Texts: Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25; Mark 13:1-8
At our archdeaconry meeting on Thursday The Reverend Tim Hurd gently reminded us that this Sunday we might like to celebrate the Feast of Christ in All Creation – in other words, to major on environmental issues. In our Lectionary a different set of readings are suggested for that purpose. It was interesting to find that I was not the only one present who hadn’t thought of that in time. One of the drawbacks of doing our readers’ rosters and our service planning two or three months in advance is that, by the time someone more switched on than me like Tim Hurd raises an issue like this, it’s too late to do anything about it without considerable upheaval.
However, all is not lost because in a way today’s readings do raise issues about saving the planet, saving the world – and whether or not it is worth saving or even can be saved. They’re about transience and permanence – about the future, and whether or not there is anything we can or should do about it. And such issues could hardly be more timely – once again the Scriptures are remarkably modern in their concerns.
Now that our political leaders have at last dragged themselves out of the gutters of personal abuse and character assassination and have turned their attention to policy matters, we find ourselves focussed on two particular issues – global warming and sports stadia. And in a funny sort of way, these two issues are inter-related – they come together, for example, in our gospel reading, to which I will return in a moment.
But first I want to say something about this issue of environmental care, and how it relates to the Scriptures in general. In the eyes of many environmentalists our record is not too good. It is said that our traditional attitude towards the creation stories in Genesis has led to a lack of environmental concern on the part of many Christians. It is not hard to see some grounds for that charge when we read some of the stuff coming from the so-called Christian Right in the US .
Many people in this country hold Dr James Dobson in high regard for his teaching on family issues. Less well known is the fact that he is a founder member of an organisation called the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship, which sounds wonderful, doesn’t? Well, its starting-point is Genesis 1:28: God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the earth.” According to this group, this text proves that human beings are not part of nature, but are superior to it. More worrying still, the group says this text shows that God intends no limits on population growth or on the exploitation of natural resources.
Won’t we eventually run out of stuff if we follow this course? God heavens, no! According to a book called America’s Providential History – which, believe it or not, is an authorised history text-book for use in secondary schools in the US - that is just socialist propaganda.: The secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie…that needs to be cut up so that everyone can get a piece….the Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and there is no shortage of resources in God’s Earth. The resources are waiting to be tapped…. While many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people.”
All of which may be, and almost certainly is, dangerous nonsense, but at least it is comforting dangerous nonsense. But the same sorts of groups somehow also embrace the idea that the earth is heading for total disaster, and extreme environmental episodes are evidence of it. Here, of course, the emphasis switches from one end of the Bible to the other, from Genesis to Revelation. But the Gospels are cited, too, including, of course, today’s reading from St Mark: When you hear of wars and rumours of war, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains.
And, of course, because these things are supposed to be signs of Christ’s imminent return, the Christian is supposed to welcome them. Far from total environmental degradation being an awful prospect and something to fight against if we possibly can, we are meant to cheer it on. The most famous example of this line of reasoning (!) came from James Watt, President Reagan’s first Secretary of the Interior (whose responsibilities included national parks, etc.). In 1981, he said: “God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.”
And now a word or two about what some wit has called our edifice complex – our love affair with great big buildings. My favourite of the great stories in the first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis is the one about the Tower of Babel . Remember how the people of that time decide to start building: Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens…” What for? Well, here’s the bit I really love about this story. They are absolutely honest about what they want it for: “to make a name for ourselves”. There’s no attempt at PR spin – no pretence that it is to be worthy of the gods they worship, or it is necessary to help in navigation or weather forecasting. They want to build something grand and imposing to make a name for themselves. A monument to their own glory.
Fast forward to our own time and country and what have we got? Mayor Dick Hubbard (for whom I have great respect, I might add) told us that he favoured the proposed waterfront stadium because “we need something that is worthy of a world-class city”. It’s not about building a stadium that can host the number of spectators expected for the rugby world cup final – it is about showing off to the rest of the world – making a name for ourselves.
The disciples would vote for the waterfront stadium. In our gospel reading today, they have come into the big smoke, perhaps for some of them it is the first time in Jerusalem , and they are awestruck at the size of the Temple . Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings! But Jesus is quite sharp and dismissive in response. He assures them that the Temple will not last. And in this short dialogue we have some real conservation issues to reflect on.
First of all, I think Jesus may be rebuking them for their attitude. Theirs is the attitude of a tourist rather than a worshipper. They have come to the Temple of the Lord, but their focus is not on the Lord God – it is on the ingenuity and skill of their fellow human beings. “Look, Teacher, they might just as well have said, “how clever we human beings must be to be able to build such a big building as this.” This is a point that all of us need to ponder as we face issues about the preservations of our historic churches. Do we seek to preserve them because we like old buildings, or do we see them as places of worship, as part of our offerings to God?
These are not easy issues, but nor are they peripheral ones. They are essentially spiritual issues, and they tell us a lot about our own theology, are own understanding of God and of our Christian gospel. If we believe that the earth is heading for destruction, that this is God’s will, that only then will Christ return, then at the very least we will become passive, at worst we will join in the reckless use of the earth’s resources.
But if we understand that the promise of God at the heart of the Christian gospel is to redeem the whole earth, and that the call of God at the heart of the Christian gospel is to be co-workers with God in this work, then we will all become careful stewards, green warriors, defenders of the planet. We will not sit back and wait for Archangel Michael to rescue our nation, as Daniel suggests in our first reading. Nor will we make the mistake of thinking that it all depends on us to save the world: the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that there is only one Saviour and he has already made the one perfect sacrifice for the world.
What we will do is grasp the whole message of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, passing through the gospels on the way. That God created all things and saw that they were good. He created humankind to help him keep things that way. The fact that we have failed so miserably in the past is no ground for giving up in despair. It is ground for repentance and a prayer for the grace to do better in the future. It is a ground for humility, for hope, and for action.
Tim Hurd was right. We should have thought about these things today.
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