Community and Creation Care

[The Following Sermon was given at Steinmann Mennonite Church on July 7, 2013. This also marks the last sermon I have there. I do have one next week at River of Life Fellowship, but soon this will have more essays that I write].

A reading of Genesis 2 can be tricky because there is something lost in translation. In Hebrew the word for humanity, the word for a male human (man), and the name of the first human are all the same, Adam, coming from the word Adamuh which means dirt. This makes sense from a Genesis 2 perspective when there is only one human, so that human, Adam would embody all three.

When God put the man God had created into the Garden, God realized that something was missing. He realizes that it is not good for Adam to be alone, so God tries to find a helper, he brings all of the animals to Adam, they like Adam had been formed from the dirt, but they weren't suitable helper's for Adam’s work in caring for creation. Oh I'm sure the chimpanzee was pretty close, their opposable thumbs would be great for doing the gardening, but their lack of language meant they probably wouldn't have been a good conversationalist.

At this point God could have said, I tried, but I just haven't made anything that will work. Instead, God returns to the process of creating, and makes one more thing. But where previously God had said "let there be" and there was, this time, we read about a whole new creative process. God puts significant time and effort into this creation because God knows how important this is.

God makes Adam Sleep, and then takes his Tsela, which while it is often translated Rib, a more accurate understanding would be "side" or "Half."

God takes this side of Adam, and forms it into a woman, a suitable helper for him.  They are compatible physically, emotionally, visually.

When the first Adam meets this newly created partner, he says "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman; for she was taken out of man" This statement isn't about some little rib, but rather an equal.

Now that there is difference in gender, the language changes, we are no longer talking about Adam, Here we can see differences of gender in the language, Woman is Ishshah, which comes from iysh, or Man.

The fact that Ishshah come from Iysh is not intended to be a statement of gender dominance, the two humans now living in the garden are supposed to be equals.  The woman is described as a suitable helper, helper, the same word that Israel uses to describe God when they were in trouble. Adam, the first human being, has been divided in two, and consequently the rest of humanity has a new division.

But why? From my perspective, the human in the Garden didn't appear to be missing anything, everything Ishshah had, was part of the original creation, but the separation into two humans, the division into male and female had to serve a purpose, but what?

And God said, it is not good for man to be alone

God saw the Human need for community, a need derived from the fact that we are created in the divine Image.

As NT Wright Says, “the creator loved the world he had made, and wanted to look after it the best possible way. To that end, he placed in his world a looking after creature, a creature who would demonstrate to the creation who he, the creator, really was, and who would set to work developing the creation and making it flourish and fulfill its purpose. This Looking-after creature (or rather, this family of creatures: the human race) would model and embody that interrelatedness, that mutual and fruitful knowing, trusting and loving, which was the Creator's intention. Relationship was part of the way in which we were meant to be fully human, not for our own sake, but as part of a much larger scheme of things."

This act of creating community shows God's goodness, and willingness to work within God's creation. In other Creation stories, the gods don't care about humans. In Babylon we made too much noise so Tiamat tried to kill us resulting in a giant flood. In Greece we are a necessary nuisance that Zeus kept around so we could keep giving the Olympian gods sacrifices.

But for our God, we are important, beings God makes because God wanted us to be God's representatives on earth.

The Triune God, The Creator, sustainer and redeemer, the Father, son and Holy Spirit, is a perfect example of perfect community. While it may not be easy to understand, we catch a glimpse of this unity in diversity amongst ourselves.

God, three distinct beings, and yet perfectly united, needed a representative on earth who would also be separate but together

So God creates humans, distinct and yet united in one through the act of community. We are then entrusted with the Garden, and in fact the whole earth, to care for it, and help it be the best, the healthiest, the most beautiful it could be.

man, we screwed that up

If we look at the world today, we see an earth marked by deforestation, 13 million hectares are destroyed each year, so we can have land to grow food, and wood to make everything from toilet paper to houses. This is resulting in many animals losing their habitats

When I was in Guatemala in 2009 we visited a community, Panabaj that lived in a valley, when logging companies came into the area, there were no longer tree roots to hold together the soil, and now they've had to rebuild their entire town twice because of mudslides

Because we release fossil fuels into the air (carbon dioxide from burning oil in our cars and Methane from the animals we eat), the heat from the sun which used to hit the earth, and bounce off us, gets stuck in the atmosphere, causing global rises in temperature. Last summer's drought was connected to this heat, I was working on a farm and we barely got 2 cuts of hay instead of the usual three or four so there is a hay shortage this year.

When we think about the environment

We need to remember the story in Matthew 25 where a man going on a journey entrusts his servants with his wealth, to one he gave 5 bags of gold, to one gave 2 bags and another he gave one bag. While he was gone, the first two put their money to work, investing it in business and doubling what they had been given, while the third one buried it for safe keeping. When the man returned, he was very happy with the two who had invested the wealth and rewarded them, but when he got to the servant who had buried his bag, he was very mad.

Right now, as a human race we haven't invested what we've been given, we haven't even hidden it, we've taken that money and gone to MacDonald’s and gorged ourselves on big macs. We've wasted the earth God has entrusted to us.

