.jpg) |
| The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Fresco in the Sistine Chapel |
Address given at St Mary's Nenagh and Killodiernan on Sunday 8th February 2026, the 2nd before Lent
It's lovely to hear the stately language of the Genesis Ch 1. But I doubt anyone here
today truly believes that God created the universe in 6 days!
Through the patient work of scientists,
studying the natural world and building on their predecessors’ discoveries, we
now know so much more about creation than the authors of Genesis ever could.
The universe began in an explosion of
energy some 13 billion years ago. Our planet Earth was formed from the dust of
exploding stars some 4 billion years ago, and the first life appeared soon
after. There are at least 10 million distinct life forms on earth today. All
are related, descending from a common ancestor. And life on earth has been just
as diverse for 100s of millions of years.
Today’s 1st Reading from the
first chapter of Genesis (1:1-2:3) is obsolete as a description of creation –
it is a myth. To be taken seriously today Christians must engage with the language
of science to talk about creation. Evolution is the way that God has created
the diversity of life we see today. God has been at work creating it over geological
aeons, he is doing so now, and he will continue to do so into the distant
future.
But like all good myths the creation story in
Genesis Ch1 encapsulates deep truths which we must not carelessly discard.
One of these truths is that God loves
biodiversity - why should he make it if he doesn’t love it? We are told that ‘God saw
everything that he had made and … it was very good’. If we love God
then we must seek to protect the diversity of his creation – anything we do to
damage it is an offence against him.
Another of these truths is that human
beings are special, made in the image of God: ‘God created humankind in his image, in the
image of God he created them’, says Genesis.
We alone of all the creatures on earth are blessed with intelligence – we can imagine a future, plan how to bring it about, and act to make it happen. And we alone of all the creatures on earth possess a moral sense – we can tell right from wrong, distinguish truth from lies, prefer beauty to ugliness – as God does. We call this capacity conscience. If we follow our conscience we are able to do good, to be as good as God has created us to be, and in a sense we become co-creators with him. This is what it is to be truly human. Of course we know that all too often we fail at this – we sin – but we believe God will forgive us if we truly repent and mend our ways.
We
must be careful as human beings not to misunderstand our place in creation.
Genesis
Ch 1 tells us, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’.
Well, the
human race has certainly been fruitful and multiplied - there are now more than
8 billion people on planet Earth, and still increasing, though the annual rate
is slowing. As a species we have subdued the Earth – human beings consume more
resources than Earth can provide. By some estimates we are using today the
resources of 1.8 Earths. The result is the ecological crises we are facing now
- climate change, the degradation of natural ecosystems, and species
extinction.
Too often
greedy people understand the command to ‘have dominion’ over Earth’s resources
as a licence to exploit, to take as much as they can, more than they need, without
thought for the future. But this is wrong. It is wrong and it is sinful.
Wise farmers
know they hold their land on a repairing lease for their successors. They know
not to take more from the land than its fertility allows, not to overstock
their farm. Wise rulers protect their lands from over-exploitation so that they
may continue to flourish.
Our dominion over the earth is subject to constraints whether we like it or not. The alternative creation myth in the 2nd chapter of Genesis forbids over-exploitation of the Earth. God takes Adam, the archetypal human being, and places him in the Garden of Eden ‘to till it and keep it’, in other words, to care for it. So must we.
We
human beings have a special responsibility to care for God’s creation.
The ecological crises we face have brought
the importance of this into sharp focus. In response our different Christian
traditions now recognise that care for creation is a Christian imperative.
Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew called out
human destruction of the natural world as a sin. The late Pope Francis in his
encyclical “Laudato ‘Si, on Care for Our Common Home”, appealed for ‘a new dialogue
about how we are shaping the future of our planet … a conversation which
includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its
human roots, concern and affect us all’. And the Church of Ireland,
along with the rest of the Anglican Communion, has committed itself ‘to strive to
safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the
earth’, as a mark of its mission.
The challenge has been laid down, and now it is up to Christians of all traditions to work together, with people of goodwill from other faiths and none, to care for and cherish the Earth, the Garden of Eden that God has given us. How are we going to respond to the challenge, both as individuals and as our Nenagh Union of Parishes?
This
is the context in which Jesus’s words from the 2nd reading (Matt 6:24-33)
speak to me.
Our society’s single-minded pursuit of
wealth in a consumer market economy is surely at the heart of the ecological
crisis we face, which threatens our very civilisation. We have a choice to
make: either we serve wealth – continue business as usual - and face
destruction; or we serve God by changing our lifestyles to live simply without
waste, protecting the environment, and generously supporting those in need.
Jesus understands very well that fear for
the future is the greatest barrier to making lifestyle changes. In some of his
most beautiful words, he tells his followers not to worry, because God looks
after his creatures.
‘Look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? … Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon
in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the
grass of the field … will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?’
Our heavenly Father knows what we need, and if we ‘strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness’, he will give us all that we need – just perhaps a little less than our greedy desires. Part of our striving must be to care for and cherish the good Earth God has given us, and at the same time to care for and cherish our fellow human beings.
I shall finish in prayer with a Collect
of the Word.
with all your creatures great and small
we sing your bounty and your goodness,
for in the harvest of land and ocean,
in the cycles of the seasons,
and the wonders of each creature,
you reveal your generosity.
Teach us the gratitude that dispels envy,
that we may honour each gift,
cherish your creation,
and praise you in all times and places. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment