"Fill the Earth and Subdue It"

"In the beginning when God created" - so begins Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The Christian story starts with the Creation. God separates the waters, the day and night, and fills the Earth with plants and animals. We are given the image of a lush and fertile world, balanced and in harmony as God intended it to be. Finally, as the crown of creation - or so we are told - God creates "humankind in our image; according to our likeness; and let[s] them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth" (Genesis 1:26). And from about that point on, things begin to go down hill.

The Creation narrative ends with the expulsion of the man and the woman from the Garden of Eden as punishment for having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The world so lovingly created by God begins to tilt out of balance because of human disobedience.

We hear much about global warming, climate change and declining resources in our world, and there are many at this present moment who are working for ecological justice, trying to turn back the centuries of misuse and abuse of the Creation before it is too late. It doesn't take a degree in theology to wonder if humankind took "dominion over" the Creation far too literally to heart. And there is a strand in Christian theology that pushed the notion that because humankind was at the top of the created order and had been given dominion over the creation by God, humankind could do whatever it liked with the stuff of Creation.

We know now that we got it wrong. "Dominion over" was not intended to be license to destroy. We were meant to care for the Creation the way our God who created us in God's image would have. So how do we begin to do this? How do we move ourselves away from "dominion over" toward "harmony with?"

Lent is fast approaching and will begin in the middle of the school vacation week with the traditional words of the Ash Wednesday service, "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." We are not set above the Creation; Ash Wednesday reminds us we are part of that Creation. Lent is historically the time when Christians have been asked to examine their lives and their practices to identify where we have strayed from God's purposes and to turn ourselves back to the life God calls us to lead. The theological term for this process is "metanoia" a Greek word that means "to change one's mind," but is interpreted in the New Testament as "repent."

This Lent, the Social Justice commission invites us to use the Lenten time of reflection and return to focus on our relationship with the Creation. We are invited to participate in a "Carbon Fast" - helping us to live in right relation with the world that God has so lovingly made and with the other members of humankind God created. Your children should have come home from Church today with material about the fast and some ideas about one thing each week they can do differently to reduce carbon emissions and help the Creation to heal and begin the long return to balance and harmony. Please spend some time with your children talking about what you can do, not only during the Lenten season, but going forward in your lives as a Christian family. The Social Justice commission will have a place set up in Hawes Hall to record your family's ideas and practices. Be sure to join in!

Faithfully,
Elizabeth