God's Green Earth (Oct 25, 09)
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CREATION M2 SERMON NOTES OCTOBER 25, 2009
TITLE: Caring for God’s Green Earth
TEXT: Genesis 1; selections from Job 38-41; Revelation 21:1-5
Ken Shigematsu and Brent Chamberlain
BIG IDEA: We are called to care for God’s green earth.
If you were to go to my wife Sakiko’s family home just outside of Osaka, Japan you would notice that part of the home is very traditional. They have the traditional tiled roof and sections of the house with traditional straw woven tatami mats on the floor and sliding doors. Their home is adorned by Bonsai trees.
When I learned that the house had originally been purchased by one of Sakiko’s ancestors from a famous kabuki actor and has been passed down to her family from her ancestors, I feel a heightened sense of respect for her family land.
When we understand where something comes from, our attitude towards it changes.
When we understand the story of where our planet came from, our attitude toward it will change.
In the ancient Babylonian myth of creation Enuma Elish there is an epic battle between the gods, Marduk and Tiamat. In this battle Marduk slays Tiamat and he splits her body in half like a fish for drying. From one half of Tiamit’s body Marduk fashions the heavens and with other half he forms the earth. Then Marduk says to the other gods who were on his side, “Now that we have created the earth, we need someone to do the ‘dirty work’ taking care of it.” So human beings were created as the slaves of the gods to take care of the earth.
The Genesis account of creation challenges the ancient creation myths that claim the earth is a the result of a battle between pagan gods and that the earth is the body of a defeated god.
In Genesis 1: 1-3 we read:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
(Many people come across a passage like Genesis 1 and ask, “How long did it take to create the world? Or precisely, how did God create the earth?” But these are not the primary questions that the author is addressing here. Genesis 1 was not written as a scientific textbook account of the origins of the earth. Genesis 1 is historical in the sense that it offers real truths about creation, but, as respected Harvard-trained Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke and others have argued, Genesis 1 reveals real truth about creation, but in an artistic and poetic, rather than straight-literalistic kind of way.)
We go on and we read that God created the ground and the seas and called it good (2 slides: mountain and seas). God created the vegetation, the plants and trees (slide of trees), and said, “These are good.” God separated the light from the darkness (orange and white slide) and said, “This is good.” God created all kinds of creatures in the sea and all kinds of birds, and said it was good. God created all kinds of animals (slide of horses) and said it was good.
(SHOW POWERPOINT)
And then God looked at the entirety of his creation, and said, “It is very good.”
In Genesis 1 we do not read about a god who made the earth because he didn’t know what else to do with the defeated body of a rival god. But rather, we read of a God who made the earth and took great pleasure in it by describing it as “good! good! good! good! good! very good!”
In the ancient Book of Job we read about how Job experienced terrible suffering and begins to question God’s goodness and justice. God appears to Job out of a storm and he asks him:
Job 38:4-7:
Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand…
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?
God says, “Job, were you there when I laid the cornerstone of the earth and all the stars and the angels shouted for joy?”
Job 38:
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons [a]
or lead out the Bear [b] with its cubs?
Job 39:
1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
13 "The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
though they cannot compare
with the wings and feathers of the stork.
26 "Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command
and build its nest on high?
In the Book of Job and the Genesis account we read about how God takes great pleasure in his creation.
As an artist takes delight in their masterpiece, as a mother or father takes delight in their child, so God takes delight in his creation.
We’ve been entrusted with a creation of God that he takes great pleasure and delight in.
At our wedding, my uncle who is a bank executive-turned artist, gave us a painting of a couple who are standing at the end of a brick alley adorned with ivy and green potted plants in Gastown. The sun is streaming onto the couple. My uncle told me this is his favorite painting. Because of that I view it with a different kind of respect and devotion. In the same way, when we recognize that God gifted us this earth to dwell and delight in, we will see it and treat it differently.
And then in Genesis 1:26, as we looked at last week, we read:
26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals…
Last week we talked about how part of what it means to be made in the image of a God who is in relationship is that we were made for relationship—it’s in our nature; it’s in our DNA.
Another part of what it means to be made in God’s image is to that we represent God.
When God in Genesis 1:26 says we were made in God’s image, the word image literally means “statue.” In the ancient world kings would set up statues in remote parts of their kingdom. Before the days of photography, television and the internet, you obviously could not have images of yourself throughout the kingdom to remind everyone that you were the king. So instead, you would set up statues across the kingdom and these images would remind people of your presence.
And so when we read we are made in the image of God in Genesis 1: 26, it is not only a reminder that we are not created as slaves to do the “dirty work” of the gods, as some of the creation myths suggest, but we are actually made in God’s image. We were made to represent God by resembling God in the world.
What does it mean to represent God?
As we read the Genesis account, part of what it means to represent God is that we take pleasure and delight in creation as God does.
Another part of what it means to represent is that we have the privilege of caring for the earth.
In Genesis 1:26 we read God saying:
26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Part of what it means to represent God on earth is that like God we exercise rule or as the older King James version uses the word “dominion” on the earth. Now the word dominion suggests, we, like God, have power over creation. And power can be used to abuse the earth, but power can also be used to care for it.
In Genesis 2 we read God’s creation account from another angle. We get insight into what God meant when he said we are to rule over the earth. We read in Genesis 2: 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
“To take care of” is also used in here Scripture to describe a gardener care for a garden.
A gardener has power over a garden. That power can be used to abuse the garden (I’m going to use my weed eater to mow down the roses), but a gardener can also us his or her power to care for the garden.
This word is also used to describe how a shepherd watches over his flock of sheep. A shepherd has power over his sheep. He can use his power to abuse the sheep (I’m going to yank your ears), but a shepherd can also use his power to care and protect the sheep.
In the movie Spiderman, Spiderman’s uncle says to him, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We humans have been given power and dominion over the earth (in a way the other animals do not have), but with the power comes great responsibility to care and protect for this earth that God delights in).
When we care for and protect the earth, we honour the one who made it.
As I have shared before, when I graduated from seminary in Boston, I was pretty much broke. The first position I took out of seminary was to serve as a pastor of a new church start-up in southern California. The church had no denominational backing and no major financial backing. A couple in southern California, whom I had never met, heard that I was coming to southern California to start this church. The husband called me and explained that he and his wife travelled up to half the year, and asked if I would be interested in living in their home for free in exchange for taking care of their plants and dog while they were away.
They said, “If you need time to think and pray about it, we just wanted you to know that we live in a home that overlooks the ocean in San Clemente, one of the best surfing beaches in North America.” I was like “I do.” My choices were either to be living in the back seat of my car or living in a home that overlooked the ocean. Easy choice!
This couple, John and Carol, the owners of the home, became friends of mine. They were amazingly generous to me in many ways. They not only allowed me to live in their home without charge, but they gave me some really good counsel for the church start-up and even listened to some of the woes I was experiencing with the woman I was dating at the time.
So when they were travelling, I wanted to honour them by taking great care of their plants—their flowers, their cumquats, their shrubbery—and their dog.
When we recognize how God has been so good to us, so generous in providing all that we need…and in many cases more…and how he has offered himself to us in Jesus Christ, by laying down his life on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be restored to him, part of the way we can express our gratitude to him is by caring for this earth that he so deeply loves.
In Genesis we read how God created the earth, and in the final book of the scriptures in Revelation, we read about how God will renew the earth. Of course, there are many people who don’t even believe in God who really care for the earth, but those of us who are followers of Christ have the greatest motivation to care for God’s green earth.
In certain times throughout history there have been Christians who have not taken good care of the earth because they have misread scripture, and believed that it would one day be destroyed and replaced. There are Christians who have believed that one day God would take Christians from the earth and the rest of the world would be “left behind” and destroyed. If the earth would come to an end, they reasoned, there is no point in worrying about trying to stop polluting the planet.
You treat the earth very differently if you believe one day, perhaps soon, it will pushed off a cliff, than if you believe it is going to be renewed by God and used as our everlasting home.
In Revelation 21: 5, we read: 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." God here is not saying “I am making all new things,” but instead, “I am making all things new.” God is not saying, “I am making all new things, but I am making things new.”
