CT-NAE-EEN Conference on Creation-care June 28-30, 2004

Keynote Address: Howard A. Snyder
Asbury Theological Seminary

Creation Care and the Mission of God

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There is no life in the sea,
No creature in the river,
Nothing in the heavens,
That does not proclaim God's goodness.

There is no bird on the wing,
No star in the sky,
Nothing beneath the sun,
That does not proclaim God's goodness.

-Celtic Christian Hymn

Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth? (Job 38:33)

Introduction

Christianity has a long tradition of respect for the created order. Nature is both the creation of God and also a mirror which reflects God's glory and reflects praise to him. It must therefore be honored, cared for, and treated with respect as part of our honoring of God.

Alister McGrath puts the matter concisely:

Christians see the world as God's creation, which we are called upon to "tend." This insight compels us to treat the natural world with respect, care and concern. The breath-catching sense of wonder that we experience on encountering nature at its best is itself the symbol or sign of the deep significance of creation, which, when rightly interpreted, invites us to appreciate, honour and respect it. This is not an idea invented to meet the needs of the moment, or a highly selective reading of a religious tradition designed to extract only those notions that happen to meet with contemporary cultural approbation. It is simply an application of a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith to the issues we now face.[1]

Noting that the "biblical notion of creation is enormously rich and complex, and offers a number of insights of determinative importance in relation to the issue of the care of creation," McGrath summarizes the biblical teaching in four points:

1. The natural order, including humanity, is the result of God's act of creation, and is affirmed to be God's possession.

2. Humanity is distinguished from the remainder of creation by being created in the "image of God." This distinction involves the delegation of responsibility rather than the conferral of privilege, and cannot be seen as offering legitimation to environmental exploitation or degradation.

3. Humanity is charged with the tending of creation (as Adam was entrusted with the care of Eden - Genesis 2:15), in the full knowledge that this creation is the cherished possession of God.

4. There is thus no theological ground for asserting that humanity has the "right" to do what it pleases with the natural order. The creation is God's, and has been entrusted to humanity, which is to act as its steward, not its exploiter.[2]

Affirming man and woman as stewards of God's good gifts, including the created order, is fundamental in Christian history and theology. John Wesley preached that "no character more exactly agrees with the present state of man than that of a steward. . . . This appellation is exactly expressive of his situation in the present world, specifying the kind of servant he is to God, and what kind of service his divine master expects of him."[3]

There are thus biblical, historical, and theological reasons why Christians should be committed to protecting and nurturing the physical environment. I would define creation care as faithful human stewardship of the God-created order, understood as an integral part of the faithful following of Jesus Christ and of the worship of God. The Evangelical Environmental Network defines creation care as "care for all of God's creation as it relates primarily to the problems of pollution and environmental degradation and depletion." That is a good strategic, contextual definition. But we should be clear that biblical creation care includes conservation, moderation in lifestyle, and living harmoniously and sustainably with the land. It means living out the biblical ethic of justice, mercy, and truth with regard to ecological issues as well as with regard to human oppression and exploitation.

Biblically speaking, creation care is an integral part of the good news of redemption and new creation in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

But here we face a puzzle. If this is true, why is creation care not a more prominent theme in much of contemporary Christianity? Any Evangelical Christian in America who is concerned about environmental stewardship and creation care faces a dilemma. Probably most of us here have felt it. Among a great many of American Evangelicals-probably a majority-concern about environmental stewardship is viewed, not merely as unimportant or irrelevant, but as positively dangerous. It is seen as representing a subversive political agenda that is anti-God and probably anti-free enterprise. It is therefore very hard to get a hearing for environmental concerns.

Evangelicals claim to believe in the full authority of the Bible. Yet in the United States especially, Evangelicals for the most part read the Bible in such a way as either to positively exclude creation care, or to relegate it to such a low priority that it gets lost among other concerns.

Why is this?

