THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

LIVING IN HARMONY WITH CREATION

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spiritsbefore his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.  To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

December 16 of every year is a much-awaited day for Filipinos as this is the start of the Christmas Novena, known as the nine-day “Misa de Gallo”. For our people in the Caraga Region in Mindanao and southern Visayas, however, December 16, 2021 will forever be etched in their collective memory as the day when super-storm Category 5, Typhoon Odette, pounded their homes and communities and completely shattered their festive preparations for the Nativity of our Lord. On Christmas day that year, while the Christendom was joyfully celebrating the birth of the Messiah and the Prince of Peace, 372,000 people were cramped in evacuation centers while another 252,000 displaced persons were living with relatives or friends or in makeshift homes, agonizing over what had just happened to them and wondering how they can recover from that destructive typhoon Odette.

This month of November 2024, five tropical cyclones successively overlapped with each other in making landfall in the country, bringing along with them heavy to intense rainfall or strong to severe winds. It’s not only the intensity and frequency of the storms that are becoming worse every year but there is now also the scary streak of violent weather affecting almost the same communities, coming in rapid succession. The toll of this phenomenon on the psychological disposition of affected communities must be un-imaginable.

Today, we have fair weather but we can’t be on denial of the possibilities of other super storms coming. It is at this time of respite from severe weather disturbances therefore that we pray with more fervor for all people to be spared from destructive storms so that everyone will embrace the Advent and Christmas seasons with the peace of mind that we so desperately need as part of our celebration. It is very timely indeed that in today’s celebration of the feast day of St. Andrew, SATS has set its thematic focus on “Living in Harmony with Creation” as a reminder of the urgency and necessity of continuing prayers for the safeguarding of creation.

Part of our prayer exercise is a personal and collective reflection on why and how we have come to our current situation of death and destruction. For while the storms have calmed down in our county at this very moment, other environmental catastrophes abound in our midst, such as the critical air pollution that is choking us to slow death, the depletion of our soils that is lowering down production and threatening food security, the garbage crisis that is poisoning our waterways, and many other horrible manifestations of a groaning mother earth. All of these, we know too well are caused and exacerbated largely by our very own human activities.

There was a recent column article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer  by Joel Butuyan where he asks why the Philippines does not have ancient pre-colonial edifices such as the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Borobudor in Indonesia and the Parthenon in Greece. Answering his question, he said one reason for this is because the primary form of belief of our ancestors was animism involving the worship of nature spirits and deceased forbears. Most of the massive structures built in ancient times were dedicated to gods, such as the Angkor Wat that was dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu, the Borobudor was a Buddhist temple, while the Parthenon was the home of the Greek gods. In the case of pre-colonial communities that inhabited what would become the Philippines, what or whom they worshipped lived in a spiritual world that existed side by side with the natural world. They believed that every material thing had a spirit which must be respected, lest they earned the latter’s ire and cause catastrophe on human communities. According to Butuyan, since our ancient forbears worshipped spirits that dwell in nature and which must not be disturbed nor destroyed, they have passed on to us, instead of massive temples and structures, the preserved beauty and bounty of nature.

Unfortunately, part of the Christianization process in our country brought about by colonization was the disregard and, worse the condemnation, of our ancestors’ spirituality.

But nothing can be clearer from the Biblical text from which our theme was crafted. God has placed us in a spiritual realm. Through sin and disobedience, however, we have rejected this realm and placed ourselves instead in the kingdom of the flesh. But there is hope because through Jesus Christ, we are restored in the realm of the spirit.   We must therefore recognize that the Spirit of God dwells right in this world and this Spirit must be allowed to dwell in each of us as the kingdom of God unfolds. It would have been a perfect progression if the founding Christian missionaries in this country have, in the words of Dr. William Henry Scott, instead of denouncing the ancient spirituality of our forbears, actually evolved and enriched this spirituality into its proper Christian end.

To re-emphasize, the Spirit of God dwells in our world and if we allow this Spirit to live in us, then we are in the realm of the Spirit and we belong to God. Romans 8: 9-11 says “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives lifebecause of righteousness.”

