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"The Earth is the Lord's"
Nothing quite renews me more than a week at the beach. Just the sight of the waves on the sand and the vast expanse of the sea--seeing the stars above or the moonlight on the face of the deep energizes and inspires me. In 1988 at about 3:00 AM on a crystal clear night, we were climbing Mt. Sinai. It was the most beautiful sky I have ever seen. The stars seemed to be enveloped in a pale pink cloud – the presence of the Milky Way. When we spend time there or in other such places, we learn once again how beautiful Mother Earth can be.
Another of my vivid memories is those pictures of the earth taken in December of 1968 by our astronauts on the moon. Mercury is too rocky, Venus too hot, Mars too dry, and the other planets not substantial enough. And the earth is just right. This we know. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. Humans do not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. Ps. 24 is a liturgy observed at the entrance to the temple gates. At that place, at that time it is confessed that the whole earth belongs to God its Creator. The earth stands fixed and firm by Cod's gracious power. God's people who come to the temple are reminded first of all that they live on God's good earth. O, the grace that meets us in God's creation. There is grace in the peach tree that blooms and blushes. There is grace in the sea (that massive cleanliness which we are proceeding to corrupt), in the fact that there was, before we laid hands on it, clean air. Our task is to appreciate that grace - the rain that falls on the just and unjust. God's creations in the world are God's voice appealing to you and to me not only to join all people of good will in doing what intelligent things we ought to do about the creation, but one thing especially: to love the world and care for it to the glory of God. This we forget at our peril. Small is the world that most of us pay attention to, and limited is our concern. What do we see when we look at this marvelous eco-system we live in? Obviously three aspects of nature command our attention: its power, its beauty, its grandeur. Accordingly, there are three ways in which we may relate ourselves to the world. We may exploit it, we may enjoy it, or we may accept it in awe and view it as a gift to all God’s creatures. In the history of civilization, different aspects of nature have drawn forth the talent of human beings; sometimes its power, sometimes its beauty and occasionally its grandeur have attracted human minds. Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the merit of nature. The utilization of nature’s power, the utilization of earth’s resources is taken to be the chief value. Human beings have indeed become primarily tool-making animals, and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of our needs. It's a matter of attitude. Forgetting the earth is the Lord's, we think it is ours with dangerous consequences. We have made nature moan and groan. The reprisals of God's creation against its abuse may be slow and invisible for a time, but God is just. Sooner or later nature reacts against its exploitation. The bulldozer is the symbol of our relationship. We push, shove, and try to contain nature. The views of nature held by any people shape all their institutions and attitudes. One of my impressions of human dynamics is that many people act towards other humans the same way: push, shove, contain. Look at our language about nature: it is the language of warfare and belligerence. When Mt. Everest was scaled the phrase commonly used in the west to describe the feat was "the conquest of Everest." An Oriental whose writings have been deeply influenced by a different attitude remarked, "We would put the matter differently. We would speak of 'the befriending of Everest.'" We have forgotten who we are: children of the earth. Gone is that feeling so eloquently expressed by astronaut Michael Collins, who having observed the barrenness of the moon at firsthand, then returned to our atmosphere with "a tingling sense of awe…wonderment…aware of how its uniqueness is stamped in every atom of my body." In fact the situation has worsened. The destruction of the environment caused by the present global economic system is seriously jeopardizing the survival of humanity in the 21st century. Modern industrial/consuming society has thrown out of balance the equilibrium of the earth’s ecology. The results are clear in the air, the water, the climate and catastrophes not totally "natural." Our western scientific and technological civilization is deeply implicated. But the problem is not in the first world alone, it has spread to the third world too. In the first world with our technology and system of law we may be able to clean up the environment. But the poorer third world countries do not have the resources to do that. Since we share the same earth we are all caught in a vicious cycle. The crisis is global and total. First the third world suffers, then the first world, first the children die, then the adults, first the poor die, then the rich. The single earth cannot support a divided humanity. In 1854, Chief Seattle, an American Indian, delivered a speech to the Congress. They were considering a treaty to buy Indian land and Chief Seattle responding. Among other things he said, There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of the leaves in spring or the rustle of insects' wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed by a midday rain or scented with the pinion pine.[1] Contemporary people, especially children, think that hamburgers come from McDonald's. They think that Kroger makes milk and Kraft makes cheese. The closest any of them ever come to a lamb is a wool jacket. This increasing distance from the natural world diminishes us. Jesus' language was full of natural images: rain, lilies, and sparrows. Much of scripture teaches us that God dwells with us, but not just us human beings, but with all of creation. The earth is the Lord’s and God delights in creation, enjoys creation. The prophet Isaiah agrees: Thus says the Lord: Heaven in my throne Such language is now more difficult to understand and appreciate. The earth is a realm of signs--the signs of the God who made it and owns it. Recycling newspapers and cans must be done, but they are not sufficient. Our crisis is theological. We have forgotten God and who we are. That is what scripture calls idolatry. We have to change our attitude, to change the spirit of our minds. Nature is for enjoyment, in the profound meaning of enjoyment: to honor a thing for what it is, to consent to its being what it is and not another thing. We are called to use nature, but to use it only according to its inherent dignity. The earth is the Lord's, and to be used as God intended. We are part of the natural world. The Bible grants human beings stewardship of the earth, but nowhere suggests that we are not part of the chain of being on this planet. With the advent of science, and our increasing ability to arrange the world to suit our needs, it has become harder and harder to remind ourselves of the elementary truth that we are bound up in the fate of our world irrevocably, inescapably. Our sense of exile from the natural order is not only painful, it is terribly dangerous. The change in our attitude must come about by putting the grace of God behind the eyes with which we look at the world and into the hands with which we touch the world. Love for the world of nature will take the form of appreciation of the world, because God has made it and we know it to be good. That requires Christian discipleship that is a response of curiosity and humility, a response of respect or reverence, a response of stewardship. In these coming days of spring, look again at the world around you. Think of the destiny the Creator imagined for us "to keep the earth and to till it, for the earth is the Lord's." May we come to know this again, now. _________________ |
F.
Harry Daniel