A week ago, the Council had its annual Away Day in a beautiful location overlooking Lake Thun. This year our theme was Caring for God's Creation. We reflected on ways we are called as Christians and as a church to look after God's world and what this might mean for us in practice. This theme related well to this time of year as we are now in Creation Season, a time set aside by the Church of England and many other churches to think about these issues.
To prepare for the day, all of us as Council members did an exercise to work out our own personal carbon footprint. This was calculated by answering questions about our modes of travel, our consumption and our diet. Some of us were shocked at how high that carbon footprint was and how much it would need to be reduced to come in line with guidelines agreed to help to prevent global warming exceeding very dangerous levels. During the day, we also had a quiz about the environment (did you know that 10% of glaciers in Switzerland have disappeared in the past 2 years – a very sobering statistic), and we watched a very challenging video about what we eat, and the effect the production of different kinds of food has on the environment. We considered practical steps, big and small, which we might take to change our lifestyle. Some of us came to the day heavy-hearted about ways forward, but by the end of the day we were more hopeful through sharing with others what we could do to change.
But why should we be thinking about these things? I know that some people, while not disputing climate science, are rather sceptical about what we can do about it. And perhaps some Christians feel this is not a priority to think about in our faith.
So, we began our Council Day Away with a question: why should Christians care about looking after God's creation and about the effects of climate change and environmental degradation?
There are several important theological reasons – reasons that come from our faith, not just from fashionable ideas in the wider world today.
Firstly, as David reminded us last Sunday, the creation is God's creation and he made it 'very good.' The creation matters to God and it should therefore matter to us. As Christians, we believe that God is not only interested in souls and the spiritual realm. God's commitment to his creation is such that in Jesus he entered his world as a human being: 'the Word became flesh and lived among us.'
Secondly, as Christians we believe that God made human beings in his own image, to have a special role in his creation. In Genesis 1, we're told that human beings are given 'dominion' over the animals, and birds and the rest of creation; in Genesis 2, Adam is told to 'till the earth and keep it.' Perhaps human beings may have often forgotten the humble call to 'till the earth and keep it', and focused on exercising harsh dominion over the earth, exploiting its resources. As David pointed out last week, it's important here to remember the lordship and dominion of Christ and how he exercised it in humility and service of others. Having dominion over all living things is not to be seen as a licence for abusive power and exploitation, but a responsibility to care for God's creation.
At the heart of Christian life and worship is the humble acknowledgement that we are not the masters of the universe, but creatures whom God has lovingly created along with the rest of his creation.
Realising our relatedness to the rest of creation is a third reason for Christians to care for creation. This interconnectedness between us and all created things is described in our second reading from Romans. Here Paul talks about the 'groaning of creation'. Although the creation was created good, we don't live in a blandly 'bright and beautiful' world. There is, as we all know, fragility, decay, frustration and suffering in creation and this is in some way all tied up with the frustration, suffering and sin of human beings. We live in a fallen world. We may be aware of the groaning of creation in ways Paul could not have imagined through deforestation, floods and droughts, loss of animal and plant life and we know that this suffering and groaning of creation is indeed tied up with our greed and exploitation as human beings.
But yet there is hope. Today's reading from Roman chapter 8 follows closely after Paul has spoken powerfully of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; flowing from the resurrection, Paul outlines an amazing hope-filled vision, repeating the word 'hope' several times. He speaks here of all creation being liberated, together with the liberation of human beings as children of God. The life, health, hope and destiny of the whole created order is bound up with our destiny as perfected children of God. Christian hope is not just about ourselves, but vastly more wonderful and expansive. It involves the whole of creation. We see the importance of the story of creation throughout the Bible: it begins with the creation of the world; its focal point is God's coming among us in Jesus, the Word made flesh and his living, dying and rising for us; and it looks to a future of 'new heavens and a new earth.' This does not mean God scrapping this world and starting again. That kind of reasoning may make us even less bothered about caring for creation. Rather, the promise of everything being made new, including ourselves, is a promise of liberation and transformation, when everything is perfected as it should be.