The scriptures do not teach that one day the world will be obliterated or just absorbed into the nothingness of the universe as some religions teach, but this earth according to Romans and Revelation will one day be redeemed and made new and restored.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Here Paul says if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. We know that when Paul writes these words he does not mean that when a person gives their life to Christ, God completely obliterates them and then creates a new person; we know that when a person gives their life to Christ much of who they are in terms of appearance and personality traits remain the same. When a person is made new in Christ, it means that the Spirit of God fills them and renews them. The language that is used of a person being made new in Christ is the same language that is used in Revelation of the earth being made new.
If our current world will be renewed at the coming of Christ, then as respected theologian N.T. Wright says, our care for God’s earth is not simply a way to make life on earth a more bearable place until the day we leave it behind altogether, but every act of caring God’s earth will all find its way into the new creation that God will one day make. Our care for the earth is a way of building God’s Kingdom.
Michelangelo’s frescoes in Sistine Chapel in Rome have become mired in grime, soot, and pollution across the centuries so that colours of the paintings had faded and some of the detail lost. A team of art conservators worked together to clean, restore, and preserve these priceless frescoes across two decades during 80’s and 90s. We are called by God to restore and preserve his masterpiece of our planet.
So what can we do practically to honour God by representing God on Earth and work care for and restore his creation?
At this time I want to invite Brent Chamberlain, a PHD student in forestry at UBC, who will be going to Brazil to map preservation areas, to come forward. I have asked him to share how he and his wife Andrea live out their Christian faith by caring for God’s green earth:
Complimentary Piece by Brent Chamberlain
When I look back I think my passion to conserve and manage forests in sustainable ways stems from my fascination with trees as a child. It’s strange though as I reflect on it because 7 years ago when I graduated from university with business and computer science degrees I was not intending to head down this path. But after working a couple years in industry I found myself feeling like I needed to integrate my life more fully with God’s creation.
I am now a couple years away from earning a Ph.D and have had opportunities to work in Brazil mapping permanent preservation areas in the Amazon and engage in a special research project where a group of us are working with UBC and Greenest City Alliance for the City of Vancouver to recommend ways that these organizations can better enable students and citizens to live more ecologically-sound lives.
In the past few years I have seen amazing places like the Serengeti in Kenya, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Iguazu Falls in Brazil. But I have also seen magical places damaged by our impact including the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic from Prince George to Kelowna and the destruction of the forests in the Amazon. All of these experiences have brought me to realize that the whole of humanity, regardless of faith or culture want to live in harmony with nature and that I want to facilitate that effort…it is just that many of us don’t know how or chose not to.
Andrea too has seen much of this degradation as well as the magical beauty. Some of you may have seen her paintings hanging in the foyer in the east hall many months ago. One way she shares these experiences and love for creation is through art.
Over the last five years Andrea and I have tried our best to align our lives with what our faith tells us about stewardship. This has meant some dramatic changes, but I can assure you that these changes have exposed us to more wonders of creation and created a greater sense of thankfulness for God’s incredible craftsmanship.
For instance, I am thankful for the car we own. We do use it – sparingly – and typically to visit family south of the border. However, our primary form of (when people hear transit in Vancouver they think public transit) transportation is by bike, sun, rain and for me even snow! I think last year Andrea took the bus to work fewer than 10 times and I drove her fewer than that. If someone would have asked us 5 years ago we never would have imagined something this extreme! In fact Andrea didn’t even have a bike until 2006.
A couple years ago we took a two week vacation and cycled from Oregon to Southern California along the coast. This trip challenged and strengthened our relationship, but it also grew our faith and required that we place a lot of trust in God and one another. Through that experience I have learned the joy in slowing down and appreciating the subtleties in nature that can so often be missed in a car.
In terms of consumption we try our best to apply the three R’s, reduce, reuse and recycle. As hokey as it is, it makes sense. My travels have shown me how truly wealthy I am. As our wealth has increased, we also do our best to gain understanding in how to use it according to God’s will. His means that for each purchase we make, we do our best to be mindful of how it will impact people and the environment. In many cases we just choose not to purchase at all.
