Psalm 90:3 You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” 4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death— they are like the new grass of the morning: 6 In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.
(from Oct 23, 2011 sermon at Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster)
One year ago I retired after 30 years of ministry in the Church of the Brethren.
One year ago I began growing this beard.
One year ago I decreased my carbon footprint considerably, since I had been commuting over 100 miles to pastor a Brethren congregation in McVeytown of Mifflin County, PA; a commute I had made for 12 ½ years.
One year ago I began worshiping here at CMCL.
One year ago is the last time I preached.
I promise I won't try to give you a year's worth this morning.
All I want to do is make a simple assertion. Our neighbors are praying - desperately praying - prayers from the dust. By 'prayers from the dust' , I could mean any of our prayers since the psalmist clearly reminds us that we all partake of the same humble origins.
But what I actually mean by 'prayers from the dust' are all the pleas from people who recognize their own vulnerability and even their own mortality because they are the ones who are downwind and downstream from environmental contamination.
They pray from the dust and they're not always sure anyone's listening to their prayers.
What I'm advocating is Neighbor Love;the Neighbor Love which compels us to hear these pleas for somebody to pay attention. This Neighbor Love also compels us to join our prayers with theirs and then to work together to build a legacy of clean air, pure water and healthy soil for their children and for ours.
As many of you know, I've been passionately pursuing a course of action to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Phase one of this action resulted in my arrest for civil disobedience in front of the White House in August, along with 1,250 others over a 2 week period.
Phase three unfolds on Sunday November 6th, when 2 bus loads of local citizens, sponsored by Transition Lancaster, head to DC to join an expected 5,000 others (in actuality 10-12,000 gathered for this) to form a literal ring around the White House. This is a legal, peaceful demonstration designed to remind our president that we expect him to do the right thing by denying a presidential permit for this pipeline which would pump dirty Alberta tar sands oil over our border, across the Ogallala Aquifer
and down to the Gulf of Mexico for refining.
Phase two was a 3 minute testimony I gave at a State Department hearing on October 7th which was processing citizen input on the issue. I advocated Neighbor Love as a basis for determining what's in the national interest. If you don't mind, I'd like to go back to phase two for a moment to quote myself:
"My citizen's testimony to the State Department hearing on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline." October 7th, 2011
LOVE… a 4 letter word. I hope you're okay with my using it.
Like many of you, I've been taught to love my neighbor as myself.
In 30 years as a pastor, I made the principle of neighbor love the core…the heart of my ethical message.
I don't know if you've considered LOVE as a basis for determining the national interest, but if you could consider it for just a moment I'm sure you'll be persuaded.
In my ministry I visited thousands of hospital rooms where hurting people went for treatment; people like you and me subject to bodily breakdown due to a host of causes, known and unknown. I've also conducted hundreds of funerals for people whose earthly lives ended, as all human life does and as each here someday will.
I've seen that each illness, each injury and each death impacts other people- those whom afflicted people love and those who love them. You and I suffer as individuals, but our suffering causes others to suffer as well.
It's good that we are connected in this way.
Because we are connected, we don't want to inflict unnecessary suffering on others. We also realize it is undesirable for some of us to profit at the expense of others' suffering. This brand of profiteering is the opposite of neighbor love. We all agree that it is plain wrong.
LOVE says, "This is injustice!"
I'm sure you know about the immense amount of money a few corporations and investors stand to make from this pipeline. So do the citizens currently occupying Wall Street, Freedom Plaza here in DC and a host of other US locations. They are now in the streets crying for justice and seeking a country governed by neighbor love rather than money love!
LOVE says "People over profits."
I'm sure you know about the suffering of indigenous peoples in Alberta who've seen rare deadly diseases skyrocket since the tar sands began their costly toxic extraction process.
LOVE says "No more poisoning innocent people!"
I'm sure you know that the acceleration of climate change from tar sands oil use will wreak untold suffering upon the people of our nation, perhaps even your own loved ones. The number of billion dollar weather disasters in the US this year such as flooding, fires and tornadoes are unprecedented and this trend will likely grow worse.
LOVE says "Stop climate change while you can!"
The likelihood of BP type spills from ruptured pipelines over the nation's heartland threatens the fresh water drinking supply for 20 million people!
LOVE says "Find a better way!"
I'm sure you want to find that better way for all our people. Find it before any more loved ones suffer unnecessarily.
LOVE says," THIS is in our national interest!"
++++++++++++++++++++
You might say that was my plea on behalf of our neighbors who are praying from the dust. We have so many such neighbors!
Praying neighbors like farmer Bruce Kennedy of East Smithfield,PA in Bradford Co. This past summer Bruce constructed a sign and then erected it in the center of town. On that sign is Bruce's literal handwritten prayer:
DEAR GOD
Oh Lord Please save Our Town
I love my earthly home
(1) 6" Pipline (sic) leak(1)DIESELFUELSPILL
(1)HYDRAULIC FLUIDSPILL
(2) BROKEN HEARTS
HOME OF OUR GRANDCHILDREN
Please help, I ask in Jesus name,
Collins Rd - Okis Acres Farm - Bruce D Kennedy
+++++++++++
"This farm has a lot of heritage in my family," he explains."It means a lot to me." His land is leased out to Chesapeake Energy for natural gas drilling. 3 separate accidents on his property provoked him to display this prayer on a homemade sign in the middle of his village.