I would like to do two things in this paper. First, I will explore some of the reasons for Evangelical opposition or indifference to issues of creation care. Second, I present several biblical arguments that ground the Christian mandate for environmental stewardship. I will say little about specific ecological issues, except incidentally, as these will be covered by others. From my reading I am thoroughly convinced, however, that the human race today faces a growing ecological crisis, particularly with regard to biodiversity and climate change. We are well beyond the point where further scientific evidence is needed to confirm this. Failure to recognize and address environmental issues is not fundamentally a scientific issue; it is an ideological and political one. In other words, from a Christian standpoint, the issue is fundamentally theological. It has to do with how we think about God, God's world, and the human place within it.

In The Re-enchantment of Nature, Alister McGrath makes a convincing case that the roots of today's environmental crisis are not found in Scripture or the Christian faith, as often alleged. The real culprit is Enlightenment rationalism that in effect declared human autonomy from God. This disordered view not only distorted the human relationship with God but also with nature. Man and woman lost their biblical sense of stewardship and replaced it with one of technique-driven domination. Losing their sense of responsibility to God, they consequently lost also their sense of dependence upon and responsibility toward the created environment.

I agree with McGrath's analysis. But if this is so, why have Evangelicals (that is, American Evangelicals) not taken a concerted stand against this distorted worldview? Many Evangelicals have criticized Enlightenment rationalism on issues such as the value of human life and the reality of the spiritual realm. Why have they not made a similar argument in defense of the environment and environmental stewardship?

There is a puzzle here. Evangelicals who claim to believe the Bible fail to take the Bible seriously in this area. I haven't seen evidence to support it, but my impression from living most of my life in the Evangelical community is that in fact most American Evangelicals do not believe that the Bible teaches creation care as an essential part of the Good News of Jesus Christ, or that it must be an indispensable part of faithful Christian witness. Why is this?

McGrath observes that "Evangelicalism is perhaps the form of Christianity that has had least interest in the environment in the recent past. Suspicious of anything that smacks of the 'social gospel,' the movement has generally been wary of dealing with social issues, including the environment." McGrath goes on to make the surprising claim however that "all that has now changed" due to the 1994 "Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation."[4] Would that this were true. I have seen little evidence of such a shift, though it may be occurring below the radar screen. We may hope so.

Honoring God in God's World

When we mine Scripture with these challenges in view, we find a richly textured, comprehensive, and profound biblical mandate for creation care. And we find it is integral, not tangential, to the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.

At least half a dozen biblical themes ground the mandate for creation care and might be explored here. The Bible plan of salvation is one of peace, shalom, which in the Bible is a highly ecological concept that highlights the interdependence between people and their social and physical context. The biblical theology of land, from the Old Testament to the New, "grounds" (literally) salvation in God's plan for the whole earth. The theme of the earth as God's habitation implies human respect for and care of nature. The key biblical theme of justice and righteousness-the principal basis for a kingdom of God ethic-rules out harmful exploitation not only of people but of the land. The incarnation and servanthood of Jesus Christ show us what it means to live righteous and godly lives physically, on earth. The biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit and of the church as charismatic underscores the role of the Spirit in both creation and the renewal of creation (e.g., Ps. 104:30).[5] Finally, the doctrine of the Trinity itself is rich in ecological insights, as it implies mutual interdependence and self-giving in behalf of the other, rather than self-centered dominance or exploitation.[6] The created order is the way it is because of the way God is. Its unity and diversity reflects in some sense the diversity-within-unity that is the Trinity.

Here I will explore creation care, however, more from a missional perspective. I would have us note that the Bible offers five fundamental reasons and motivations for creation care. We will explore each briefly.

1. Creation care for God's sake. "The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork" (Ps. 19:1). God created the universe to glorify himself and to assist his human creation in praising him. We are to praise God through, and also because of, his beautiful but complex world.

The primary reason for faithful creation care, therefore, is that caring for God's world is a fundamental way of glorifying God. We glorify him by the proper stewardship of the world he has made. We should care for the environment for God's sake.

Scripture affirms that "whether [we] eat or drink, or whatever [we] do," we should "do everything for the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). God is glorified when we see him in the created order, and when we take care of the world he has made. Creation care is part of our acceptable worship (Rom. 12:1).

