Letter from Martin Hird
Licensed Lay Minister at Otley Parish Church
I was recently sitting in a 2 hour meeting, facing the window in The Chestnuts, with this picture. The meeting was the Carbon Net Zero group, which is exploring how OPC can reduce dramatically our production of Carbon Dioxide, to try to prevent more global warming. These meetings are always interesting and busy – but I have to admit, on that occasion, I was distracted by the distressing view of these mangled trees.
I have been wondering whether the Bible has anything to say about God’s relationship with creation as a whole, or is it all just about God’s relationship with people? Was the distress I was feeling about these trees in any way an echo of God’s own reaction to the degradation of the planet’s natural world? Does God care about deforestation or about the pace of species loss? Up until now, my own passion for addressing climate change has been driven by concern about people – our neighbours – often in poorer countries who are most vulnerable to the negative effects of global warming and; about my children and grandchildren and the world they will need to live in. Is God similarly only interested in climate change as far as it affects people – or is there divine interest in the natural world itself?
I am in the early stages of answering this question, so please do let me know your thoughts and your understanding of what the Bible teaches. But for now, I think I am beginning to realise that God IS concerned about the whole of creation itself – going beyond simply how it serves and supports humanity.
The creation story in Genesis repeats on each day the aesthetic pleasure that God experienced at the whole of the creation, not simply at humanity. God looked and saw that it was all good. The word ‘bara’ that is used repeatedly, which in our Bibles is translated as ‘made’, has the fuller sense of ‘to shape for a purpose’. As the creation story reaches its crescendo, I now wonder whether the purpose for which the world was created, was not as a dwelling place for humanity, but in fact as a place for God to rest on the seventh day. I understand that in other literature written in the same period, Gods were figured as resting in their temples – in contrast to these images. But the God of the Bible is pictured as resting in creation making this world in effect a temple.
Moreover, the language used when God’s plan of salvation is described, goes beyond a plan of salvation simply of humanity. What do I mean by this? John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son”. That is, God so loved the cosmos – not just the people living in it. Then in the letters, Paul writes about God “reconciling all things – whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross” (see Colossians 1:19-20 and Ephesians 1:9-10). Lastly, in Romans he writes about “creation waiting in eager anticipation for the children of God to be revealed… creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21). So, my thinking now is that God does have an interest in creation as a whole, and what’s more has a plan for its liberation along with humanity.
So, I can be forgiven for feeling distressed about the trees ,even when they distract me from an important meeting!