Now, there are some cases when you just really don’t want to go with without. Take toilet paper for example. I think most of us here would recognize that this is a pretty relevant and important part of our daily lives. If it’s not you may want to think about adding more beans to your diet. Depending upon the brand you buy, there can be huge environmental repercussions. Andrea and I have chosen to go with products that are made from recycled paper and to use them sparingly.
On the other end of the spectrum of consumer goods the engagement ring I bought for Andrea has a white sapphire. We chose a sapphire because it avoided many of the political and philosophical issues we have with the diamond trade. It has given us great opportunities to share our thoughts on environmental and social justice. And besides, we wanted people to see our marriage not by the color and clarity of the rock, but rather in the color and clarity of our love for one another.
Another way my faith and understanding of creation care aligns with my daily life through what I choose to eat. Perhaps the most dramatic lifestyle change I have undergone was when Andrea proposed that we eliminate all meat from our diet. After returning from Brazil over a year ago, we decided to give the “no meat” idea a try for three months – it has stuck since. During that time we explored new recipes, new foods, and researched the ethics of industrial meat production, including reading Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall. We also spent time with friends trying out new meals and buying locally grown products from the winter farmers market. This was such a bonding time and was a great way to encourage healthy accountability.
Being exposed to this alternative diet made me appreciate the amazing variety of foods that God has given us. I can assure you all that it really doesn’t take that much or any meat to sustain incredibly healthy lives and that if we significantly reduce our meat consumption we can make lasting impacts on the ecosystem. One of the things I remember reading during our three month trial was that it takes13,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of red meat and in general that 50% of the grain produced in the world goes directly to animal feed. I just kept thinking to myself that if I cut meat out altogether and others did the same, we could dramatically change our footprint on earth and as my wife says, we would make a whole lot more animals a whole lot happier.
I have never liked seafood myself, but Andrea loves it. It was shocking to learn that globally ¾ all fish stocks in the world are exhausted, depleted or endangered. It may be hard for many of you to eliminate seafood as well, so if you are someone who eats fish or sushi, we have printed out a few “pocket guides” and they are available in the back that explain what fish are more sustainable to consume and which ones you should stay away from. I would invite you to take a look and take one home with you.
I would guess that for most of us here, we can reduce our carbon footprint through alternative forms of transportation like the bus, train or bike. We can change our diet and in general, buy less stuff. Even today, our dollar is buying the products and degrading the land of those unable to defend it. That’s one of the reasons Andrea and I try to buy fair-trade or organic products. I want to have some assurance that what I buy is not negatively impacting the poor who are harvesting it. As a Christian I find it vital to educate myself about the consequences of my actions on creation and people around the world. This resonates with me because it requires forgoing some luxuries if it means extending compassion just a Christ did for me.
Each person here can make a difference and I would stress that these changes should start incrementally, but like Andrea and I, you may find yourself making more transformative changes to your life as you realize the joy you receive by living a life that cares for creation. I also know that doing this provides opportunities to share why you have made these changes. As Christians we have an amazing opportunity to witness Christ’s redeeming spirit by living a life that cares for creation by renewing the earth. I can attest that as Andrea and I have changed our lifestyles we have found greater enjoyment through the things that can be infinitely renewable – creativity, joy, love and relationship all of which tie in beautifully with creation care.
Beginning to caring for God’s green earth can begin with small steps: as Brent talked about we can walk or bike (when we can) instead of driving (it’s ironic some of us will drive 20 minutes to the gym round trip and get on walker for 20 minutes); if we have to drive simply making sure our tires are properly filled can enable to consume less gas (In people in Canada and the US simply had the right amount of air in their tires we would save an estimated 40 million liters of gas is saved per day); turning the lights and appliances off (phantom power electricity used when an appliance is not in use can cut our electricity consumption by up to 25%); and as we progress we take bigger and make sacrifices to care for our earth….
Taking care of God’s green earth as Brent has said will take sacrifice, but we also know as we look to Christ that it is through a sacrifice that the world is saved.
We know that in the economy of God, as we give, we receive. As we spend less time consuming things, we will find we connect more with God’s earth, with other people who are made in his image, and the one who created it.
So as followers of Christ, let’s lead the way in caring the earth because this is our Father’s world.
CREATION M2 SERMON NOTES OCTOBER 25, 2009
TITLE: Caring for God’s Green Earth
TEXT: Genesis 1; selections from Job 38-41; Revelation 21:1-5
Ken Shigematsu and Brent Chamberlain
BIG IDEA: We are called to care for God’s green earth.
If you were to go to my wife Sakiko’s family home just outside of Osaka, Japan you would notice that part of the home is very traditional. They have the traditional tiled roof and sections of the house with traditional straw woven tatami mats on the floor and sliding doors. Their home is adorned by Bonsai trees.
When I learned that the house had originally been purchased by one of Sakiko’s ancestors from a famous kabuki actor and has been passed down to her family from her ancestors, I feel a heightened sense of respect for her family land.
When we understand where something comes from, our attitude towards it changes.
When we understand the story of where our planet came from, our attitude toward it will change.
In the ancient Babylonian myth of creation Enuma Elish there is an epic battle between the gods, Marduk and Tiamat. In this battle Marduk slays Tiamat and he splits her body in half like a fish for drying. From one half of Tiamit’s body Marduk fashions the heavens and with other half he forms the earth. Then Marduk says to the other gods who were on his side, “Now that we have created the earth, we need someone to do the ‘dirty work’ taking care of it.” So human beings were created as the slaves of the gods to take care of the earth.
The Genesis account of creation challenges the ancient creation myths that claim the earth is a the result of a battle between pagan gods and that the earth is the body of a defeated god.
In Genesis 1: 1-3 we read:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
(Many people come across a passage like Genesis 1 and ask, “How long did it take to create the world? Or precisely, how did God create the earth?” But these are not the primary questions that the author is addressing here. Genesis 1 was not written as a scientific textbook account of the origins of the earth. Genesis 1 is historical in the sense that it offers real truths about creation, but, as respected Harvard-trained Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke and others have argued, Genesis 1 reveals real truth about creation, but in an artistic and poetic, rather than straight-literalistic kind of way.)
We go on and we read that God created the ground and the seas and called it good (2 slides: mountain and seas). God created the vegetation, the plants and trees (slide of trees), and said, “These are good.” God separated the light from the darkness (orange and white slide) and said, “This is good.” God created all kinds of creatures in the sea and all kinds of birds, and said it was good. God created all kinds of animals (slide of horses) and said it was good.
(SHOW POWERPOINT)
And then God looked at the entirety of his creation, and said, “It is very good.”
In Genesis 1 we do not read about a god who made the earth because he didn’t know what else to do with the defeated body of a rival god. But rather, we read of a God who made the earth and took great pleasure in it by describing it as “good! good! good! good! good! very good!”
In the ancient Book of Job we read about how Job experienced terrible suffering and begins to question God’s goodness and justice. God appears to Job out of a storm and he asks him:
Job 38:4-7:
Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand…
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?
God says, “Job, were you there when I laid the cornerstone of the earth and all the stars and the angels shouted for joy?”
Job 38:
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons [a]
or lead out the Bear [b] with its cubs?
Job 39:
1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
13 "The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
though they cannot compare
with the wings and feathers of the stork.
26 "Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command
and build its nest on high?
In the Book of Job and the Genesis account we read about how God takes great pleasure in his creation.
As an artist takes delight in their masterpiece, as a mother or father takes delight in their child, so God takes delight in his creation.
We’ve been entrusted with a creation of God that he takes great pleasure and delight in.
At our wedding, my uncle who is a bank executive-turned artist, gave us a painting of a couple who are standing at the end of a brick alley adorned with ivy and green potted plants in Gastown. The sun is streaming onto the couple. My uncle told me this is his favorite painting. Because of that I view it with a different kind of respect and devotion. In the same way, when we recognize that God gifted us this earth to dwell and delight in, we will see it and treat it differently.
And then in Genesis 1:26, as we looked at last week, we read:
26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals…
Last week we talked about how part of what it means to be made in the image of a God who is in relationship is that we were made for relationship—it’s in our nature; it’s in our DNA.
Another part of what it means to be made in God’s image is to that we represent God.
