Shepherd of Israel, listen! You, who lead us to green, lush pastures, Show us again who we are, As children of Susanna, John and Charles Wesley, Believers! Seekers of salvation! Restore us, God! Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
This is my Advent prayer, drawn from Psalm 80. There is much in this psalm, including hurt, yes, but also a fierce and steadfast hope if we dare to embrace it!
Psalm 80 is read at Advent for good reasons: because of its boldness, because it names what seems like the absence of God, because it is unashamed in crying loudly for God’s presence. This Psalm remembers God’s goodness and asks God to wake up in power, and come and save us!
This psalm, written and rewritten in antiquity, lifts from the page as alive today as ever. The psalmist cries, can God not see the ruin of the forest and hear the crying of the people? The vine and the forests—the whole ecosystem—is at risk. They are being overrun with fire, invasive insects and dangerous wild boar. The people suffer hunger and vulnerability. There is danger. Where is God?
This is frightening. Yet there is hope! The psalmist pushes us in that direction. But first we must face the truth and be moved. The psalm packs a wallop as it calls us not only to prayer and repentance, but so much more. It interrupts our complacency with heavens forces. It casts aside any kind of status quo—indeed the status quo of misery is what must, must, must be defeated. There is no time for polite coaxing. The psalm calls for action that is direct, immediate, and necessary for survival. Restore us!
Hope is the first act of Advent. And from our Hope we must next Believe. Without belief we cannot live into our faith. Hope seeks, belief girds us, it makes us sturdy enough—with courage enough—to endure the truth.
The harm of fossil fuels are part of the truth we must face in this generation. The ‘black gold’ our grandparents prized has turned our air to ash in our lungs. The plastics era began with a rush of fortune-seeking. Now, microplastics fall from the skies with the rain. It churns out plastic in our rivers, our blood, and in our babies. We are grasping at poison. It has to stop.
James Kuony Malual who lives and farms in Akobo, South Sudan. Photojournalist Rev. Paul Jeffrey shares his story. He has a large family and has enjoyed success working the land, drawing in yearly harvests to feed his children. But in recent years, the weather has become unpredictable. Akobo, where Malual and his family live, has been hit year after year by worsening and unprecedented floods.
The unruly weather and the floods are part of the consequences of the burning of fossil fuels. The impact of burning fossil fuels to earth’s climate has real consequences on the ground. The floods are devastating. Not only do farmers like Malual lose their crops, but their communities, as well, which are overwhelmed by damages. They lose essential infrastructure, such as when medical facilities and schools are destroyed. The result is hundreds of thousands of people affected, displaced, and in need of the very basics such as food and clean water.
God of heavenly forces! Look down from heaven and see what is happening!
Advent calls us to Hope. It also calls us to Peace. But how restless is a peace where there are no medical facilities, no schools, no gardens and no clean water?
At Advent we start with Hope, we gird ourselves with belief, and we take action by faith.
The psalm asks us to hear the truth. This truth is hard but necessary. Truth-seeking clears the smoke so that we may once again see the countenance of God. As the smoke clears we know the next thing we must do. And this is where the psalmist draws our attention to the key image in the lines of the verses: the vine. We must attend to the vine, the green, growing bounty that is deeply rooted and alive with new shoots! This is where salvation, the restoration of life, can be found. It grows verdant and strong in and over the forests and the mountains, and to the river shore.
As Christians, we identify this green, lush, strength as a promise intertwined with Christ. We believe, we know the anointed will bring wellbeing, joy, and peace on earth.
We know this, and yet the United Methodist church is still investing in and profiting from fossil fuels. At Advent, a time of Hope, Belief, Joy and Peace, the psalmist asks us—our children ask us—do we stand alongside this vine? Do we stand with faith in Christ? Will we hope, believe, and find joy and peace on earth?
Will we repent, and divest of fossil fuels?
Shepherd of Israel, Prince of Peace! Restore and revive us so we can call on you! Make your face shine for we seek salvation!
Join the effort at Fossil Free UMC. There are some immediate tasks ahead of us, and the primary one is to bring a resolution to General Conference in March 2024 to call the denomination to divest. Read from Rev. Sharon Delgado, Our First Task.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is an Elder in the Greater Northwest Area, living in Southern Oregon. She volunteers with the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement and a number of other organizations at the intersection of faith and climate change. Find her at justcreation.org
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