Third Sunday of Lent – 11 March 2007

James Inhofe, an American Republican Senator who is chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and was voted Conservation Legislator of the Year in November 2006, said in a speech last month that the notion of Global Warming is a hoax. He believes that the environmental agenda is being driven by media hype. There is no scientific evidence he says to prove that Global Warming is taking place as a consequence of human activity. As a consequence he believes there is no need for us to be concerned about pollution levels and that the Kyoto agreement is economically damaging to the countries signed up to it. He would see

this week’s decision by EU nations to target a cut in greenhouse emissions of 20% as totally unnecessary. The result of media hype and lobbying by environmental fanatics.

Senator Inhofe’s view is fairly widespread in America. It provides an interesting moral dilemma. If you genuinely believe that pollution is not responsible for global warming, as I think Senator Inhofe does, then you free yourself from any responsibility to sign up to a green agenda. It could be argued that this is more acceptable than acknowledging that pollution is causing climate change. But still resisting taking actions necessary to reduce pollution levels because of the economic and practical difficulties. A situation which happens in many countries.

But the mood of the world is changing on this subject. I suspect Senator Inhofe and others who deny Global Warming will increasingly become a minority as the factual evidence for climate change continues to pile up. Denying it is happening is likely to appear an increasingly selfish and unjustifiable position. Recently the church was criticised for not speaking out earlier and more strongly about the need for environmental responsibility and concern for God’s creation.

It is not often that the Church is criticised for not speaking out. Christians have perhaps become so used to their gospel falling on deaf ears. It was a shock to realise that people actually want the Church to take a moral lead in important issues. A reminder that the gospel of Christ reaches far more widely than those who regularly worship and share in the mission of the Church.

This morning’s epistle and gospel readings are not the easiest to understand. They are filled with messages threatening disastrous consequences for those who do not repent of their sins and follow the way of Christ. Two thousand years after they were written they lose their immediacy and can become somewhat meaningless to us.

But all this begins to change if we look at what was going on at the time Jesus was teaching. Our gospel actually begins half way through Jesus’ address. Jesus is calling the people of Israel to reconsider the meaning of their vocation as the people of God. He starts with an allegory in verse 54 – ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. You

hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time.’ Jesus sees Israel as being spiritually bankrupt – the people are heading for a comprehensive disaster.

Turning now to the point where our reading begins, Jesus was interrupted by some people who told him of the Galileans that had been slaughtered by Pilate. Their blood was mixed up with that of the animal sacrifices. The interjection is subtle. It was intended to get Jesus to rouse the crowd into condemning Pilate, to get him on board to rise up against the occupying rulers. But Jesus’ response was a disappointment to them. He would not become a political agitator and was warning the Jewish people not to seek conflict with Rome. They had to lay aside their national pride, which saw their vocation in terms of privilege and worldly greatness.

Jesus reminded the people that those who were killed by Pilate were not singled out for murder because they were particularly bad people – he warned them that everyone, if they continued in the current way, would face the same fate. Jesus was urging the Jewish people to listen to his teaching; to recognise who he was and to respond to his inclusive message of selfless peace.

The tone of his address then changes as he tells the almost humorous parable of the fig tree. ‘Give up’ the gardener says – ‘why should I waste time on this tree – it is a hopeless case’. But the owner of the tree says ‘no – let’s give it one more year, and I’ll look after it and feed it. Then if it fails you can cut it down.’ The tree is Israel, an unfruitful tree, heading for disaster, but Christ, the owner has come to feed it. Is it irony that makes him suggest his feeding will seem like manure for a tree?

Israel, Jesus said, was at a crisis point and they had to make a decision. It is rather like the world and global warming – many would say we have arrived at a crisis point and must make a decision. Either we carry on letting our pride and self interest determine our actions, ignoring the increasingly apparent warnings of disaster. Or we change our ways and start doing something to halt the decline. Some will heed the warnings. Some will deny the signs as being real.

But the message for us this Lent goes broader than global warming, although certainly we have a Christian responsibility to take the issue seriously. The message for us is far more fundamental – it is about our willingness to respond to Christ. And the hard hitting nature of today’s gospel is deliberately chosen for us in Lent. We can offer a soft accommodating gospel that constantly flexes and accepts the preferences and priorities of our secular world; a gospel that is remoulded to fit our preferences rather that Christ’s. Believing that each year the gardener will relent and not cut down the tree. Or we can be faithful to Christ’s teaching and declare that our society is heading for disaster unless we repent and turn back to God. Global warming is just one example. There are many more.

© Robert Jenkins March 2007