CARING FOR CREATION

Text: Matthew 6:9-13

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

The Lord’s Prayer includes the words, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)

Earth (Gk.) = the earth, soil, land, region, country, inhabitants of a region.

The focus of the entire Lord’s Prayer is what happens on earth. Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come to earth and his will to be done on earth. God cares deeply for this planet, his handiwork, and he wants his people to genuinely care for his creation too. But, some problems need to be addressed because they limit Christian people from caring for creation.

1. Political Concerns

Romans 1:25, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…”

Q. If God created all animals, do we not have a responsibility to look after them and their, and our, environment? According to Genesis 3, we do.

Genesis 3:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

Heb. Shamar = to watch over, preserve, & protect

God calls people to be bodyguards for his creation. He’s given us the responsibility to look after the things he’s made.

If I desire to look after these animals and their habitat am I just a greenie or am I acting as a Christian who loves God and his creation and desires to look after it? Let’s take the politics out of caring for creation!

2. Spiritual indifference

Brian McLaren A Generous Orthodoxy, refers to ‘an eschatology of abandonment.’

God’s making a new earth so why bother with this one?

We need to understand that human beings are intrinsically linked to the earth…

Eccl. 3:20, “all come from dust, and to dust all return” (Heb. Dry earth)

Ps Tim Healy, “Earth. This is our home. We have no other. For as long as humankind has been in existence our place has been here, on earth. Surrounded by an innumerable company of stars and planets, this magnificent celestial island floats timelessly in a cosmic sea of unimaginable proportions and we, it’s inhabitants, get to live out our days beneath its beauty and majesty. Vast oceans of deep blue mystery, towering pillars of shifting cloud, ancient granite monuments carved out over centuries by persistent waters and enormous burnt ochre deserts, stirred and sifted by patient winds. All these provide the setting for a richness of fauna and flora that remains unmatched in a universe of a hundred billion points of light. To say that earth is unique and special is to understate the fact. Earth is incredible.”

And so, instead of spiritual indifference, we need to exercise spiritual stewardship ~ Earth is the place of our habitation, the place where we live and the context on which we depend for our very existence. As such, we have a relationship with it and a responsibility to it.

3. Selfish Attitudes

Jeremiah 12:11, “It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.”

Q. Is it the will of God for his people to live in any way they choose without considering the impact of their choices on other people and the creation?

Q. Do we think that our rubbish and our pollution have NO impact on God’s creation?

Q. Are you aware that most of the environmental problems we face are rooted in greed, wastefulness, and selfishness? Harming the environment not only destroys God’s creation but also negatively affects people – particularly the poorest of the poor.

Q. If we keep dumping rubbish rather than reutilizing what we can, what will this world eventually be like?

Q. Do we not have an obligation to live in such a way as to have as minimal an impact on the earth to preserve it for the generations to come?

I know that this world will one day end (it’s finite). God will wrap this age up and usher us into a new one, “we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). But we need to live today conscious of those who will live in the gap between the present and the day that God makes all things new. That may be 10 years or a thousand or more. No one knows.

“Between now and then people will need to live on very limited resources embedded in a fragile network of highly interdependent eco-systems. Our actions toward those systems and resources today will seriously affect the lives of those who live tomorrow, and it’s for this reason that those actions ought to demonstrate the love and consideration for others that Jesus encouraged through His life and teaching. At the end of the day, our God-given mandate to care for the earth is, amongst other things, an expression of our mandate to ‘love our neighbours.’ We live not only down the street from those neighbours but downstream from them and ‘downtime’ from them as well and it’s those who live in the years beyond our own who stand to benefit the most from our faithful and responsible stewardship of the earth and its resources” ~ Ps Tim Healy

And so, let’s not live selfishly!

4. Being Distracted

Some of God’s people are concerned that, if they spend time and energy caring for creation, it’ll take them away from their primary task of proclaiming the gospel and the saving of souls (as important as that is) ~ the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-21) ~ “go and make disciples of all nations…”

Mark puts this commission in slightly different terms.

Mark 16:15, Jesus said to his followers, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

Creation (Gk. Ktisis) = people of every race, nature, created beings, or any created thing ~ anything created ex nihilo, out of nothing (by God). It includes people, flora and fauna, and the environment.

Geneticist and naturalist Robert Berry (who is a Christian) concluded: “God has written two books: a book of words, which we call the Bible; and a book of works, which is creation. He is the author of both. They are written in very different languages, but we have no excuse if we fail to read them both because of difficulty or (worse) laziness in interpretation. Those who read only one of Gods books will necessarily discover only a part of God’s nature and purposes.”

And so, the gospel is not just a script whereby we lead people to follow Jesus, as wonderful as that is. The gospel is a message, backed up by actions, that impacts the entire creation. The gospel is “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So,

• When you’re making the most of the limited resources, you’re demonstrating the gospel.
• When you’re caring for animals, endangered or otherwise, you’re representing the gospel.
• When you recycle or use recycled products, you’re engaging with the gospel.
• When you buy ethically, making sure that human slavery, or animal cruelty, is not in the supply chain, you’re living out the gospel.
• When you pray and work for peace and justice amongst people and nations, economic justice and equality between rich and poor, male and female. It’s the gospel.
• When you stand up for marginalised people, speak up for the voiceless, or protect and advocate for refugees and asylum seekers, this is all part of the good news Jesus came to proclaim, this is “preaching the gospel to all creation.”

These are not merely political issues that don’t affect our faith and us. They are crucial matters that should concern all of us who pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And who but knows that in the process of reconciling people to the creation they could also find themselves reconciled to their creator?

That’s what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. As Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”