Let Justice Roll Down Lesson Nine
Lesson Nine: Sustaining Creation’s Health for All
Scripture: Genesis 1:29–30; Psalm 104; Isaiah 2:1–5; Micah 4:1–4; Matthew 13:31–32
Sustaining Creation’s Health for All
Many in our generation think the natural world is somehow “out there,” rather than everywhere. The western world has increasingly viewed human culture as separate from nature.
But that is not a worldview shared by our forebears, including scripture’s writers. Biblical Hebrew, the language in which the Old Testament was written, had no word for nature as a category. There were many words for elements of the physical world around us—for individual animal and plant species, for the wind and sea and sky and desert. But until just a few centuries ago, Hebrew had no general word for nature. Nor did biblical Hebrew have a word for culture as such. While modern westerners separate “nature” as a category from “culture,” the writers of scripture made no such mistake. Rather, to them, human culture was embedded in the natural world. We are part of it. And whatever happens to nature, they understood, happens to us.
Lesson 9, “Sustaining Creation’s Health for All,” begins with Psalm 104’s jubilant celebration of God’s creation, united in a world that is whole, in which humans find their place as one species among many that share the earth. Its single sour note, in the final verse, acknowledges that everything is not right, saying, “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more” (v. 35). It’s a realistic prayer—even the most kindly of us sometimes wishes that our adversaries disappear. In words immortalized by the rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof, “May God bless and keep the Tsar—far away from us!” We may differ on who we think the wicked are, but we share the sense that all is not right in the human world and the desire for better.
Lesson 9 goes on to cite some crucial developments in recent science and economics, most notably the recognition of how very much we owe to “ecosystem services,” the functions of the natural world that we take so much for granted, failing to include them in our calculations. It’s impossible to overstate the enormity of this error, which is often discovered only when parts of the natural world are disturbed or destroyed. When an Appalachian mountaintop is removed in West Virginia or eastern Kentucky, for instance, forests disappear, along with birds; streams are polluted from toxins and heavy metals that leach from the exposed rock; human lives and livelihoods are disrupted, never to return. When a cross-country pipeline leaks thousands of barrels of bitumen, contaminating waters and lands in a preventable spill, ruining farmland or neighborhoods. Or when the oceans heat up, destroying the coral reefs that are the ocean’s rain forest, or when hurricanes destroy whole communities as happened recently to Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
One of my dearest friends lives in Oracle, Arizona, which is also home to Biosphere 2. It was called “2” because Biosphere 1 is, clearly, Planet Earth itself. The 3.14-acre series of domed habitats was built in the 1980s as an experiment for developing long-term self-sustaining space colonization technology. After multiple years of building, recruiting and training, four men and four women became subjects of study, living in the sealed “biosphere” for two years from 1991 to 1993. Another crew stayed for six months in 1994. Despite intensive planning, and despite the crews’ grueling work growing, harvesting and preparing meals, it was discovered that they suffered from calorie deficiencies and oxygen depletion. Species that had been carefully cultivated to live in harmonious mini-ecosystems vanished. Interpersonal conflicts raged. Much was learned, but the Biosphere 2 experiment demonstrated the precariousness of replacing the earth’s evolutionary intelligence with human-made systems. As climate advocates often say, “There is no Planet B.”
As I have traveled and spoken this year with so many Presbyterians who are engaged in this Bible study, I have heard so many say that they learned a great deal they hadn’t known before—and even, from some, that they hadn’t set out being eager to learn. I’ve also heard from some that the study has inspired them to get busy on environmental justice issues in their local communities—and so many women in so many places have taught me about what is going on in their own communities. I hope that everyone who studied together will find in themselves renewed motivation to defend the earth that we live on and the communities most vulnerable upon it. This is not DEI or anything else that may be out of favor to some Americans. It is simple humanity. It is simple faithfulness to the God who commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our deep-set and long term mission as Christians abides, and with courage we can each abide with it.
Some of you have heard me, or perhaps others, discussing the “Spectrum of Allies.” Here is an illustration of it from the Commons Library:
The idea here came out of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and I find it a dynamic understanding. In the present case, we who put out effort for environmental justice stand in the “active allies” wedge of this half-pie. We don’t have to concern ourselves with the “active opposition” on the far end of the spectrum—we don’t find them likely conversation partners. Instead, we invite the sympathetic people who aren’t yet active, the “passive allies,” to join us. During the civil rights movement, this meant, for instance, inviting northerners to the southeast to help register people to vote. As passive allies areactivated, “neutrals” begin to wonder if there isn’t something to all this activity after all. “Passive opponents” become confused, and “active opponents” lose their base of support. This is how social change happens, and it really does work. So a question you may wish to ask is, “Where am I on this spectrum? How can I move myself over? How can I invite my friends, family members, and fellow Christians to do the same?”
Back in Lesson 6 I introduced Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, one of my inspirational heroes. She has a new book out called, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures. In the book she interviews experts working on all kinds of solutions and describes the world we are already equipped to build. You may wish to read it, or you may wish to revisit her TED talk, “How to Find Joy in Climate Action,” either for yourself and individuals you know or to help guide your congregation’s particular calling as a whole.
I also recommend a third resource I find truly inspiring, Bishop Mariann Budde’s 2023 book, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith. It is only partially about environmental action. But it is fully about living into the moment that we as individuals and as a country are in, while keeping our Christian faith and commitments to all God’s people intact.
One way or another, whether through thinking about the spectrum of allies, or through revisiting Dr. Johnson’s TED talk, or by studying together on what it means to nurture our courage, it is my prayer that you will all and each find your way into spurring on the environmental justice movement where you live, and find hope and joy in the very acts of helping save life for our neighbors. Once again I thank you for allowing me to be part of your Christian faith journey in 2024-2025.
Patricia K. Tull
Author of the 2024–2025 PW/Horizons Bible study, Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation.
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This blog is the ninth in a series of nine blogs.
Let Justice Roll Down is the Presbyterian Women in the PC(USA), Inc. Bible study for 2024-2025. Go to presbyterianwomen.org/bible-study/justice to find more resources and purchase Let Justice Roll Down to study along with us. Call 800/533-4371 or order online.