One of the main lessons Job had to learn was that the created order testifies to the vast wisdom of God and therefore is a motive for praising God. "Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God" (Job 37:14). We see God in his works, and lift our eyes from nature to nature's God-but then look back again at nature with new eyes, seeing the garden we are to tend. Fulfilling God-given stewardship through the God-like powers that have been given us for good, not for evil, we glorify the Creator.

As McGrath and others have documented, there is a long Christian tradition not only of seeing God in nature, but also of the human responsibility that this vision implies. "Something of the torrent of God's beauty can . . . be known in the rivulets of the beauty of creation. This has long been recognised as one of the most basic religious motivations for scientific research," McGrath notes, and should stir our passion for creation care, as well. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Meditation on God's works enables us, at least to some extent, to admire and reflect on God's wisdom."[7] As Evangelicals, we need to affirm the next logical step: The God who is seen and glorified in the created order is honored and served through creation care.

John Wesley is a good representative of what might be called the great tradition of Christian appreciation of the created order and the responsibility that implies. "How small a part of this great work of God [in creation] is man able to understand!" he wrote. "But it is our duty to contemplate what he has wrought, and to understand as much of it as we are able."[8] Wesley argued that such contemplation is a theological, not just a devotional, exercise. In preaching from the Sermon on the Mount he affirmed,

God is in all things, and . . . we are to see the Creator in the glass of ever creature; . . . we should use and look upon nothing as separate from God, which indeed is a kind of practical atheism; but with a true magnificence of thought survey heaven and earth and all that is therein as contained by God in the hollow of his hand, who by his intimate presence holds them all in being, who pervades and actuates the whole created frame, and is in a true sense the soul of the universe.[9]

Wesley drew out some of the ethical implications of this in his Compendium of Natural Philosophy, Being a Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation:

In short, the world around us is the mighty volume wherein God hath declared himself. Human languages and characters are different in difference nations. And those of one nation are not understood by the rest. But the book of nature is written in a universal character, which every man may read in his own language. It consists not of words, but things, which picture out the Divine perfections. The firmament every where expanded, with all its starry host, declares the immensity and magnificence, the power and wisdom of its Creator. Thunder, lightning, storms, earthquakes and volcanoes, shew the terror of his wrath. Seasonable rains, sunshine and harvest, denote his bounty and goodness, and demonstrate how he opens his hand, and fills all living things with plenteousness. The constantly succeeding generations of plants and animals, imply the eternity of their first cause. Life subsisting in millions of different forms, shows the vast diffusion of this animating power, and death the infinite disproportion between him and every living thing.

Even the actions of animals are an eloquent and a pathetic language. Those that want the help of man have a thousand engaging ways, which, like the voice of God speaking to his heart, command him to preserve and cherish them. In the mean time the motions or looks of those which might do him harm, strike him with terror, and warn him, either to fly from or arm himself against them. Thus it is, that every part of nature directs us to nature's God.[10]

Wesley's primary accent here is that the created order shows us God's wisdom, glory, and beauty, leading us to praise him and live responsibly before him in the world.[11] Creation is the God-given "book of nature." It is in the light of this book of nature that we interpret the Scriptures, and vice versa. It is in the light of God's care for his creatures that we learn about our own stewardship.

Caring for and protecting the world God has made is part of our worship and service. We care for creation for God's sake.

2. Creation care for our own sake-for human well-being. We should care for creation as if our life depended on it-because it does.

We often forget how dependent we are upon the physical environment-"a few hundred yards of atmosphere and a few inches of topsoil," as someone has said. We are largely unaware of our actual dependence, though from time to time hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions remind us of our vulnerability. Sometimes the popular media talks of "Mother Nature going on a rampage."

But we are no less vulnerable when the sun is shining, flowers are blooming, and birds are singing. We are just less aware. Here environmental science helps us. Why are some species of plants or varieties of birds disappearing? Why have some birds stopped singing? Why are global weather patterns changing? Are these simply natural cycles, or are more fundamental changes happening due to human degradation of the environment? We can know this only through good science. As we will see in this consultation, scientific evidence is mounting not only of our vulnerability, but of serious threats to human health and well-being.

If we are passionate about people, we will be passionate about their environment. Christians have often been concerned with feeding the hungry and providing shelter for the homeless. It is time that we understand that this Christ-like human concern must expand include the environmental conditions that enable food production and the well-being of the planet that is our home. In many places, people lack food and shelter because the forests have been destroyed or the water supply has disappeared. These ecological issues cannot be handled simply by relief work; they require careful, informed, sustained creation care.

Human well-being depends on the well-being of creation in at least three dimensions: Spiritual, physical, and cultural-esthetic. We depend on the well-being of the earth physically, but also spiritually and emotionally. We speak of nature nurturing the soul. Clearly one of the problems of intense urbanization is the alienation it produces from the natural order. People who work in urban ministry often take children to camps or retreat centers to experience trees, birds, gentle breezes, and the complex beauties of nature. It is Christian ministry to people as well as to God when we care for these resources on which so much of the richness of our spiritual, esthetic, and artistic life depends.

Scripture is the story of God's people serving God in God's land. If God's people are faithful, the land prospers. Conversely, if the land suffers, we suffer. This is a repeated theme in much of Old Testament literature-in the law, the prophets, and the wisdom literature. It comes to particular focus in the Jubilee legislation of Leviticus 25-26.

The key fact is ecological interdependence. If we care about people, we will care for the land and air and multiplied species on which our well-being depends.

3. Creation care for creation's sake. We should care for the created order because it has its own God-given right to exist and flourish, independently of its relationship to us. The world after all is God's handiwork, not ours. God created the universe for his good purposes, not all of which are yet known to us. We need, therefore, a certain eschatological humility and reserve. We are to honor God's creative work, and to fulfill our responsibilities as stewards of what he has made.

Scripture says that "the whole creation" groans "in labor pains" as it "waits with eager longing" for the final redemption. We know that in God's timing "the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:19-23). Until God finally brings the new heavens and the new earth, the creation groans, suffering the effects of the fall and of ongoing human exploitation. It is our responsibility to care for creation, to work to relieve its suffering. The disorder and suffering that entered the world through human sin is not the final word, and it is not God's final intention. Like our own gardens and house plants and pets, the creation depends on us to see its need and to respond with God's compassion and care.

In great measure, God's other creatures depend on us for their well-being and survival. Increasingly, in fact, we see that the whole biosphere is more dependent on human nurture and care than we would have imagined. Thanks to environmental studies, we are becoming aware not only of the vulnerability of the created order but also of human ability either to nurture and protect it, or to derange and destroy it.

We need to recover the biblical sense of why creation exists, how it proclaims God's glory, and of how all nature will participate in God's salvation. John Wesley had a profound sense of this. One of his favorite phrases was "the restitution of all things," the King James Version of Acts 3:21. In that passage the Apostle Peter tells us that the time is coming when God will "restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets." And so Wesley wrote,

While "the whole creation groans together" (whether men attend or not), their groans are not dispersed in idle air, but enter into the ears of him that made them. While his creatures "travail together in pain," he knows all their pain, and is bringing them nearer and nearer to the birth which shall be accomplished in its season. He sees "the earnest expectation" wherewith the whole animated creation "waits for" that final "manifestation of the sons of God": in which "they themselves also shall be delivered" (not by annihilation: annihilation is not deliverance) "from the" present "bondage of corruption, into" a measure of "the glorious liberty of the children of God."

Referring then to Revelation 21, Wesley notes that the promise of the destruction of death, evil, and pain is not restricted to humankind. Rather, we may expect that "the whole brute creation will then undoubtedly be restored, not only to the vigor, strength, and swiftness which they had at their creation, but to a far higher degree of each than they ever enjoyed." Then will be fulfilled the great promise of Isaiah 11:6-9.[12]

Since all God's creatures reflect God's glory and have a place in God's plan, they are part of legitimate Christian concern. If God cares for and about the creatures, so should we.

4. Creation care for the sake of mission. Another major reason Evangelicals should be passionate about creation care is that this is essential for effective mission in today's world.

Holistic mission, "mission as transformation," is becoming a major theme of the global Evangelical missions effort.[13] Holistic mission is based on the affirmation that mission first of all is the mission of the Triune God who sends the Son into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring redemption and the new creation that is the kingdom of God. The church is in mission because God is in mission. God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son to give us eternal life through faith in him. Therefore the church is to love the world and bring the Good News to people everywhere. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (Jn. 20:21).

The biblical doctrine of creation assures us that mission is not truly holistic, however, unless it includes the church's mission to and in behalf of the earth. In the biblical vision, God acts in Jesus Christ not to save men and women out of their environment, but with their environment. The biblical vision has always been God's people serving God's purposes in God's land.

The theological truth here is based in both creation and fall. God created man and woman in harmony with himself, with each other, and with the created world. Man and woman were at peace (shalom) with God, with themselves and each other, and with the plants and animals God had made.

Sin, however, brought disruption in a fourfold sense. As Francis Schaeffer pointed out years ago, human disobedience brought alienation between humans and God and as a result an internal alienation within each person (alienation from oneself), alienation between humans, and alienation from nature.[14] These are the spiritual, psychological, sociocultural, and ecological alienations that afflict the whole human family. All derive from sin; all distort God's good purpose in creation. These are all concerns therefore of the gospel of reconciliation, and they clarify the church's mission agenda. Faithful Christian mission focuses on healing the four alienations or divisions that have resulted from the fall. Creation care, therefore-working for reconciliation between humans and the created order-is an indispensable element in Christian mission. It is part of the gospel.

The argument here is both theological and strategic. Theological, because a fully biblical view of mission will necessarily include the dimension of creation care. But also strategic and pragmatic, because a holistic theology and practice of mission that incorporates creation care is much more persuasive. Do we want people of all nations and cultures to come to faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world? Then we should proclaim and demonstrate that Jesus is the renewer of the whole creation, the whole face of the earth. Salvation is that big. This is a grander portrayal of Christ than we sometimes present. It both honors our Savior and makes the gospel more persuasive and attractive when we present a gospel of total healing-the healing of creation; the restoration of all things. This is truly the whole gospel for the whole world.

Although Evangelical missiology in recent decades has been moving in the direction of holistic mission, the dimension of creation care is still largely lacking. "Holistic" has been taken to include issues of compassion and social justice, but the note of creation care is still largely absent or muted. A recently published Evangelical biblical theology of mission, Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God's Mission in the Bible, is excellent in its focus on the kingdom of God but makes only passing reference to environmental stewardship.[15] For the sake of effective evangelism, mission must be as comprehensive as the biblical picture, persuasively showing that Jesus Christ really is the answer in all areas of the human predicament.

One critical area that must be addressed here is the teaching of environmental science in our Evangelical colleges and universities, both as a worldview issue and as a vocational option. Our educational institutions should have viable programs in earth science, conservation biology, and sustainable development. Programs in economics and business administration should be built on a solid theology of creation care and earth stewardship. Eastern University and a few other institutions have led the way in this, but too few of our Christian educational institutions have so far prioritized creation care as a matter of Christian educational mission.

5. Creation care for the sake of our children and grandchildren. There is a final persuasive motive for creation care today: For the sake of our children and grandchildren. For our descendants yet unborn. As Scripture teaches, we have a responsibility-a stewardship-in behalf of the generations yet to come.

Today we look back at the Protestants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and ask, Why did they not have a sense of the Christian global missionary mandate? Or we look back at Christian slaveholders in the eighteenth and nineteenth century and ask, How could they not see that slavery was incompatible with the gospel? What did they think they were doing?

Our grandchildren, as they wrestle with ecological issues, will look back on this generation and ask: Why could they not see the Christian responsibility for earth stewardship? Why did they wait so long? What did they think they were doing when they failed to defend the forests and the seas and to protect earth's endangered species? Did they not understand what they were doing to their own descendants?

We today are the generation that must rediscover and proclaim creation care as part of the gospel, part of the mission of God.

We hope that our children and grandchildren will know and serve Jesus Christ, and we hope also that they will inherit a world that is not choked and poisoned by pollution or made scarcely habitable by environmental disasters. If that is our hope, the time for action is now. We should treat future generations the way we would want to be treated.

The Larger Picture: Coherence in Christ

In this final section of this paper, I want to draw together the key biblical insights regarding Christ and creation and show their relevance to our discussions this week.

The redemptive work of Jesus Christ is pictured in broadest scope in such passages as John 1, Hebrews 1, Colossians 1, and Ephesians 1. These passages are fundamental to a Christian view of ecology. Evangelicals are fond of Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God-not the result of works, so that no one may boast." This key passage is rightly understood, however, only in the context of what Paul first wrote in Ephesians 1 and particularly in 1:10, which proclaims God's "plan [oikonomia] for the fullness of time to gather up [literally, to join together under one head] all things in [Jesus Christ], things in heaven and things on earth."[16] This is God's "economy" (a key term in early Christian theology), God's "plan" or "administration" that he is accomplishing through Jesus Christ.[17]

The plan of salvation as pictured in these passages is this: that God may glorify himself by reconciling all things in Christ. "God's plan is to unite and reconcile all things in Christ so that men [and women] can again serve their maker."[18] The biblical vision is of all earth's peoples, and in fact of all creation, united in praising and serving God (Ps. 67:3-5; Rev. 7:9-12; 19:6).

The key idea here is reconciliation. God's plan is for the restoration of his creation, for overcoming, in judgment and glorious fulfillment, the damage done to persons and nature through the fall. God's design for the reconciliation of all things in Christ reaffirms his original intention at creation, now adjusted to the realities of the presence of sin in the world. But this is to speak humanly, from our underside view of reality, for reconciliation is not God's second-best back-up plan. God's eternal plan predates both the fall and the creation; it existed in the mind of God "before the creation of the world" (Eph. 1:4).[19] This plan includes not only the reconciliation of people to God, but the reconciliation of "all things in heaven and on earth." Or, as Paul puts it in Colossians 1:20, it is God's intention through Christ "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by mak­ing peace through his blood, shed on the cross." Jesus Christ brings peace, not only in the sense of forgiveness of sins but in the full biblical sense of shalom. Central to this plan is the reconciliation of persons to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. But the reconciliation won by Christ reaches to all the alienations that resulted from our sin-within our­selves, between persons, between us and our physical environment. As mind-boggling as the thought is, Scripture teaches that this reconciliation even includes the redemption of the physical universe from the effects of sin as everything is brought under its proper headship in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:19-21).

The same perspective comes through in Paul's other writings as well, such as 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and Romans 8:21.

In all these passages, Paul begins with the fact of individual and corporate personal salvation through Christ. From this he goes on to place personal salvation in cosmic perspective. We are permitted no either/or here, no spiritual tunnel vision. The redemption of persons is the center of God's plan, but it is not the circumference of that plan. Paul switches from a close-up shot to a long-distance view. He uses a zoom lens, for the most part taking a close-up of personal redemption, but periodically zooming to a long-distance, wide-angle view which takes in "all things"-things visible and invisible; things past, present and future; things in heaven and things on earth; all the principalities and powers-everything in the cosmic/histori­cal scene.

Although this comprehensive picture of salvation is most fully elaborated in Paul's writings, it is also the larger biblical view. Other Scriptures offer in essence the same perspective, for all Scripture is God-breathed. All the promises of cosmic restoration in the Old Testament apply here, reaching their climax in Isaiah's sublime vision (Is. 11:6-9; 35:1-10; 65:17-25). The basic message of the book of Revelation is the harmonious uniting of all things under the lordship of Christ as all evil, all discord is destroyed (Rev. 1:5-7; 5:5-10; 11:15; 21:1-22:5). In a somewhat different context, this same "summing up" perspective is evident in Hebrews 1-2. Jesus' parables of the kingdom also point in this direction. And Isaiah, Peter and John speak of God creating a new heaven and a new earth (Is. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).

The testimony of Scripture is consistent: The same God who created the uni­verse perfect, and sustains it in its fallen condition (Heb. 1:3), will restore all things through the work of Jesus Christ.

We cannot fully understand this cosmic design, this oiko­nomia of God to unite all things in Christ. That is why Paul continually calls it a secret or hidden thing, a musterion. But we can at least comprehend the basic outline of this plan and that it centers in Jesus' great reconciling, conquering work accomplished through his life, death and resurrection which is now being applied by the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.

The Good News of Jesus Christ offers the essential resources humanity needs to deal creatively and effectively with the issues of ecology and the environment. Here the bold claim of Scripture that in Jesus Christ all things cohere (Col. 1:17) takes on deeper and broader meaning than the church has generally understood.

We are dealing here not with an abstract principle but with real history, enacted story. The central story is summed up by the Apostle Paul: In Christ "God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting [people's sins] against them." So all those who are "in Christ" experience "new creation." The biblical picture of Jesus Christ is at once personal, ecological, and cosmic: "The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For the creation . . . itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, Romans 8:19-21).

According to the Gospel, the decisive act in history was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was the key triumph over death and despair, the reversal of discord and incoherence. Jesus' resurrection in fact makes everything new. As G. K. Chesterton wrote,

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realised that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in the semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening, but the dawn.[20]

And yet the battle continues. There will yet be many casualties. But we are energized by the assurance that the one who won the decisive victory over evil in his resurrection at a particular point in history will bring the story to final, glorious fulfillment. The goal of history is final harmony and reconciliation, justice and moral symmetry-the ultimate triumph of justice, mercy, and truth. The Apostle Peter called it "the time of universal restoration" (Acts 3:21).

This history of Jesus Christ does not occur in a vacuum, of course. Jesus came "in the fullness of time." The Jesus story is part of the larger history of God's action as revealed to us in Scripture. The main story line can be summarized as follows:

1. God created the universe. "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible" (Heb. 11:3). Therefore the world belongs to God, not to private individuals, economic enterprises, or national governments. Therefore we have no right individually or corporately to mistreat it or claim it solely for our own interests.

2. The created order is in some deep sense diseased because of sin. Although earth's nonhuman biosystems cannot sin, the created order suffers the "enmity" that human rebellion brought into the world (Gen. 3:14-19). "The creation was subjected to futility" and is in "bondage to decay" (Rom 8:20-21). This complex spiritual-physical-moral ecological disorder is pictured graphically in Old Testament passages such as Hosea 4:1-3:

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel; for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land. Swearing, lying, and murder, and stealing and adultery break out; bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing.

One would think the writer lived in the late twentieth century.

3. God has acted in Jesus Christ to reconcile the creation to Himself. God is bringing re-creation through the God-Man, and in the biblical picture God's plan is not to redeem man and woman out of their environment but with their environment. Salvation is ecological in this amazingly comprehensive sense.

The New Testament makes clear the tremendous cost of Jesus' reconciling work-his life of obedience and suffering, his death on the cross. Precisely because Jesus "humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death," God "highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name," and all creation will bow before him (Phil. 2:8-11). As both Savior and Model, Jesus calls all who believe in and follow him to a life of discipleship and stewardship, marked by the cross. This is why the Apostle John says that all true disciples of Jesus must "walk as he walked" (1 Jn. 2:6). Jesus forms a community marked by the cross, participating in the birth pangs of the new creation.

4. God has given the church a mission for this world and the world to come. The redemption God is bringing promises a new heaven and a new earth. But what does this mean? Biblically, it does not mean two common extreme views: It does not mean only saving the earth from oppression or ecological collapse. And it does not mean disembodied eternal life in heaven, with the total destruction of the material universe. Rather, it means a reconciliation between earth and heaven; the heavenly city descending to earth (Rev. 22); the reign of God that is in some way the reconstitution of the whole creation through God's work in Jesus Christ.