In Bruce Kennedy's prayer is a universal quest. We each want this. Even though we may be dust, we want to leave a legacy. Perhaps that's what the psalmist had in mind when he ended Psalm 90 with: "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands."
Can we hear what Farmer Bruce Kennedy is seeking? Can we hear his prayer from the dust?
Or, how about the prayers of 3 men from the Gulf Coast area where toxic logs they call 'tar logs' are constantly washing up on shore ever since the BP oil spill. I've seen these logs. I've smelled them. You don't want to.
They're about a foot in length and 3 inches in diameter. They're made of 'dispersed' oil, sand and a chemical dispersant called Correxit.
Correxit, owned by BP, was banned in the UK a decade ago. BP used their own banned poisonous product to 'clean up' their mess.
Back to the 3 men; John, Chuck and Andre. They, and 12 other Gulf Coast residents drove 1,300 miles to Washington DC in August of this year to meet with three different federal agencies…hoping someone would hear their prayers from the dust.
This contingent of desperate people were told to go to the food court in the Ronald Reagan Trade Building. As they sat around tables in the food court, a woman from the National Institute of Environmental Health & Safety (NEIHS) walks up to the table- no introductions- and begins to pass out pamphlets.
I read now from an unpublished account written by Lancaster resident, Jack Basille, who was with them as an independent journalist.
"I leaned over and whispered to John, "Tell me this isn't the meeting..." Before he could answer, I saw the pamphlet. It was a hand out from the NEIHS informing the reader of how the Institute has, and is continuing to help make the environment safer. "John's look said more than he ever could. It was at this point that I realized what these people were up against. Earlier in the day, Charles had told me that they had driven almost 1,300 miles to take part in these meetings. Now they were here, discussing not only their future, but the future of their children, in the midst of the confusion in a crowded lunchroom. The meeting was so difficult to follow due to the background noise. A man named Andre spoke up, asking this woman about the dispersant. "I was in charge of a clean up crew in the gulf, and I want to know what I can expect having been sprayed with that stuff." He turned his arm over and opened his fingers, "These scars go the whole way up my arm. In fact, these tattoos are to cover up the scars." I looked closer, and underneath the black ink in his skin, I saw what looked like numerous cigarette burns on his fore arm. The woman answered. However, it was all but impossible to understand her. I looked over at Chuck. Tears were streaming down his face. "What should I do about my son? He's played in the water after we were told everything was clean! What can I do for him?" It was heartbreaking to see a 6'3" 320lb man begging for any hope for his son. The woman swallowed her bite of food before responding, "The best advice I can give you is to get him a genetic test. The damage to the genes is instant and permanent, so get him tested." Chuck stood and walked from the table. It seemed as if he shut down as he disengaged himself from the meeting."
Can we hear the prayers of THESE neighbors? Can we hear their prayers from the dust?
Finally, one more prayer from much closer.
You may have heard that Pennsylvania has the nations fifth-worst smog. You may have heard hat Lancaster County is the 10th-smoggiest midsize metro area in the country. This is because Pennsylvania is a 'tailpipe state' and in Lancaster County we are at the end of the tailpipe. That is, we are the recipients of airborne pollution emitted by Midwestern power plants.
"As bad as that is," the Intelligencer Journal tells us, "it could soon be worse. The US House of Representatives recently passed the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act, or TRAIN Act." (Congressman Joe Pitts who represents the 16th District which includes all of Lancaster County voted in favor of this )
According to the Intel editorial, this act "prohibits the implementation of existing clean-air regulations and would delay the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing mercury and cross-state air pollution rules" causing an "additional 25,300 lives lost due to smog, soot and air pollution, and an additional 11,000 heart attacks.
"The new mercury standard alone would cut health care costs significantly by preventing up to 120,000 asthma attacks in children per year and lowering the risk of brain damage in the unborn.
"Infants and children are the most susceptible to asthma attacks because they breathe more rapidly than adults and because their immune systems and organs have not matured."
With that as background, I ask you to hear the prayers of 5 women from southeast Lancaster, all mothers of young children. Their prayers from the dust can speak to you through a conversation they had at an educational event a few months ago.
One mother says, "I'm having a rough time concentrating today because I had to take my 10 month old to the hospital yesterday with an asthma attack."
A 2nd mother says: "My child died from an asthma attack."
A 3rd mother says: My 12 year old has asthma, too."
We can all figure out what these mothers are praying, can't we?
But can we hear them? Can we hear them praying from the dust?
Can we hear all those urgent prayers of neighbors who are downstream and downwind from environmental contamination?
Can we ask, "What does Neighbor Love require?"
Can we ask, "What can we do together to leave a legacy of clean air, pure water and healthy soil for all our children and grandchildren?"
"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the works of our hands."
photo by Thadd Acosta,Lancaster,PA.
