Rabbi Jonathan Roos delivers his sermon, “Get In The Boat: A Post-October 7th Theology of Relationships,” Sunday in the Amphitheater.
“I think the inclusion of the verse in John 6:12, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted,’ is an extra message in the text,” said Rabbi Jonathan Roos. “It is entirely unnecessary, yet its inclusion is to tell us we all have a role in redemption.”
Roos preached at the 9:15 a.m. Thursday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title was “Waste Not and Clean Up Your Mess,” and the scripture readings were Genesis 2:4-9; 15, and John 6: 12-13.
Jesus commanded that nothing be wasted and set the disciples to cleaning up the hillside. The command, Roos said, began with the instruction to not waste any food, then to preserve the earth by cleaning up, and finally, to gather the scattered remnants and bring them back together.
The echo of exile and return, the she’arth yisrael, the remnant of Israel, is a key theme in Jewish history and spirituality, and Roos talked about that theme later in his sermon.
Temple Sinai in Washington D.C., where Roos is senior rabbi, has a lecture series every year. On the sabbath closest to Earth Day, Elana Goldstein — director for region three of the Environmental Protection Agency — was the speaker.
“She changed my life,” Roos said. “She acknowledged the size of the climate change problem and asked the congregation how they could have an impact on a problem that seems not of our making.”
The answer was simple: Stop wasting food.
EPA research, Roos said, has shown that reducing the amount of wasted food is the most powerful way to address climate change. About one-third of all the food we produce is lost or wasted. While this food accounts for 10% of the greenhouse gasses produced, that 10% is equivalent to emissions from 42 coal-fired power plants.
“Household food waste is the single biggest component in the trash stream,” he said. “If you add paper and other compostables, it is 50% of the waste stream. Only 5% of possible trash is composted.”
Trash that piles up in layers in landfills is the third-largest source of methane gas, one of the most powerful gasses contributing to climate change. As layers are added to trash in landfills, there is no sun or oxygen to break the trash down, so bacteria feed on the trash and release the methane.
“We are the significant cause of climate change by not composting,” Roos told the congregation. “I am not licensed to preach the good news, but if you take Jesus or anyone else seriously as your savior or model, you will reduce what you consume and compost what is left over. Don’t put your waste down the drain or in the trash, so the trash is not producing methane.”
One of the key objectives of Chautauqua’s 150 Forward strategic plan is to “drive the implementation of a comprehensive, science-based approach to improving the health and sustainability of Chautauqua Lake and elevate its conservation as the centerpiece of the region’s economic prosperity.”
Roos said he was impressed that the people he was having breakfast with at the Hall of Missions were as concerned with visual arts as they were about the science of climate change. “As important as science must be, we have to balance it with our traditions,” he said.
In a conversation over breakfast with Thursday’s Interfaith Lecture Series speaker, Jolene Rickard, Rickard talked about how her art was connected to water as the source of life.
“Did you think you would be getting a lecture on science today in morning worship? We have to look at our values, and that is why we do ‘drash,’ ” Roos said. “There are positive and negative commandments, thou shalt and thou shalt not.”
When God put trees into the Garden of Eden, the human being was put into the garden to tend them. Roos returned to Deuteronomy 8:10, to which he referred on Wednesday. The command is to eat, be satisfied and bless God. The end of this verse is “… bless the Lord your God for the good land God gave to you.”
In Deuteronomy 20:19, the rules of warfare say “… you must not destroy its trees. … You may eat of them, … but you must not cut them down.”
“Even in the context of destruction, you cannot destroy the earth,” Roos said.
He continued: “The lake is critical to bring us here. This is a place meant for hearing diverse perspectives and that is most important in our time, here and beyond. If the lake is not saved and protected, this place will not be here.”
Rickard told Roos that Chautauqua and the Great Lakes are the areas with the largest sources of freshwater in the world. If climate displacement continues, this area will be like Noah’s Ark, a refuge, because the water has become too polluted in other parts of the world.
Chautauqua Lake has been impaired because of runoff that causes eutrophication, an excess of nutrients that feed harmful algae. This causes an unbalanced ecosystem.
“The feeding of the 5,000 disrupted the field. There was a disruption of the balance, excessive food. The food fed them until they were full, but that is not always good. There are side effects,” Roos said. “Jesus’ command was simple: Clean up and waste nothing.”
In a conversation with Mark Wenzler, director of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative, who is a science guy, Roos realized that if there is one message about climate change, it is that we have to make art and scripture part of our balance for preserving the earth.
The first commandment was not to waste food and the second was to preserve the earth. The third commandment, Roos said, that Jesus told the disciples was to gather up the pieces, gather the remnants.
“You can hear the echo of Jewish spirituality in that command,” Roos said. “From Genesis and the exile from Eden to the exile to Babylon, there is a call to bring together the broken pieces of the world.”
The prophet Ezekiel, in the Valley of the Dry Bones, is told by God to put together two sticks — one called Judah and one called Joseph — and make one stick. God then promises to gather the remnant and bring them back together. Jeremiah 23: 3, the prophet wrote: “And I Myself (God) will father the remnant of MY flock from all the land to which I have banished them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, where they shall be fertile and increase.”
Roos called the physical and spiritual drive for aliyah, to go up — which is often represented by gathering the four corners of the tallit, the prayer shawl, lifting them between the eyes — as a symbol of the gathering of all the faithful.
“Have you ever wondered what happened to the first tablets that Moses smashed on Mt. Sinai?” Roos asked the congregation. “Midrash says that Moses cleaned up the pieces and put them in the base of the Ark of the Covenant and the new ones were put on top.”
He continued, “We have to clean up our messes. We have to carve new tablets so the earth is protected and cherished. We have to make better food choices, clean up the lake, gather the remnants, the broken pieces, and reduce the algal blooms. We are actually securing the future. In addition, whatever savior you honor, you are part of redemption. Let us be blessed; let us clean up the mess.”
Renee Andrews, president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua from 2016 to 2018, presided. Zack Steinberg, an Abrahamic Program for Young Adults coordinator, chanted the call to worship in Hebrew and read the scripture in Hebrew and English. The prelude was “On Chautauqua Lake,” Op. 59: Barcarolle, by Frederick A. Williams, arranged by Willie LaFavor, played by Barbara Hois, flute, and LaFavor, piano. For the anthem, the Motet Choir sang “All things bright and beautiful,” by John Rutter. The choir was under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, and accompanied by Owen Reyda, 2024 organ scholar, on the Massey Memorial Organ. Stafford played “Prelude for the Consecration of the New Synagogue in Berlin,” by Hugo Schwantzer, for the postlude on the Massey Organ. Support for this week’s services and chaplaincy is provided by the Harold F. Reed Sr. Chaplaincy.
