Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, photo by pilot Jake Willis

“You Care for the earth and make it fruitful, you greatly enrich it.” Psalm 65:9 REB

“The meadowlands are covered with flocks,
the valleys decked out in grain
they shout for joy;
they break out in song!” Psalm 65:13 CEV

Psalm 65 sings of the joy of creation, and God’s providence. The earth is flush and green, harvest is plentiful, and we see the abundance of God.

But what does it mean when the Earth is on fire? What does that say about God, and our responsibility to the earth we have been given to care for?

Air has been treacherous on recent days, rated between very unhealthy and hazardous. When I stepped outside one day last week, smoke was hanging in the air, coming from the forest fires in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and Superior National Forest, as it drifted across the country. There were thirteen fires burning in the Boundary Waters at the time, while north of the Boundary Waters,  more than nine hundred fires were blazing in Canada . . . Burning through rain starved forests. Fires have destroyed forests across North America and also in Europe this summer. The world seems to be aflame.

Meteorologists point to the changing climate, for the vast number of fires. Where I live in Minnesota, it is difficult to ignore our changing climate. Every farmer knows their planting and harvest seasons are different, than in their childhood.   Hotter summers,  and less dependable rainfall are symptoms of an unhealthy planet.

The thing is, we have been warned. For decades, scientists have been warning us we were reaching a climate tipping point. Their prophetic words are now visible, as oceans rise, storms grow more fierce, glaciers melt, island nations are in danger of disappearing, and fires rage around the globe.

Many scoff at the terms Climate Change or Global Warming, yet scoffing does not take the truth away. More than ever our world, needs to act, reducing the greenhouses gasses negatively impacting the earth. The Paris Climate Accord was a step in the right direction. To our shame we pulled out of it, more concerned with oil company profits than the well-being of the earth and all of God’s children.

We’re in this world together. What affects one person in some way affects all of us. In the mist of this global crisis, as the earth warms, the question is not so much what we should have done, but what we can do now, to prevent climate change from  getting even worse, preserving what we have.

To do that takes cooperation, commitment to the common good, and a willingness to put into place actions that will turn this destructive cycle around. There is no more room for denial, or pretending fossil fuels do not affect the environment, nor time to delay. Acting now is a moral imperative.

So, where is God in all of this? God is in the prophetic voices naming the crisis, demanding we act. God is calling us, to let go of our political biases and our wavering commitments. God is reminding us of creation’s gifts, given to us. Pleading with us, to protect and care for our home, even as God cares for all of creation . . . even as God cares for each of us.