary ecological activism.
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