What Are We Working Towards?

There was a fascinating and at the same time troubling debate in the Guardian newspaper a couple of weeks ago.  It was between George Monbiot, the author of Heat, one of the best books on climate change, and Paul Kingsnorth, a British poet and writer.  The central question of the debate was “What are we working towards in the light of the current environmental crisis?”  It wasn’t academic – there is a huge question out there.  For those of us who are trying to respond responsibly to all the information that is coming at us, what are we trying to build?  The debate between Kingsnorth and Monbiot was, boiled down, are we trying to keep the system we have with some gradually changes or are we working for whatever will follow the end of the current industrial civilization?   Disquieting stuff.

Such questions are vitally important for our children and their children.  And just as we do our very best to raise our children and see them successfully off in the world, with big changes ahead we have a responsibility to do what we can to start building a good world for them.  It seems a very big and very long project.  Our culture doesn’t do big long term projects very well.  If we were given the job of building the great cathedrals of Europe, most of which took several generations to complete, we would not get past laying out the foundations.  But those were Christians doing that building, and so are we.

When it comes to trying to figure out what followers of Jesus should be working towards, I turn first not to the scientists and economists but to biblical insights.  As a follower of Jesus, I look first to see what answers can come from the examination of our scriptures. 

Last week I looked at our basic understanding of the beginning of creation as outlined in Genesis.  Today I want to look at the New Testament to see what it says about caring for creation.  This is both easier … and harder.  The New Testament is about Jesus and his teachings.  There was no environmental crisis then – there were fewer than 200 million people worldwide.  Human failings were much the same as they are now but the global consequences were less significant and much slower to take place.  The thinking about creation was mostly about its origins written about in the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament.  So there is little or no teaching directly about the care of creation in the New Testament.

But there most definitely is teaching about our ultimate destination,  where we are going – both individually, collectively and as all creation.  Much of this teaching talks about the new heaven and the new earth.  While I have not met many among us that hold to the idea that God is going to simply junk this creation and make a new one, I also haven’t heard many people speak about what is going to happen to this creation.  Becoming clear on this as followers of Jesus is really important as we look to the future of our children and their children.

Paul’s letter to the Romans, his most detailed and comprehensive (and complex!) letter ,speaks to this question in Chapter 8.  We sing about this in Jodi Page’s song, ‘On Tiptoes’ with the words “All creation is waiting on tiptoes just to see, the Children of God come into their own”.  We all know that Paul was revolutionary in actually teaching that all of humanity is called to be Children of God.  This radical break with traditional Jewish teaching marked the founding of the Christian religion.  Today we act as if Paul stopped there and God’s salvation was only for us humans.  But Paul makes it clear that ALL creation waits for the Kingdom of God to be revealed – “Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).  He paints our current situation as creation groaning in labour like a pregnant woman, you and I longing for resurrection and the Spirit within us praying to God with sighs too deep for words.  God is engaged in what is going on right now – the fate of creation around us just as ourselves does matter to God in the here and now.

So what?  What’s the plan?  The central story of the Jewish Bible is the Exodus – God leading the Hebrews out of Egypt through the wilderness to a promised destination.  Paul sees a larger exodus story.  We were caught in bondage to the brokenness in the world, ensnared by all the systems and consumerism that enclose us each day.  Jesus’ defeat of death on the cross was the beginning of our liberation from all that –  just like Moses’ leading the Israelites out of Egypt.  Most of Jesus’ teaching was about living in a new ‘kingdom’ that was outside all the brokenness – a new promised land.  Since Jesus’ resurrection we have called to the journey across our Sinai just like the Israelites too crossed the desert.  In imagining the original Exodus, I was always impressed by the image of ‘cloud by day, fire by night’ – perhaps it was the scene in the movie “The Ten Commandments”.  What is our cloud by day, fire by night – it is the Holy Spirit living within us and urging us onwards.  And if that isn’t enough, there is also the promise that ‘the work that we do is not in vain’ – this is a much greater project than you and me only – we don’t have to do it all or even see how it all fits together.  But we do have to leave our Egypt.

And one day that new reality is going to burst upon the scene and completely transform what exists now – the second appearance which Jesus promised.  Creation as well is going to be set free in that new kingdom.  And just as the Israelites had to leave Egypt, we have to step outside all this, not only in how we treat each other but in how we treat all of creation.  We won’t get there unless we start the journey.  The inheritance we seek for ourselves, our children and our children’s children is nothing less that a new restored creation.   We don’t and can’t know exactly what it will look like but it will be far different than what we have now.  That is what we are working towards.

So in summary:

• God’s intention is that we be servants, gardiners in her creation, not users and exploiters.
• All of creation matters.  Our seeking to love God means loving all parts of creation – recognizing the holiness in even the mundane around us as Tabitha reminded us during the Tall Grass Bringing in the Harvest celebration on Thursday.
• Just as we are working and hoping for our own renewal and salvation, we are also to work for the renewal of all creation.  This does not mean simply struggling to save all this around us.
• There will come a time – a time when Jesus will reappear in our midst – and however we fail in our own efforts to take care of creation, the kingdom of God will appear suddenly and change all of reality.

A final note.  If you want to ponder this call more deeply, you might want to read Margaret Atwood’s new book, “The Year of the Flood”.

Stu Clark, 20 September 2009

 

Comments

[Wilfried Giesbrecht]

What are we working towards? This is a very interesting and also important question. The author of this homily makes it clear, that we as Christians are suggested to search for our anwers first in the Scripture (our cloud by day and fire by night), rather than in other scientific or philosphic literature. I agree with this point of view.
Another central point in this homily is that we have to keep in mind, that ALL of the creation is waiting for the renewal. God looked at his creation and saw that ALL was very good (Genesis 1:31). So he will bring into salvation ALL of the creation and not only one part.
A third lesson for me is, that we are servants and gardners, not users (owners) and exploiters of the world. Let's take us enough time to fullfil our responsibility.
The content of this homily brings us lot of important teachings and I hope that many people will keep this teachings in his mind and heart.