For the last few posts (here, here, here, and here), we’ve been spending time with Old Testament texts, grounding ourselves in the historical Scriptures of the Jewish people. This is important; the story of The King of the Jews and how He calls us to care for people and land doesn’t start in the Gospels but at the beginning of time, threaded throughout the Biblical narrative of God’s interaction with humanity. We’ll see this reflected in our texts today as we move on to the New Testament. However, New Testament texts rarely directly address relationships with the environment as the Old Testament does. The questions asked are different, and how to care for the environment isn’t one of them. But we can still look at the principles in our sacred texts and ask, “How does this apply to my situation today and the issues I care about?” Let’s start in Acts and Colossians.
24 The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’
-- Acts 17:24-28, NASB
This passage is an excerpt from one of Paul’s sermons, preached in Athens, proclaiming God to the people there. In it, I see the vastness of God and the breadth of His love, which encompasses all of creation. Paul’s words tell me how intricately God is connected to the breath, life, and movement of creation.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: 16 for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
-- Colossians 1:15-23, NASB
In this passage, Paul proclaims Christ the Reconciler. Again we see Christ’s inherent place in creation, in which all things are “through Him and for Him.” Christ’s identity in this passage is the foundation of God’s reconciling all things to Himself. This reconciling is not limited to humanity: all things are reconciled to Him, and the gospel is proclaimed in all creation. What does it look like for the gospel to be proclaimed in creation? How do we who are reconciled in Christ’s death participate in His reconciliation work in all creation?
Looking forward to the restoration!
How soon we forget that the Gospel is meant to "cure the 'rift' " on FOUR levels: humanity /humankind with man/humankind;; humankind with God's world (Nature); humankind with other humens; and humankind with self.