TODAY & GENESIS 1:26ff

For the second week in a row, I write to you about the events of the day. However, today's, fortunately, is a much brighter topic.

All around the world Earth Day 2013 is being observed. While I firmly believe that, like almost every sociological, economical, and political subject these days, propagandists on all sides of an issue have a habit of taking days like today to extremes, I do think it is important for us to join in this observation. After all, in Genesis 1:26ff, we see that humanity was created, in part, to be God's stewards of the earth.

I've been thinking about this topic a great deal recently, as Christianity and the Environment will be the focus of one of our "What's On Your Mind?" series this summer, and on this beautiful spring afternoon with the windows wide open and a nice breeze sweeping through our office building, I thought it today would also be a good time to let you know that as United Methodists, we take seriously our responsibility to responsible environmental stewardship. In fact, the only group that can speak for United Methodists, our General Conference, has adopted this stance on Our Natural World within our Social Principles, the first part of which I quote here:

All creation is the Lord's, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God's creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect.  

What particularly strikes me about this is that our understanding of the Earth begins by recognizing that all of creation is the Lord's.

How would your life change if you, and everyone else, looked at all of creation as the Lord's, and not our own? Would it shape how we feel about activities we undertake or policies we support?

Remember, looking at it through a biblical frame, this is not a political or economic discussion - it is theological and reflects our understand of God's graciousness.

What I really like is that while good, well-intentioned men and women can have very reasonable and understandable differences about how we may go about being good stewards of God's creation, we should all find agreement that none of it is ours - it is all the Lord's.

Grace and Peace, Lamar