I’ve been prayerfully reading through Isaiah for several months now.
Recently I read these verses:
The land mourned; it wasted away;
Lebanon was ashamed; it
withered.
Sharon became like the desert,
and Bashan and Carmel were
dropping their leaves.
Isaiah
33:9
The lack of care for humanity extends to the land as well, according to
Isaiah’s prophecy. That makes sense, for how can true compassion be
compartmentalized? How can you love one and not another? How can you care for
people and not for animals or vice versa? Psalm 36:6 says: Your righteousness is like the strongest mountains; your justice is
like the deepest sea. Lord, you save both humans and animals. How can you
value the earth and not its residents? How do you love God and mutilate God’s
creation?
Purposely and accidentally we have shielded ourselves from the
consequences of our choices. We don’t always know the effects of our lifestyle
and when we do know, we sometimes objectify the suffering we cause, as if that
somehow makes it okay. When we label people as different from us (by sex, race,
religion, age, lifestyle, etc.) we can justify our actions against them. When
we objectify a person with a label, then we no longer see him or her as a child
of God. When we commoditize flora and fauna, we lose sight of the care God took
to create it and of the delicate balance of interconnectedness that we were charged
to preserve. Our careless, self-important attitude leaves no quarter for true
compassion or for the fullness of God’s love to flow through us for the benefit
of a hurting world.
Who of us is not guilty? When we use electricity, someone’s nature is
destroyed. Our mindless food choices means people and animals and land are
often exploited and abused. When we push for cheaper products, the poor person
in another country suffers for our benefit. The recent garment factory fire in
Bangladesh should cause us to require accountability for the clothing we
purchase. Our unwillingness to consider the consequences of our actions causes
others to suffer and breaks God’s heart.
We may hide behind the notion that we are “good people,” but the
suffering of lives that intersect with ours, if we stop to think about the
reach of our choices, tells a different story. We are sinful people, and to
glibly claim forgiveness continues to keep us skating on the surface of
compassion, avoiding the deep woundedness that our lifestyle choices
perpetuate. Ezekiel’s prophecy against the leaders of his day could be spoken
to us in first world America: Doom to
Israel’s shepherds who tended themselves! Shouldn’t shepherds tend the flock?
You drink the milk, you wear the wool, and you slaughter the fat animals, but
you don’t tend the flock. You don’t strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up
the injured, bring back the strays, or seek out the lost; but instead you use
force to rule them with injustice. (Ezekiel 34:2b-4).
Until we cut through the calloused layer created by our limited vision,
we cannot deeply know our forgiveness, for true forgiveness has to
result in a changed life, a changed heart, a heart that knows that God lives in
every person, every animal, every natural resource, every created thing. When
we truly know that, we cannot help living differently. Until we know that, we crucify
God time and time again by not honoring what God created and loves.
Lord God, creator of all that is, seen and unseen, help me to see you
in every part of creation—people, animals, plants, and all else you created.
Help me to live mindfully, making whatever choices I can to preserve your life
in the world. Where I continue to crucify you by the lifestyle choices I cannot
easily overcome, give me wisdom and prudence to lessen my dependence on these
choices, a voice to speak out for changes, and courage and faith when such
changes seem insurmountable. Give me a compassionate heart, even though I know
that by asking for this, I am also asking for the ability to shoulder the pain
and suffering of your creation, which is your pain and suffering. Give me the
courage to carry your cross, which is carried daily by the poor and the
exploited of all creation. Amen.