Our Father's World .... Easter Reflections

for me, easter is a time to reflect on the amazing gift that God has given us in His son.  it is this world that He has entrusted to us ... to be wise stewards of.  in my readings i came across the following post about easter .... and truly ... it puts it all in a nutshell for me.  for those who are believers or not .... to understand the call that our family has responded to in Creation Care.

this comes from Ed Brown's blog, Our Father's World .... i take no credit for it, only share what he articulates so very well.  blessings to you this easter time.

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Happy Easter!  This is a wonderful weekend of celebration for the entire Christian church.  We’re celebrating the heart of our faith, and reminding ourselves that this “religion” stands on a verifiable historical reality:  Jesus rose from the dead!  But Easter has particular meaning for those of us who are engaged in the ministry of caring for God’s creation.  Here’s why.

It is more than 10 years since I had a memorable conversation while on a business trip to Whidbey Island, near Seattle.  Being there over a weekend, I was visiting a local church for morning worship.  I found myself being greeted by a friendly guy just inside the door.  We got past the “I’m so and so…” and “isn’t this weather great?” and landed on “So, what brings you to our area?”

That is when it got interesting.

“I work for a Christian environmental organization…” I said.  There was a long pause.  “Oh.  …  I didn’t know there was such a thing.”  I can’t remember how the conversation went from there – what stuck in my mind was his reaction to my job and ministry.

I’ve had hundreds of such conversations since then.  The shock-value of such an announcement is pretty much gone:  The idea that evangelical Christians can be active in environmental stewardship (that’s what we called it then) or creation care is now well known if not always widely accepted.  But the remaining question hangs over every such conversation:  “Is ‘environment’ really a legitimate avenue for Christian ministry?”

This weekend – arguably the most important in the Christian year – is an appropriate time to revisit this question:  Why do we do what we do?

And part of the answer is… Easter.

The other key events in the Church year and Christian history are also important to our motivation.  Advent and Christmas celebrate the Incarnation: God entered this creation and became one of us, showing in that act that the physical creation is important and should be cared for.  I gave an entire chapter to this in Our Father’s World.

Good Friday marks a critical, central event in redemptive history:  The God-who-is-one-of-us allowing himself to be executed in love, for our sins, and so removing those sins and their effects.  If Christmas shows the value of caring for and even redeeming creation, Good Friday shows how salvation became available for us, and through us, for the rest of creation.  (See Colossians 1:19-20 and Romans 8:19-23)

Easter is as important, perhaps more so.  Why? Isn’t Easter just a follow-on to Good Friday?  Sort of a visible proof that Good Friday was more than just one more person falling to the Roman sword? It is that – but it is also far more:  Easter is the celebration of Christ’s victory over sin and death, but what is amazingly significant is that by means of a visible, verifiable historical resurrection event, God’s ultimate spiritual victory is brought into our present, physical reality.  Jesus did not die and ascend directly to heaven, departing this physical realm for an unseen spiritual existence:  He died, was buried – and then rose from the dead in this physical world: Real life demonstrated in real time!

A couple of things follow from this:  First, Easter as an historical fact stands as the cornerstone of Christianity.  Remember Paul?  “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (I Cor 15:17)  Our faith stands on a verifiable hypothesis:  Jesus rose from the dead, or he did not.  If he did not, the entire edifice crumbles to nothing. But if he did…

Second, Easter is our motivation for living our faith out now, including our care for God’s creation now:  The resurrection is future salvation breaking into this historical present.  As Bishop N.T. Wright notes:

With the resurrection, a new creation has dawned, and in that new creation new possibilities are open before us. The resurrection is not the end of the story; it’s the beginning of the new one, precisely because Jesus is the first-fruits and the full harvest is yet to come.  NT Wright Feb 2012

Why do we do what we do at Care of Creation?  Because Jesus came (Christmas!) and by his very presence hallowed all of this physical creation; because Jesus died (Good Friday!) and in that great and ultimate sacrifice paid the price to remove and correct the stain of our sin that pervades not only every human soul but every corner of God’s beautiful creation; and because we know from the historical fact of Jesus resurrection (Easter!) that the work that we do now to heal this creation “is not in vain”:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (I Corinthians 15:58)

Thank you for your partnership with us in this great work!

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i commend his blog to you ... it is a worthy read.  Our Father's World.

a state of nobility and sacredness

the dictionary defines nobility as

1. Possessing hereditary rank in a political system or social class derived from a feudalistic stage of a country's  
   development.
2.  a. Having or showing qualities of high moral character, such as courage, generosity, or honor: 
    b. Proceeding from or indicative of such a character; showing magnanimity:
3. Grand and stately in appearance; majestic


there is this farmer in Tennessee that i think i might have a crush on.  Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.  oh....don't take it wrong .... i just love the way this guy talks and what he is on about (psst .... hubby has a bit of a man crush too! <g>).  he wants us to be committed to the nobility in which we were all created.  to express the God ordained "humanness" that is intrinsic in how he made us .... because it is good. 


at the end of the day his challenge for us is to find our true nobility and sacredness -- and express that in all that we do.  for a Christian this call will ever draw us back to an appreciation of what our Lord has done for us. 


from an environmental evangelist perspective, it means that we acknowledge that our Divine Creator (or mother nature if you can't wrap your head around the God thing) made our world and made us to be caretakers of it.  He created this world for us and has put us in charge of it ... an amazing creation that is self-propagating, self regulating and provides all the best food and nourishment we, as those created in His image could ever need.  our challenge is not to move away from this sacredness, not to destroy it, but to reflect His glory and beauty in everything ... because it is how He ordained it.


mr salatin, because of his farming background, expresses that in some beautiful and at times quite humorous ways ....

