|
Foundry United
Rev.
| |
|
Un-Creators Sunday, April
17, 2005 | |
|
Psalm 104: 24-35 Mark
16: 9-15
|
A
friend who is working on a thesis about why Christians seem to do such a
poor job of caring for the earth suggested I read a statement entitled:
“God's Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church
and Society in the United States.” The document was written by
a group of 11 Christian theologians and ethicists convened by the National
Council of Churches. Among the members of the
group are two people whose writings and ways of thinking I especially
appreciate. One is Larry Rasmussen, an ethicist who actually seems to live
his ethics. He used to teach here in These past few weeks I have
been meditating on this statement “God's Earth is Sacred” in preparation
for Earth Day, commonly celebrated on April 22, this coming
Friday. The
statement begins with a brief reminder of some of the most unsettling ways
that humanity has damaged the earth: “Earth's climate is warming to
dangerous levels; 90 percent of the world's fisheries have been depleted;
coastal development and pollution are causing a sharp decline in ocean
health; shrinking habitat threatens to extinguish thousands of species;
over 95 percent of the contiguous United States forests have been lost;
and almost half of the population in the United States lives in areas that
do not meet national air quality standards.” The list, of course, could go
on and on. As
I have read, reread, and prayed over the statement, I have encountered an
idea that has touched and troubled me: Rasmussen, McKibben, and the
others suggest that the damage we have done and still do to the earth is a
consequence of bad theology. In fact, they call it a “false gospel.” This
is what they have written: “We have listened to a false gospel that we
continue to live out in our daily habits – a gospel that proclaims that
God cares for the salvation of humans only and that our human calling is
to exploit Earth for our own ends alone.” I have to confess that I am
pretty much guilty as charged. My
theological thinking has assumed that human beings were the point of God's
creation: everything else led up to us; everything else found its
fulfillment in us; the rest of creation had meaning because of us, and
only because of us. I was taught this by the way biblical creation stories
were told to me as a child and by most of the theology I read as an adult.
Creation exists for the purpose of that part of it which is conscious and
self- aware – human beings. I remember seminary discussions in which
consciousness and self-awareness were equated with the imageo Deo,
the image of God presumably to be found on earth uniquely in
humankind. Interestingly enough, this
assumption was reinforced by most of the science I learned. While we
sometimes acknowledge that evolutionary processes might still produce
something more advanced and more important than humanity, I suspect very,
very few of those of us who take evolution seriously really believe this
is likely. What form of life could be higher or more important than us? A
computer? Dr. Spock?
Really! Even much of the way we –
including those of us who consider ourselves ecologically aware and
responsible – discuss the environment today is based on the assumption
that the rest of creation's purpose and meaning depends on the existence
of human beings. Isn't this the subtle implication of calling the rest of
creation “the environment”? Whose environment are we talking about? Taking
care of the environment is important, we think, because it is our
environment. Much of our ecological
concern is based on self-interest. We worry about global warming and the
pollution of the atmosphere and the oceans because these things threaten
our existence. We worry about toxicity in air, water, and earth
because it may poison us and our children and our nieces and nephews and
our children's children. The
National Council of Church’s statement insists that the rest of creation
has inherent value for its own sake, not merely as our environment.