The fourth reason for Christians to care for creation, and take action to reduce our destruction of the environment, is the call to love our neighbour, whether that is our local neighbour or our global neighbour. This is very important – perhaps the most immediate and practical point to take away today. Protecting our environment is not just about caring for oceans and forests, birds and animals; it is a matter of justice for our neighbour: loving our neighbour as ourselves demands seeking justice for them, just as we would want justice for ourselves, and for our children and grandchildren in the future. We don't want future generation to look back on us as those whose greed and thoughtlessness bequeathed to them a devastated and inhospitable planet. But of course, we should not only be concerned about future generations; the fact is that the people who are most affected by climate change today are the poor and vulnerable of our world. It's the rich nations which, per person, are most to blame for the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere but it's the poor nations which are the most affected by the resulting changes in the climate and environment. This is clearly unjust. It is a sinful state of affairs.
Caring for our neighbour and working for justice is a central theme of the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament. The prophets of Israel again and again call the rulers to stop oppressing the poor, and the rich to share their wealth, and they look ahead to the coming of the Messiah who will rule with discernment and wisdom, taking up the cause of the poor, as we heard in our first reading. Jesus assumes this role in our reading from Luke's gospel. He quotes again from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free.' (Isaiah 61:1) Of course, in the deepest sense, Jesus comes to bring release from bondage for us all, but in his ministry, he showed a particular concern for the poor, the marginalised and the outcasts. We, as his people, are called to share in his ministry to the poor and suffering. Alongside our concern for the whole of creation, for threatened animal and plant life, there is something right and proper about being particularly concerned about the plight of people, fellow human beings, creatures created in the image of God. It is not an either/or. Although sometimes environmentalists stress care for the habitats of our planet and Aid groups stress justice for human beings, in reality both are inextricably tied up together and both are important in our Christian response to the climate and environmental emergency.
It's interesting to note that in our first reading from Isaiah, justice and care for the poor come together with a vision of a renewed creation. Although the people of Isaiah's time faced a hopeless situation, they are encouraged that God's Spirit can bring hope. New life can come from a dead tree-stump. The first few verses speak of a new ruler who will rule with justice. Then the imagery changes radically and we hear of a renewed creation where the 'wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,' and the 'child will put its hand on the adder's den'. This is not creation as we know it! But the fact that justice in human society and transformed relationships in the natural world are brought together reminds us again that our lives as human beings and the wellbeing of the natural world are related. One day 'the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.' (Isaiah 11:9)
Bringing this down to earth for us, now, it's good to remind ourselves that both caring for the poor and safeguarding creation are included in the 5 Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion, the global family of churches to which we belong. These 5 Marks of Mission also include preaching the Gospel and nurturing people in the faith. Working for justice for the poor and caring for creation are both part of the wider mission of the church, not optional extras. So, the church does have a mandate for talking about these things and taking action.
But what can we do? We might perhaps feel panic, despair, paralysis at the enormity of it all. But we can act together and individually. As a church we are working towards our silver Eco Church award. We are asked to consider different areas of church life and how environmentally friendly they are. In our preaching and teaching, use of our buildings, and especially the development of our grounds, we are already on level silver, or even gold. Where we need to take further action is in campaigning for change, and in lifestyle changes. This is always the hardest! It is not easy to change our habits of what we eat, what we buy, how we travel, but it is possible. As a way of loving our neighbour, we are encouraged to live more simply so that others may simply live. The Church Council have various ideas of what we could do in the future. We hope to have an Open Forum and other opportunities to reflect further about this and invite your feedback in the coming months.
Let us not give in to despair, cynicism or apathy, but instead look to God and encourage one another. Let us give thanks to God our Creator and Redeemer, and rejoice that one day we and all creation will be restored and made new. In the meantime, we are called to remember who we are as human beings, to care for God's creation and to love our neighbour, and, as we put our trust in God, live and act with hope.
Background information: We are not just thinking about St Ursula's as a local congregation, but as part of a wider church network, at diocesan, national and global levels ... The Church of England has called on every diocese and church to move towards net zero emissions by 2030, and to work towards the Eco Church Awards, so our bishop and our diocese (the Diocese in Europe) ask us to work out how we will respond to this call. (At St Ursula's, we are currently working towards our Silver Eco Church Award.) This also reflects the call we hear from the global Anglican Communion to pursue 5 Marks of Mission that include caring for the poor and safeguarding creation.