Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people,
so that many Israelites died.
Numbers 21:6
Connect with creation: perceive its fragility
The story of the serpents in the wilderness is a powerful reminder that creation, with its harsh rhythms of life and death, confronts us with the truth of our own human frailty. The irony is that in the millennia that have passed between the story of the Israelites and our own time, humanity’s actions have thrown creation into crisis, revealing the fragility of the balances that allow life to flourish on this planet.
Today, spend time outdoors. Appreciate the gift of God’s creation. Make some time today to learn about the climate crisis, whether by documentary, book, article, or podcast. Here are some resources to get you started:
Mike Berners-Lee, “There Is No Planet B,” September 6, 2019, Seed Festival at Hawkwood College (Stroud, UK). YouTube video, 28:05. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6VGJCb14k.
Berners-Lee wrote a book by the same name: There is No Planet B, updated edition, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Katherine Hayhoe, “The Most Important Thing You Can Do About Climate Change is Talk About It.” November 2018. TED video, 17:03. https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it?language=en
Hayhoe also has an excellent book: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, Simon & Schuster, 2021.
Bill McKibben, “130 Degrees,” The New York Review of Books, August 20, 2020. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/08/20/climate-emergency-130-degrees/
Jonathan Franzen, “What if We Stopped Pretending?” The New Yorker, September 8, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending
Howard-John Wesley, “I Can’t Breathe,” Sermon at Alfred Street Baptist Church, Alexandria, VA, August 11, 2019, YouTube video, 44:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0KaXUhwK8