Scripture does not hide from how humanity has failed to live into our call to care for the earth. It leans into this failure, pages filled with admonishment, horror, and fury for how we have treated ourselves, the land, our neighbors, and God. We have abandoned each, leaving them trampled in the dry, crumbly dust. I don’t envision this dust as the dust from which we came (which I imagine was dusty like a life-filled garden is dusty: with pollen, rich dirt, and decaying petals of flowers just past their peak). No, when I think of this dwindling dust, I think of that which you find in an overworked field, drained of nutrients, unable to even hold water to keep itself moist. This is the land that mourns. This is where we see the curse that devours the earth.
3 The earth will be completely laid waste and completely plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word. 4 The earth dries up and crumbles away, the mainland dries out and crumbles away, the exalted of the people of the earth dwindle. 5 The earth is also defiled by its inhabitants, for they violated laws, altered statutes, and broke the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth decrease in number, and few people are left.
7 The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the joyful-hearted sigh.
-- Isaiah 24:3-7, NASB
Notably, the reason given for this cursed mourning is because of broken laws and violated covenants. “If only you had lived into your call of harmony and wholeness,” I hear the Spirit cry, “if only you had followed in the path I showed you!” But we didn’t. We embraced violence, faithlessness, greed, and deceit. We shunned the way of the Lord, and all have suffered.
Listen to the word of the Lord, you sons of Israel,
Because the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land,
For there is no faithfulness, nor loyalty,
Nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 There is oath-taking, denial, murder, stealing, and adultery.
They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land mourns,
And everyone who lives in it languishes
Along with the animals of the field and the birds of the sky,
And even the fish of the sea disappear.
-- Hosea 4:1-3, NASB
In this passage from Hosea, the words “mourns” and “languishes” show up as “dries up,” “whithers,” and “wastes away” in other translations. This is how Hosea starts his book of prophecy, a gut-wrenching depiction of how Israel walked away from God. But it is not how his prophecy ends; in the book of Hosea, God continually draws Israel back despite repeated unfaithfulness. In that same vein of hope, other passages within the prophets look forward to the restoration of the land. That, however, is a topic for the next installment.
In the meantime, consider:
What is the curse that consumes the earth?
How do you feel about the land mourning? How do you think God feels?
Awakening to God’s Call to Earthkeeping. Kim Winchell, ELCA Diaconal Minister. 2006.