Climate Change

“Joy is not made to be a crumb”.  So ends Mary Oliver’s short poem ‘Don’t Hesitate’.  Oliver’s poem is a playful but fierce insistence that joy is integral to a full life – even in the face of despair, pain, and human suffering.  But implied in Oliver’s poem is the acknowledgement that joy can be hard; we do hesitate to live joyfully in the face of the world’s pain and so need reminding. 

We are confident
that the light
which shines in the present darkness
will fill the earth
when Christ appears.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Our world belongs to you.

- Our World Belongs to God (Article 6)

“We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because he holds tightly to us.” - R. C. Sproul 

"Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing." - Philippians 2:14-16 MSG

In one of this Sunday’s lenten lectionary texts, the prophet Isaiah conveys a vision to exiled Israel: 

"It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful." - 2 Corinthians 4:6 

Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out. - John 1:3-5 MSG

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. - Colossians 4:5-6

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. - Psalm 73:25-26 

Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don't hold up both truth in tension, you invariably becomes useless and separated from the world God loves. - David Kinnaman