"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" was the second single from Marvin Gaye's 1971 album, What's Going On. Following the breakthrough of the title track's success, the song, written solely by Gaye, became one of his most poignant anthems of sorrow regarding the environment. Led by Gaye playing piano, strings conducted by Paul Riser, multi-tracking vocals from Gaye, the instrumentals provided by The Funk Brothers and a leading sax solo by Wild Bill Moore, the song rose to #4 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart and #1 for two weeks on the R&B singles charts on August 14 through to August 27, 1971.[1] The song also brought Gaye one of his rare appearances on the Adult Contemporary chart, where it peaked at #34. In 1991, a music video of the song was released by Motown Records featuring appearances by celebrities such as Smokey Robinson, Johnny Gill, Big Daddy Kane, Holly Robinson Peete, Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown,Rosie Perez, Bell Biv Devoe, Wesley Snipes, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and Vanessa L. Williams. As the single became his second million seller from What's Going On, the album started on the soul album charts in the top five and began charging up the pop rankings. "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" soon became one of Gaye's most famous songs in his extensive catalogue. In 2002 it was his third single recording to win a "Grammy Hall of Fame" Award. Like "Inner City Blues", Bob Babbitt, not James Jamerson, plays the bass line. Also in 1991, Robert Palmer combined the song in a medley with Gaye's 1976 hit "I Want You". Palmer's single reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart in early 1991. Also released by the Strokes in mid July 2006 as the B-side for the "You Only Live Once" single.
Oh, oh, mercy, mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, oh, no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east
Well, mercy, mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, oh, no
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas
Fish full of mercury
Oh, mercy, mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be, no, no, no
Radiation underground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live near by are dying
Oh, mercy, mercy me
Oh, things ain't what they used to be
What about this over crowded land?
How much more abuse from man can you stand?
The Strokes version of "Mercy, Mercy Me" like the original is a resounding anthem of climate care in the face of waste and injustice. The Scripture passage today is Psalm 65 and is one of many that could have been used to outline the care that God wants each of us to employ, for and on behalf of all his creation. This psalm speaks of God's own care for his creation. We do well to listen.
If the planet is one day – maybe quite soon – going to be burnt to a frazzle, why should we put effort into caring for it now? Isn't it more important to bring people to Christ while there is still time? Similar thinking led DL Moody to say, "I look upon this world as a sinking ship, and the Lord has given me a lifeboat, and told me: 'Moody, save all you can'." In this view, the only thing that can be retrieved from the wreckage of the world is individual souls; the earth itself is beyond redemption.
But such an attitude is hard to square with the overall message of Scripture. The Bible's view is that the earth is less like the Titanic, doomed to ultimate destruction, and more like the original Queen Mary, sailing into the distant sunrise where it will be rebuilt yet more gloriously. Throughout much of the 20th century, the environmental flag was flown mainly by the Green movement. Christians have largely distanced themselves from environmental issues, partly because of a Titanic-style view of the earth and partly because Green agendas often had overtones either of pagan nature-worship or of New Age religious views. Yet from a Scriptural perspective, Chucrches should have been leading the environmental agenda. The very existence of the universe is the result of God's creative activity. And its ultimate destination, redeemed by Christ's sacrifice on the cross, is to be renewed along with all believers to the eternal glory of God.
The Bible gives three main reasons why we should care for the environment. First, God Himself says that His creation is very good. The material world matters to God; He sustains it all the time. Without Him it would fall apart into chaos. "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1.16–17). So if we neglect, abuse and spoil the environment, we are damaging something that is precious to God. The second and even more important reason why we should care for the environment is that in Genesis 1.28 and 2.15, God specifically commanded humankind to do so. He told us to take care of both the living and the non-living creation. We are to work at ruling and ordering creation as good stewards without abusing it for our own selfish ends. By caring for the earth properly, we enable it to be fruitful and to play its intended role in giving glory to God. That is part of our proper worship of God. The third reason is that one day the cosmos will be renewed and re-created as the "new heavens and new earth", to which both the Old and New Testaments look forward (Isaiah 65, Revelation 21). That will bring the fullness of life that God intended and purposed for His creation: a place where people will truly be at home, where God will dwell with His people, and both they and the whole of creation will worship Him and give Him glory.
So how we treat the environment now ought to be a preview – a practice run if you like – of what we will do in the new creation. The certain hope of a renewed future creation is not a licence to abandon care for this one. Rather, the opposite is the case: there is every incentive to foster and to use the innate goodness and fruitfulness of this material world to do what is pleasing to God in our time and place. As Luther is supposed to have remarked, "If I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."
It is increasingly clear that our use of oil and gas in the West is driving rapid climate change in the whole world. It may not have much effect on us in the short term, other than maybe giving us longer and hotter summers in the UK, but the effects of more extreme weather events will fall disproportionately on the very young and very old, on the poor and the marginalised in places such as sub-Saharan Africa. One quarter of the planet's population lives in poverty and is extremely vulnerable to changes caused by drought or flooding, to the failure of agricultural crops or to rising sea levels. If we take caring for our global neighbour seriously, we need to consider the impact of our lifestyles on them. Many of the practical things we can do are not difficult, and indeed are often personally beneficial. Walking to school or church is usually healthier than driving. Changing to low-energy light bulbs, switching the TV off stand-by and insulating our homes will all save us money. So why are they difficult for us?
Partly it is because we are prone to put to the back of our minds the impact of our actions on those we can't see, such as those in another part of the world or even future generations. But perhaps mainly it is because we are by nature sinful, self-centred in our thoughts and our actions. Those of us who live in the high-income nations with standards of living purchased through profligate use of natural resources have a particular responsibility in our stewardship: an imperative to care for those elsewhere in the world marginalised by global climate change.
Of course Christians will want to do all they can to tell others the Good News of Christ. But at the same time if in telling that Good News we don't also model it by caring for the world God has entrusted to us, our message is then compromised.
No comments:
Post a Comment