The reason why the world is on the verge of death and destruction is because humanity continues to create gods and build monuments to honor these gods. These created gods are more vicious and terrifying as they in fact are considered by humanity, even by many Christians, as the mark of success of earthly existence. These gods are: materialism, selfishness and greed or the unsatiable desire to own and dominate the created order. The monuments to these gods come in the most expensive material acquisitions and mind-boggling resource concentration in the hands of a few people at the expense of the massive grinding poverty of the multitude. The followers of these gods, which in varying degrees may include all of us,  are sacrificing the created order as an offering to these gods.  Former Prime Bishop Renato Abibico said that he can understand if we dig the earth to find metals that are going to be used as surgical materials to save human lives. He said however that he cannot fathom the foolishness of humanity when they turn mountains upside down and kill entire ecosystems just to mine gold and diamonds to be used by people who want to look better or prettier than what they are. The worship of vanity and the desire for power and domination breed corruption and exploitation and in the past weeks, we have seen in congressional hearings the extent of how huge public moneys are used for purposes that are so detached from the basic needs of our people for economic survival.

Many years ago, an Episcopal priest enjoying the bliss of retirement received two visitors whom he graciously fed with his biggest roster and accommodated in the warmth of his home. At midnight, however, these visitors woke up and killed our priest. While this was related to a vicious tribal practice, there was the most despicable element of ingratitude, for nobody should ever return somebody’s hospitality with evil. We condemned the act and prayed that it should never happen again.

But the sad reality is that humanity is actually doing this act everyday. According to Chris Webb in his book, God-soaked Life, creation is God’s great act of hospitality. He says that creation opened up a space where humanity could live and flourish and that this world was to be both a place drenched in God’s holy presence and a dwelling for human beings living in relationship with him and with one another. But after being graciously fed and allowed to enjoy the blessings of creation, we wake up in the middle of the night, ransack the natural provisions given to us by our host and  bring death to the very same resources that give us life, such as the air, water and the earth.

Yes, the very sad reality is that  so much of what we have built and are continually building as our comfort zones in our everyday lives, homes and communities today stem from the destruction of the created order. We live in the convenience offered by plastics even if we know they are extremely damaging to the environment. Farmers producing organic products have a hard time selling their produce because we prefer the cheap and nice looking chemical-laden harvests and canned and processed foods.  We vote for candidates even if we know they are corrupt.

In our Gospel today from Matthew 4:18-22, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew and a little later again two brothers, James and John. Jesus called them and immediately the four left their boats and nets and followed him. Fishing had been the source of their livelihoods and the boats and nets were the means by which they fished. It was what they have learned to do and was the trade that they have mastered. It was their comfort zone. But they left this so they can follow and become disciples of Jesus.

Today, Jesus is calling everyone to leave our comfort zones so that we can follow him. Many times, we understand this call in an allegorical sense. Certainly, we cannot abandon our current professions and trades and be itinerant preachers.  The truth however is that this call is very real and involves practical things that we can and should do. Again, we wallow in comfort zones that stem from the destruction of the created order and these are what we must abandon in order to follow our Lord.  In the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, we have identified some ways by which we can do this. There is the established Episcopal Hour where everyone should put off their gadgets from 6 am to 12 noon every Sunday so that we can all focus on worship and stand up against the lure of a materialistic world. There is our advocacy for organic farming, support to the ban on one-use plastics, reduction of carbon emissions in our homes and churches, expanding the Anglican Communion forests and our continuing opposition to destructive development endeavors. The Iglesia Filipina Independiente has the Abundant Life and Care for Creation program with indigenous communities as well as advocacies on various issues that impinge upon the integrity of creation. It is only when we leave our comfort zones built on the destruction of the created order that we can truly live in harmony with creation, as enjoined by our theme for today’s celebration.

Just like Andrew and his brother Simon called Peter and brothers James and John, we are called to be disciples. The Anglican Communion defines discipleship as equipping Christians to live their everyday lives as followers of Jesus Christ, following his example and his teaching. It is about putting faith into practice and helping other believers to do the same. The Anglican Communion has identified five marks by which faith is put into practice, as follows: a]  proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God; b] baptizing, teaching and nurturing new believers; c] responding to human needs by a loving service; transforming unjust structures of society and challenging violence of every kind; and, safeguarding the integrity of creation. All of these are inter-connected and complementary of each other. One cannot claim to be a disciple by focusing only on one mark and forgetting the others. One cannot claim to be proclaiming the good news if he or she does not participate in the safeguarding of creation. One who works to safeguard the integrity of creation is actually proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

Gus Speth, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the UN Development Group, said and I quote “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy… to deal with those issues we need a spiritual and cultural transformation – and we scientists do not know how to do that.”

Indeed, selfishness, greed and apathy could not be solved by some scientific formula. It can only be dealt with by a transformation which happens when we look at our world as a Spiritual Realm, the home of our God who has given us love, joy, justice and peace. It can only be dealt with by a transformation which happens when we ourselves disengage from destructive materialism, allow the Spirit of God to dwell in us and in the world around us, and participate in the universal movement towards creation care.

Amen.

+Brent Harry W. Alawas