“…rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.…” (Proverbs 8:21)
(Year B: Creation Sunday / Second Sunday before Lent, 7th February 2021)
In some Churches, this Sunday is celebrated as Creation
Sunday. It seems appropriate any Sunday of the year to rest, give thanks and
renew our bodies, souls and minds. We need to join in the great cosmic act of
Re-Creating in cooperation with the Creator.
As it stands written in the holy scriptures, ‘And on the seventh day God
finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all
the work that he had done.’ (Genesis
2:2) But, what did God do on the
seventh Day? Well, he sat back so to speak, and enjoyed what He created! ‘ God
saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.’ (Genesis 1:31).
Just in case we missed the point that all of creation is good, the author of
Genesis writes seven times for each Day or act of creation ‘God saw that it was
good’. In sharp contrast to some
religious manifestations there was not and is not a hint that the material
world and all within it is anything but good.
Badness crept in somehow. God who is good through and through did not
create or will badness. Rather, humankind made in his image and likeness (Genesis
1:26) who was seen to be ‘very good’ was given the free will to choose life or
death (Deuteronomy
30:15-20).
So, material is good. And to prove the point God became one
of us in his only Son at the appointed time that we might be made divine and
people who would join in the utter bliss of heaven beginning here on earth.
Nothing was created by chance. All was created in love by love and for love. As
I write these lines beside an open window a little robin landed on a garden
chair near me fluttering his wings and going ‘chip chip’ as to remind me ‘I am
here too’. All of creation sings God’s praise. ‘Before you all the earth shall
bow, shall sing to you, sing to your name!’ (Psalm 65:4 – Grail translation).
‘Let the heavens and the earth give him praise, the sea and all its living
creatures.’ (Psalm 68:35). ‘How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all
his creatures.’ (Psalm 144:9). If God is compassionate to all his creatures so
should we. We owe compassion to one another and to all that God has created.
And we owe compassion to ourselves not as an afterthought but because we, too,
have been made in the image and likeness of God.
So, the next time someone jumps the queue ahead of you in
the supermarket or refuses to wear a mask in public and brags about it – they
too are creatures made in the image and likeness of God worthy of compassion
even if their behaviour is appalling and in some cases dangerous.
A theology of positive creation has its challenges. It is
not just about protecting the bees and birds (I will come back to that). It is
about cherishing all that has been created. Love them all. If we are expected
to love one another and cause no hurt or pain to another living creature –
human or non-human then that is what we should do because we love ourselves in
others. Perhaps the hardest parts of creation to love is human beings because
of their behaviour. In a different way we are called to love what cannot be
seen in the depths of the earth where, as the psalmist says, ‘For it was you
who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb.’ (Psalm 138:13).
Each of us was once a defenceless creature being knit together in our mother’s
womb.
The golden rule of creation is to love all creatures big and
small and to do to others as we would wish them to do to us. In times past we took the Earth for granted.
We burnt lots of coal, peat and other fossil fuels. We pumped enormous amounts
of toxic materials into the atmosphere. Now we are beginning to see and
understand that this is not sustainable or moral. What about the next
generation? Back to the birds and bees. What could nature have to do with
agricultural production, roads, cement factories and forestry clearance? We don’t realise how much we are part of
nature and how much we depend on nature for food, medicines, fibre and energy.
We pay a heavy price when we treat Nature as something to be plundered,
exploited and dumped on. A misreading of
holy scripture might present Man as Lord of the earth only to destroy and
thrash it (and leave it as trash).
Instead of being stewards of a common home which will be left to future
generations we have been selfish imposters denying the truth and evidence of
climate change and unsustainable living and living however we please. This is a
great sin embedded in the social structures, mindsets and norms of our upside-down
and inside-out world.
The covid crisis is a wake up call. It has been evil, devious
and divisive. Yet, it signals a fundamental imbalance in nature and our being
part of nature. Creation Sunday urges us to think again and join up the dots.
If we continue to thrash the planet and turn a blind eye to the massive
destruction of habitats as a result of deforestation and other human activities
not to mention the practices where viruses can more easily jump from animal to
human (and back again and on and on) we are creating the perfect storm.
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