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In the presence of such sin, we need forgiveness and reconciliation that is spiritual, personal, social and ecological. That's a message that comes from the heart of the Christian faith.
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I've often looked to the verse, "In Christ God was reconciling the cosmos", as central to an Earth-aware theology. This spring, my eyes were opened to a part of Paul's message that hadn't really hit me before. His words to the Corinthians are even more compelling for us than I had realized.
Paul shifts the good news of God acting in Christ from reconciliation as something that we receive to something that we do. "God has given us the ministry of reconciliation." God is "entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making [this] appeal through us."
We are to be doing the work of healing and restoring broken relationships -- reaching out into all the world, into all the creation, embodying and expressing and proclaiming the good news of reconciliation. That is our mandate in human relationships, and ecologically. We are given the ministry of reconciliation, of healing, wherever sin has distorted and fractured relationships.
Bringing about that reconciliation involves working for justice, for eco-justice. It will bring us into contrast and conflict with the exploitative values and systems of our world. If we encounter that which is broken, and go about the work of making it new and whole, we will also be creating a human culture that is new and in right relationship with the whole creation. In Larry Rasmussen's words, the proper subject of justice "is inclusive creation as Earth -- the other-than-human and human, together."
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Some churches have taken on environmental issues for purely practical reasons -- saving energy saves money in the church budget. Lots of churches have dealt with some form of the calling "to be good stewards of God's creation" -- which is generic enough to justify almost anything! Deep commitments to human justice motivate some Christians to deal with a wide range of problems: climate change, toxic chemicals, and access to water. These are all good and appropriate, but it seems to me that all of these fall short in being rooted "somewhere near the heart of the Christian faith" -- although the commitment to justice certainly goes the farthest in that direction.
At the very heart of the Christian faith is the good news of reconciliation, and the charge for us to be agents of that holy work. We are "ambassadors for Christ" when we take on the ministry of reconciliation that God has given to us.
Why should churches get involved in creation care? Why should we enter into this difficult, conflictual realm that challenges so many of our values and expectations? Why should we bring a passionate concern for the health of all of creation into the very heart of our mission and ministry?
A generic sense of stewardship won't take us there. We must be agents of healing for all creation because "God has given us the ministry of reconciliation." We must do it because it is one of the central gifts that we have been given.
Let us go about that ministry of ecological reconciliation with joy and with passion.
Shalom!
Peter Sawtell
Executive Director
Eco-Justice Ministries
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Eco-Justice Ministries * 400 S Williams St, Denver, CO 80209 *
Home Page: www.eco-justice.org
Eco-Justice Ministries ended all programming on July 31, 2020. This site is an archive of writings and resources.
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