Rev. Dr. Jim Antal reflects on the critical role congregations can play in climate action at such a time as this.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9
For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. – Esther 4:14
PERHAPS YOU AND I HAVE BEEN CALLED for just such a time as this—called as humble yet bold emissaries of God’s truth at a time when history itself is swinging on a hinge. Perhaps you and I and the congregations of which we may be a part have been given everything we need to engage the hydra-headed polycrisis as we recognize the interplay between (at least) the climate crisis; the abandonment of truth, science, and history in favor of alternative facts and conspiracy theories; the ascendency of white Christian nationalism; and the rise of authoritarian plutocratic leadership.1
These crises are not accidental. They are driven by values.
As people of faith, we too are driven by values. While we gather in congregations to worship, we also gather in congregations to strengthen our values and rededicate our lives to witnessing to our values.
The recent election has triggered both fear and grief in many of us as we watch the powerful, plutocratic purveyors of the polycrisis assume positions of political leadership. But if we have been called to just such a time as this, we would do well to embrace both fear and grief as unexpected and perhaps unfamiliar allies. We can welcome as our guides Gen Y climate activists like Greta Thunberg, who reminds us that once we start to act, hope is everywhere. Preachers can draw upon sources like Brian McLaren’s Life After Doom and Britt Wray’s Generation Dread to fashion sermons that offer wisdom and guidance.
Let us not forget the poet’s reminder: “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”
Sixty-two years ago, that courageous champion of justice and harbinger of hope Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us of “the fierce urgency of NOW.” Whether under Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Johnson, King was clear that America needed “a revolution in moral values.” In keeping with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who railed against those who would “abort their conscience,” and following King, who “refused to segregate his conscience,” now is the time for people of faith to amplify the call of conscience as never before.
AS WE SEEK TO BE ATTENTIVE TO GOD’S CALL in a time such as this, we must provide one another with the selfless courage and abundant joy that is ours when we join with others to safeguard God’s creation, the least of these among us, and democracy itself. Rarely can this work be done by people acting on their own. As both Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe remind us: we need to stop acting as individuals. Read the complete reflection HERE.