By Ben Lowe, Evangelical Environmental Network and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action
One of my favorite places in all of America is the St. Lucie River in South Florida. The St. Lucie is a wide tidal river connected to the Indian River Lagoon — the most biodiverse estuary system in the United States. It’s also where my grandmother lives, and I love going kayaking, fishing, and exploring along its sand flats, oyster reefs, and mangrove-lined shores.
As I write, however, the St. Lucie River is in trouble yet again. Many years ago the Army Corp of Engineers built a complex system of dams, levees, and canals to drain the Everglades for agriculture and development. As a result, water now builds up in Lake Okeechobee — a massive inland lake — instead of draining slowly south through the Everglades. To prevent catastrophic flooding during wetter periods, the pesticide- and fertilizer-rich water buildup has to be funneled out through canals and dumped into sensitive ecosystems such as the St. Lucie.
It’s a somber sight, sitting here on the banks of the river, looking down into the contaminated and, according to local health departments, even disease-causing waters that should be teaming with all kinds of marine life. It reminds me that God’s world, though very good, is also groaning.
It’s not simply contaminated discharges, however, that are to blame for the degradation of the beautiful St. Lucie River. Likewise, it’s not just carbon pollution that’s to blame for climate change, or climate change that’s to blame for increasing extreme weather, rising seas, food insecurity, forced migration, and a host of other crises. Rather, our interconnected socio-environmental problems are symptoms of deeper moral ills — ills such as hubris, greed, selfishness, apathy, and every other kind of corruption.
We live in a corrupted world and the brokenness that runs deep in creation is also the brokenness that plagues our societies and each of us as individuals. As a Christian, this is what I know as the problem of sin. Sin entered the world when humans rebelled against and asserted themselves over God, in what we have come to refer to as the Fall. I can no more save the world from sin than I can save myself. Generations of striving demonstrate how impotent we are when it comes to getting ourselves out of this mess and making things right.
At the end of the day, what we, our societies, and all of creation need is a solution to sin. As a Christian, there is only one solution to sin that I know of, and that is Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and triumph on the cross. Jesus, who is fully God, came down to earth and became fully human as well, that he might show us how to live and then die in our place to pay for our sin once and for all. He then rose from the dead and by overcoming sin and death he paved the way for all things to be restored to wholeness and reconciled back to God (Colossians 1:15-20). Sometimes we Christians have been guilty of suggesting that Jesus came only to save people but, in the words of a good friend, “the cross is for all of the Fall.” Everything that has been corrupted and broken because of sin is to be redeemed and transformed because of Christ. This is what we call the gospel, which literally means “good news.”
The gospel changes everything for us and for the earth. Three implications stand out here:
First, creation matters. That God took on human flesh and came to live as one of us on earth reinforces the consistent biblical testimony — articulated from the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible — that the physical creation is good (Genesis 1). It has intrinsic value apart from any aesthetic or instrumental use we may find for it, for the simple and yet ultimate reason that God says so. As something of such value, we as God’s people have every reason to steward and protect this creation, both human and non-human, not just for ourselves, our neighbors, or future generations, but for God.
Second, there is hope for both us and for the earth. The Bible begins with creation and ends with new creation. We read that the destiny of the earth is intertwined with our own and that, like us, it too will be set free from its groaning and oppression to sin (Romans 8). The world isn’t just spiraling downward into despair and destruction. The biblical vision we have of the future is one where, by the love and power of God, creation will be refined and renewed, and where human civilization and the natural world will be reconciled to once again flourish in a rich and peaceful relationship with each other and God (Revelation 22).
And, third, we get to be active participants in this redemptive mission of God. Humans are distinct from all the other species in that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1). This is a functional distinction that gives us both the unique capacity as well as divine authority to join God in cultivating creation and developing culture. Theologians refer to this as the creation/cultural mandate (Genesis 2:15). Though the Fall challenged and complicated this role, God invites us now, through the work of Christ, to be both recipients of as well as agents in this great redemptive plan. Our calling is not merely to helpsustain creation but to provide for its growth and flourishing, joining with God in restoring right relationships between us and the rest of creation.
These are not just abstract ideas. I am reminded, as I lament the heavily polluted state of the St. Lucie River and the resulting damage to people and other creatures, that it does not need to be this way. And one day it won’t be. If we so choose, we can even now be part of caring for and restoring the ecosystems around us, as many community members around the St. Lucie are doing through the Rivers Coalition and Florida Oceanographic Society. God graciously gives us all we need to do what is right and good for each other and the rest of creation. We see this transformative reality being worked out in diverse and practical ways all across the world, including through Christians and ministries such as the Evangelical Environmental Network, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, Tearfund, A Rocha, the Au Sable Institute, the Congo Initiative, the Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice and World Renew, Plant With Purpose,Care of Creation Inc., the HEART Institute, ECHO, and many more.
As I reflect on the future of the St. Lucie River — and the future of the rest of creation (including us) — it is my faith in our Creator that gives me great hope and moves me to care and act. For Christians, every day can and should be Earth Day, for the earth and everything in it belongs to God, and we follow a risen savior, Jesus Christ, who invites us to join him in making all things new.
Original post: http://www.patheos.com/Topics/Global-Care/Gods-Groaning-World-Ben-Lowe-04082015
A wonderful article! I teach general biology at a community college, and I’ll probably start providing my students with this. The Bible isn’t simply a fat, thick fire insurance manual — it applies to all areas of life and thought. And as we sing during the Christmas season in Isaac Watt’s great hymn ‘Joy to the World,’ “He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.”