Copenhagen

Monday December 28th, Psalm 148: The Lord made them to last forever, and nothing can change what he has done. All creatures on earth, you obey his commands, so come praise the LORD! Sea monsters and the deep sea, fire and hail, snow and frost, and every stormy wind, come praise the LORD! All mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars, every wild and tame animal, all reptiles and birds, come praise the LORD! Every king and every ruler, all nations on earth, every man and every woman, young people and old, come praise the LORD! All creation, come praise the name of the LORD. When we look at the endangered species list, or the list of the many forms of life that are no longer endangered because they no longer exist, we can only imagine the sadness of the Lord who created them and called them good. I know some are natural changes; life would be a bit difficult with T-Rex running around. But let’s get real, the Dodo bird never hurt anyone. Maybe the compromises in Copenhagen seem like good logical compromises between and our economy and God’s creation, but then again maybe we are just using our economy the same way the people used the golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain, our attempt once again to stick out head in the sand and pretend that Our world as we have created it will be just fine. Perhaps our sin, our idolatry, is thinking that that our economy is more important than some life form we have learned to exploit yet. Perhaps it exists only because God wants it that way, and that should be good enough. The Palins of the world point to the snow in Anchorage as proof that there is no global warming. They point to emails contemplating some trick that will help non-scientists understand the scientific explanations as scientists trying to trick the rest of the world. In the meantime profits and pollution both flow upward and kill the rest of us little by little. God looks at what we have done and does not call it good.