The Lenten message posted on a neighborhood Baptist church’s signboard reads:
Seek Justice
Love Mercy
Walk humbly with God
What might Micah’s message to the Israelites [Micah 6:9] ask us to do today, in the context of being better stewards of this good earth, our island home? Lent is a compelling time to ponder these things.
“Seek justice,” often rendered “do justly” – We are all of us trying to learn, exploring what this might mean for feeding and housing ourselves as a species, for building better lives for our grandchildren. Have the abundance of our natural resources made us indifferent to how we use them, and to injustices in how their industrial development impacts different communities?
“Love mercy,” also translated as “do kindness” – How might we use our time and talents to restore disappearing species, whether insect, bird, amphibian, or mammal? How can we recognize those fellow species, not merely as essential to our own well-being, but as valuable in their own right? How can we be kind to other parts of God’s creation, and not limit our vision and interests to human comforts and pleasures?
Walking humbly with God in our time asks us to lighten the footprints we leave in the sands of the 21st Century, the well-documented Anthropocene. Discovering where and how to lighten our carbon footprints can be our task in Lent. The national Episcopal Church has developed an online tool for learning and taking action, an app that invites us to build an account and explore both easy and difficult actions that make a difference. Please read Bishop Michael Curry’s invitation to join this movement, and make this part of your Lenten journey. https://www.sustainislandhome.org/
Joanne Hutton, the Care of Creation Committee
Links to the appointed readings for today:
