What would you say was the single most significant event in history? Well, it all depends on where you’re standing, and what is important to you. As Christians we would probably all say it was the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. (Even though we number our years from what was thought to be the year of Jesus’ birth, it’s his death and resurrection that make his birth important.)
If you were a Muslim you’d say it was the
Hejira, Mohammed’s flight from
But what if you’re not a person of faith?
Let’s say you’re an English soccer fan, then the most significant event in
history might have been 1966; the only time
As I was researching this morning’s message I came across a web page that claimed that “The single most significant event in the history of the human race occurred in January of 2007.” That’s quite a claim! Usually events of that level of significance only become clear once you can view them from the distance of history. This claim was dated at the end of January 2007! The very same month!
Anybody have any idea what this event was?
Apparently, “The single most significant
event in the history of the human race” was the disappearance of the
Sad? Yes. But, “The single most significant event in the history of the human race?” Well, it depends on where you stand.
In March of this year the Angus-Reid company did a poll of Canadian attitudes to the environment, specifically global warming. They came up with five different types of people; from “Skeptics” (who aren’t sure that global warming even exists), through “Agnostics,” “Converts” and “Believers” all the way to “Activists.” The report says that they deliberately chose those names because they, “reflect the changed nature of environmentalism, which is taking on the… characteristics of a religious movement.”
Perhaps that’s why the man who made the
statement about “the most significant event in history” is a senior ordained
minister of the Episcopal Church in the
Throughout the month of September we’ve been talking about “living from the inside out.” We started out talking about “Living with God.” We talked about our hearts, the very core of our being, and the need to have Jesus at the centre of our lives, or as Peter puts it, “to honour the Lord Christ as holy in our hearts.”
Then we talked about “Living with Yourself” and how we need to cultivate humility – an honest assessment of ourselves. Two weeks ago we talked about being people of integrity as we discussed “Living with Your Neighbour.” Then last week we moved out even further to talk about “Living In Society” and what the Bible means when it talks about justice. This week we move out to the last of our circles as we talk about “Living in Creation.”
Now, the reason we’re doing this study isn’t so I can make PowerPoint presentations with pretty concentric circles. We started off talking about how easy it is to have our lives shaped from the outside in, by external forces and what other people expect, rather than by living out of God’s presence in our hearts. The response to that is to get things in the right order, starting with putting God first, so that we can live healthy, well balanced lives that flow outward from our relationship with God.
A few years ago the Sierra Club of Canada ran a series of bus shelter ads with the line, “We Worship the Ground You Walk On.” Whatever you value most highly is what you worship. Who would have thought a few decades ago that the environment, the planet Earth, would be an object of worship, the single most important thing in many people’s lives? The Bible calls that idolatry, and we talked about that in week one.
So, what is our response as Christians? Is it really true that Christianity is a toxic poison that is mainly responsible for destroying the Earth? If you go to any number of environmentalist sites you’ll see that story told over and over again. How everything would have been fine if we had all just stayed pagans, worshipping tree spirits and rock spirits, but it all went wrong with the birth of Christianity. According to this story it has been Christians, who worship a God outside nature, who have been responsible for destroying nature. (In these article “nature” is usually spelled with a capital “N,” as befits a god.)
What does scripture say about all this? What is a Biblical view of the world around us and how should we relate to it as Christians?
The first thing is, what do we call all
this? We are surrounded by stuff; earth, air, trees, grass, animals. What do we
call them? You may think I’m being a bit obsessive about this, but what you
call something matters. It reflects your relationship to it. You call your
parents “Mom and Dad” because you have a different relationship to them than
people who call them “Ken and Winnie” or “George and Janet.” The Bible starts
with the words “In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth,” so Jews and Christians have always spoken of
the universe around us as “Creation,” something that was made by God, the
creator. Creation wasn’t only made by God, it depends on him for its
existence. Hebrews 1 says that God “sustains
all things by his powerful word.” “Nature” on the other hand, refers to a
closed system that just exists, with no relationship to God, or need for God. Calling
it “Creation” reminds us that it belongs to God and that it is valuable as a
result.
[In the china cabinet at home we have some blue and white china from
We value things because of their connection to people we value. Like the
china, creation is beautiful and valuable in its own right; but it is more valuable
because it is God’s creation. It belongs to our loving heavenly father.
Verse 4 of Genesis 1 says, “God saw that the
light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.” Verse 10 “God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered
waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.” Verse 12 “The land produced vegetation: plants bearing
seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according
to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” In verse 18, after making
the sun and moon and stars, “to govern
the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness… God saw that it was
good.” Verse 21 “So God created the great
creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water
teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.” Verse 25 “God made the
wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds,
and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was
good.” Verse 31 “God saw all that he had
made, and it was very good.”
Do you think maybe God wants us to know that his creation is a good
thing? Seven times in chapter one of Genesis God says that what he made is
“good,” six of them before humanity came on the scene. In the Bible the
number seven usually symbolizes completeness, so Genesis 1 is saying that, in
the beginning, God’s creation was completely good. Nothing bad in it at all!
Human beings are part of God’s
creation. Vss 24-27 say “And God said, “Let
the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock,
creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its
kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to
their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that
move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the
ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them.””
This is day six of God’s creation. Each day has its own focus. Day 1 was light. Day 2 was the atmosphere. Day 3 was dry land and vegetation. Day 4 was sun, moon and stars. Day 5 was animals in the water and birds in the air. Day 6 was land animals. Human beings are made on day six. We’re a kind of land animal. We don’t swim or fly; we walk.
It’s easy with all our technology to forget that we too are part of creation. Certainly over the last few centuries human being, especially in the west, have begun to behave as if we were in some way different from creation. But every living thing on the face of the planet is built from the same basic, genetic building blocks.
Francis of Assisi is famous for having preached to animals. A little strange perhaps, but he grasped that we have a great deal in common with the other creatures on the earth. We’re not some kind of heavenly creature that has fallen to earth. We belong here. The word translated as “man” or “Adam” in Genesis 1 (it’s the same word in Hebrew) could just as easily be translated as “Earthling.”
But what about this bit where it says that human beings are made in God’s image to rule over the fish and birds and animals? Doesn’t that separate us out? …Yes, and no.
There have been thousands of books, millions of words, written on what it means for human beings to be made in the image of God. Since most of those books are written by theologians, who spend their lives thinking about God, it’s hardly surprising that many of them come to the conclusion that being made in the image of God means being able to think, being able to make rational judgements and come to logical conclusions.
That may be part of it, but I’d like to suggest another meaning… If you have any change in your pocket, take it out and look at it… Whose image is on it?
Almost 3000 years ago, when coins were
first invented, it didn’t take kings and queens long to realise that here was a
great way of extending their claim to control of land. If the people use money
with Caesar’s image on it then obviously they are in some way under Caesar’s
rule. (This, by the way, is why Canadians got so upset when Jean Cretien’s
government published a study on doing away with the Canadian dollar and using
the US dollar in
And lo and behold, what is the next thing it says in Genesis? “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth.” Human beings bear God’s image, first and foremost, as his representative rulers in creation.
But before any environmentalists in the
congregation say “see, rulers, that means power and abuse” we need to add that,
in the Bible, any kind of authority always comes with a duty of care. We saw
that when we talked about parental abuse this summer. It applies to leaders of
churches and companies and organisations. And it applies to our place in creation.
Gen 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in
the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” We are God’s
gardeners. He has told us to look after his creation, to work it and care
for it.
[Most of us have probably never employed a gardener, but one of the homes
that we rented in Pakistan was a small house that came with a huge garden (10
sour orange trees, 4 plum trees, 4 apricot trees, a lime tree, 2 persimmons
trees and a loquat tree; not to mention roses, night flowering jasmine and all
kinds of other flowers) and the owner insisted that we employ a gardener to
look after it.
It’s not easy to find a good gardener. Some just do a bad job and things
die. Others have good skills but they work the garden for their own benefit,
not the owner. One gardener planted radishes – lots of them. We don’t like
radishes – but he did. But a good gardener can make the garden blossom and become
even more beautiful than it started, and still have it productive for the
owner.]
We haven’t been very good gardeners of God’s creation.
And that doesn’t just go back the last few centuries. We may talk about pollution and global warming, but those are just the most recent expressions of our selfish attitude to the world around us – an attitude the Bible calls “sin” – which results in us living in conflict with God, with each other and with our environment.
In Genesis 3 humanity rebels against God and they end up in conflict with each other and with God. Then in verse 17-19 that conflict and rebellion spreads out to affect all of creation. “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
The Bible is clear that the reason for environmental problems is human selfishness, human sin.
But the good news is that God has done
something about it. When Isaiah prophecies about the future coming of Jesus in
chapter 11, part of what he says is, “The
wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf
and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7The
cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion
will eat straw like the ox. 8The infant will play near the hole of
the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They
will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be
full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.”
In Romans 8 Paul writes, “19 The
creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but
by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the
creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into
the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
Lots of Christians think that when we die, we go to be in heaven with God for ever in some kind of disembodied state. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Heaven is more like the waiting room where those who die before Christ’s return go to wait until he restores creation and makes it new for us to live in again, with him. Our eternal future is tied up with the future of creation.
The climax of the creation account in Genesis is not the creation of humanity. I know that’s where chapter 1 ends, but the chapter breaks were only put in 700 years ago, when people had already decided that we are the focus of the Bible. The climax of creation is the Sabbath – day seven – a picture of God and his creation at rest together.
So, the appropriate way to live in creation is neither to use it up and destroy it like a disposable tissue, nor is it to make the earth into some kind of god that we value above all else. The Christian way to live in creation is to recognise that:
1. It is God’s creation, not ours
2. We are part of creation
3. We are responsible to God for how we treat his creation
4. Our sin is the reason creation is in a mess, but…
5. God’s plan of redemption includes the redemption and restoration of creation, and we have a part in that