You are perhaps familiar with the kind of Bible study which asks us to take a particular story in the Bible and imagine that we are each of the individuals in the story to more deeply understand the story. So for example, in Luke 10 we are asked to consider what it is like to be Mary enjoying having Jesus in her home and hanging on his every word and what it is like to be Martha working hard in the kitchen to make everything perfect for a meal with Jesus, but resentful of doing all the work. And we are asked to think what it is like to be Jesus observing these two sisters, and telling Martha to concentrate on what is important. (So then male person how does food get on the table?)
This weekend I went to a symposium entitled Transformation without Apocalypse. ( A complete aside here would be my complete horror at realizing that there are people who actually welcoming our planet heading over the climate change cliff because they believe this is the way to the Apocalypse and second coming. I cannot believe that a loving God would ever want us to commit planetary Genocide!) The symposium was about Climate Change and had speakers: Timothy DeChristopher, Joanna Macy, Kathleen Dean Moore, Sarah Van Gelder, Ursula LeGuinn, etc. A true smorgasbord for the soul.
If you do not know who Timothy DeChristopher is, he is a young man who at the end of the Bush Presidency attended an auction in UT where beautiful public lands were being auctioned off to be mined. He entered the auction with no particular plan in place but then was asked if he was there to bid, so accepted a bidding paddle (number 70). He saw a woman he knew from his church at the back of the room, and she began to cry at the sadness of all these lands being destroyed. Suddenly Timothy began to bid. Ultimately he won 22,000 acres of land for 1.8 million dollars! The only thing was he did not own 1.8 million dollars and bidding without the ability to pay is a federal felony for which he was arrested and released on bail. Ultimately he was convicted of two felony counts and sentenced to two years in jail. The incoming Obama administration investigated and found the auctions had been illegal because the proper environmental impact statements had not been done. Bush officials were simply rushing to sell the lands while they still could. The land therefore that Timothy bid on was safe forever. The Obama administration did not, however, stop his prosecution. Timothy is considered by many to be a climate hero and in fact a very moving movie entitled Bidder 70 has been done about his story. I recommend it if this story intrigues you.
But I find myself asking those Bible Study questions: What would it be like to be one of the other bidders in the room, sent by oil companies to buy land to exploit? Would you feel anything about your task? Or only concern for succeeding and winning favor in your company? What would you feel about this mysterious bidder that keeps winning parcel after parcel seemingly from a bottomless purse? What would it be like to be the auctioneer? Do you ever feel bad about what is being sold? Or have you trained yourself to have no feelings about that which is sold because it is just a job?
What would it be like to be the weeping woman who comes in feeling powerless, only able to be witness to the destruction of the holy? What would you feel as you recognize Timothy and see him begin to bid? Are your prayers answered? How do you feel as they take him away in handcuffs? Do you feel guilty....like the famous exchange between Thoreau and Emerson where Emerson comes to visit Thoreau in jail for not paying his war taxes. Emerson asking "David what are you doing in here?" and Thoreau responds: "Henry, what are you doing out there?" Do you weeping woman wonder what you are doing out there free on the street as they take away Timothy who has acted upon your pain?
What does it feel like to be Timothy drawn to this troubling situation, suddenly seeing an action he can take? Lead by God? Lead by Conscience? Taking an action that will change his life forever? And if all of these people had been listening, like in a Meeting for worship, where was the Creator's voice in the room? Was The Holy One speaking to one or all of these characters? Does God speak through a woman's tears or a spontaneous moment of inspiration?
At the symposium this past weekend Timothy's call was for us to tell the truth more plainly, to not white wash the truth of how bad our situation is. He also said that we will all have to make sacrifices, that we cannot fight Climate Change and live the same comfortable lives we have been living. Kathleen Dean Moore who spoke after him made a slightly different and yet profound addition to this point. She said: "People don't want to have to make sacrifices to save the climate, and yet what they are overlooking is that we are already making sacrifices; huge unacceptable sacrifices. We are in the process of sacrificing a liveable planet; we are sacrificing future generations lives. So really the question is which sacrifices do we want to make?"
So which person are you? The auctioneer, the other bidders living in business as usual? Or are you the weeping woman, sad but powerless, or are you Timothy DeChristopher, willing to take life changing actions?
Which sacrifices are you willing to make?
