What's the Cost

For most of my life I have been a vegetarian. Today I also eat fish because my body needs extra protein without many carbs. My mother was vegetarian all her life but brought us kids up to be meat eaters. My own journey with vegetables began in the early 70s when I realized that meat is an inefficient way of getting protein. It takes about seven pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef[1]  and about 35% of the world’s grain harvest is used to raise livestock. That could be used to feed humans.

So back in the early 70s I discovered that if those of us in affluent countries ate 10% less meat and the grain saved was redistributed there would be no starvation. That was a big motivator for me. I hate being hungry, and I don’t want anyone else, human or non-human to ever experience hunger. I read the books that were trending at the time – Small is Beautiful, Diet for a Small Planet, and later Voluntary Simplicity – I am sure that quite a few of you read those same books. And so I became a committed vegetarian. I also started shopping in thrift stores – that was trendy too.

But what I didn’t know back then was that other aspects of the way I lived were having just as dire an effect on the planet as my food. I had no idea that the gas I used to drive my little car was affecting the environment. I had no idea that fresh water was scarce. I did not know that fossil fuels and big agriculture were filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and methane and that they would make the planet heat up and lead to massive fires, rising sea levels and bigger life-threatening storms.

Today I have a much more complete understanding of the way my lifestyle impacts other people and other beings. And I don’t like it. It is inconvenient, and it is uncomfortable. I don’t want to read the articles about climate change. I don’t want to continue to attempt to reduce waste, cut my carbon footprint, eat locally and live simply so others may simply live.

But that’s what Jesus taught. Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the things I want for myself, a safe and peaceful society, a comfortable home, clean water, clean air, plenty of delicious food and yes, flush toilets, all of those things Jesus tells me to want for my neighbor too. And not just the neighbor I can see but the one in Haiti or Sudan or Gaza.

And the more of the world’s resources that I use, the less there is for them.

Since the early 70s when I was learning about diet and the planet, the amount of the world’s resources that people use each day has more than tripled.[2] We are using more than there is to use. And according to the United Nations, those of us who are lucky enough to live in affluent countries are using ten times as many of the earth’s resources than those who live in low-income places.

In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship. He is being followed by large crowds, but he knows that many of the people following him are there for the novelty of it. They have been caught up in the excitement of the crowd. And so he discourages them by pointing out just how difficult it is to truly be his disciple. The path of discipleship is not one for most people because it calls for sacrifice, it calls us to love God and our neighbors even when it’s not convenient or fashionable.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus means letting go of the things that get in the way of a simple, deep walk with God. For the people of the time that meant leaving their families with their traditional ways and joining this new movement, this new tribe, the Jesus Movement. Today joining the Jesus Movement means finding a new depth of love as we seek to love as God loves, unconditionally and uncompromisingly.

Back in 1971, astronaut Edgar Mitchell looked out the window of Apollo 14, as he was returning from the moon. He looked out of the window at the space, stars, and planet from which he had come and suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, and harmonious. He writes, “I also realized that the Earth is a gem in the cosmos, a place to revere and care for. We are here not by accident, but on a journey of awakening that is as magnificent as the universe that holds us. We have a profound responsibility to care for the Earth, which is our craft on a voyage of both outer and inner discovery.”

We have a profound responsibility to care for the Earth. The Earth is our neighbor. Care for God’s creation is not an optional extra but a deeply important part of our calling as the people of God.

And caring for the earth as well as caring for our human and non-human neighbors means counting the cost of our own lifestyle. What is the cost of driving my car – not just in gas and insurance, but the cost to the planet? What is the true cost of the inexpensive clothes we buy? What is the true cost of the food I eat and the food I throw away? And what about the packaging – the plastic and the styrofoam that cannot be recycled? And here’s a tough one for me – what about the true cost of coffee?

Coffee is one of the causes of deforestation as more and more land is cleared for coffee production. And the coffee industry is plagued by human rights abuses and water pollution. That’s all before we consider the carbon footprint, oh and the paper cup I drink it in which can’t be recycled either.

Voluntary simplicity is part of the path that Jesus trod, and it is the path to which we are called.

Jesus words are hard, “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." We might paraphrase it as “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your stuff."

Stuff takes time and energy to care for. I had a dear friend who was more than a little crazy. In her later years she filled her house with stuff that she bought from thrift stores or picked up by the side of the street or found in dumpsters. And she spent her days moving her stuff from one place to another, packing it in boxes and then unpacking the boxes to see what was in them. For me that’s a picture of how our stuff can consume our time and our energy, taking our focus away from loving God and our neighbor.

This month we join Christians around the world as we celebrate the Season of Creation. This season is an opportunity for us to consider deeply the effect that our lives have on the planet, to consider changing habits which use the worlds resources and to start getting rid of all the stuff which prevents us fully following Jesus the Christ.

Because, like John Lennon, the Christ invites us to imagine.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
 
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall
 
 
 


[1] https://www.beyondmeat.com/en-US/whats-new/is-meat-production-an-efficient-use-of-resources#

[2] https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/rich-countries-use-six-times-more-resources-generate-10-times