It’s springtime in Australia and time to celebrate the Season of creation in the church!

The symbol or logo for this year’s celebration is a river flanked by two mountains with a bird flying overhead. The bird represents a dove of peace I presume, but the rest of the image tells a powerful if unintended story. It may of course simply be two images of a river, one reflecting the scene in the midday sun (the blue side) and the other reflecting the scene at sunset (the orange side).

But given the state of the planet this year, with 2023 so far being the hottest year ever on record, it’s hard not to see the right hand side as the world burning and being coloured by bushfire smoke giving that familiar orange haze. Indeed there have been horrendous wildfires this year in Canada, Europe and in Hawaii of all places. Meanwhile fossil fuel companies continue to make record profits.

In the book of Amos, the prophet rails against the wealthy trampling the heads of the poor into the dust. Amos warns them that God despises their empty worship when they fail to live justly and share the resources of the land equitably. A similar pattern of greed and corruption is easy to see in our world with the poor suffering the worst effects of climate change while rich Western companies and governments rake in huge profits and taxes from fossil fuel production, leaving the world to burn.

The rising cost of living is hurting many people in our society, but is crippling the poor in places from Africa to Asia to the Pacific. We need to change our ways and let justice and peace flow.