Plastic Jesus Psalm 23 – 2024/4/28

April 28, 2024
Earth Sunday

“Plastic Jesus: Real Faith in A Synthetic World”
Psalm 23

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

Psalm 23

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Plastic Jesus Psalm 23
Real Faith in A Synthetic World

I cannot take credit for the sermon title or Scripture. These two items were a part of the Earth Day material from Creation Justice Ministries. Within this material was information about how plastics are overtaking our world, how plastics are found within the food we eat, how plastics are becoming part of our very bodies, affecting our health in more ways than we could ever imagine.  There were also stories about how other people of faith and their communities are answering the call to eliminate plastics. In this material from Creation Justice ministries, it framed this conversation about plastic Jesus and real faith in a synthetic world around the understanding that “Justice for creation requires a rethinking of our relationship to plastics. It challenged us as people of faith to ask questions like:  Is it enough that we recycle and find alternatives to single-use items to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills? Questions like: How do we account for the fact that plastics are often produced in historically oppressed communities so that their very production harms the health of Black, Brown and poor White communities? Questions like: Do we even have the means to remove enough plastic from our rivers, lakes and the ocean to preserve the bioregions made vulnerable by plastic waste?

There was so much information, almost too much information but I have to say, after reading through the material, I was still finding it a stretch to connect Psalm 23 to plastics invading our world. Not because I don’t agree with the statement. It’s just that when I think of Psalm 23, a sense of calm comes over me, something that is so distant and disconnected from the overwhelming sense of pending doom which overtakes me every time I contemplate the environmental crisis facing us at this time…

That is until I was invited to take a step back and see, truly see the synthetic framework we have created, which we embrace, which we accept as our norm. What I mean by this is that on Friday morning, I found myself on a field trip to Kentucky Down Under, a place in Western KY which invites adults and children alike to encounter animal which they probably would not have an opportunity to see any other way. In every sense of the term, this place is a zoo.

Now I’m not knocking zoos. I love them in fact. I love spending the day with the animals. I love experiencing the education programs zoos offer to help cultivate empathetic hearts for Creation. I love seeing animals that I’ve only read about or seen in pictures. For me, zoos offer a great opportunity for us as humankind to engage and experience the wider world with all its varied species and diversity. 

That being said, on Friday it hit me, the flip side of zoos…meaning the crafted false narrative of zoos parading as creation care if you will. While on this field trip, I began to notice that yes the cool thing was that I was able to feed and pet a kangaroo, the flip side was that the experience was actually traumatizing the animals. I watched as school group after school group entered the area, cups of food in their hands. I watched how the larger animals stood in one place, almost playing the game statue. But it wasn’t until I noticed the babies, one in particular. It was surrounded by children, seemingly trying to make itself smaller as if to escape notice. And out of the mouth of babes an observation came…one young girl told the group that the mom is trying to the baby but with all the kids around, it couldn’t. This young girl was looking for an adult to stop the madness. Finally a worker came over and moved the children along. But that experience stayed with me.

What I noticed after that experience as I looked around this zoo, was that humanity had created a false reality designed for creation to entertain. Humanity had created a synthetic world filled with bars and cages, controlling and submitting nature to its will.

This image was so disconnected from the peaceful images of Psalm 23 that I felt like I was in some sort of matrix moment. Again, I’m not saying all zoos are bad or horrible. But standing in that field, watching the baby kangaroo sink into itself made me wonder if this is what was really intended when God called Creation good.

This call for a real faith in a synthetic world hit home for me. In that moment I realized that the disconnect between what I experienced on Friday and what God intended does not have to be. “The well-known 23rd Psalm paints a picture of a world where those who trust in God are cared for, protected and guided along life’s journey. The opening of Psalm 23 suggests a person who has, because of this relationship with God, found contentment. Note that much of the author’s contentment has some connection to the natural world: green pastures, still waters, a head anointed with oil, an overflowing cup, a well-stocked table.” 

In Psalm 23, Creation is locked up. It is not caged.But rather in Psalm 23, Creation invites us to experience our God in ways which bring healing and wholeness, not entertainment. 

Perhaps what is lost in our synthetic world filled with plastics is the recognition that the places that restore our soul are the places left untouched by human hands, places which are becoming fewer and fewer.. Perhaps the invitation for us here is to recognize that creation gives us all that we need if only we are attentive to its gifts, that Creation invites us to be in relationship with one another as our authentic selves, not as commodities to be used or abused.

This invitation from Creation is life giving. It is life changing because in the invitation, as people of faith, we find a constant:  God and God’s loving concern for our wellbeing. Through our real connection to the world around us, we experience our God still at work in this world, bringing about healing and wholeness for all of God’s creation. As people of faith, amid the climate crisis we face, amid the synthetic world which has disconnected us from what God intended for Creation in the beginning, it is this invitation to connect with Creation which grounds us and reminds us of what is true: We are stewards of the land. It is here for us to care for. God asked us to take care of all of creation, because we know that what we will do in the next little bit will have effects on our land, on our people for generations to come. 

On this Earth Sunday and on every day to come, now is the time for us as people of faith to speak up, to take a stand against practices which use and abuse God’s creation. Now is the time for us to rise to the challenge, becoming the people God’s creation needs us to be people of grace, people of love, people who take prophetic action for justice, joining in the work of becoming stewards of God’s creation so all may know the beauty and wonder of the world around us. May it be so.

Amen.

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