Sermon by Francesca Wigle 02.12.2012
The Brow Chakra is the chakra of seeing and envisioning. Close your eyes for a minute and think about your own life. Choose one thing from any area of your life – perhaps your home, your call, your career, your community, a special relationship, nature. Allow it to develop before your eyes and change it if you want until it feels just right.
Now think about our world. See it as it is right now. Allow it to develop before your eyes and change it if you want to until it feels just right. What do you see? What do you envision as you think about our world?
Our Gospel reading today was about the leper. Leprosy can be a metaphor for a sick and unhealthy Earth. As we see and envision through our Brow Chakra,it
helps us understand why some people can see the danger facing our planet, because they have open hearts. Others can't envision the dangers because they have closed hearts and it is “all about them”. They don't believe that humans are harming the planet and they don't want to discuss or get involved with subjects like climate change. What if Jesus had not wanted to get involved with people who were “unclean” or not thought of as part of the “normal cultural society”? Jesus healed those whom others wouldn't touch. We as Christians have a responsibility to heal what is broken or destroyed, even if others disagree with our assessment. Our responsibility is to help everything that God created be the best it can be. “Run like you want to win,” from Corinthians. Our job is to win and right now we are losing the race. Our skies are more polluted in some areas and will be increasingly so unless we put limits on fossil fuel emissions. It is our job (our responsibility) to do the work that others have rejected in order to win the race. And it is a race. Can we get there in time or will we have put so much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere that life as we know it will diminish drastically? Will we continue to let polluters jeopardize the clean air that our children need to be healthy or will we find ways to have our air be as clean and healthy as it was meant to be?
There is a pretty good chance that we can reverse the trend if we all work together picking up the pieces or reaching out to people in need – people with leprosy – and helping to heal through love and devotion.
We can take on the same sense of justice that Jesus had. Everyone should be safe from leprosy and every person old and young has a right to clean air.
We know that when Jesus saw wounds and scars he would step in to heal. Even though there are some who denounce that the climate is changing due to human activity, we are not allowed to ignore it.
What can we do to work together for the health of our Planet? The cure for our unhealthy Earth may be a change in behavior which is not easy. However, there are solutions and if we do our part, we can help to heal the Earth.
Today is National Preach-In on Global Warming Day. We are joining with over 1,000 other congregations from all over the country.We can become a clean air advocate. Many of the same safeguards that protect the environment, also benefit the climate. Sign the Clean Air Promise. You will be promising to protect America's children and families from dangerous air pollution. You will support clean air policies and other protections that scientists and public health experts have recommended to the Environmental Protection Agency to safeguard our air quality.
You can support efforts by the EPA to uphold the Clean Air Act. Get organized and gather signatures. Send a Valentine to your Senators urging them to support the EPA and not work against the Clean Air Act. Pass out additional valentines to friends and have them send them to their senators also.
Check out the Interfaith Power and Light website. Join with the Environmental Green Team here at St. Hildegard's and St. George's and start to model energy efficiency and recycling here in our congregation and in our homes. We can use the tools presented on the website for Interfaith Power and Light to become a COOL CONGREGATION! ? This is just the beginning of this new vision. What are we seeing now? What do we hope to see? The Brow Chakra offers us A Way Forward with Wisdom. We can begin to work with the universe. “Pulling together vision, creative thought, good heart, pure intention and confidence, we can make a difference.” We are called to be visionaries and save our planet.
