When I grew up, rainbows were all the
rage. I was born in 1977. Skittles adopted their slogan, ‘taste the
rainbow’, in 1979. On TV in the 80’s, we watched a cartoon called Rainbow
Brite, about a magical girl in a fabulous rainbow dress who rode a pink
horse. I had rainbow shoes, rainbow
earrings, rainbow hair ties, rainbow clothing…and a rainbow bedspread! And I, of course, became an expert at
coloring a rainbow.
Thanks to Lucky Charms, I was very aware
that at the end of every rainbow there was supposed to be a pot of Gold. And of course now we are all familiar with
the rainbow flag that has taken on a permance beyond little girls’ décor; it has become the official symol
and flag of gay pride and gay rights, implying that everyone has a right to be
flamboyant and all varieties of human can be celebrated.
But until Bible Study this week, I
honestly had never heard this particular story or read this particular
scripture before about the rainbow promise in the bible. I guess I missed that day in Sunday School!
In the book of Genesis, God flooded the
earth, then put a rainbow in the sky as a promise, never again… and as a reminder. God needed a reminder. It makes you wonder… why does he need a reminder for such a
big promise? Is God like the rest of us who walk into a room with purpose but
immediately forget what it was we intended to do there? Or blanking on names that we’ve known for
years? Does he need that kind of
reminder?
Or is it like the reminder for a parent
whose child is driving them bonkers and they are just about to raise their
voice when they see a magnet on the fridge that talks about modeling the
behavior you want to see in your child…? Is it a reminder for people like
dog owners (ahem) who need a reminder that dogs are generally good when they’ve
eaten two pounds of bacon off your counter, not to mention your Bluetooth
headphones, and emptied the trash and trashed the house? Is it that kind of reminder that says, ‘deep
breaths…’?
Well, God is in fact not destroying the earth
this time, we are.
Last year we saw
devastating floods across northeastern Nebraska and Iowa. The NY Times have named them “The Great Flood
of 2019”; across the entire Midwest and south, 3 people died and 14 million
people were affected. There were record
levels recorded in 42 locations. And 1
million acres of farmland were lost across 9 states.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as
posted on the Natural Resource Defense Council’s website; “it is increasingly
clear that climate change “has detectably influenced” several of the water-related
variables that contribute to floods, such as rainfall and snowmelt.”[1]
How does climate change affect
rainfall? According to the NRDC, “A warmer atmosphere holds
and subsequently dumps more water. As the country has heated up an average of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since 1901, it has also become
about 4
percent wetter. In the Northeast,
extreme storms are 27% wetter than they were 100 years ago, and heavy
precipitation events are projected to rise by 50% to 66%.[2]
Flooding is also caused by rising sea levels. In the movie we started last week and will
conclude today, the narrator takes you on a quick trip to get a look at an
Antartica without snow. Indeed, just
last week Antartica saw a heat wave above 65 degrees that melted 20% of the
island’s snow in just 9 days.[3] But the thing that was most chilling was not
the footage of miles of glacial retreat advancing at a pace double that of a
decade ago, or miles-wide chunks of ice ‘calving’ or breaking off into the sea,
but the most chilling was the footage of vast rivers of meltwater cutting their
way through the glaciers, at times looking like an ice-cold lazy river in an
ice canyon, at other times a Niagara River of power all generated by
meltwater. Researchers say these rivers
of water are accelerating the melt, cutting pathways through the ice and
lubricating the underside of glaciers, helping them break away easier. As glaciers melt, two things happen; the ice
caps in the Andes, Himilayas, Alps and Rockies are shrinking, threatening the
water supply of vast populations – and, in the frozen poles of the world, they
drop into the sea causing sea level change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
estimates that, at our current pace and current level of warming, we should
expect the seas to be 10 to 26” higher by the end of the century. 10-26” means several more feet of flooding
during hurricanes and tsunamis, and becomes a real danger to cities like Miami
and NYC that are already at sea level.
But if things continue to accelerate as our consumption patterns
dictate, the accelerated glacial melting could cause the seas to raise dozens
of feet – which will swallow up entire states and island countries.[4] 
We are a covenant
people. We made a convenant with God to
til the earth, to care for God’s creation and God’s people. It seems that it isn’t God who needs to see a
rainbow these days. We are the ones who need a reminder.