5. We are called to live our lives, churches, communities, and economies in harmony with biblical principles of justice, mercy, truth, and responsible interrelationship. We must learn to think interdependently and ecologically in all areas, including in our understanding of the church. Perhaps today's growing ecological consciousness will help the church discover the profoundly ecological nature of God's working in nature, in the church, and in radical social reconstruction.

Christians then, and in fact all humanity, have a God-given responsibility for creation care. The Bible gives us not only the general mandate but also practical principles by which this stewardship can be carried out. Calvin DeWitt helpfully outlines four principles of ecological practice that are rooted in Scripture and are enormously relevant in our present context:

1. The Earthkeeping Principle: Just as the creator keeps and sustains humanity, so humanity must keep and sustain the creator's creation.

2. The Sabbath Principle: The creation must be allowed to recover from human use of its resources.

3. The Fruitfulness Principle: The fecundity of the creation is to be enjoyed, not destroyed.

4. The Fulfillment and Limits Principle: There are limits set to humanity's role within creation, with boundaries set in place that must be respected.[21]

We have a great commission and a wonderful opportunity to make Jesus Christ known today, to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom; to declare God's glory among the nations. We have a stewardship to fulfill-a stewardship of creation, and a stewardship of God's many-colored grace (1 Pt. 4:10).

Conclusion

I have just come from a conference at the University of Wales commemorating the remarkable Welsh Revival of 1904-05. At first I was struck by the contrast between that gathering and this. But I asked myself: What is the connection between genuine Spirit-led revival and creation care? Is there any link?

I believe there is. The same God who is concerned with the renewal of the church is concerned with the renewal of creation. The same Spirit who hovers over the church hovers over the waters and wants to bring both into reconciliation under the headship of Jesus Christ. If we are concerned about revival in its truest sense, we will be concerned about creation care. Conversely, if we are genuinely concerned with creation care we will want to see the Holy Spirit renew God's people, sending a revival of such depth that it not only stirs our hearts but also heals our land.

I am convinced that what and how we sing about the gospel makes a difference in how we live our lives as Christians. And I am struck with the deficiency in our hymnody when it comes to a biblical understanding of God's world. Though we have some hymns such as "This Is My Father's World," many of our hymns and songs deprecate the world and speak rather of a immaterial world of spirit only. We sing, "Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land." Of course the "barren land" here is a reference to Israel's wilderness wanderings, but such language also shapes our perceptions of the world around us now.

One of my favorite hymns is the richly devotional poem by Fannie Crosby, "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross." I have often been nurtured by this hymn. All the same, it is rather deficient in terms of a fully biblical understanding of salvation. Not only is the hymn totally individualistic, but it is highly mystical and otherworldly:

Jesus, keep me near the cross
There a precious fountain
Free to all a healing stream
Flows from Calvary's mountain.

In the cross, in the cross
Be my glory ever
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

In the cross a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me,
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.

In the cross, O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me,
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.

In the cross I'll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever
Till I reach the golden strand
Just beyond the river.

There are no references to the natural world or to color here, except for the "golden strand," a reference to heaven. The mention of "mountain," "stream," and "river" are highly mystical. And the ultimate glory is that of the "raptured soul" in heaven-a phrase which if it does not deny, at least does not imply, the resurrection of the body or a new heaven and earth.

In this and many other hymns and songs, we need to supply what I call "the missing verses." Imagine if we were to sing, in very simple verse, something like the following:

Jesus, help us see your cross
Offering salvation,
God's own power to heal the earth,
Every tribe and nation.

Master, help us bear your cross,
Spread your word of pardon,
May we serve you in your world,
Till and tend your garden.

Jesus, help us follow you
Through each day and hour
May we see your glory, too
In each star and flower.

In the cross, exalted Christ,
Show the truth you're bringing,
Heaven and earth united now,
All creation singing.

In the cross, in the cross,
Be our glory ever,
Till all nature, reconciled,
Sings your praise forever.

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