The topic of environmental stewardship is often neglected in the church. We are mindful of being called “caretakers” for God’s good earth, and yet, like Adam and Eve standing outside the Garden of Eden, we are filled with guilt by our broken relationship with much of creation around us. The season of Lent is a time to be honest about our shortcomings in our relationships with God, with one another, and with the world in which we live. Likewise, the season of Easter is a time to remember how God acts to make amends for our wrongs and to bring healing to all parts of life broken by sin, abuse, and apathy. My hope is that when we pray for the world, we move beyond human-centered perspectives and open our hearts and souls also to pray for the well-being and loving care of the air, soil, water and living creatures who are also part of God’s creative plan. What follows is a brief essay on this subject that I was asked to submit for a Lenten devotional for the group, Presbyterians for Earth Care.
The data about how human actions affect the world in which we live is overwhelmingly negative. Sadly we read regular reports about global climate change, soil erosion, water pollution, persistent national addictions to fossil fuels, damage done to the ozone layer, and much more. Film documentaries show us the depletion of the vital polar ice caps. Meteorological statistics weary us by noting how current weather patterns are the worst in recorded history. And our mailboxes overflow with donation requests from overworked conservancy and advocacy groups, desperately fighting for eco-justice.
But all this cannot be the final word we offer on this subject. To give up or accept a defeatist position runs counter to other scientific evidence as well as our Christian faith. Other data points to how the earth can heal many of its ecological wounds, once we stop the worst forms of damage and environmental abuse. Nature does adapt, re-group, and re-claim what we have wrongly usurped. Air, water, and soil can come back through rejuvenating wonders built into God’s essential design of this world.
To make this happen requires an “Easter perspective” on nature. In between the time on the cross and the sunrise on Easter morning, the earth waited. The followers of Jesus mourned and stopped what they had been doing. The violence of the cross was over for a spell. Then came the third day – a time of life reborn, of hope renewed, and of resurrection in every sense of the word. To step away from ecological violence means we have to be still, waiting and watching and praying and believing. For to our longing eyes, a miracle is anxious to unfold.
Resurrection is not just a one-time event. It is a way of life – real life – and a walk of faith – this day and for all time. For that good news, let us say: Thanks be to God!