St Mary's

Thank you all for the opportunity to give this homily this morning.  My name’s Devett, I’ve been a part of this community for most of my life.

I’m currently working as the Qld Co-ordinator for the Say Yes campaign; Say Yes is a broad and historic coalition of civil society organisations representing over 3 million Australians among young people, workers and the environment movement.  These organisations have come together in recognition of the urgent need for action on climate change and a belief that putting a price on carbon pollution is an essential first step.  Some of the organisations involved in the coalition includes the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, the ACTU and GetUp.

One of the things we’re doing at the moment is a weekend of morning teas in Churches and Faith communities next weekend, which parishes and congregations are taking part in, and I’m lucky enough here to be able to spend a bit of extra time with you, to go beyond the slogans and reflect more deeply.  So I want to take this opportunity to reflect on our relationship with creation in the context of the current political debate about pricing pollution.

Today’s Gospel is a parable in which the tenants are left with responsibility for something which is not theirs to own.  But when the messengers are sent they’re greed and their protection of the status they’ve built sees them kill the messengers, and the kill the next lot of messengers, and even when the Son is sent, the son of god, the message of God, he is killed too.

We can see that parable playing  out across our political landscape.  We as human beings have been left responsibility for an earth that we do not own.  We are supposed to be stewards of God’s creation!  A created order that we do not own!

But we use the earth as if we own it.  And yet when the message is sent that we need to relinquish our deathgrip we react with greed by killing the messenger and killing message.  We deny and discredit OR we sit back and allow this to happen.

Because of this the way we deal with climate change and the environment more broadly is not simply an environmental issue, its not simply an economic issue but a moral and spiritual issue.

We were invited by God to be co-creators and yet we still want to put ourselves above God and be the ones in charge.

Instead of this theology and ideology of domination, we would be better serves by following the example of St Francis of Assisi who’s feast day it is this Tuesday.

Francis can easily be dismissed as a bit of an airy fairy saint, his depiction with the animals is so cute and cuddly that it creates almost a caricature of him.  And there he is going on about brother sun and sister moon, its all a bit out there.  But its great in that it oozes a deep connection to the earth and a real understanding of our inter-relatedness.

For me the excitement of Francis is more than that though.  Its about him choosing the side of the poor.  He was a party boy aristocrat in his early days and he lived at a time when capitalism was just emerging.  It’s been discovered in recent years that the poor of Assisi were generally peasants who’d been forced off their land by the unjust practices of a local merchant and landholder.  And what’s been discovered is that it was none other than St Francis’ own father who was doing this!

So Francis’ spirituality of poverty and connection with creation implicitly involved taking sides in the defining social and economic issues of his time.

We are called to do the same.  So what are the choices?

Before I go further into that its important to recognise that much of the current anti-carbon price rhetoric is simply a new re-hashing of the old idea that if you advocate change and justice you are “taking sides” whereas if you protect the status quo you are neutral.  And we know, we know from the example of Jesus and his option for the poor, that this is simply not true.  Every position involves choosing a side and as Christians we must take the side of those most vulnerable and most marginalised.

So how does the carbon price legislation stack up?  What side does it choose:

1. Firstly it chooses the environment, it gives the created order that has no voice chance.  The reduction in carbon emissions will be equivalent to taking 45 million cars off the road. Plus it will create the circumstances in which renewable energy use can grow exponentially.

It does this imperfectly, as it does it within an economic system that has to put a dollar value on things.  This is something that we as Christians should continue to challenge into the future.

While its not perfect its an important first step, it’s a good thing that we will put a value on our world because it has such great value.

Its imperfect, but we don’t believe in a God that’s out there somewhere sitting in the sky, but in a God that’s right here and all around us here in the messyness of our lives and our world.

Part of that mess right now is a debate about action on climate change where the political reality is that if this carbon pricing legislation is defeated or is overturned in the next couple of years that will be the end of serious climate action in this country for the next 10 years.

So our choice is between starting down a good path and knowing that it still needs to be improved, or cutting off the chance of any progress and knowing that in 10years it might be  too late.

So it’s imperfect but the current carbon price chooses the side of the environment.

1. Secondly it chooses the side of the world’s poor who are set to pay the heaviest price for climate change when they are the least to blame.

In Bangladesh alone conservative estimates are that 30million people will be displaced by 2050 due to the impacts of climate change such as inundation of low lying areas, and salination of fresh water.

30 million people is an unimaginable number… almost twice the entire population of Australia.

Or if we turn our attention to Africa, a study published in the British medical journal the Lancet suggests that malaria infection could rise between 16-28% due to the  impacts of climate change.

And on that health front, here at home dengue fever will spread as far south as Brisbane, creating huge issues for our health care systems.

1. Thirdly this package chooses the side of workers and jobs here in Australia.

This is a vital consideration as we know that work is not only about the vital aspects of economic development and material wellbeing but the catholic social teaching tradition also recognises that work is the basis of our dignity.  And in a moment, when we celebrate Eucharist, we will celebrate an incarnation that is made possible by the work of human hands joining together with the work of God’s hands.

Despite what you might have heard in the TV ads that ask “Why threaten our jobs?” this carbon price package actually supports jobs.  Job losses from other factors such as the high Australian dollar might be blamed on the carbon price. But in reality the Qld treasury has released their own and independent economic modelling that shows that without a Carbon price there will be 3.91 million jobs created inn QLD and that WITH a carobn price that will be 3.95million jobs instead.

This carbon price will create jobs and they will be more sustainable jobs.

So we have a package that takes the side of the environment, of the world’s poor and the side of workers, jobs and low-income earners in Australia.  That’s something we can say yes to!

Which means we’re called to action:

1. Come and get a factsheet from me at the end of mass.
2. Morning Teas: as well as the morning tea in churches and faith communities next week, we are also running a national day of Workplace Morning Teas on this Weds 5^th November.  If you think you can run one of these at work, at home, or in a community organisation then they’re a great way to have a conversation with people in a non-confrontational environment where they can ask questions and get the real facts.  You can get a pack with full instructions on the say yes website (which is on the factsheet)
3. I say yes because…

Many of you will remember the Sea of Hands from Reconciliation actions in the past.  We’re recreating that for the day of the vote on the carbon price legislation on 12^th October.  You can go online to our website at www.sayyesaustralia.org.au and put in why you say Yes.  The website will create an online poster and then it’ll be taken to the lawns of parliament house as a real poster.

1. Contact an MP
2. National day of Prayer in November – more details to follow but something which we can do personally and as a community here.

So that’s five ways to take action, 5 ways that we can respond to the challenge of the Gospel and St Francis by saying YES to the environment, to the poor of the world, and to workers and jobs in Australia.