Who Is Creation Waiting For?
August 13, 2008
A few weeks ago, my husband and I attended a Shabbat (or Sabbath) service at friend’s church. Although it wasn’t done intentionally, the service had a heavy creation theme. We even read a psalm, from the Book of Common Prayer, called “A Song of Creation.” I’d love to record the whole thing here, but it’s very long, so consider these lines:
The Earth and its Creatures
O let the earth bless the Lord;
O ye mountains and hills, bless ye the Lord;
O all ye green things upon the earth, bless ye the Lord;
praise him and magnify him for ever.
O ye wells, bless ye the Lord;
O ye seas and floods, bless ye the Lord;
O ye whales and all that move in the waters, bless ye the Lord;
praise him and magnify him for ever.
O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord;
O all ye beasts and cattle, bless ye the Lord;
O ye children of men, bless ye the Lord;
praise him and magnify him for ever.
After that reading, my friend Joel gave a short sermon on the purpose and importance of—what else?—Sabbath.
Sabbath is intimately connected to creation care, and I could talk about it forever, but you’re probably better served by reading Dr. Matthew Sleeth’s article on the topic in the Summer 2008 Creation Care magazine (to receive a copy, sign up here). Joel linked the Sabbath rest we take to the good of creation, as Sabbath gives the natural world time to rest and revel in God’s goodness, too.
What really caught my attention in Joel’s sermon was a passage he referred to as almost an afterthought, Romans 8:19-23: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
This passage has always haunted me. What is the sound of creation groaning? I imagine that it’s best heard in the scraping and splitting of wood that occurs when a huge tree is felled in an otherwise silent forest. A distinct wail accompanies falling trees in their downward trajectories.
But creation’s groaning isn’t always audible. There is the collective moan of humanity as it struggles through all of its trials. And there is the crying of the polluted oceans, the ravaged mountains, the dying species, the desiccated valleys, the waning forests.
But should creation still be weeping the way it is? When I listened to Romans 8 this time, I heard something new: “… creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” Isn’t that us? Aren’t we here? Doesn’t Paul say, several verses earlier in Romans 8:14-17, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God”?
Like Alexei, I sometimes I think we underestimate the power of this privilege. Now that we are God’s children, filled with his Spirit, we are empowered to start living in his hope of resurrection and renewal—not just by what we say and do and think, and not just by who we share his Gospel with, but by how we live as a part of his creation.
Jesus Christ has conquered death. Surely he has also conquered the pollution of the oceans, the ravaging of the mountains, the dying of the species, the desiccation of the valleys, and the waning of the forests. Just as we were made to proclaim his victory over the grave to our human brothers and sisters, so too are we to proclaim his power over creation’s suffering so that it can be “brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
We’re certainly not perfect (we still groan for our full redemption), and we can’t presume to make the world perfect, but don’t we have the Spirit of God within us, and his hope energizing us? We’re here, quickened by Christ’s death, resurrection, and gift of eternal life. That fact is one of the most hopeful things I can fathom. What are we, the children of God, going to do with it?
Obviously we don’t go running from tree to tree with our Bibles in hand, trying to bring the forest to Christ. But we are charged with bringing good news to creation. Creation is still waiting for us to open our mouths and preach the good news, to move our hands and feet and live it.
Kendra Langdon Juskus is managing editor for Creation Care magazineCreation Care magazine. She lives with her husband in Illinois.
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My wife and I have been committed to the environmental movement for many years. We are so happy that mainstream Christians are finally becoming awake to our responsibility to care for God’s creation. God has called us to be stewards of ALL his creation, not just humanity. The world around us is a gift, which He gave to us freely, lovingly. However, as with any gift, there is a responsibility attached. In this case, it is to use His gift wisely, fairly, and give back in equal measure what we receive. When we reach out to His creation, we have the blessed opportunity to touch Him through His work. How rare and wonderful is that?
As Christians, we decry the rampant consumerism which dominates our society, and the environmental cost it brings with it. Such selfishness flies in the face of Jesus’ call to us to stand apart from the world’s temptations and to live His word. Jesus had no place to lay His head, yet we tolerate a society in which the poor and dispossessed are outcasts, while wealth, power and position are measured in how many houses one has, in “conspicuous consumption”.
Committing to environmental responsibility is a part of fulfilling His call to care for the “strangers among us”. In this century, those are the poor, the immigrant, those who are economically marginalized by society. Not surprisingly, these are also the people who suffer most from enviromental degradation, as they do not have the means to live and work in healthy neighborhoods. As global warming impacts more and more regions, these are the people who will be displaced from their homes and their livelihoods. It won’t be the wealthy in their gated communities who will suffer. It will be working class people like us.
We see environmental stewardship as a means of following His call to care for all our neighbors, though they be strangers to us, as we would care for Him.
Thank you for your insight, and the work that you do.
Let Your Light Shine, and Pray For Peace!
Doug & Jan Parker