“Two by Two, They Disappear”
Genesis 6:1-13a, 17-22
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 20 April, 2008
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Integrity of Creation Sunday
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 Have any of you gone to the Baltimore Zoo to see the new baby elephant? I haven’t yet, but I can’t wait. I’ve seen pictures, and that baby elephant is so cute! It’s amazing how such a funny looking animal can appear cute, but he certainly does. I love polar bears too. For Christmas my sister “adopted” a polar bear for me through the National Wildlife Federation. It came complete with a certificate and with this darling little stuffed animal. So, I have my very own polar bear up North somewhere! Until I can meet him, I keep myself busy watching videos on the Internet of a polar bear that was born in Germany last year. I love lots of animals. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing an animal in its native habitat. ...The trouble is, of course, that native habitats are quickly disappearing. Global warming is shrinking the Arctic ice caps by leaps and bounds, pushing polar bears and other Arctic animals out of their habitats. An increase in severe weather, which some scientists believe is another product of global warming, is pushing other animals out their habitats around the globe. The clear-cutting of forests is evicting many species from their homes.
It is estimated that between 20-30% of all plant animal species are at risk for extinction in the period of only a few decades. Of course, many of these species are not cute little animals, like baby elephants or polar bears. We’re talking the extinction of insects, rodents, things we’ve never even heard of, in addition to the gracious lions and tigers and bears. Because most of the species at risk for extinction are animals or plants that we either don’t know about or don’t want to have around, it’s hard to get us humans to care about their demise. I heard an NPR program last year in which a conservationist was interviewed. He said his organization had to advertise the plight of polar bears and penguins and other such cute, beautiful animals, otherwise people just didn’t seem to care about the possibility of extinction.
The trouble is, everything on our planet is connected. If the pesky mosquito becomes extinct, birds lose a food source. If those birds then become extinct, their predators are in trouble. The predators of those predators are in trouble. The elimination of the predators causes overpopulation of other species, which leads to a lack of resources. It’s the domino effect. The other trouble is, we humans are called to care for these animals.
"And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them."1
God entrusted the natural world to Noah even when God intended to start over with a devastating flood. Even in God’s wrath, God wanted to protect God’s Creation, and God entrusted Noah to that task. It would seem to follow that God would not command Noah to protect the flora and fauna of the Earth and then allow future generations to let them go. It certainly cannot be the case, in any common sense I can think of, that God would allow us humans to screw up God’s Creation so royally -- that the extinction of species would happen at our command rather than God’s.
There are those who argue that the recent storms and droughts and extinctions are signs of God’s wrath and that we may, in fact, be moving toward the end times. Whether that is true or not, I cannot imagine that God wants us to stand by and do nothing about the destruction of our planet. If God really wants the Earth to be destroyed, God will do it and we won’t be able to stop God. In the mean time, we are called to care for what we have. If all of this is taking place at the hand of God, might it not be a test? Might God not be testing us to see how willing we are to care for God’s Creation? ...I happen to believe that climate change is a result of human action -- a manifestation of the free will God gave us. Whether I am right or whether all that is happening is at God’s hands, I cannot just sit by and watch it happen.
God commanded Noah to lead all the animals of the earth, two by two, into the Ark. As the animals, and the food that God commanded Noah to bring for them, is disappearing, we have other concerns as well. Environmental disasters affect us humans. Our food supplies are being depleted. As droughts lead to a decrease in crop production, humans are suffering. Australia is a huge producer of rice for nations throughout Asia. Due to its severe drought, rice production is way down. The price of rice is thus increasing, and there have been riots in Asian countries because the people there cannot afford to pay for this food staple. This was not a big news story. Most of the people rioting for rice are poor.
Just as people don’t seem to care about animal extinction unless it involves cute witto animals, we have a tendency to turn a blind eye to the human effects of climate change unless they affect us directly. The destruction of the planet has a much greater affect on the poor than it does on people who can afford to live better. According to a resource put out by the Presbyterian Church-USA:
"Although global climate change affects all human populations across the globe, it hits those living in poverty the hardest because they depend on the surrounding physical environment to supply their needs and have limited ability to cope to climate variability and extremes. Global climate change reduces access to drinking water, limits access to food, and negatively impacts human health particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, developing countries are expected to suffer the most from the negative impacts of climate change."2
While we might complain about the increased price of rice -- or gasoline -- most of us actually can pay for it. We might have to tighten our apron strings a little, but we are making more than the $1 a day that many people in developing countries make. While we might not like the hotter temperatures -- I certainly don’t -- many of us can find an air conditioned room somewhere, whether it is in our own home or in a public library. While many of us complain about pollution -- I get annoyed when I see all the trash on the road, and I could barely stand being in the Los Angeles smog for a few days -- we don’t have to bathe in or drink water that is foaming with industrial pollution or filled with human waste.
Even in our own U.S. of A. -- the richest nation in the world -- the poor get hit harder by climate change than the wealthy. Remember Hurricane Katrina? While many people rushed to aid hurricane victims in New Orleans, there is speculation that help came less quickly than it could have because the areas hardest hit by the storm were populated by very poor people.
Jesus entreated us to care for the poor and the hungry and the sick and the troubled. We’re not doing that. One of the things we need to do in order to care for the poor and to “love one another,”3 as Jesus taught us to do, is to take better care of our planet. One of the things we need to do to avoid the commandment, “You shall not kill,”4 is to take better care of our planet. One of the things we need to do in order to “love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind”5 is to care for the world that God created. Through our participation in climate change, we are not committing acts of love toward our neighbor. We are committing acts of indifference. We are killing, both members of the animal kingdom and members or our own species. By ignoring God’s commandment to “take two of every living thing” into the Ark, we are not displaying love for God. We are allowing the natural world, to whose care God entrusted us, to die in the flood while we scramble to save ourselves. We cannot be saved if we do not reverse this course of action. We must, in a spirit of repentance, in a spirit of obedience, and in a spirit of love, build that Ark so that it can hold all God’s Creatures and not just the most sinful species.
Now let us pray.
1. Genesis 6:19-21
2. http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/worship/earthday08.pdf
3. John 13:34, etc.
4. Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17
5. Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37
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