Amen, Amen: A Pastoral Word Amid Climate Chaos and the Rise of Tyranny

I needed a word of comfort this week; maybe you do, too. Here's a pastoral sermon to offer some balm on our wounds. ALSO: An election is coming up in Ontario next week. Engage, Pray, Vote

Friends who live in ONTARIO, this upcoming panel discussion is for you! I will be one of the panellists. Please join us!

Ontario Election 2025: More than Tariffs A Panel Discussion

Sunday, Feb 23, 3:00-4:15 PM EST on Zoom

Information to help you faithfully discern your vote and continue advocacy after the Feb 27^th election. Brief presentations by five panel members on selected topics.

Panelists will respond to questions from the audience.

Advance registration required: https://united-church.zoom.us/meeting/register/Pfy-0rDhQt-l-V5KqspFkw

For more information contact: Thérèse Samuel at tsamuel@united-church.ca or John Egger at jegger@united-church.ca.

Have you heard of repair cafés? They are popping up in communities all over the place. They are events where there are people on hand who are good at fixing things - from mending clothing, darning socks, or fixing bikes and toasters, and more - who can help you repair what needs repair. The idea is to extend the life of items, reducing the level of waste and consumerism, as well as help teach the skills we all need to do more “reuse and repair” and less “throw out and buy new”. Maybe you know how to fix an item, but don’t have the tool you need? Likely it’s at your local repair café! In my city of Ottawa, The Ottawa South Eco Action Network (OSEAN) sponsors repair cafés, like one tomorrow (Feb 22).

Is there a repair café near you? Let us know in the comments!

We are in a climate and ecological crisis, and it’s all hands on deck... Subscribe to join a community of people of faith who care about climate action and find hope and encouragement at the same time!

I promised to write more about climate litigation this week. I am working on an essay for you, but I felt the need to offer a pastoral word of comfort in our scary time. More about climate litigation will come next week! In the meantime, I hope that the sermon below is meaningful for you.

Amen, Amen: Word and Worship as Comfort and Transformation

This sermon is for each of you who is feeling the pain and fear of our world in peril from the climate crisis and threats to democracy, and who needs some comfort.

Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Let us pray:

God of Life, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our minds and hearts lead us to deeper understanding of you and the love you call us to live. AMEN.

I love this scripture reading from Nehemiah. Here we have the story of Ezra reading the Mosaic Law, part of the Hebrew Scriptures, at the city gates to Jerusalem. He is reading scripture out loud to all the people, to men, women, and children who could understand, to both insiders and those who were considered ritually unclean. To anyone who would listen. He is reading the scripture for hours, from morning until mid-afternoon.

For hours, the sounds of scripture wafted over the heads of all who were assembled to listen. Those who were listening encouraged Ezra, they responded with “amen, amen,” yes, go on. They responded with weeping, with tears of many emotions. And they responded by prostrating themselves on the ground, laying down before the word of God, transfixed, transformed.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine being somewhere and just listening to the words of scripture, to the sounds of the word of God, expressed in these texts, being spoken over you? Being spoken, being interpreted, being offered as worship, for hours?

I was talking with my friend, the Rev. Lynne Gardiner, about this. It is such a comforting image to me; I imagine it as a blanket of God’s words, a blanket of wisdom and truth and guidance for me and my life, for my family, for my community. Rev. Lynne was saying how she could picture herself lying prostate as the words were being spoken.

This feels like a comfort that I need right now. I need the words of Scripture so much right now. Maybe you do, too. It is an awful time right now, of climate emergency vying with the rising threat of tyranny coming from the United States. Every day we see on the news and feel their impact on our nervous systems, pictures of weather disasters juxtaposed with power-mad leaders seeking to undo the democracy, however imperfect, that the world has fought so hard to build. Wildfires rage and so do evil egos. Storms wash out roads as the threats to human rights wear away at our dignity, and cause harm to the most vulnerable among us.

I don’t know about you, but I have been feeling so exhausted and discouraged lately. So frightened and anxious. I’m tired of feeling on edge all the time and tired of being scared. Maybe you are feeling some of what I am feeling, too.

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