(Genesis 1: 1-31)
The creation story is an amazing story. So simple and direct in the way we came to be. It starts out with the basic premise; In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was described as formless, empty and dark with the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. And, just like that, God said; Let there be light, and there was light. Kind of a big bang, if you will. And from that we had light and darkness. Then he created an expanse by separating water and sky. From there he created the bodies of water and let dry ground appear within the waters. Then God said; Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth. So, we ended up with the sun, moon and stars. And God saw that it was good. Now it was time to populate the earth, so God said; Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. So, he created not just one kind of fish or one kind of bird but so many we still haven’t discovered them all. And then he said to let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds; livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals. And he saw that it was good. It appears that he thought of everything, and once everything was in place it was time to create man and he 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. God blessed them and said; Be fruitful and increase in number; fill he earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. And chapter one ends with God looking over all he had made, and it was very good. It was the sixth day.
The great thing about the Genesis creation story is that you can be a tree-hugging atheist and not find any fault with the passage other than God created the earth and all that is in it. The biblical view of creation is not in conflict with science; rather, it is in conflict with any worldview that starts without a creator. And, even if you don’t believe in God, you have to agree that there is a balance to nature that must be maintained. If the balance gets out of whack, Mother Nature steps in and takes corrective measures which, at times, can be pretty drastic. So, believers and non-believers alike can agree on one thing; this is the only earth we have, and we must do all we can to take care of it, or else.
I was given a daily devotional not long ago entitled: For the Beauty of the Earth, Daily Devotions Exploring Creation. The reading for October 16th starts bluntly by saying: The garden comes first, not us. The writer, Greg Rickel, for this section says that all too often, we see the creation story in a way that suggests the garden was made for us, rather than us being made for the garden. This subtle but profound twist has changed the course of our earth and our history in ways that are beyond reckoning. It’s a way of reminding us that the earth and all that is within it was created long before we came upon the scene, that nature has a way of replenishing itself, but it is not limitless. The writer says that God wants help in caring for the garden, and that is our role, to be caretakers and stewards of it. The writer makes the point that if we see the garden as having been made for us, it becomes quite easy to exploit it, use it up, and to see it merely as a resource and not as a gift and a legacy. If we are of that mindset, once it’s gone, it’s gone, there is no more. You ate all your popcorn before the movie started. The writer says that if we see ourselves as creatures made for the service of the garden, that perception changes things. We become visitors, not rulers. If you’ve ever tended a garden, or tried unsuccessfully to tend a garden, you know it takes a lot of time and energy. You have to have just the right amount of watering, the right amount of working the soil, the right amount of feeding, and to know when and when not to prune. I guess that’s why I like native plants. The writer says there is a huge risk in seeing ourselves as completely unattached, disconnected from nature, as though we are merely walking through it and not a part of it. The writer quotes Luther Standing Bear, member of the Oglala Sioux Nation, who once said; “The Old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.”
So, like God observed at the end of the sixth day, it was very good. Unfortunately, with little argument, we’ve been going downhill ever since in the form of a human rebellion that has marred an originally perfect creation beyond comprehension. As humans spread across the earth, they took their sin and destruction with them, and look at the mess we’ve made of God’s creation. Now, that’s not to say we haven’t had our moments of conservation. I mean we’ve tried and often times it was just about too late, but we tried. A couple of years ago I read a book about the Dust Bowl and the Roosevelt Administration’s attempts to reverse the effects of years and years of poor farming practices and other factors that converged on the center of our country causing the soil to just pick up and leave. New farming techniques were implemented, crops were rotated and over a million trees were planted and it took a long time for the earth to come back, but not after thousands of people died or were displaced. And, not surprisingly, there was pushback as the efforts got in the way of some people’s way of making a lot of money, the people who were merely walking through the garden, and not a part of it.
Yeah, that’s all well and good you say, but what’s the official position of the United Methodist Church? I thought you’d never ask! Our Social Principles in paragraph 160 addresses The Natural World. Now, this is the very first paragraph in our Social Principles and I do not think it was a coincidence that our Social Principles start with creation. It begins by saying; All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Wow! We are responsible for how we inhabit God’s green earth! That’s a pretty bold statement. It goes on to say; Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. They aren’t ours, they are God’s, and shame on us if we don’t use them wisely. It continues by saying; God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect. You have put me in charge of this wonderful, this amazing, and this complex creation. What an honor, I promise I will do my best and will treat your creation as if it was my own. It then goes on to say; Economic, political, social, and technological developments have increased our human numbers and lengthened and enriched our lives. However, these developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic extinction of species, massive human suffering, overpopulation, and misuse and overconsumption of natural and nonrenewable resources, particularly by industrialized societies. This continued course of action jeopardizes the natural heritage that God has entrusted to all generations. There are consequences for what we do as a people, as a society, and as a country. What we do not only affects us locally, but also on a global scale. At one time, we were major polluters of the environment and have since cleaned up our act, to a certain extent. We still have more we can do, but other countries, as they have industrialized, are now becoming the major polluters. It is up to us as a country and a church to bring pressure to bear on these countries to implement procedures and practices that control harmful pollution or spoliation, and still allow them to develop. If it’s good for them, it’s good for us. The section concludes with; Therefore let us recognize the responsibility of the church and its members to place a high priority on changes in economic, political, social, and technological lifestyles to support a more ecologically equitable and sustainable world leading to a higher quality of life for all of God’s creation. Yes, it can be argued that we, as a church, have a greater responsibility in seeing that our global community is sustainable and provides a quality of life deserving of all God’s creation because we firmly believe that God created our little planet and that it was good.
God’s love for humanity is relentless, but it can’t be a one-way street. We have to love God back and not disrespect him by the way we treat his creation, his great garden. When God delegated some of his authority to the human race, he expected us to take responsibility for the environment and the other creatures that share our planet. We must not be careless and wasteful as we fulfill this charge. God was careful in how he made this earth and we must not be careless about how we take care of it. We can’t become detached from our environment as it is the only one we have. So, we must consider what it means for us as a people, as a brother or sister of Jesus Christ, as a church, to be a companion and a conservator of the garden. So, what can you do, what can we do collectively to be loving and responsible stewards of God’s amazing creation? Asking for a friend.
Please pray with me.
For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of he skies, for the love which form our birth over and around us lies; Lord of all, to the we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. Yes, dear Lord, we praise you for your magnificent creation and all that is within it. And we are humbled to be a loving part of it, valued by you as you value all of what you have created, all that is good. We pray for the wisdom and discernment in making the right decisions and choices in how we tend to your garden and that what we do will be for the greater good of all your children and all your creation equally. We ask this for a friend, the friend we have in your son, Jesus Christ, Amen.