I have been known to say that if all I had of scripture was this first chapter of Genesis, it would be enough. Long ago, I fell in love with this creation story – its rhythm of days, its rhythm of worshipful call and response, and its reminder that all of creation was…and is…good and humankind is part of that creation. The first class I took in seminary was Introduction to the Older Testament and the very first paper I wrote was about the creation stories. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was an easy place for me to begin. Perhaps the draw of these thirty-one verses is the amazing way that they tell of creation in a way that can also be found within our understanding of evolution…not perfectly by any means…but close enough when you remember that the words were written down by ancient people long before our present sciences existed. I like the reminder that out of chaos God creates order…and it is good. I especially appreciate hearing that, as with other creatures, God created humankind, male and female, with the same breath. It’s rather impressive to think that human beings are in the image of God even though we may have to struggle with exactly what “in the image” means. And even though God, we are told, spoke in order to make things happen, it is to us, to humankind, that God speaks directly, establishing a relationship. In that speaking, God gives us a job, a very particular role within creation. We could even understand this to be our first calling…to use the gift of creation in particular ways and to care for this gift on God’s behalf. Caught up in hearing words like subdue and dominion, humankind has neglected to treasure the gift God has given. We easily forget that humankind is not separate from the rest of creation but part of it. All of creation, us included, belongs together…one body.
After the Christian Education Committee decided that trying VBS this year would be a good thing, I made the rash decision that we would develop our own curriculum rather than purchase one of the readily available kits. I did a little research to find themes that might be relatively easy to develop into a few days of fun and learning and the committee settled on creation and care of creation as the theme. The VS planning team fleshed out the theme, settling on telling the story of the seven days of creation. What I hope has happened through a visit to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm, hearing over and over again the creation story retold including those all important words, “it was good,” singing, crafting, and learning about our ongoing responsibility for creation is that our children are gaining a sense that our creation is a wonderful gift…a treasure. I hope what will continue to happen is that they will learn to treasure this gift even though creation is a little worse for wear as we parents and grandparents pass it on.
Creation is worse for wear. I don’t think there is any more hiding from that fact. A few weeks ago I was able to attend a preview of the movie Arctic Tale created by National Geographic Films. Like March of the Penquins the movie makers take us into a part of the world where few of us will ever get to go. However the intent of Arctic Tale is to present not just the lives of polar bears, walruses, and arctic fox, but also show the real and disturbing changes that are happening at the northern pole, the effect of climate changes to which we all contribute. The polar bears have to learn new hunting methods because their prey, their necessary food, in no longer always under the ice but on it. Cycles of feeding are being extended because the winter ice doesn’t reform at the expected time. When the ice forms three months late, the creatures of the north have a hard time surviving the extended fast. Parents, notably mother polar bears force their young ones out on their own a full year early. Survival depends on moving alone. With warmer waters, new predators come into the arctic north. All of the life cycles are disturbed. The swims through summer waters are dangerously long and the arctic fox, a scavenger behind the bears, doesn’t swim. The arctic north seems very far away and the polar bear, walrus, and arctic fox are exotic creatures that I’ve only seen in zoos. But what I do, what we do, to treasure creation or abuse it has an effect…right now a devastating effect…on this distant land.
The gospel reading today reminds us that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We are constantly faced with making choices between competing values. A friend of mine recently moved to this area but has chosen to remain active in a church about 20 miles away. It isn’t that there are no churches closer because there are. We’re here. He has to make a choice between the value of long-standing relationships and a value about caring for creation shown in choosing shorter driving distances. Both of these values are important. Our relationships and our creation are both treasures. We constantly must make such choices. However, we often can make choices that put heart into what we say we value. I have heard, and I am sure you have too, that there are many small steps we can take that will have an impact on the environment and that will help us care for this gift of creation. I’ve managed to put in a few fluorescent bulbs at home…I don’t like them as well as the old kind…but I’m making the switch. I’m beginning to wonder how I can reduce my lawn with all of its need for watering and return my bit of land to a more natural landscape. I don’t like mowing the lawn, so that is motivation too. But then, again, my lawn is big enough that I have to use a power mower and that contributes more pollution into the air. So not having much lawn really could be a good thing. I am anticipating the day when I can have a hybrid car, not because it will save me money on gasoline but because it simply pollutes less, and care for the environment is a value of mine. Choices about the foods we buy and eat, how far we go for entertainment, how we get to work all can show something about where our heart lies and what, exactly, we treasure.
As a culture, we are still a people who want to try to have it all. I have been somewhat amazed by the stories of the well-off who purchase carbon shares to make up for their use of earth’s resources. That is all well and good. We can use more trees. But what I haven’t noticed in these reports are what people and companies are doing to change their own behavior and to reduce their own use and abuse of resources in the first place. This sounds a lot like making amends without first ever admitting you were wrong. This also continues to sound a lot like another form of consumerism. We can simply buy up all that we want without necessarily giving anything up. Jesus said that the one found working would be rewarded. All of us, together and separately, must be about the work of caring for the treasure God entrusted to humankind. We can’t just pay for the privilege of continuing to use up resources in the way we have. In An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore repeats an African proverb, “When you pray, move your feet.” “When you pray, move your feet.” We must be at work making a difference, preserving our treasured gift.
God spoke to humankind and gave us a gift, a gift of immeasurable worth, a treasure. We have received that gift. We have not received the gift of creation and the gift of caring for creation as something to possess. This is a gift we must be prepared to give away…to our children, to our children’s children, and to generations beyond that. “Where your treasure is, there will you heart be also.”
Amen.