When God in Genesis 1:26 says we were made in God’s image, the word image literally means “statue.” In the ancient world kings would set up statues in remote parts of their kingdom. Before the days of photography, television and the internet, you obviously could not have images of yourself throughout the kingdom to remind everyone that you were the king. So instead, you would set up statues across the kingdom and these images would remind people of your presence.
And so when we read we are made in the image of God in Genesis 1: 26, it is not only a reminder that we are not created as slaves to do the “dirty work” of the gods, as some of the creation myths suggest, but we are actually made in God’s image. We were made to represent God by resembling God in the world.
What does it mean to represent God?
As we read the Genesis account, part of what it means to represent God is that we take pleasure and delight in creation as God does.
Another part of what it means to represent is that we have the privilege of caring for the earth.
In Genesis 1:26 we read God saying:
26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Part of what it means to represent God on earth is that like God we exercise rule or as the older King James version uses the word “dominion” on the earth. Now the word dominion suggests, we, like God, have power over creation. And power can be used to abuse the earth, but power can also be used to care for it.
In Genesis 2 we read God’s creation account from another angle. We get insight into what God meant when he said we are to rule over the earth. We read in Genesis 2: 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
“To take care of” is also used in here Scripture to describe a gardener care for a garden.
A gardener has power over a garden. That power can be used to abuse the garden (I’m going to use my weed eater to mow down the roses), but a gardener can also us his or her power to care for the garden.
This word is also used to describe how a shepherd watches over his flock of sheep. A shepherd has power over his sheep. He can use his power to abuse the sheep (I’m going to yank your ears), but a shepherd can also use his power to care and protect the sheep.
In the movie Spiderman, Spiderman’s uncle says to him, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We humans have been given power and dominion over the earth (in a way the other animals do not have), but with the power comes great responsibility to care and protect for this earth that God delights in).
When we care for and protect the earth, we honour the one who made it.
As I have shared before, when I graduated from seminary in Boston, I was pretty much broke. The first position I took out of seminary was to serve as a pastor of a new church start-up in southern California. The church had no denominational backing and no major financial backing. A couple in southern California, whom I had never met, heard that I was coming to southern California to start this church. The husband called me and explained that he and his wife travelled up to half the year, and asked if I would be interested in living in their home for free in exchange for taking care of their plants and dog while they were away.
They said, “If you need time to think and pray about it, we just wanted you to know that we live in a home that overlooks the ocean in San Clemente, one of the best surfing beaches in North America.” I was like “I do.” My choices were either to be living in the back seat of my car or living in a home that overlooked the ocean. Easy choice!
This couple, John and Carol, the owners of the home, became friends of mine. They were amazingly generous to me in many ways. They not only allowed me to live in their home without charge, but they gave me some really good counsel for the church start-up and even listened to some of the woes I was experiencing with the woman I was dating at the time.
So when they were travelling, I wanted to honour them by taking great care of their plants—their flowers, their cumquats, their shrubbery—and their dog.
When we recognize how God has been so good to us, so generous in providing all that we need…and in many cases more…and how he has offered himself to us in Jesus Christ, by laying down his life on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be restored to him, part of the way we can express our gratitude to him is by caring for this earth that he so deeply loves.
In Genesis we read how God created the earth, and in the final book of the scriptures in Revelation, we read about how God will renew the earth. Of course, there are many people who don’t even believe in God who really care for the earth, but those of us who are followers of Christ have the greatest motivation to care for God’s green earth.
In certain times throughout history there have been Christians who have not taken good care of the earth because they have misread scripture, and believed that it would one day be destroyed and replaced. There are Christians who have believed that one day God would take Christians from the earth and the rest of the world would be “left behind” and destroyed. If the earth would come to an end, they reasoned, there is no point in worrying about trying to stop polluting the planet.
You treat the earth very differently if you believe one day, perhaps soon, it will pushed off a cliff, than if you believe it is going to be renewed by God and used as our everlasting home.
In Revelation 21: 5, we read: 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." God here is not saying “I am making all new things,” but instead, “I am making all things new.” God is not saying, “I am making all new things, but I am making things new.”
