I want you to listen for a moment to a song given to us by God.
It is a subtle song. Almost at times a silent song.
It is the song of the Tamar Valley. A song of bird and wind on meadow.
A song of grass soft on the hill.
A song of ancient gum and surrounding old growth.
Lets listen to the sound of spirit.

Here’s another song.
A heavy metal song.
The song of a pulp mill.

In todays reading from the book of Lamentations
we listen to the lament of a woman as she mourns her desolation.
She is the city,
the city of Jerusalem,
 the city of God
and she is broken and so she mourns.

‘O grief, O grief I’ll tell you why’

Lamentations begins with a metaphor.
The city is a woman, a widow.
And she is at loss.
Such a metaphor was not unfamiliar to an audience of the ancient middle east
as cities were often referred to as widow or as harlot or as bride.
The city, like the woman of the ancient world was something to be possessed, something to be invaded, something to be glorified or something to be smashed.

So here she sits, this city, this woman, this weeping woman who is Jerusalem this woman who has brought this great suffering upon herself.
She has done this by rebelling against the great power of Babylon
and so now she sits in ruin.
Weeping and broken and burnt.

‘O grief, O grief I’ll tell you why’

It can sometimes be hard to have sympathy or compassion for someone when they have brought suffering upon themselves.
They should have known better we think’
‘I told them this might happen’ we nod to each other.
‘Well what did you expect’ we may sagely say.
But the writer of Lamentations is not without pity for this woman.
We feel for her as she sits bereft and wailing. But we don’t know how to help.
 
There are many types of cities, cities of gold and commerce and corruption.
But today I invite you to reflect upon a different type of city.
A city of God.

In Tasmainia there  is a valley, a valley called the Tamar.
As many of you would be aware this valley is currently the site of considerable conflict between environmental activists and the Woodchipping Company Gunns.
Gunns is hoping to establish a pulp mill on this land and thus far
the plan has received support in principle from both major political parties.
This support is despite widespread public opposition,
opposition which is based on devasting research which reveals the damage that the pulp mill will cause.
The pulp mill will initially be 80% based on native forest.1
It will destroy forests in the Great Western Tiers, North-East Highlands and Ben Lomond.

And according to the Age newspaper: 

‘experts—including the Tasmanian Government’s own consultant,

Sweco Pic—have said that Gunns failed to carry out adequate baseline studies and modelling of the effluents which will flow from the mill. 

Oceanographers have warned that the effluent will frequently blow back to shore and into the Tamar Estuary. The 64,000 tonnes of effluent that the pulp mill will discharge into Bass Strait every day contain small quantities of dioxins and furans—some of the deadliest substances known to science.    

These build up over time in the food chain, contaminating marine life.
Scientists have also warned that planned logging in Tasmania’s north-east threatens animals and birds with local extinction and then adding to this potental enviromenatal damage is the fact that the pulp mill will consume up to 40 billion litres of fresh water each year.
40 billion litres.

To create wood chip.

To sell to Asia.
To make matchsticks and tissues.

To sell back to us. 

O grief, O grief I’ll tell you why.

 If the Tamar was a woman, would she weep? What would she weep for?

The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle? The spotted-tail quoll?  The giant freshwater crayfish?  All of which are in danger of extinction if the pulp mill goes ahead.

It is now almost universally accepted that climate change is a reality. What we can do about it though is still a matter which is being hotly debated.
The Commission for Mission of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania has passed a number of resolutions on environmental issues:
‘At the core of the Uniting Church’s position is a belief that Christian theology implies respect for all of God’s creation (including future generations)
and a recognition of its intrinsic value.

The Uniting Church also believes it is called to advocate on behalf of the poor and most vulnerable members of the global community’
The wedge tailed eagle is part of this community
as are all our small ones, small ones like Evie and Anushka and Jessie,
and like all of our children and grandchildren
whose world we are in the process of destroying.
Every time a forrest falls less carbon dioxide is transformed into clean air
and more green house gas is released into the ever heating atmosphere.
Every time.

Will we be able to weep for ourselves if we continue to destroy our natural enviroment?
Will we wipe our eyes with our old growth tissues?
Will we soon find ourselves sitting in the woodchips of the Tamar wondering, like the woman in Lamentations, what went wrong?