Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Today is recognized internationally as a day in which we are to pause and reflect on our own personal use of the earth’s resources.  How can we use less?  What can we do to “clean up?”  This year, the focus is on plastics.  There is great concern about the level of “micro-plastic” saturation in our food chain and even in our own bodies.  As I look around my office, the vast majority - almost everything - is a synthetic product.  Plastic in every imaginable permeation, “fake” wood (chip board, etc.), foam products, and I suspect even the recyclable tissues are loaded with - or have been processed by - environmentally unfriendliness.

We hear about the three “R”s of environmental care: reduce, recycle, reuse.  Most of us have green bins, grey bins and blue bins sitting in our garages or sheds ready and eager to accept that which is recyclable.  Non-profits like Habitat for Humanity will take all those old tools and building supplies.  And maybe we can be more contentious about how much stuff we consume.  

But is it really all necessary?  From a theological perspective, the answer is a resounding, “YES!”  In many ways, it is unfortunate that the trumpet call for environmental concern is not coming from the followers of Jesus.  After all, we recognize the uniqueness of being human since we are created in the image of God.  As such, we are given the two-fold mandate:  represent the King in His Kingdom and steward the resources of the Creator in His creation.  Surely, that must include caring for all that God has created - whether it is the honey bee (one of my personal favourites) or other image-bearers.  To answer Cain’s rhetorical question from Genesis 4, “Yes, we are our brother’s (sister’s) keeper.”  All of us share in the responsibility to care for what God has created.

Unfortunately, followers of Jesus often reduce that to just the spiritual issues of life:  reconciliation with God through Christ.  Clearly, this is THE most important issue, but it isn’t the only issue.  To represent Christ well, we should also be embracing care for all He has created.

I’m disheartened by the tendency of some to create a false dichotomy between issues of faith and “the rest of life.”  All of life is lived in God’s presence.  All of life has purpose and value.  All truth is God’s truth - regardless of who proclaims it.  All work is God’s work - regardless of who does it.  All of life is - or should be - an act of worship of the Creator.

Sadly, the dysfunction in God’s created order caused by sin means we tend to misunderstand, redefine, or simply deny the responsibilities for which we were created.  Somehow, it is easier to worship the creation (and created stuff we produce out of the creation) instead of the Creator Himself.  The Apostle Paul goes on at length about this problem in Romans 1.  He said it much better there than I can here, so I leave it to you to do a quick refresher read straight from the source.

The point is, we can easily be distracted from keeping the main thing the main thing.  Perhaps Earth Day can serve to help us rethink that.  Perhaps we can begin to think of our worship in terms broader than just music, preaching, and praying to something broader like acts of kindness, humanitarian relief, and caring for one of the greatest demonstrations of God’s love and grace:  the wonders of this blue marble which we all call “home.”

Maybe we should worship God by brining our own coffee cups to our Sunday gatherings instead of exclusively using disposable ones?  Perhaps we can be careful about the lights we use in our places of worship and crank back the wattage we consume?  Now that the more pleasant weather is here, maybe we can walk more and drive less (but let me just point out that motorcycles are environmentally more friendly than cars - just sayin’).  Let’s consider that to plant a tree, to refresh our knowledge of how to best use recycling bins, and to pick up garbage is not just a pragmatic “make it a nicer place to live” action;  it can also be a form of worshipping the Creator as we more intentionally embrace what it means to be His image-bearer and our brother’s/sister’s keeper.