Sermon: Covenant Faithfulness in the Climate Emergency

A sermon preached on the 195th anniversary of Wall Street United Church, Brockville ON. It is timely for all of us.

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Hi friends! I am back from two weeks away camping. As I digest my experiences, particularly of a canoe camping trip on Grand Lake in Algonquin Park, Ontario, I am reflecting on what it means to be faithful in this time of climate emergency. The following sermon - preached in the depths of last winter! - offers a way to consider covenant faithfulness in our time. While it is an anniversary sermon, it is timely for all of us.

Scripture Reading

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. ² The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. ³ But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ These took Moabite wives; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons or her husband.

⁶ Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had had consideration for his people and given them food. ⁷ So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. ⁸ But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. ⁹ The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.’ Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. ¹⁰ They said to her, ‘No, we will return with you to your people.’ ¹¹ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, ¹³ would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.’ ¹⁴ Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ ¹⁶ But Ruth said,

‘Do not press me to leave you
    or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
    where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
    and your God my God.
¹⁷ Where you die, I will die—
    there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
    and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. (Ruth 1:1-18 NRSV)

Covenant Faithfulness in the Climate Emergency

Preached on February 26, 2023, at Wall Street United Church, Brockville ON

Photo by Jess Loiterton: https://www.pexels.com/photo/view-of-rainbow-in-sky-6389719/

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.

Happy 195^th Anniversary! That is a milestone. I am grateful to Rev. Kim Heath for inviting me to come and celebrate with you and preach a word of the Gospel into our midst.

Anniversaries are a special time when we can look in three directions at once. We can look to the past, to where we have come from and who we have been. We can look to the present, to where we are now, and who we are in that context. And, we can look to the future, to where we are headed, and who and how we might want to be, as people of faith. Rev. Kim provided me with a brief history of Wall Street United Church, from her doctoral work, and so I have a good sense that you, as a community of faith, have done this kind of three-way visioning before.

And I have a sense that now, today, you are doing so, again. We are living in a time of change, a time of uncertainty, and a time of multiple crises in the world. All of us, as Christians and as communities of faith, need to do this three-way visioning if we are going to figure out where we have come from, where we are now, and where we might go, in responding in this time of change, uncertainty, and crisis. We need to do this three-way visioning if we are going to figure out who we were in the past, who we are now, and who we want to be in the future, in responding in this time of change, uncertainty, and crisis.

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