Genesis 1:1-5; 29-31 (The Message)
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. God spoke: “Light!” and light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning—Day One . . . . .
Then God said, “I’ve given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth and every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.” And there it was. God looked over everything he had made; it was good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning—Day Six.
Several years ago, a small business for which I was working at that time was having an internal conversation about mindful recycling and how we could be more environmentally responsible in our business practices. A young woman who also worked there spoke up quite firmly and announced that her adult Sunday School teacher had told them that we didn’t need to bother with all this kind of stuff because Jesus was coming back for us soon and after that earth would be destroyed. There was no point in taking any special care for it now since it was all going to be trashed soon anyway.
I think I was too stunned at the time to respond but I suspect this is a fairly commonly held belief still today among many of the more conservative churches. She was taught, in church, that humanity was given the earth to ‘use’ – period. Not to care for, not to respect – just use.
I object, quite strenuously, to this belief. We are clearly told in Psalm 24 that “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” For the sake of time and space, I only read aloud today from Day One of Creation and from the ending of Day Six, but earlier on Day Six, humanity is told we are created to be responsible for every other thing that God created for this earth. Responsible. Not greedy, not trashy, but responsible, caring for what God has made.
Earth Day wias a couple of days ago, but I’m taking today out of our post-Easter readings to remind us all that the earth we walk on, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the very air we breathe all belong to God. They all come from God. They were created in love and beauty by God. Where did we ever get the idea that it is all ours to destroy? To use and then toss away?
Earlier cultures respected, even feared the natural world because they knew they were dependent on it for their very existence and that they were helpless against it when it showed its strength and power. We today, who like to call ourselves “advanced” seem to believe we can control nature and bend it to our will, using it as we choose, and discarding it when we are finished.
The translation I love best for reading from the Creation story is "The Message" translation. If you don’t have a copy of this version, you can go to biblegateway.com. It’s free to use – you just enter the scripture you want – in this case, Genesis 1 – and choose from their list of 2 or 3 dozen translations – “The Message” is there. And then just read the first chapter of Genesis in this version. It is impossible to read it here without hearing the love and the creative pride God takes in creating our world out of nothing.
And yes, this applies whether you are reading it from a literal point of view or seeing it as a poetic metaphor for what we know took billions of years of history. The pride, the creative excitement is there either way.
Look at the world we live in and see the wonders. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t believe it’s possible for the God who created giraffes to not have done so out of love and joy. Giraffes are delightful. Surely, some other arrangement could have filled the same environmental role, but I’m glad God chose this one. Or, tell me, what ecological niche do peacocks fill that could not have been covered by something much less flamboyant than a male peacock showing off? Why so much over-the-top glamour? Read again the line that says: God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!
Or maybe, just go out in your own backyard and really look at the minute perfection of detail to be found in the smallest weed or the tiniest insect. The endless varieties. This ridiculous abundance of possibilities is one of the things I love most about God.
This is a creation that God loves. And so should we. It is time to shift our focus from all our “modern marvels” and start again to notice the ones God has given us from the very beginning – and long past time for us to begin to cherish them again.
The Christian Church DOC has two different initiatives that deal with environ-mental issues — The Green Chalice, and Blue Theology. Those are only two, but there are so many reasons to pay attention to our environment, beyond its beauty, that I’m thinking it might be interesting to explore them further this summer – after Pentecost -- to see where we might fit in preserving the health and goodness of God’s beautiful world — and of all that lives on and in it — including ourselves. Think about it.
Amen.
I think I was too stunned at the time to respond but I suspect this is a fairly commonly held belief still today among many of the more conservative churches. She was taught, in church, that humanity was given the earth to ‘use’ – period. Not to care for, not to respect – just use.
I object, quite strenuously, to this belief. We are clearly told in Psalm 24 that “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” For the sake of time and space, I only read aloud today from Day One of Creation and from the ending of Day Six, but earlier on Day Six, humanity is told we are created to be responsible for every other thing that God created for this earth. Responsible. Not greedy, not trashy, but responsible, caring for what God has made.
Earth Day wias a couple of days ago, but I’m taking today out of our post-Easter readings to remind us all that the earth we walk on, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the very air we breathe all belong to God. They all come from God. They were created in love and beauty by God. Where did we ever get the idea that it is all ours to destroy? To use and then toss away?
Earlier cultures respected, even feared the natural world because they knew they were dependent on it for their very existence and that they were helpless against it when it showed its strength and power. We today, who like to call ourselves “advanced” seem to believe we can control nature and bend it to our will, using it as we choose, and discarding it when we are finished.
The translation I love best for reading from the Creation story is "The Message" translation. If you don’t have a copy of this version, you can go to biblegateway.com. It’s free to use – you just enter the scripture you want – in this case, Genesis 1 – and choose from their list of 2 or 3 dozen translations – “The Message” is there. And then just read the first chapter of Genesis in this version. It is impossible to read it here without hearing the love and the creative pride God takes in creating our world out of nothing.
And yes, this applies whether you are reading it from a literal point of view or seeing it as a poetic metaphor for what we know took billions of years of history. The pride, the creative excitement is there either way.
Look at the world we live in and see the wonders. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t believe it’s possible for the God who created giraffes to not have done so out of love and joy. Giraffes are delightful. Surely, some other arrangement could have filled the same environmental role, but I’m glad God chose this one. Or, tell me, what ecological niche do peacocks fill that could not have been covered by something much less flamboyant than a male peacock showing off? Why so much over-the-top glamour? Read again the line that says: God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!
Or maybe, just go out in your own backyard and really look at the minute perfection of detail to be found in the smallest weed or the tiniest insect. The endless varieties. This ridiculous abundance of possibilities is one of the things I love most about God.
This is a creation that God loves. And so should we. It is time to shift our focus from all our “modern marvels” and start again to notice the ones God has given us from the very beginning – and long past time for us to begin to cherish them again.
The Christian Church DOC has two different initiatives that deal with environ-mental issues — The Green Chalice, and Blue Theology. Those are only two, but there are so many reasons to pay attention to our environment, beyond its beauty, that I’m thinking it might be interesting to explore them further this summer – after Pentecost -- to see where we might fit in preserving the health and goodness of God’s beautiful world — and of all that lives on and in it — including ourselves. Think about it.
Amen.
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