There’s an old story about a farmer who receives a pastoral call by his minister. The farmer loved his farm and was delighted to give his pastor a tour. He loaded his pastor into his jeep and off they went. Fields of corn as high as an elephant’s eye and golden wheat swaying in the breeze as far as the eye could see. The Pastor, amazed by the beauty of the sight surrounding him said, “I have never seen anything like this. You and the Lord have a wonderful partnership on this farm!” They continued on to see landlaying fallow, rich, black soil plowed in a way that the minister had never seen before.The farmer shared with him that he was using the newest plowing techniques andtechnology to apply to the problems of erosion and soil care. The amazed minister once again said, “Oh yes, you and the Lord have a wonderful partnership on this farm.” And so it went. They toured the barns, the silos, all the other outbuildings, and finally the farmhouse itself. As they were sitting on the porch chatting and sipping coffee, the
farmer said, “ you know pastor, I agree with you that ‘the Lord and I have a partnership on this farm. But you should have seen this place when the Lord was running it by himself.” (Genesis 1) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And God saw everything that God had made and indeed it was very good.” (Psalm 19) along with many others: “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.” In commenting on this Psalm, William Sloan Coffin has said that while the heavens continue to tell the glory of God, the firmament today proclaims some very bad human handiwork: smog, acid rain, an immense hole in the ozone layer. The danger to the entire world is very, very serious. More than two decades ago, scientists told us that we were in deep trouble because of the damage the we were doing to this world that God so loved and continues to love. It’s time for us to understand how our abuse of God’s creation ultimately impacts almost every aspect of our lives: deforestation, soil erosion, water depletion, air pollution, rising seas, global warming. The list goes on and on. The problems overwhelm even our imaginations. But, there is some good news. Almost everyone – environmentalists, ecologists, physicists, theologians, philosophers, housewives, educators, doctors, “lawyers, Indian chiefs”- is coming to a common mind these days. We have so many studies, facts, polls - so much information and knowledge. We have more than we will ever need, more than we can ever fully understand or absorb. The critical need is for spiritual conversion of people and nations of this world if creation is to be restored. The task before us therefore is to be radically evangelical - Repentance, conversion, and baptism into a new commitment to hallow the whole earth. To say it, mean it and live it: “The ground on which we stand is sacred ground!” I want to share with you in this blog just one episode in my own process of “conversion”. It was in 1966. I was a campus minister at New Mexico State University. I left my wife Judy and our three small children at home in Las Cruces for two weeks to join a group of campus minister colleagues from all over our country in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It was the first time for me to be immersed in a 3rd world experience. I learned a lot about Liberation Theology. I tearfully listened to story after story from refugees from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicagua of oppression, the killing of priests, the slaughter of entire villages; we visited with folks living in squatter settlements in squalor and abject poverty. The whole experience blew me away. The tint of the glasses through which I viewed my world had changed. It had a profound and lasting impact on me. My intellectual understanding of what was going on in Latin America was enflesheds by the sights, sounds, tastes, touches of their culture, of their lives. I found myself being pulled out of my spectator role. I felt myself coming under some strange kind of judgment as I began to feel my own complicity in the pain and suffering and evil I saw and abhorred. There was a new dimension of my life. Upon returning home as a “convert” in the making, after lots of kisses and hugs, and taking in the loveliness of our home, I said, “Honey, we can’t live this way! We have to radically change our lifestyle. blah, blah, blah” Well, that went over like a lead balloon but it did begin a long and very helpful lifestyle conversation which over the years has had a significant impact on our lifestyle. We must then move to, radical repentance. This is where most of us get stuck. It’s certainly where I get stuck. We have to confess and acknowledge that we are responsible for the deep wounds that the world and its inhabitants suffer from. We have so deeply internalized the values of our world: where greed is so deeply imbedded and wealth is identified with blessedness and economic stratification as being ordained by God as being more important then living by the values of God’s world: love, justice, equity, equality, compassion Our society is addicted to economic growth and to overconsumption. The prevailing concept of “the good life” is excessively materialistic. How do we generate serious discussions of lifestyle changes that would entail a move of comfortable people, like most of us, to look seriously at our own lifestyle with the intent of making some changes? Such changes would have to be combined with a trust that a loving, caring community has more to do with fulfillment than the abundance of possessions. It’s even more difficult to generate discussion of the basic changes in the economic system necessary to affect the sharing and redistribution whereby all people might participate. Is this just wishful thinking or is it indeed possible? There are hopeful signs popping up: the growing number of “earth” focused groups, organizations, corporations and individuals, committed to bringing these really hard issues to the fore, because they lie at the heart of a faithful response to God’s call to restore creation. In the words of Chief Seattle, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” What kind of world will your children inherit? God so loved the world...Do you? Let’s roll up our sleeves and restore creation for our children and out children’s children! I am deeply grateful to the Presbyterians for Restoring Creation for providing some of the resources, facts and data used in this blog
1 Comment
Heide Madden
5/26/2021 12:24:51 pm
Beautifully said. I think you are right. Religions need to unify! If there is only One God, and One Christ why are there so many religious groups? Islam also recognizes Christ. I believe The Glory Of God wishes us to unite and understand progressive revelation and that there is only One religion and the answer to world peace and prosperity.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
CategoriesArchives
September 2022
Blog Terms
The opinions expressed on the PFJ blog are those of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the PFJ Board of Directors or its members.
|