• allowing a chicken to express it's "chicken-ness" (e.g. scratching and digging) brings out the nobility and beauty in what they are.
• a pork his "porky-ness" by rutting with his snout to dig up food
• that an essence of egg is a beautiful thing
• and in the end ... it means that in expressing our humanness, we are returning to the nobility of how God created us ... to the beauty of what He ordained for us.

it is a call away from the processed factory enhanced stuff that we allow ourselves to ingest.  we have been allowed to think that because something looks good, is bigger or is served faster it is better for us.  we  have embraced the world's lie that it must serve us, and our time compacted lifestyles rather than enjoying the pace and beauty at which it was meant to be.   if you want the full story on what is in our foods, you must watch the movie Food, Inc.  it will open your eyes and challenge your thinking.  the ramifications of embracing the nobility of and sacredness with which we have been made will change your life.  


while salatin is a farmer, and his examples come from his farming background, they apply to all of us.  whether we have a patio, an acre or a hill side.  it's the idea of supporting or growing things we know.  can't grow?  then by local.  use fresh products, not processed stuff that is so crammed with chemicals that the nutrients that God intended them to have have vanished.  ditch the GMO!  think about and reflect on how God created this world and how He intended it to function and mimic that .... in your lives, your relationships and your responsibility to be care takers of this planet.


here is Mr Salatin's practical, approach to this .... watch this short preview of the newly released movie "Fresh". (another must watch movie which is just starting to hit the Australian public now.)




and if you have 15:34 to spare .... his TED talk is a must watch to truly understand where he is coming from and the impact that embracing the nobility and sacredness of Him in who's image we are created.

Contemplation.

i have just turned 50.  woohoo.  <g>  instead of a big party i did something for myself .... i indulged in what has until now been a fairly closet passion: a greenie love of the environment. i went to a permaculture course, had a blast -- and had my eyes opened!

surely my christian friends would laugh at me.  surely compared to the need to show God's love and grace to others this is miniscule in comparision.  so i rarely talk about it .... rarely discuss what sits heavy on my heart: God gave us this world to use, love and be wise stewards of .... and, quite frankly, we've screwed it up.  this time away taught me that i should no longer be quiet about it.

we have a mandate now more than ever to care for the Creation that God has entrusted to us.  i want my kids to enjoy fresh, non GM food and to live an abundant life .... and to know our Saviors love through that.   so for me, being a wise steward (trying ... not perfect, but trying!), and teaching my kids how to cherish God's world will only make them fall in love with the Creator more ... and want to share His amazing Love with others.

i learned a term this weekend ... Evangelical Environmentalism.  it is the new term for those believers who take seriously our stewardship of this world.  now this course was certainly not about faith or about religion!  but i saw the core principles of permaculture and said .... man!  those are straight from the bible!  they are using God's mandate to love others, care for others, live in community and be wise stewards .... all which can be scripturally supported. 

 i am forced to reflect on so much.  i have wanted to live today better than yesterday and hope for tomorrow more than i have today.  i think of two things from the weekend that have been profound for me.
-- life happens!  it is the way that God designed it.  i see this in the area that our chickens are scratching away at ... the left overs i feed them and the borlotti beans and cherry tomato's that can't help but spring up!
-- we have all been made in the image of our Grand Designer.  He has given us the ability to design and reclaim this world in the way He intended it to be.


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reflection  ..... 5 July 2011

so ... i've been doing this blog for over 3 months now .... is my heart still passionate about our role in God's redemption of Creation?  of what he has called us too?  for me, and more importantly, for our family .... that answer is a resounding YES.

each day we are learning a little bit more about the small and big things we can do to honour our Lord by understanding how He created this planet, the systems that are the best for growing things and providing for our family.  what does that mean?  well, truthfully .... it means heaps of fun!  we are learning about cool things in our garden .... mushrooms, aquaponics ... how to grow stuff with less effort and more reward -- and regenerating and making good soil to boot!  understanding that we don't have to have things brand spankin' new .... but that recycling and reusing is actually MUCH MORE REWARDING!  and ... learning about our friends and neighbors .... living in community more.

so yes ... we are continuing to move towards a creation care mentality .... and with each step we take, we are more committed to it and this call that God has placed on our hearts.  will you join us?

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

His hand the wonders wrought.