A concise and well-framed question can be much more memorable than the most articulate or enlightening answer. I won't forget one that went like this, “Yeast consumes and multiplies until it drowns in its own waste. Explain to me how people are different.” It was entertaining an unique in the way it was framed and it was a good question as it reflected a piece of observational truth.
As Christians we claim that God is infinite. To say that God is infinite is to say that nothing can be added to God or, for that matter, taken away. And if God is infinite then there is no place that God is not, for if there could truly be a God-forsaken place, a place apart from God then God would not be infinite. Every blade of grass, God is there. Every passing sparrow, God is there. In the most distant star and in every wave of sunlight warming your skin, God is there.
The Hebrew poets knew this and made mention it in their songs all of the places they had seen God; they saw the Lord in the life giving processes that surrounded them and surrounds us.
They heard God in the screams of toddlers.
They tasted God in the harvest
They saw God in
the movements of the sun and stars
the eruption of springs in the desert
the drying up of streams
the immovability of mountains
the expanse of the sea
and in a simple pasture, God's provision
The life of creation and the activity of God are so closely linked in the poets' minds that the simple act of a summer shower and the mundane activity of grain drying in the field is connected with the activity of God. While we like to think of ourselves as more sophisticated than the ancients, or superior because of our scientific accomplishments it has come at a cost. We have lost some of the awareness of God at work around us. I don't think it is because we care about the work of God less but we have become divorced from the processes which underlie the bread, vegetable and meat that we consume. If we do not appreciate the rain it is because we do not connect famine with its absence. If we do not see God in the food that will nourish us following Sunday service, the problem is not necessarily that we do not love God enough, but we are divorced from the processes from which our subsistence is delivered from God. The life of creation and the activity of God are so closely linked within the minds of those worshipers of God because they knew that God's provision for their existence was found in those things.
Through out human experience there are a number of different attitudes towards nature that seem to inhabit the human mind, depending upon culture, circumstances and personality. We can have an adversarial relationship toward nature. This attitude is marked by a belief that the piece of creation that we are utilizing is expendable, either because it is far away and unseen or because we believe we can easily move on to another piece later. An adversial attitude can also arise when need is great due to an increase in population or a decrease in yields as we become desperate to span the gap between what is needed and what is provided. There are times, even if they have not been experienced lately, when mother nature does seem out to get us.
The attitude can also arise when we view creation only as an avenue to reap the reward offered by the marketplace for the efficient extraction from the earth of what ever it is that we are selling. We are more willing to try novel approaches in order to get those resources to market more cheaply, whether we are extracting coal from mountain tops or corn from Iowa, if we view the earth as nothing more than a big ball of resources to be exploited. An adversarial relationship grows from a short time horizon.
Human experience, however, has been marked by another attitude towards nature. When our subsistence comes easily from the land and our livelihood does not depend upon exploiting a resource we are more likely to have a domesticated view of nature. We may desire to see it maintained in some fashion. Taking our subsistence for granted, we generally ignore nature unless some landmark or our a part of our immediate surroundings that we find aesthetically pleasing is threatened. We do not see ourselves as participants with nature, neither do we see it as God's handiwork. We see it as little more than a decorating choice which adds to the character of our homes or neighborhoods or as a type of museum, to be ignored except when we go on vacation.
These views share at least one thing in common, they reduce creation from a gift given by God to a commodity; either as a resource to be extracted or an aesthetic to be managed. There is another attitude, however, one born out in a wide variety of cultures and times. It neither seeks to bleed creation dry nor does it treat creation like so much exterior decoration. This view, a view which I think is reflected in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, recognizes that humanity is part of the larger ongoing processes at work within creation. It recognizes that as members of a finite physical world we take from and give to the working of the processes which all life depends and that these are the good gift of a loving God. If we train our minds to think in this way, we can escape the trap of commodification and enter a world of revrent use.
While we can and should make distinctions between human and non-human creation, we need to realize that we live in and depend upon the non-human world. The difference between people and yeast is that we are capable of comprehending our dependence upon the resources around us. We can appreciate them and, if we put forth the effort, we can conserve finite resources and be wise stewards of renewable ones. A yeast cell cannot make choices about how much or what it consumes. We do have that choice if we elect to exercise it.
There are practical reasons for wanting to be in touch with the world around us, but it is also a matter of Christian discipleship and worship. Through out history followers of God have looked at the world around them and been brought to their knees in awe, worship, and prayer. Worship does not come from hymnals, it comes from witnessing and appreciating the work of God around us. It comes when we notice God's work of grace and forgiveness, it also comes as we appreciate his provision for us in coming of the rains, the sprouting of seeds in the soil and even the deep cold which thins the population of overwintering insects, providing some protection to the plants and animals they prey upon. One does not need to take a course in biology or environmental sciences to be led in this worship. One must only learn to see what is happening all around them and wonder at the glory of it all; to look around and see the care and activity of an Almighty God.
While Jesus, in our gospel reading this morning, was primarily encouraging his listeners to faithfulness, reminding them that they should not fear even the most ruthless of human opponents more than God. He does so by observing that every sparrow is known and loved by God. If they are known and cared for by God, than this is enough of a reason to say that they have some inherent worth. This does not mean that we should not take from nature as we interact with it. We will harvest from nature but we need not consume it without judgement. We will turn some wild places to domestic use but we should do so mindfully and with wisdom that recognizes wild places should only be domesticated when they can be done so to good purpose and sustainably. Some places should not be brought under cultivation because they will not bring any long-term benefit and the destruction of the original ecosystem will entail long-term harm. God cares for the sparrows. We should not displace them without good reason.
In the end, I suppose that some degree of commodification is necessary. I have no better idea about how to distribute things like lumber, coal generated electricity, chicken wings or marsh-mellow peeps other than put a price on them. Though, I hope, we can come to a price that truly reflects the cost of production. A cost that accounts for the destruction done in the process of delivering a good to my doorstep and discounts those products which are created in such a way that treats the natural world with respect. I think it is important, as creatures striving to be faithful to a creator who cares for the whole of creation that we not assign value based only upon what the market is willing to pay for a truckload of 2x4's or a ton of coal. The tree and the mountain top are cared for by God and while they should be used, they should be used wisely and, even, reverently.
Even as we utilize creation we must do so as a gift, not something that we have earned and can therefore dispose of as we like. Creation may be bought and sold, but we need not value it cheaply. It is a gift, to be cared for as well as used.
Peace of Christ to You.
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