Our Burning World
Our burning world is turning in despair,
I hear her seething, sighing through the air:
‘Oh rouse yourself, this is your wake up call
For your pollution forms my funeral pall
My last ice lapses, slips into the sea,
Will you unfreeze your tears and weep from me?
Or are you sleeping still, taking your rest?
The hour has come, that puts you to the test,
Wake up to change at last, and change for good,
Repent, return, re-plant the sacred wood.
You are my children, I too am God’s child,
And we have both together been defiled,
But God hangs with us, on the hallowed tree
That we might both be rescued, both be free.’
Malcolm Guite (1)
Did you know that the ice in the Arctic Sea has shrunk to its lowest amount? (2) That sea temperatures have reached major highs? (3) That the glaciers in Switzerland have lost 10% of their volume in 2 years? (4) Does it matter? I mean, it might affect the skiing season, but then, I don’t ski, so, you know, it’s not that important is it? And warmer seas? Well, it might mean I can actually go swimming off the coast of Britain, so a win there for me. And the arctic is so far away from us, so what happens there is out of sight, out of mind. Isn’t it? “My last ice lapses, slips into the sea”. So what? Who cares? Doesn’t affect me, does it! “Will you unfreeze your tears and weep from me?” Because our planet is changing, affected by raised temperatures, by climate changes. But what do we do? And what does it mean for us as Christians? As followers of Christ? As believers in the one Lord God?
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). What happens to God’s creation matters because we believe that God created “the heavens and the earth”. That all things come from God. That God set all in motion, and what we live on, what we see around us, came from God. And God saw that it was good, no, God saw that it was very good. So, we are living on holy ground, we are part of something holy: something that belongs to God. We belong to God, the plants and animals, birds, fish, all belong to God. We are the tenants in God’s vineyard, charged with caring and tending for the vines, bringing them to their full potential for God. In the words of John Eaton: “we were to be God’s faithful stewards in the living world, strong, but answerable to him.” (5). The creation stories show animals, plants, the whole of creation “wonderful creatures of God, beloved by him, and entrusted by him into the care of humanity”. So if we believe in “God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible”, as we say every week, then we believe that God creates and loves creation. And that God trusts us as tenants in the vineyard of creation to care, to love and to nurture creation, all of it, not for our own sakes, our own needs but to the glory of God and for the love of God. Because when we forget to see creation as God’s loving plan, as held in God’s love, then, like the tenants in the vineyard, we abuse our position and the planet, and all of us suffer. God’s trust in us to care for, sustain, nurture and support all God’s creation is really important.
Because it is in creation that we see God’s glory, God’s glory in action: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” says our psalm today. And in the glorious hymn of praise: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.” (6) And in another, “Let all things their Creator bless, and worship him in humbleness” (7). I love to be in nature, to walk in the mountains, the woods: because literally, “When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze: then sings my soul my saviour God to thee, how great thou art!” (8). We are given the sacred trust by God to strive to protect the integrity of God’s creation, to safeguard, sustain and renew that creation. And we need creation to remind us of God, to reveal God’s glory, God’s love and care for us, and for all creation. Without the birds, the mountains, glaciers, woods, animals, our praise is diminished, and through our actions we diminish God, because if we allow these things to be damaged, to disappear, then we are diminished and our praise to God is diminished and we lose something of God in our lives. And God, like Jesus, weeps for us, for creation. Again, John Eaton reminds us that the “Bible texts again and again (prompt us) to see the life of the earth as one living community, with wind and waters, mountains and trees, animals and peoples belonging together in the hand of the creator.” (9). How can we sing the majesty if we cannot see it in the world around us?
Melting ice caps affect us, affect animals, affect the whole planet. Retreating glaciers and wildfires due to increased summer temperatures affect the creatures dependent on those habitats – the marmots, arctic foxes and rabbits, koalas, wombats, elk and birds of prey. Rising sea temperatures affect whales, dolphins, fish, us. And the loss of these affects our relationship with each other, with nature, and with God. The God who, after creating all things rests and commands that all creation rests also – the land, the creatures and humans, And who in the 10 Commandments enshrines for all creation a resting time: “a time of loving relation with all species and the planet” (10) .
Our planet is not a “nice to have”, it is a gift, the loving gift from our loving God. It is not a gift to be played with and then thrown away. It is a gift which is entrusted to us as God’s tenants here on earth. And, like the tenants in the vineyard, it is a gift for which we are accountable. We cannot assume that we can take charge and use it as we want – to reject the guidance and ownership of the one who entrusts it to us. On our own, as we can see, the planet will not thrive. And it will be taken from us. No, as honest and trustworthy tenants we must remember whose “vineyard” this is, whose planet, whose creation this is. And “if (we) would be servants of the living God (we) must answer to (God) for (our) care of all that lives, the care (God) has entrusted to (us).” (11) . I finish with the call to action from Malcolm Guite’s poem:
The hour has come, that puts you to the test,
Wake up to change at last, and change for good,
Repent, return, re-plant the sacred wood.
You are my children, I too am God’s child,
And we have both together been defiled,
But God hangs with us, on the hallowed tree
That we might both be rescued, both be free.’
Amen.
Jackie Sellin
References
- https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2020/02/15/our-burning-world-a-collaboration-with-rhiannon-randle/
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/26/antarctic-sea-ice-shrinks-to-lowest-annual-maximum-level-on-record-data-shows
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/crazy-off-the-charts-records-has-humanity-finally-broken-the-climate
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/swiss-glaciers-lose-tenth-volume-in-two-years-climate-crisis
- Eaton J (1995) “The Circle of Creation – Animals in the Light of the Bible” SCM Press Ltd London p. 105
- Anglican Hymns for Today, 310: Holy, holy, holy.
- Anglican Hymns for Today, 10: All creatures of our God and King
- Anglican Hymns for Today, 563: O Lord my God
- Eaton J p. 105
- Eaton J p.4
- Eaton J p.111