When I started attending St. Andrew’s Ayer 20 years ago, I sat way in the back, hoping no one would notice me. Now I sing in choir, serve on Buildings and Grounds, and from time to time come up with elaborate programs designed to push people from apathy to action on climate change.

This year, that takes the shape of a Lenten Creation Care program, an idea that came to me all in one moment during a meeting of the Creation Care Justice taskforce in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. During that meeting, I realized that Easter falls on the eve of Earth Day, and I thought to myself, ‘what can we do with that?’ The answer was the Rejoice! Reduce! Renew! program that is described at StAndrewsAyer.org/CreationCare. My hope is that by entering into Lenten practices and talking about our call to love our neighbors and care for our world, we as people of faith can lead on climate action from a place of joy and hope. I hope we learn that action on climate change is just another way for us to shine God’s love into the world.

I believe that love is fed by a love of the natural world, and yet people increasingly separate themselves from the nature, particularly in the winter. We huddle indoors, and hustle from our homes to our cars to another indoor place. With that in mind, several of the practices recommended during lent involve time outside. First is a daily observance of just going outside to listen, feel, smell, and observe nature. The special silence of a snowy morning, over 40 days will become the welling birdsong of spring. The sting of morning frost will melt into the damp soils and wakening bulbs of daffodils and crocus. We will also have a series of hikes on Sunday afternoons for us to spend time together in community with nature. Time outdoors stirs the sense and awakens our wonder and awe. Exploring our oneness with the Earth’s vitality reinforces our connection to nature and to one another.

And of course, action on climate change does require some measure of knowledge especially given the campaign of misinformation and doubt circulated by high profile, influential people. On our first Sunday Adult Forum we talked about the definition of global warming and how the ‘warming’ at the atmospheric level causes changes in our local climates. We talked about how climate change means just that – change. Change means something different from what we expect and that can be warming or cooling – it could mean more precipitation or less precipitation. We also talked about how weather – what is happening now outside – cannot be equated with climate – what we expect based on data over an extended period of time (20-30 years). In short, a person who looks out the window and claims that a snow storm today disproves global warming has not grasped the basics and should be encouraged to read well-sourced information. We do not need to become experts in climate science, but we should challenge ourselves to know the basics, so we can make decisions based on the best information. I recommend that people who feel daunted visit their local libraries and take our books on climate change from the children’s library.

During our Adult Forum, we named some of the impacts of climate change from rising seas, to increases in insect borne illnesses, interruptions in food supply, water shortages, and loss of home and lives to extreme weather. We looked at models of future changes in climate based on whether or not we can reduce our carbon emissions finishing on a slide that showed model flooding for downtown Boston. All very sobering.

And, we paused to assess where we are right now and think about what we really need to know about climate change:

It’s Real
It’s Us
Scientists Agree
It’s bad
There’s hope*

And, here’s the thing. I have given presentations about climate change for ten years. A lot has changed in that time, but what I believe today is this. People of faith – from all traditions – must speak out to inspire action on climate change because people of faith are called to be people of hope. We are not called to despair. We sing our praises to God and with God’s help we persist.

People of faith are called to show God’s love for the world in the way they live their lives. We need to make the everyday actions we can take for climate change mainstream. Get a home energy audit, insist on reusable bags, advocate for and use public transit, support renewable energy development, divest from fossil fuels companies, communicate with your elected leaders about the urgency of action on climate change for people of faith. Tell them where you stand. The more they hear from their constituents the better.

I was inspired by the people who attended the presentation on that first Sunday in Lent. I was encouraged. The more I think about it, the more I see how people of faith can make a real difference in climate action. I hope that these Lenten practices become lifelong habits that we share with our friends, families, in our neighborhoods, at work, and across the world!

Amen!