In the Valley of the Shadow of Death

  

The kids in our youth group joined in a salt marsh cleanup last Saturday.  One of the largest salt marshes in New England is on the Stratford/Bridgeport border, and it is federal land.  Until a few years ago it was fenced off and people could not go out on it.  And it was completely ignored. 

The role of salt marshes in the environment are very important.  The grasses and creatures filter the water, decompose dead animals and plants and clean the ocean.  They tend to form in places where tides bring such waste to shore.  Therefore, they are also places where trash collects.

Because the salt marsh in Stratford was ignored for a good period of time, a lot of trash began to collect there.  LOTS of trash.  Two years ago, the folks at CT Community Boating, headed by Chris German, began organizing yearly cleanups of the marsh, along with other area beaches.  The first year they went in, the amount of trash was overwhelming.  The next year it was not much better, for much of what they'd removed had been replaced by new trash.  This year, it was still shocking.

Trash that has built up on one area of shore

Plastic and styrofoam do not degrade, but the work of the waves and the salt marsh plants and animals do their best to break it down.  What is left is teenier and tinier pieces of plastic and styrofoam.  Little pieces that are impossible to pick up but which collect in piles, and also float back out into the water for fish and other creatures to eat.  Sea animals have been found to have more and more plastic and styrofoam in their stomachs.  The petrochemicals are found in their flesh.  This includes the fish we eat.

I don't think I was the only one shocked by the sheer volume of plastic trash that had collected at the salt marsh.  I came home and looked up a few statistics that shocked me even further.  I found out that Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles an hour.  I found out that Americans throw out 25, 000,000,000 (that's billion) styrofoam coffee cups a year.  I found out that world wide, 60,000 plastic bags are thrown out every 5 minutes.  Lots of plastic trash ends up in the ocean, pooling in areas called 'gyers.'  There are gyers in the Pacific that have accumulated floating areas of trash twice the size of Texas. 

Trash floating in the ocean

It would be one thing if we could say, "Wow, we've made such a horrible mess.  Let's clean it up!"  But manufacturers still continue to create more and more and more plastic and we continue to use it (and then throw it away.  In the time it's taken me to write this, around 180,000 new plastic bags have entered the waste stream.  But "throwing it away" doesn't make it go away, as we witnessed firsthand on the shore last weekend.  The problem just keeps getting bigger and the trash piles just keep getting bigger.

I've tried to reduce my own plastic use, but find it nearly impossible to avoid purchasing plastic in our society.  Everything is wrapped, labelled, contained.  Even bringing my own shopping bags to the store, I leave with them full of new plastic.  It's hard to hold on to hope in the face of such overwhelming societal sin.  

A broken plastic Jesus we found amonst the trash

 Psalm 23 says, "Even in the shadow of the valley of death, I will fear no evil.  Thy rod and they staff, they comfort me," but I don't take this as a platitude.  God led me and the youth group beside the still waters last Saturday, and I think God is leading us down right paths for his name's sake - to begin to open our eyes to the mess we're making.  Awareness of what we're doing is always the first step.  Acceptance that there's really a problem that's not going away is next.  Then comes action - actions both small and large.  I don't pretend that one little youth group will make any dent at all in this problem.  In fact, I had to wonder where all that trash would go from here - back into the water?  Into a landfill?  Into the air in the form of pollutants and dioxins through an incinerator?  The bottom line is that plastics do not go away.  They will continue to poison the air, water and ground - and our bodies - for generations to come.  So though I don't think we made a big dent on Saturday, just deciding to walk with Jesus through the reality of the situation is good action.  Moving toward healing, even if we don't see how we'll ever get there, is what we all can do.

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth, you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Complexity

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an     enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."                              - Martin Luther King, Jr.

I woke, as many did on Monday, to the news of Osama Bin Laden's death.  I was not cheered by the news.  As Martin Luther King's quote reminds me, there's enough hate and death in the world already.  And although I know this is 'mission accomplished' for our military, I don't like to think of my government participating in assassination.  I know all is considered fair in war, and we have been led to consider our struggle with terrorism and those who perpetrate it a war, but I can't help but wondering how fighting terrorism with violence and death will get us anywhere.  I do understand what has happened probably needed to happen, and I do believe that God works through all things - through this - even through 9/11.  I understand that those who paraded and cheered in the streets when they heard the news were feeling that something wrong had been made right - the bad guy got what was coming to him.  But I just can't find it anywhere in myself to cheer about it.  And I certainly can't bring myself to name it justice when it feels to me so much more like vengeance.  "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord."  I look at the world around us - self-righteous, power hungry and violent - and I see us taking into our own hands what we need to leave to God everywhere I look. 

When I try to understand what has happened in this, I just keep coming up with more questions and fewer and fewer answers.  So what does my faith tell me?  Jesus tells us to love our enemies.  But Jesus also overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple when he judged they had crossed a line. The death of Bin Laden seems a complicated mix of both polarities (although, I keep thinking, Jesus did not kill the moneychangers.)   All I know for sure is that I wouldn't change places with the president of the United States for all the tea in China.  This world is a very large and complicated place, and leadership is one of the hardest things there is to do in the midst of great complexity.

I know God works through all things and so I pray that what has happened will all lead to God's reconciliation somehow.  Praying is the only thing I can do about something that seems so big and completely out of my hands.  So I pray for those who lost loved ones in the twin towers, or in the Pentagon, or on a plane on 9/11.  And I pray for those who have been victims of suicide bombers or terrorist attacks anywhere.  And I pray for soldiers and civilians who are caught in the crossfire and confusion of war.  And I pray for the leaders who must decide and act, even when what is truly right and just is beyond their human ability to discern.  And I pray for those who believe they are meting out justice when they do something violent, no matter who they are.  And I pray that God forgives us all for allowing the world be like this.