“…Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’.” (Luke 8:25)
Year C: Second Sunday before Lent, 20 February
2022
Creation Sunday
In recent years we have become increasingly
aware of the importance of our environment.
Most people accept that human activity has caused serious damage to the
world of nature and triggered alarming pattern of climate change. In reading the Bible our focus is on the
central place of human beings made in the image of God. We are used to seeing the natural world as a
kind of backdrop or field in which humankind can till, sow, reap and extract to
its heart’s content. However, the story is much bigger than humankind alone.
The story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2
reminds us that God created us in his own image and likeness and placed us in a
living relationship with all of creation.
We are more than mere creatures: we are in a sense co-creators with the
Creator stewarding, nurturing and replenishing our world. Sin has broken our relationship to God and
one another as well as the natural order as a whole. The disorder we see in the created world
reflects a malaise springing from disordered ‘goods’ of materialism,
over-consumption and over-exploitation of natural resources. We are paying,
already, a heavy price for this cumulative disorder as evidenced by rising
global temperatures, erratic weather conditions and polluted oceans.
We may be tempted to despair and panic as
the disciples did in the boat when the storm arose on Lake Galilee. Where is
God in all this chaos? Why has God abandoned us to the forces of climate
disruption and environmental melt-down? Does God care? Does anyone care? We
need to find again the calming voice of God in the midst of the storm.
Writing to the disciples in Rome, St Paul
offers important clues as to how we might respond, individually and
collectively:
I consider
that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory
about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for
the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to
futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in
hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay
and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know
that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and
not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit,
groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our
bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not
see, we wait for it with patience.
We must abide in hope because God is in
charge when other things fail. As
children of God we wait in hope for the saving grace of Jesus Christ. However,
this waiting is not passive – we must organise, educate and work to lay the ground
for a just transition and transformation of the way we produce, consume and
move about. In the meantime, we must
embrace the pain as creation ‘groans’ and as we wait in hope and work in love
to give birth to the Kingdom of God where we are.
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