Enjoying nature doesn't, always, come naturally to me. I believe that a day at Wrigley Field, in
Chicago's near North Side, is a great way to enjoy the outdoors, or, even a day at
Tropicana Field where the air conditioning under the dome is always 72 degrees.
I do love the beach with a comfortable chair and book. I enjoy
swimming in the ocean and an occasional ride on a mountain bike through the
woods. As a teenager, playing basketball on the playground with no grass
in sight didn't bother me. No grass to mow? What could be better?
I'm very comfortable running on concrete and working in an urban coffee
shop.
But that doesn't excuse me from looking at the bigger picture and
what we have done with God's good earth in the past 100 years or so. I
have always been supportive of environmental justice, protecting parks and
forest preserves, recycling and other measures of caring for creation. I
would rather invest in more public transportation than pave more and wider
Interstate Highways. But I've become convinced that caring for creation
is a much bigger crisis which we must address. It's not only a matter of
survival, but the condition of planet earth is, also, the result of our spiritual
crisis. I'm seeing the environment with new eyes.
When I was
a student-pastor in Chicago, many years ago, I helped organize a
field trip for our church youth group. We visited a pumpkin patch on a
farm in Indiana about 2 hours drive from our inner city church. It was amazing
to see the new world of farming through the eyes of teenagers who had
never traveled out of the city limits of Chicago. Most
adults--including me-- assume we really understand the world and other
people. We assume we understand the earth--the land we share together as
a diverse and too often divided population. Furthermore, we think
we know God. In the grand scheme of things, we really don't know much!
Aren't we all beginners in understanding our Creator and our life
together on planet earth?
I am trying to see the earth, other
people and God our Creator through new eyes. God and God's creation
are so much bigger and more diverse than I ever assumed. The further
I journey down the road, the more I understand how much I am a beginner in
faith and in life itself. As people of faith, caring for creation is
one of the ways that we can participate in the reconciliation God is bringing
to us and all of creation.
In Romans 8, we read, "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
When the Bible speaks about
salvation and reconciliation it speaks not of disembodied souls to save, but
saving and reconciling whole people and the whole of creation. Caring for
creation is one important way to participate in this salvation and in this
ministry of reconciliation. How can we become better partners in this ministry of reconciliation?
How can we better care for creation? God's gifts of faith, hope and
love bring peace and reconciliation to our relationships with God, our neighbors and even planet earth itself.