The statement outlines eight guiding norms for church and society:
justice, sustainability, bioresponsibility, humility, generosity,
frugality, solidarity, and compassion. Of these, the one I find most
challenging is bioresponsibility. The
statement defines bioresponsibility as “extending the covenant of justice
to include all other life forms as beloved creatures of God and as
expressions of God's presence, wisdom, power, and glory.” It adds: “We do
not determine nor declare creation's value, and other creatures should not
be treated merely as instruments for our needs and wants. Other species
have their own integrity. They deserve a ‘fair share’ of Earth's bounty –
a share that allows a biodiversity of life to thrive along with human
communities.” Is
it possible that God loves sunfish as much as us? Is it possible that
God's eye is on the sparrow as well as watching you and me? Is it possible
Christ died for the sake of clean, pure water and fresh air and thriving
forests as much as for the healing of the nations and the salvation of our
souls? Rasmussen, McKibben and the others who wrote this document are
quick to remind us that John 3:16 begins with the words: “For God so loved
the cosmos...” The Greek word we translate “world” in John 3:16 is
cosmos. God
so loved the universe that God gave God's only begotten so that we would
not perish but have everlasting life. God so loved the stars and the
planets that God gave God's only begotten so we would not perish... God so
loved geological rock formations and mountains and valleys that God gave
God's only begotten so we would not perish... God so loved the rain forest
that God gave God's only begotten so we would not
perish... I
am challenged by this possibility: ·
that God's love for all
God's creation means that we are not the end of creation, but that
creation itself, of which we are only a part, is the end and goal of God's
creative work; ·
that when God said: “Let the
earth put forth vegetation...” and “the earth brought forth vegetation:
plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit
with the seed in it; and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:11-12), it was
good even before humanity was here to appreciate it or use
it; ·
that when “God made two
great lights...and set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the
earth...and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:16-18), it was good even
before women and men were here to see by them; ·
that when God said: “Let the
waters bring forth swarms...let the birds fly...let the earth bring forth
living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild
animals…and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:20-25), it was good even
before human beings were here to catch them, or to swat them, or to
barbecue them. This possibility is
theologically challenging, at least for me in my generation. I have always
assumed that God's true and real relationship was with humanity and that
the rest of creation was merely the stage on which the drama of the
divine-human encounter was played out. What if God has a loving
relationship with the Chesapeake Bay, fed by the Susquehanna River which
this year has been named The
Great Commission found the longer ending of the Gospel of Mark was
mistranslated for years, because translators couldn't believe it meant
what it says. In Mark 16: 15, the Risen Jesus says to the 11 disciples:
“Go into all the cosmos and proclaim the good news to the whole
ktisis.” For many years this was translated: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
(KJV) Even a newer translation says: “Go and preach the gospel to everyone
in the world.” (CEV) But the New Revised Standard Version has it right.
The Greek word ktisis means “creation” – everything that is and the
whole process of it coming to be. The Risen Jesus says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole
creation.” (NRSV) St.
Francis of One
of the friars wrote down notes of the sermon. Francis preached: “My
brothers, birds, you should praise your Creator very much and always love
[God]; [God] gave you feathers to clothe you, wings so that you can fly,
and whatever else was necessary for you. God made you noble among [God's]
creatures, and he gave you a home in the purity of the air; though you
neither sow nor reap, [God] nevertheless protects and governs you without
any solicitude on your part.” This event was a turning
point in Francis of Assisi's life. Thomas says, “He began to blame himself
for negligence in not having preached to the birds before” and “from that
day on, he solicitously admonished the birds, all animals and reptiles,
and even creatures that have no feeling, to praise and love their
Creator.” “God's Earth is Sacred”
says: “To continue to walk the current path of ecological destruction is
not only folly; it is sin.” It quotes the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew, who wrote: “To commit a crime against the natural world is a
sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the
biological diversity of God's creation…for humans to degrade the integrity
of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its
natural forests, or destroying its wetlands…for humans to injure other
humans with disease…for humans to contaminate the Earth's waters, its
land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances…these are sins.” It
says: “We have become un-Creators. Earth is in jeopardy at our hands.” We
have become un-Creators. Like Francis of Assisi, the
Psalmist saw creation and the Creator God as having an intimate
relationship, as being in love with each other: “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the
earth is full of your creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and
wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both great and
small... These all look to you to
give them their food in due season; when you give it to them,
they gather it up; when you open your hand, they
are full of good things. When you hide your face,
they are dismayed; when you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your
spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the
ground. May the glory of the Lord
endure forever; May the Lord rejoice in [the
Lord's] works – who looks on the earth and
it trembles, who touches the mountains and
they smoke.” (Ps. 104:24-32) What if this is more than
poetry? What if we are dismantling a beautiful and intricate world that is
the work of God's loving hand? Billions and billions of years of God's
artistry: what if we are un-creating it? The
way we see and perceive may be the most important thing. If we see
creation as raw material, we may end up being un-Creators – builders of
towers of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
