Isaiah 24.1-13, Romans 8.9-24
We sometimes imagine that the challenges which we face today are entirely new. And some are, of course. No previous generations have had to confront the emergence of artificial intelligence or the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
But what about environmental challenges like the ones caused by global warming and the proliferation of dangerous, untested chemicals in our kitchens, our water supply and the air we breathe? These have never been seen before on a global scale, but they're not entirely new.
The first Easter Islanders laid waste their environment by cutting down all the trees. Their civilization collapsed and they were driven out, leaving behind some really impressive statues.
The Old Testament passage we read today is attributed to the prophet we know as First Isaiah but it is actually a fragment of poetry of unknown origin which the editors of the Book of Isaiah have woven into their collection of his prophecies because it seems to fit the context he was living in. The desolation of the earth could refer to an invading army destroying everything in its path and besieging the City of Jerusalem. But in reality nothing in the poem connects the destruction specifically with the Holy Land and the City of Chaos could be any great city which had swallowed up the surrounding land and caused environmental degradation by polluting its surroundings.
As such the poem has a striking resonance with the world as we know it now and our own preoccupations. Roger Abbott, a researcher working with The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion interviewed by contemporary scientists and found they had very similar views to the unknown prophet. They lamented the damage to rainforests, coral reefs and native trees like the Ash, which have all been devastated by human folly. Believers would call it disobedience to God’s will.
With amazing prescience, the poet describes how the whole earth, not just his corner of it, will eventually be laid waste and made desolate by the consequences of human sinfulness and disobedience.
The poem says, “The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled, …and no one will escape the effects. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.”
Exactly what laws have been transgressed is far from clear. Is the poet referring to Genesis, where God commanded human beings to be good stewards of creation? And is the covenant which has been broken, the one made between God and humankind at the end of Noah's Flood? If so, and most scholars think it is, the poet must sees it as a two way process which lays obligations on both parties, God to provide an orderly, predictable world and human beings to work alongside God in caring for the Earth. And the port sees that we must inevitably be judged for this failure and, in the process, there can be no escape for anyone. The oppressed will suffer alongside their oppressors.
The poem is also remarkable in seeing consequences for urban life as well as for Nature. It says, “Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into ruins.” And this can't just be a reference to Jerusalem or other cities in Palestine because the poem continues, “For thus it shall be on the earth and among the nations…”
However, despite the striking similarities between the poem and our own lived experience, it cannot simply be mapped onto our situation. The poet refers repeatedly to the earth and it's crops drying up and withering like the Berberis in our garden which was planted six years ago and seemed to be flourishing until the current drought, when it has suddenly dried up and withered. What the prophecy fails to foresee is that climate change causes extreme weather and both ends of the spectrum - not just drought but also increased wet weather and flooding. Two winters ago we lost an apple tree which was under water for about six weeks and whose roots literally drowned. This is poetry not forecasting.
This is not the sort of inspired text which is obviously true because it gets all the facts exactly right. What the poet does understand l, though, is that human irresponsibility has offended against God's holiness, justice and righteousness. What we have done breaks God’s heart. As the poem puts it, “The heavens languish together with the earth.”
Roger Abbott writes, “Surely there can be only one appropriate response: lament, repentance and trust in the same Saviour [for whom St Paul tells us “the whole of creation is waits with eager longing to be set free from its bondage to decay” by the redeemed and at last obedient redemption “children of God”.
The editors of Isaiah saw this too, for they added to chapter 24 which foretells the restoration of the earth when people turn back to God in joyful obedience, when wallowing in doom and gloom gives way to hope-filled action.
I've not included the second half of the chapter in my reflection. This is partly because its tone is more uneven. Promises of a new beginning are interspersed with further prophecies of doom. But it's also because to do so would let us off the hook too easily. As Roger Abbott says, the prophecy we have heard today rightly focuses on “the horrific abuse carried out upon creation by its human carers. As the [poem] makes clear, such abuse of creation will inevitably make human lives and Nature miserable and empty. But the reality is that the Earth is innocent; it is her shameless carers who have broken faith with God and committed this horrendous evil. Repentance and lamentation have to come first, before we can respond by starting to put things right.
So what lessons can we take away from this passage in Isaiah?
First that the Earth does not belong to us, but to God.
Second that the damage which human beings are doing to the Earth is a personal affront to God.
Third the poet imagine's God bringing down his wrath on human beings and subjecting them to a terrible judgment but I think we can see that we have brought the judgment on ourselves. We have tampered recklessly with the delicate balance of our environment with devastating consequences.
And finally, it's not too late to collaborate with God in trying to address the problems we have brought on ourselves. We were called to be caretakers of the Earth and we have not lived up to our calling. We have been careless instead of careful. We have only to turn that around and seek that wisdom and the inspiration to become good caretakers. Each one of us can play our part in mitigating the disaster that is unfolding. This chapter goes on to say that faithful people will continue to “lift up their voices [and] sing for joy…” because God, not humankind, is sovereign over the Earth.
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