The first principle of the Earth Charter is “Respect and Care for the Community of Life”. Of course, we start there. We started last week with wonder and amazement and we pick up right where we left off. To respect and care for Earth and life in all its diversity and to secure our planet’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations is no small task. It’s before us in the news, in political debate, in city policies, in household practices, and in decisions we make about purchases and behaviour.
And this conversation is filled with anxiety. Respect, care, and preserving our planet for the future means talking about climate change, about the actions we’ve taken as a species that have made the work of care and preservation harder. It is possible, no – probable – that most of us will at some point have paralyzing anxiety about the melting glaciers, rising sea levels, extinction of species, and the looming spectre of ecological refugees.
Yes, we have to go back a step and start with a bit of good news. The Earth is beautiful. It is worth every word and effort we put into it. It’s our only home.
And so we back up to find some wisdom for us at how to tackle the big questions. Where do we start? We’re going back to some wisdom from the Jesus tradition to talk to us about our anxiety.
Awe is important. We left last week with a challenge to have at least one experience every day that had us standing in awe of something in the natural world. I wonder if we found that easy to do – that it would be hard to limit to having one experience a day…or if we found it a challenge to remember to connect with the earth and with nature…that it was a challenge we’re still working on?
This wisdom we read today talk to us about our obsessions (and it seems nothing has changed in about 2000 years) our obsessions with what we wear, what we’ll eat, how we look and how much stuff we have. In other words, we tend to live with fear at the centre of what we do. We act today out of fear of not enough tomorrow. We act tomorrow out of fear of what to do if disaster strikes the day after. We choose our clothes, our hair, our makeup, our cars, our homes, our whatever…not based on simply what we need, but on how we compare to others, what we’ll look like to others, what someone might think of us. This consumer lifestyle we’ve chosen is one that’s based on anxiety, on comparison, on fear.
The wisdom teacher reminds us to look at the flowers and look at the birds. A blooming bud looks gorgeous and it don’t spend one minute in front of a mirror. The birds don’t have barns or bank accounts and they eat just fine.
The advice? “Give your entire attention to the dream of justice and peace, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. You will be able to deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel, noted Jewish philosopher of religion, loved trees and also popularized the term “radical amazement”. Herschel intuited that real wisdom births out of wonder, not doubt or fear.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 hold anxiety and awe in dynamic tension. Awe, wonder, and radical amazement are spiritual resources for us at a time when there’s so much to do in terms of the monumental tasks of caring for the community of life in all its diversity and making sure our effects on the earth aren’t damaging it for current and future generations.
If we are going to make progress as a species around reducing the effects of climate change, of moving toward more ecological and economically sustainable living, we can’t do it starting from a place of fear. We’re wise to learn wisdom of the ages. Fear does not move the needle.
There’s another piece of wisdom that is actually one of my favourites…it comes from the first letter of John, also in the Christian writings. It goes like this:
There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. (1 Jn 4.18)
This says to me that the opposite of fear isn’t safety, the opposite of fear isn’t comfort, it’s not courage. It’s love. If we’re going to start from anywhere in our task as caretakers in an Earth Charter community, it’s going to be from a place of love. A place of awe and wonder, a place of radical love for the community of life.
Remember the story about the dandelions? Some homeowners took great pride in their lawn and found themselves with a large crop of dandelions. They tried every method they knew to get rid of them and still they plagued the lawn. Finally, they went to the experts at the greenhouse and listed all the things they’d tried and then asked, “what should we do now?” The expert replied, “We suggest you learn to love them.”
Rabbi Heschel again:
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually (accidentally). To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
Caring for the community of life has to start with love and amazement. How else can we build respect for diversity, and work together for sustainable solutions for the future if we don’t start there? The environmentalists, the pundits, and a large portion of politicians and media want to scare us into action for the Earth. But that will never work. We act because we care, not because we’re afraid. Marginalization, racism, and war have fear of the “other” at their root. Awe and wonder at the rich human diversity and the human spirit in the can be the seeds of the ethics and activism we need to make a difference.
What a blessing that the Earth Charter begins with the words “respect” and “care”. We can’t do it with fear at our centre. We definitely can do it acting from a place of love and amazement. In our efforts to live the principles of the earth charter and the values we hold as part of living together as community, may we in every day, breathe amazement, may we let that inspire in each word we speak and decision we make, a respect for the earth community and all its diversity.
-Chris New
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