The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land. Exodus 7: 1-2
This is my second summer in the Valley of the Sun. This has brought a few observations. I did in fact wear sweaters when it was 60 degrees this past winter and I am slowly accepting that summer is a time for movies and winter is a time for hiking. One thing that has not changed is that the heat of the summer is still unrelenting. Maybe that’s true for everyone since this has been a historic summer? One benefit of writing monthly blogs is that I get to look back. In my summer 2023 blog post “Summer in the City” I began by pointing out
“For many of us summer brings a break from reality. Just thinking about summer evokes in us a feeling of pause; a pause from a school year, a sabbath from the busy season at work, an opportunity to travel, grill, and swim. For others though, summer in the desert can offer a harsh reality, a wake up call that reminds each day while the sun gives us light and growth and warmth, it can also burn, and torture, and kill.
The New York Times published an article on July 17th, 2024 mapping Sacramento, CA, Portland, OR, and of course our own Phoenix, AZ with the following map:
The author describes this image by pointing out “Around noon on July 10, huge parts of the nation’s fastest-growing large city were 120 degrees Fahrenheit, about 49 degrees Celsius, or hotter to the touch. Had you been unlucky or unwise enough to actually touch one of these surfaces with bare skin, it could have caused injury within minutes. On the city’s desert fringes, in territory governed by Native American nations, the land was even hotter, 150 degrees or more.”
With this map you can see the land surface temperatures of Glendale are among the hottest in the valley. You are not imagining the heat beneath your feet.
Seeing this map I was both not surprised and yet so disappointed in the heat inequity across the valley. According to the US Census Bureau, this is the current map entitled “Poverty in Maricopa County”, alongside that same heat map provided by the New York Times.
It is the same map. The poorest among us, those who Jesus calls us to clothe, feed, and shelter are those who are being forgotten in the hottest neighborhoods of the hottest city in the richest country on the planet. Christ have mercy.
With all of this information it is not surprising then that heat related deaths in Maricopa County have skyrocketed to a total of 645 in 2023. In fact, “extreme heat causes the greatest mortality of all extreme weather,” according to the World Meteorological Organization’s report “2023: State of Climate Services.”
St. John’s Lutheran Church has been called to this place, and this time, where inequality is killing our community and climate change choking our world. Our call then is to love our neighbor as ourselves, using the gifts God has given us to be the city on a hill, a beacon of light, the salt of the earth. We are doing this by opening our doors to be a heat respite center, feeding the hungry through our food pantry, empowering children of God with the dignity of a shower, these are all wonderful ways we serve our neighbor and literally save lives this summer. Thanks be to God!
And yet, the map of inequity continues to grow, and with it the heat that drives our neighbors to St. John’s for care. Take this moment to give thanks to God for the privilege of air conditioning, for respite, for water, and for the privilege to serve our neighbors. Take this moment also to ask God “how are you calling me to use my voice, my pen, and community to be an advocate through the Holy Spirit for all who suffer at the hands of our system.
May God be our voice as we call out those in power, just like Aaron to Pharaoh, and may God help us to empower others to use their voice to lift up all people in the name of Jesus.
Pastor Dan Potaznick
Associate Pastor for Outreach
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