(The
inspiration for much of this sermon comes from “Europe in Crisis 1598-1648” by
Geoffrey Parker)
Now may the
words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts be now and always
acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
The month of
September is Creationtide, which we always celebrate here. So the Ministry Team
has decided that three of the St John’s Green Ginger Group, will preach during
the month. Eleanor Harris at Evensong next week, Andrew Wright at Eucharist on
the 26th, and myself now. Incidentally, one of the things we are
doing in anticipation of COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Summit, is
mounting a social media campaign. So please on Facebook do follow Earth Be Glad,
and read our Earth Be Glad blog, which has had several new articles in the last
month.
When you are
preaching you get sent the readings in advance. What an overwhelming set of
texts I have been given. One could write a book about every verse. However, I
can take comfort from the first verse of the first reading: “The Lord has given
me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a
word.” So the line I am going to take is “A history teacher looks at climate
change.”
The
Seventeenth Century was unusually troubled, all across the world, even for the
bad old days. The Thirty Years War devastated the German lands, as armies
campaigned across Europe bringing disease, death, rape and murder. The
population of Germany fell from about 21 million to about 13 million. There
were revolts and rebellions all across the world – Sri Lanka, China, Mexico,
Moscow – the list goes on. The witch craze, which seems so crazy and savage to
us, reached its peak. The series of dreadful civil wars in the British Isles
had a catastrophic impact on Scotland, on Ireland and on England for twenty
years.
Michael
Lynch, in his history of Scotland describes the human cost on Scotland of the
wars as “incalculable” so I had better not try. But he does say that in 1645
perhaps one of every five town dwellers in Scotland died of plague, the most
severe outbreak for two centuries. As Verse
2 of today’s psalm said: “The cords of death entangled me; the grip of the
grave took hold of me; I came to grief and sorrow.”
Where does Climate
change come into this? Well, in 1756 the French thinker Voltaire, looking back
on the troubled century, wrote: “The three things that exercise a constant
influence over the minds of men [are] government, religion, and climate.”
Looking all
across the world now, 2021, there are many pretty bad governments, just as
there were in the seventeenth century, who seem to put selfish power and wealth
ahead of the common good.
We can also
see all too clearly how the influence of religion over people’s minds now can
have the most dreadful consequences as it did 400 years ago.
But our
theme, as COP26 approaches, is climate. The seventeenth century should warn us,
if we are still in doubt about it, what an overwhelmingly serious matter it is.
Voltaire did
not have the means of measuring meteorological data that we have, but
observations included heavy frosts in South China that put an end to
orange-growing in Kwangsi province, the dates when grapes could be harvested,
the advance of Alpine glaciers, parties on the frozen Thames, and eternal snow
on the Cairngorms. The observations of sun-spots carried out at the new
Observatories at Paris, Greenwich and elsewhere offer more than anecdotal data.
Modern tree-ring analysis tells the same story. There was a decline in solar
energy. The average annual temperature of the globe fell by about one degree.
Not very much? Well, it will have shortened the growing season by about three
weeks, and reduced the maximum altitude at which crops will ripen by about 500
feet. About 90% of the world’s population depended for food very directly on
local agriculture. We can easily
appreciate why there was a world crisis brought on by climate change.
For example,
there was a dreadful famine in Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century.
“For want
some die on the wayside, some drop down in the streets.”
The change
in the seventeenth century was probably about one degree. The COP26 summit
hopes to limit our climate change now to one and a half degrees. Let us hope
they manage. You’ll find all this on their web-site; do look it up. Achieving
this, and coping with it, is a supreme challenge of our time. Similar disasters
to those of the seventeenth century are already happening across the world and,
as Voltaire noticed, climate is part of the cause. Flood, drought, famine and
multiple political consequences, many of them very bad.
Climate Change. We all know the sorts of things to do. It’s a case of doing it – whether it is cutting down on driving when we can, using buses or bicycles or simply legs. Or only using aeroplanes when we have to. Or saving energy at home by improving insulation and putting on a woolly vest instead of turning the heating on. Or reusing and recycling at every opportunity. Or eating less red meat. There is lots of good advice out there.
And
governments must be held to account, to keep the pledges they will make at
COP26 and the ones they have made already. You will have heard of the Art
Exhibition that the Edinburgh Together Churches (that includes us) are holding
in St Cuthbert’s at the end of October. Part of that will be a postcard writing
campaign, so make sure you come to the exhibition and while you are there,
write a card to one of the powerful decision-makers.
But return
for a moment to the seventeenth century. What might we learn from those years of
revolt, starvation, plague, war – and climate change behind them all? The
figures I remember most from the seventeenth century are very different from
the horrors. Henry Purcell of course. Isaac Walton, going fishing. Perhaps
above all, George Herbert. Here is an extract from Walton’s life of George
Herbert:
‘In another
walk to Salisbury he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fallen under
his load. They were both in distress, and needed present help. At his coming to
his musical friends in Salisbury they began to wonder that Mr George Herbert,
who used to be so trim and clean, came into that company so soiled and
discomposed; but he told them the occasion; and when one of the company told
him he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment, his answer was, that
he thought what he had done would prove music to him at midnight. He said: “Though
I do not wish for the like occasion every day, I would not willingly pass one
day of my life without comforting a sad soul or showing mercy. And now, let’s
tune our instruments.” '
What about
those readings for today? Well, they do include one of the most powerful
sentences from Christ’s teaching. It is a strong message to all of us,
individuals, corporations, governments, if ever we think some economic benefit
– especially a selfish one – ought to get in the way of necessary action to
combat climate change. You can read the verse in your service sheet, near the
end of the second lesson. The version in the King James Bible, that I grew up
with is:
“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
And now,
choir, let’s tune our instruments. (There followed an anthem.)
