September 6, 2009
Grace Church
Rev. Robert E. Hensley

      The original homily was preached by The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston at the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, July, 2009, Anaheim, CA.  It has been reworked and adopted for Martha’s Vineyard by The Rev. Robert E. Hensley. 

      Let us pray.  From before the world began and after the end of eternity, You are God.  From the sea bursting out of its womb to the wind ceasing from its chase, You are God.  In the constancy of created things and in their fickleness, You are God.  In the vastness of the universe and the forgotten corner of our hearts, You are God.  +In the Name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen. 

      Imagine with me for just a moment, that we have only 10 minutes to save the world.  In the task that I have set for myself this morning, I have but 10 minutes to save the world.  That is what it feels like standing here before you.  I have only 10 minutes to lift your spirits, your imaginations, your thoughts.  I have just 10 minutes to convince you that our most important priority that we as Christians face, should be to save this planet, this fragile earth, our island home. 

      And in that short amount of time, the time that you could count on just two hands, I alone cannot rehearse for you all of the scientific evidence, all of the reasons, all of the data, all of the information, all of the studies, all of the opinions that could convince all of you of the urgency and the truth of what I am about to share with you today on this beautiful Vineyard morning. 

      I would invite each of you, that if you want to learn more about the environmental crisis that is now upon us in which we are living, there are ample amounts of information and resources in our libraries and on the internet to which you may turn, information which you may turn to to educate yourselves, as I am attempting to educate myself, to a deeper understanding of the reality that confronts us in God’s world today.  I have 10 minutes to save the earth. 

      That task alone is daunting in itself if I am to speak to you in a spiritual way inspired by God; and I cannot do that alone.  A preacher can never do his or her task alone. 

      Listen!  I take no sense of pride or privilege that I am allowed to stand before you once again today as we join in this Eucharistic celebration, this community gathering, to sing the praises together of our Creator who has made the heavens and the earth and all that now dwells and has in the past, dwelt therein. 

      But today I hold up for you the idea, the concept of environmental justice.  And in this task I am not alone, because many others are standing with me.  Many of our bishops, including our own Bishop Cederholm, my friend and colleague Deborah Warner, Rector of Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole, whose parish adjoins the Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Institute, and our own Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefforts-Schori, who was first a scientist prior to answering the call to ordained ministry; these three and a host of others of like mind stand here with me. 

      And I know that there are many of you here this morning that stand with me as I proclaim these truths to you.  So together we have but 10 minutes to save the world.  And there are many more just like us throughout our beloved Church, our community, our country and our world who are deeply committed to and engaged in the work of environmental justice. 

      I pray that what I say to you in these moments are words that we could all say together, and that I say these words with you and for you. 

      This day we look especially to our indigenous brothers and sisters on this island and around our planet:  the aborigines of New Zealand; the Dani peoples of New Guinea; the Wampanoag and other Native American peoples; brothers and sisters all.  I know that they stand with us in spirit.  For together we speak for our Mother Earth. 

      And in a much deeper way, I know that our ancestors, the Communion of Saints, are here with us.  Those who inhabited these lands long before we arrived; all those from the rain forests of the Amazon, to the prairies and the central plains, to the diminishing polar ice caps.  Ancestors of all the native peoples stand in silent witness whenever we gather.  They are urging us to save this earth. 

      So what then can I say to you?  I will say this: 

      For years now the environmental movement has been telling us that there is a clock ticking.  A clock.  A great, organic, ecological clock that is ticking away the time of our lives to that time certain when we will no longer be able to reverse the damage that we have done to this planet through our own greed, negligence and ignorance.  A time certain; a point of no return from which we can no longer hope to redeem the earth from the damage that we have created.  A clock is ticking. 

      I stand before you today, my good brothers and sisters, to tell you that that clock has stopped ticking.  Instead, the alarm is ringing.  The alarm of the earth is ringing loudly for anyone with ears who would hear it. 

      And why is it that we do not hear it?  Why is it that around this world of ours, where there are good men and women, all seeking to help as best they can to save this planet, why is it that there is not this huge outpouring of sudden, feverish activity as the bell rings in our ears, calling us to save the earth? 

      I do not believe for a moment that it is because we simply do not care.  I believe that it is because we have been distracted, because we have had our attention diverted to other things. 

      In the Episcopal Church alone, for over thirty years we have been discussing the question of human sexuality.  And whether you consider yourself conservative, moderate or liberal, it has occupied an enormous amount of our time, energy and resources that could have been better used for other things. 

      And had we not been anxious about our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion, worrying and wondering what the impact of our choices would have on them, on the institutional survival of the community of which we are so proud to be a part.  I ask you, has that not preoccupied our attention? 

      Let me speak more clearly.  Have we not been worried about money?  Are we not mesmerized by budget sheets, by the head counts, what I refer to as “Nickels and Noses”, of those who are coming into our church, adding them up, wondering will this or that program survive, will we be able to make this happen in our lives? 

      And then you look at the Millennium Development Goals alone, of which our own Youth Group probably knows more at this point than the rest of us all put together, the MDGs with their vast array of human need and suffering, calling on our attention, pulling our attention constantly to redress the grievances and hurts of a humanity in poverty and hunger and despair all around us.  How could we not be distracted?  How could our vision not be focused on other things? 

