Embracing Creation: Fallen and Waiting - Romans 8:18-25

The movie is back in theaters this year, celebrating its twentieth anniversary with a 3-D release, which I figure is an attempt to rejuvenate the Jurassic Park industry.  I haven’t been to the theaters to see it, though I have watched it several times over the last twenty years.  However, as I was preparing this morning’s sermon and looking over a few clips, one line by Jeff Goldblum’s character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, really stood out: “Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.”

Last week we began our three-part series on “Embracing Creation.”  We addressed the fact that so many of us have tended, over the years, to look at this world and the troubles in it, and as children of God, decided that this earthly realm of existence is corrupt, temporary, and something we should long to escape from…we offer platitudes to those who are struggling and suffering, saying, “remember this life is only temporary, one day we’ll be taken out of this world.”  Developing this attitude has a tendency to cause us to downplay the truly tragic things going on in our world, suggesting sometimes, that we really shouldn’t worry about them, just worry about our souls and the souls of our loved ones, maybe even the souls of a stranger, but really, whether they are having to live in a trash dump or across the street from a toxic waste dump, as long as we give them a “tract” with the right prayer on it, everything’s okay—so long as they know about Jesus, all is well, regardless of the world around them.

I suggested last week that if this is our attitude—just help them know Jesus and not worry about the rest, then we don’t really understand Jesus.  Remember, God, in taking on our human flesh in the person of Jesus revealed to us that our skin is not something we long to escape from, but we cherish…we were called last week to remember that when God looked down upon His creation, even knowing the fall that was to come, declared it good, good, good, good, good, and very good.

The truth of the matter is, though we have longed for “some glad day when…I’ll fly away,” we have looked at God’s creation and decided it was good…at least parts of it that we could use are “good” and we use them and use them and use them, until they are no more…and then we dispose of the waste of those good things in places where we won’t have to look at them—from cigarette butts thrown out the window of our cars to old computer part dumps in Nicaragua.  We want to be able to purchase them as cheaply as possible, so we could care less how the hogs are treated that provide our bacon, how the chickens are treated that provide our nuggets, or the working conditions for the Bangladeshi child producing our jeans.

Is it any wonder, that probably now even more than in Paul’s day, that “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of God’s children,” because “creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it...”?  Who has put creation in this dire condition…those who subjected it…those who were giving the command to have dominion over and subdue it…we have done this to the creation of God.

Yes, we can save tons of  money and lots of washing by using sytrofoam as opposed to bio-degradable or reusable plates.

Yes, we can save ourselves trouble by just throwing all our trash in one container rather than sorting out what might be recyclable, or walking a few extra steps to put recycling in one container and other trash in a separate container.

Yes, we can send our electronic waste to be recycled or destroyed to a third world nation, rather than deal with it in our own backyard.

Yes, make electricity from nuclear processes.  Yes, we can make our lawns greener with chemical fertilizers and herbicides.  We can pave roads through swamps, mountains, and sand dunes.

And my brothers and sisters, I’m just as guilty as being a contributor to or recipient of many of these things myself.

However, to paraphrase Dr. Malcolm’s criticism of the dinosaur-cloning scientists, “just because we can, doesn’t mean we don’t stop to think whether or not we should.”

I hear some of the thoughts now, “The preacher has become one of those liberal tree-hugging nature-loving climate-change preaching fanatics now.”

Honestly, I don’t think I have…but if that’s the label that fits from the world, then fine.  However, if it is the label that fits, then every disciple of Christ should be bearing that label. Besides, as a recent article I read suggested, there should be no doubt that human behavior caused great climate change in the history of our world.  If you think not, read Genesis chapters six and seven.

“But preacher, didn’t God give us all the things in this world to use and enjoy?  Isn’t that what having dominion over and subduing means?”

No and no.

To have dominion over and subdue means to rule and control.  If having dominion over and subduing meant using indiscriminately without regard to consequences, then we would be able to take no issue with any elected official we put in office who used and taxed every one of us for their sole benefit, without any regard as to how it affected us.

Thankfully, that is not what dominion and subduing means.  It very rightly can mean that we are meant to rule over as a righteous king would rule his people, protecting creation from misuse and abuse by those who would seek to harm it.

Secondly, God did not place us here to simply use and enjoy His creation.  Chapter two of Genesis makes that clear, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”  God’s Word makes it clear that we were not placed here to use and abuse the world around us, but to take care of it and protect it.  We are stewards and care takers of something that does not belong to us—it does not matter if we have receipts and land deeds for the stuff we claim to own.  It is not ours, we simply have been given the glorious honor of tending it for God.

With entrance into the world of acting in our own self-interest that was the sin of the fall, all of creation became subject to our sin. 

Creation longed for the redemption of the children of God because as Christ, through his life, death, and resurrection revealed to the world that to live as a child of God was to live as the Son of God.  It meant moving beyond living for ourselves and living for those in the world around us.  Living as the redeemed means we can no longer treat the world, the environment, the creatures, and others living alongside us, as tools or objects for our enjoyment—they are the very reason God placed us here on this earth, to care for and keep them safe.

“I thought God created us to love and worship Him, Preacher.  Am I wrong?”

We were created to love God.  Yet how we respond to a gift given to us reflects our attitude about the one who gave it.  How many of us have ever received a gift that we would never have chosen for ourselves…you know the hideous sweater from your grandmother or the loud tie from your children.  You didn’t trash them because it might hurt your grandmother’s or children’s feelings, you reluctantly wore them so that those who gave them would know you loved, not the gift, but the giver.  So it is with Embracing Creation, how we treat God’s creation truly reveals and reflects our attitude about the One who placed us here in the midst of it.

This morning, we will come forward and receive this Holy Meal in which we receive from the creation of God…from the fruit of the vine and the fruit of the field…Christ used the elements of this earth to connect us to His divine presence…as wheat and grapes become bread and juice become body and blood.  As we receive this meal, this gift, from Christ this morning, let us commit ourselves to embracing His gift of this world and those He has surrounded us with by caring for and protecting as He created us to do.

Embracing God’s Creation, let us sing…Glory be to the Father…

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.