The thing is, none of this is a done
deal. None of this scary doomsday
predictions have to come true if we just change – a little. If we just change some of our habits, each of
us just a little but all of us collectively, we can thwart these dire
predictions. Climate change is a problem
because there are so many of us – globally – and so much of it is entangled in
market forces. But – even though there
are billions of people in developing countries like China and India (and we
will talk about that later in Lent;) even though we only make up about 4.5% of
the global population; we use about 17% of the the energy in the world,
according to the US Energy Information Administration.[5] Now, that’s down from 25% in 2005, but
whether that’s because we are using less or other developing countries are now
using more is unclear. What is clear is
that people in other countries hold the American lifestyle as the
standard. As long as we continue to consume
energy carelessly and without regard for others, we model that carelessness for
the rest of the world. But small
behavior changes, like the change on your dresser, collectively add up to a lot
more than you would think!
Now, changing our habits and behaviors can be
hard. At least, that’s what we’re
learning from the Coronavirus. Last week
it seems that the whole country was taught, for the first time officially, to
wash their hands. I don’t know about
you, but I saw the facebook instruction that showed, under a blacklight, just
how much germs are washed away with 6 seconds under water without soap, 12
seconds, and finally clean hands at 20 seconds.
And that made me aware, all week long, how bad I’ve become at
handwashing…6 seconds felt long! And then this week, we were told not to try
not to touch our face. I heard that
headline over and over again…and Ever since, we’ve
all become super self-conscious of how often we touch our faces. Even the President weighed in on how difficult
it was. As annoying as it was, the
reminder has etched it into my brain…. they planted a
seed.
Jesus tells us a parable in the gospel about a
sower who went out to sow, but some seeds fell on the path and became food for
the birds; some seeds fell on rocky soil and were scorched by the sun; some
seeds fell into thorns and became choked by the competition. But there is
always seed that falls on fertile soil and takes root – and when it takes root,
it can multiply 30, 60, and 90 fold.
There are small behavior
changes that each of us can do here in Nebraska, in our homes, that actually
make a huge difference. Most of them are
just smart; turning lights off, keeping the fridge closed, keeping the a/c in. I remember my mom always shouting, ‘the air’s
on!’ when I’d leave the door open, or intercepting me at the fridge when I’d
open it to browse, saying, ‘what are you looking for’? Of course, I didn’t know, that’s why I was
browsing. But now, I’m working on
thinking it thru without opening the door.
And some are more
hidden. For instance, always-on devices,
like computers, or things that use remote controls like DVD players, or
rechargeable batteries, or anything that has a stand-by light or a digital
display creates what energy professionals call a ‘phantom load’ or ‘vampire
energy’ – they suck energy even when you aren’t using them. If each of us go through the trouble of
power-ing down and then unplugging these appliances when we aren’t using them,
we can save ourselves cash and keep some pollution out of the air. If every household in the US did it, it would
equal the electricity needed from 50 large power plants. Another easy change is to wash clothes in
cold rather than hot water, and then hang-dry as much as possible. Carpooling, or walking when possible makes a
huge difference, as does changing your diet to eat local food, order less food,
and eat less meat. If you did these
small changes only some of the time – like decided to participate in meatless
Mondays or washed most of your clothes in cold – adds up. If they fall on fertile soil, each of these
seeds can become a habit – and you’ll never how tall they will grow. Maybe you’ll reduce your utility bills, and
with that be able to buy an electric car.
Maybe you’ll discover you like eating differently and will start your
own garden. Maybe you’ll demonstrate to
the next generation your love for God’s creation through your actions. We are planting seeds, seeing where they go, and
entertaining what habits we can adopt into our lives that make a difference for
ourselves, our kids, our future generations and all the creatures that live on
God’s great creation.
We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to
receive. But we must never underestimate
the power of planting seeds in our lives and in their minds that may sprout one
day.
Because let’s not
forget what it is we are doing here, during Lent. These 40 days are merely the way we remind
ourselves that hope springs eternal, that death rises from the grave, that
seeds break through the soil even when things seemed darkest and frozen. We will rise, just as Jesus did. We can revisit God’s law and spend some time
repenting. We can realign ourselves with our covenant to safeguard God’s
creation. We can rise to the occasion, the needs of the situation we find
ourselves in – and we can collectively grow a new way of living that helps
sustain our world. I know it can be
done, all it takes is a little sunlight, a little rain, some fertile soil, and
a seed. If our pioneer ancestors could
figure out how to grow food in the sandy soils of Nebraska, we can figure out
how to adjust what we do daily to be able to keep growing in the sandy soils of
Nebraska.
[1] https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flooding-and-climate-change-everything-you-need-know#causes
[2]
ibid
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/24/world/antarctica-heat-wave-melt-february-trnd/index.html
[4] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/#close
[5] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=87&t=1
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