And then there’s the global community we were supposed to be:

After the passage we read in Genesis, in the next chapter we, as humans, break the only rule we've ever been given and eat the fruit, the chapter after that we started killing each other, soon we see all levels of rape, gendercide, genocide, we see utter rebellion against God time after time. Soon this united humanity becomes so divided in heart that we become divided on the outside, becoming many different nations with different languages

We've managed to overpopulate the planet, Already we are at over 7 billion people.  The world needs to increase food production by 50 percent in 30 years if we want to keep with expected growth, something that won't happen without more deforestation so we will have more land to grow food on.

Not to mention increased need for expanded health care, sanitation, and education systems, systems that are already taxed.

3.1 million Children died from hunger last year

94 children were killed between 2006 and 2009 by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Thousands of civilians have been killed by Allied and Insurgent forces in Afghanistan, a war we are participating in.

156 358 were waiting for affordable housing in Ontario last year

If world is a village, and the United States is the world's police officer, Canada would be the world's miner. We own 75 percent of global mining companies, not just up north in the Canadian shield, but we also own operations in countries as diverse Diamonds in South Africa, and coltan in Democratic Republic of Congo, gold in Guatemala

In Guatemala, these companies are using explosives to gain access to the minerals underneath the ground and once they start run open-pit mining operations.

I spent a couple days in San Marcos, a Guatemalan community up the hill from an open pit mining operation.

       

        The explosives that the mining companies use have caused cracking in the houses of people in the area. The company claims that it is because of inferior building techniques, but these houses have been fine for years before the mining companies came in, and an NGO has brought in scientists whose initial findings link the cracks in the houses to the mining operations.

       

As with many mining endeavors, communities near the mines suffer from skin rashes, but while the rashes usually occur after seven or 8 years of the mine’s opening, they are happening within a few years in Guatemala.

Less than one percent of all wealth mined from Guatemala stays within the country, next to no jobs go to Guatemalan workers,

        The people of Guatemala are opposed to the mining operations. Trying to appease the people, the government set up community consultations, which is a Guatemalan tradition. As of 2009 when I visited, 32 consultations had been conducted, all across Guatemala, and at every single consultation there has been a resounding no to mining. Guatemala has a population of 13 million people, of those thirteen million people, 5 million have been consulted, of those 5 million, only 500 have said yes to the mining, that’s a ratio of 10000 to 1, but the government is too afraid of Canadian big business to stop it.

If we humans are supposed to be a community of caring for the world we live in and for each other, we are doing a bang up job.

These are things we are directly implicated in. Wars fought on our behalf, or extracting of natural resources for our benefit. Everything I've mentioned here is because we are more concerned about ourselves than the people and the world around us.

There's a reason apple one of the most popular brands in the world. It’s all about me myself and i. iPhone, iPad, iMac.

We care more about ourselves individually than the the people or the world around us.

Up until now I have been giving you a whole lot of bad news. But I do finally have some good news.

2000 years ago, there lived somebody who didn't think about himself

A man who reached out to those around him, and invited others to join him

A man who challenged the self-serving establishments of his day and payed the ultimate price, not just for himself, but for all of us.

Jesus Christ called together a new community, where everyone's needs is met

Where we are called to live faithfully, sharing his good news to the world around us.

We are called to be faithful stewards of the earth, not because it's going to benefit us in any way, but as a return to our original mission.

The environment has been permanently scarred.  There is no way to stop the effects of Global warming, ice caps are melting, sea-tides are rising, and species are dead and dying.

But we must listen to the wisdom of the Iroquois nation, who have for a long time taught 7 generation sustainability. We need to make decisions not just for our own benefits, but also think about what will happen in seven generations time. Is cutting down this forest for paper going to benefit our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren, or is the fact that they will not have clean, breathable air more important?

We are doing it, within the church we have groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams, who work to bring peace in places where we have and are fighting.

We have community organizations which work to rebuild broken relationships

we have organizations like Mennonite Central Committee who shares "God's love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. MCC envisions communities worldwide in right relationship with God, one another and creation."

It was MCC that took me to Panabaj and San Marcos where they are working alongside members of the community to prevent more environmental damage.

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is "a collection of churches and church based agencies working to end global hunger. Canadian Foodgrains Bank is rooted in the belief that humankind is created in the image of God and that it is God’s desire that no person should go hungry. The availability of food and access to that food is fundamental to life itself. Food is required to sustain life, to provide the strength for work, and to share in the fellowship of one’s family and community"

We have organizations like A Rocha whose vision is "the transformation of people and places into healthy communities through a movement of individuals and groups, caring for God’s world.

Restoring salmon habitat, training young scientists, inspiring school children, feeding low-income families–A Rocha is transforming people and places through hands-on conservation projects, environmental education programs and sustainable agriculture initiatives."

As a church we are rebuilding the community God gave us back at the beginning, it is this community that is starting to care for the creation God's given us. However, these organizations won't do much if God's people, you and I don't do our part. They need our support to fund, fill volunteer roles, advocate. As individuals we can't sit by or else as a group we won't do anything. We need to be God's representatives on earth just as God intended it.

[Interestingly, Ryan Robinson, the Emerging Anabaptist, wrote a blog post on genesis 2 this week as well, and we share some points.]