The scriptures do not teach that one day the world will be obliterated or just absorbed into the nothingness of the universe as some religions teach, but this earth according to Romans and Revelation will one day be redeemed and made new and restored.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Here Paul says if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. We know that when Paul writes these words he does not mean that when a person gives their life to Christ, God completely obliterates them and then creates a new person; we know that when a person gives their life to Christ much of who they are in terms of appearance and personality traits remain the same. When a person is made new in Christ, it means that the Spirit of God fills them and renews them. The language that is used of a person being made new in Christ is the same language that is used in Revelation of the earth being made new.
If our current world will be renewed at the coming of Christ, then as respected theologian N.T. Wright says, our care for God’s earth is not simply a way to make life on earth a more bearable place until the day we leave it behind altogether, but every act of caring God’s earth will all find its way into the new creation that God will one day make. Our care for the earth is a way of building God’s Kingdom.
Michelangelo’s frescoes in Sistine Chapel in Rome have become mired in grime, soot, and pollution across the centuries so that colours of the paintings had faded and some of the detail lost. A team of art conservators worked together to clean, restore, and preserve these priceless frescoes across two decades during 80’s and 90s. We are called by God to restore and preserve his masterpiece of our planet.
So what can we do practically to honour God by representing God on Earth and work care for and restore his creation?
At this time I want to invite Brent Chamberlain, a PHD student in forestry at UBC, who will be going to Brazil to map preservation areas, to come forward. I have asked him to share how he and his wife Andrea live out their Christian faith by caring for God’s green earth:
Complimentary Piece by Brent Chamberlain
When I look back I think my passion to conserve and manage forests in sustainable ways stems from my fascination with trees as a child. It’s strange though as I reflect on it because 7 years ago when I graduated from university with business and computer science degrees I was not intending to head down this path. But after working a couple years in industry I found myself feeling like I needed to integrate my life more fully with God’s creation.
I am now a couple years away from earning a Ph.D and have had opportunities to work in Brazil mapping permanent preservation areas in the Amazon and engage in a special research project where a group of us are working with UBC and Greenest City Alliance for the City of Vancouver to recommend ways that these organizations can better enable students and citizens to live more ecologically-sound lives.
In the past few years I have seen amazing places like the Serengeti in Kenya, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Iguazu Falls in Brazil. But I have also seen magical places damaged by our impact including the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic from Prince George to Kelowna and the destruction of the forests in the Amazon. All of these experiences have brought me to realize that the whole of humanity, regardless of faith or culture want to live in harmony with nature and that I want to facilitate that effort…it is just that many of us don’t know how or chose not to.
Andrea too has seen much of this degradation as well as the magical beauty. Some of you may have seen her paintings hanging in the foyer in the east hall many months ago. One way she shares these experiences and love for creation is through art.
Over the last five years Andrea and I have tried our best to align our lives with what our faith tells us about stewardship. This has meant some dramatic changes, but I can assure you that these changes have exposed us to more wonders of creation and created a greater sense of thankfulness for God’s incredible craftsmanship.
For instance, I am thankful for the car we own. We do use it – sparingly – and typically to visit family south of the border. However, our primary form of (when people hear transit in Vancouver they think public transit) transportation is by bike, sun, rain and for me even snow! I think last year Andrea took the bus to work fewer than 10 times and I drove her fewer than that. If someone would have asked us 5 years ago we never would have imagined something this extreme! In fact Andrea didn’t even have a bike until 2006.
A couple years ago we took a two week vacation and cycled from Oregon to Southern California along the coast. This trip challenged and strengthened our relationship, but it also grew our faith and required that we place a lot of trust in God and one another. Through that experience I have learned the joy in slowing down and appreciating the subtleties in nature that can so often be missed in a car.
In terms of consumption we try our best to apply the three R’s, reduce, reuse and recycle. As hokey as it is, it makes sense. My travels have shown me how truly wealthy I am. As our wealth has increased, we also do our best to gain understanding in how to use it according to God’s will. His means that for each purchase we make, we do our best to be mindful of how it will impact people and the environment. In many cases we just choose not to purchase at all.