      My brothers and sisters, I am standing here to tell you that unless we recognize that there is a higher and deeper calling that lies behind all of these needs; listen and hear me well; none of our hopes and dreams, whether they come from conservative hearts or liberal minds will sustain the day on anything we have been debating.  All will be for naught.  All will be for naught unless we wake up and pay attention to the under-riding great issue of our day. 

      Will it take a prophetic word to awaken us to that reality?  Will it require some prophetic speech that will arouse us to that moment?  Is that perhaps why we are gathered here this morning? 

      If it indeed takes a prophet, then pray that I might be such a prophet.  A 10 minute prophet just for this time.  I would pray God that my words to you this morning might convict your hearts, so that the truth of what I am saying to you this day may sound in your ears like an alarm ringing.

      The day will come and the day will come soon when future generations will look back on us and what we say and do here and see these issues as antique, although they are of extreme importance to us, these issues as antique as the concerns as to whether or not women should have the right to vote and whether we should stop the practice of child labor seems to us today, and if these future generations will consider our folly on a planet that is but a burnt cinder compared to the garden that has allowed us the luxury to have these self-same dreams. 

      They will live in a world in which wars over water will make our wars over oil pale in comparison.  And as the vast world around us is swept by storms unstoppable that lay waste the very food that would sustain humanity, millions will perish in famines unimaginable. 

      And from these, pan epidemics will sweep out to encircle the globe as whole continents – Africa and Australia – fall into chaos.  And in the midst of that dreadful scene, the religious xenophobia that breeds terror will only increase and multiply.  Hear me well, for I speak the truth. 

      Is there a release from this specter of a dread future that would haunt any human being’s imagination?  Are we condemned to that vision of what the world will be?  NO!  For God has given us two simple questions to answer, and in the answering of them, hear me well.  In the answering of them is the fulcrum on which all of human history will tilt. 

      The first question is this:  Can human beings live together in peace even when they disagree?  Yes, or no? 

      And the second question:  Can we make the changes necessary to our human civilization that will allow us to live in harmony with this world, this fragile planet, our earthly home?  Yes, or no? 

      On these two questions hang all the law and the prophets. 

      And in the answering of them, I believe that The Episcopal Church in particular comes to its decisive moment in history. 

      Brothers and sisters, why is there an Episcopal Church?  Why an Anglican Communion?  By some accident of history?  Or are we not all followers of the God of history?  Are we not all believers that God acts in human history to change the very course of human life?  To avert it from dread destruction into hope, into peace, into compassion?  Yes, we believe that.  Yes, we believe that God is with us. 

      God has fashioned us, I tell you now, fashioned the Episcopal Church for this time, for this place, for this reason, and for this purpose that we may embody an answer to both of those questions, though it may in fact cost us dearly; though we may be misunderstood and maligned by people around the world for the decisions that we make.  Let us answer both of these questions with a resounding, hope-filled, “Yes!” 

      Yes! Human beings can live together even when they do not agree.  If you need proof of it, then come and see the Episcopal Church. 

      Yes!  It is possible for men and women to put aside their own privilege in order to change history for the sake of others that they will never see and never know, but that will rise up and call us blessed! 

      Blessed.  For the choices that we make at this time and in this place. 

      And among all of us, not just those of us who are Episcopalians, we may reach out to our brothers and sisters of other faiths and other religions around the earth, saying with an open heart, “Come and join us and be one with us, and let us put aside our grievances and our suspicions.  To Buddhist and Muslims, to Jews and Hindus, to Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists and the Assemblies of God, to every walk of life to every church, to every denomination. 

      And if we do that, if we ask them to join us, to stand with us, and answer “Yes!” to both of these questions, hear me well and hear me now, in the Spirit of God a miracle will occur.  The divisions that we always thought would rend us asunder will be gone!  And the fear that we thought stalked our streets in a time of religious terror and suspicion will be gone.  For when under God’s love and justice, under God’s peace, men and women come together united for a single cause, a single vision and a single purpose, the healing of that alone will work its miracles in the world in which we now live. 

      How can this happen?  How will this happen?  I have but 10 minutes to save the world.  Church, wake up and hear the alarm!  It can happen as easily as having our spirits and minds and hearts opened by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

      Those of you who have heard me preach know, I hope, that I am not usually a timid Christian.  If I can claim for myself for these last few seconds a prophet, then let me well put that to work, and say to each and every one of you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I call upon the presence of the Holy Spirit, before all of my ancestors here silently assembled, I call upon the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the very earth itself, and ask that that Spirit come into this place, and touch each and every one of you who is listening to me now.  Let your mind be opened to the truth of what I have spoken here today.  Let your heart be set on fire and convicted by the truth of what you have heard here today. 

      Be not afraid, Episcopal Church, but stand proud and tall into this great Commission of God.  This is our moment.  This is our time. This is our call. 

      And under the anointing of the Spirit of God, we shall not fail in that call, but be in the vanguard of the change that will resound around the world, full of hope and Grace, to save this earth and to renew humanity itself, to the power of Jesus in whose name I have preached and in whose name I have prayed. 

      Church – Are you awake?