Now, there are some cases when you just really don’t want to go with without. Take toilet paper for example. I think most of us here would recognize that this is a pretty relevant and important part of our daily lives. If it’s not you may want to think about adding more beans to your diet. Depending upon the brand you buy, there can be huge environmental repercussions. Andrea and I have chosen to go with products that are made from recycled paper and to use them sparingly.
On the other end of the spectrum of consumer goods the engagement ring I bought for Andrea has a white sapphire. We chose a sapphire because it avoided many of the political and philosophical issues we have with the diamond trade. It has given us great opportunities to share our thoughts on environmental and social justice. And besides, we wanted people to see our marriage not by the color and clarity of the rock, but rather in the color and clarity of our love for one another.
Another way my faith and understanding of creation care aligns with my daily life through what I choose to eat. Perhaps the most dramatic lifestyle change I have undergone was when Andrea proposed that we eliminate all meat from our diet. After returning from Brazil over a year ago, we decided to give the “no meat” idea a try for three months – it has stuck since. During that time we explored new recipes, new foods, and researched the ethics of industrial meat production, including reading Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall. We also spent time with friends trying out new meals and buying locally grown products from the winter farmers market. This was such a bonding time and was a great way to encourage healthy accountability.
Being exposed to this alternative diet made me appreciate the amazing variety of foods that God has given us. I can assure you all that it really doesn’t take that much or any meat to sustain incredibly healthy lives and that if we significantly reduce our meat consumption we can make lasting impacts on the ecosystem. One of the things I remember reading during our three month trial was that it takes13,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of red meat and in general that 50% of the grain produced in the world goes directly to animal feed. I just kept thinking to myself that if I cut meat out altogether and others did the same, we could dramatically change our footprint on earth and as my wife says, we would make a whole lot more animals a whole lot happier.
I have never liked seafood myself, but Andrea loves it. It was shocking to learn that globally ¾ all fish stocks in the world are exhausted, depleted or endangered. It may be hard for many of you to eliminate seafood as well, so if you are someone who eats fish or sushi, we have printed out a few “pocket guides” and they are available in the back that explain what fish are more sustainable to consume and which ones you should stay away from. I would invite you to take a look and take one home with you.
I would guess that for most of us here, we can reduce our carbon footprint through alternative forms of transportation like the bus, train or bike. We can change our diet and in general, buy less stuff. Even today, our dollar is buying the products and degrading the land of those unable to defend it. That’s one of the reasons Andrea and I try to buy fair-trade or organic products. I want to have some assurance that what I buy is not negatively impacting the poor who are harvesting it. As a Christian I find it vital to educate myself about the consequences of my actions on creation and people around the world. This resonates with me because it requires forgoing some luxuries if it means extending compassion just a Christ did for me.
Each person here can make a difference and I would stress that these changes should start incrementally, but like Andrea and I, you may find yourself making more transformative changes to your life as you realize the joy you receive by living a life that cares for creation. I also know that doing this provides opportunities to share why you have made these changes. As Christians we have an amazing opportunity to witness Christ’s redeeming spirit by living a life that cares for creation by renewing the earth. I can attest that as Andrea and I have changed our lifestyles we have found greater enjoyment through the things that can be infinitely renewable – creativity, joy, love and relationship all of which tie in beautifully with creation care.
Beginning to caring for God’s green earth can begin with small steps: as Brent talked about we can walk or bike (when we can) instead of driving (it’s ironic some of us will drive 20 minutes to the gym round trip and get on walker for 20 minutes); if we have to drive simply making sure our tires are properly filled can enable to consume less gas (In people in Canada and the US simply had the right amount of air in their tires we would save an estimated 40 million liters of gas is saved per day); turning the lights and appliances off (phantom power electricity used when an appliance is not in use can cut our electricity consumption by up to 25%); and as we progress we take bigger and make sacrifices to care for our earth….
Taking care of God’s green earth as Brent has said will take sacrifice, but we also know as we look to Christ that it is through a sacrifice that the world is saved.
We know that in the economy of God, as we give, we receive. As we spend less time consuming things, we will find we connect more with God’s earth, with other people who are made in his image, and the one who created it.
So as followers of Christ, let’s lead the way in caring the earth because this is our Father’s world.
posted by Shigematsu at 7:46 AM
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