Daily Lesson for March 19, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Romans chapter 8 verses 19 through 21:

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

All creation is waiting -- longing even -- for the sons and daughters of God to step forth. What an wonderful, breathtaking claim. And it's right there in the Bible!

The long history of human beings' way in the world has been one of exploitation of people and exploitation of land. The two go hand in hand, as individual, cultures, and economies have viewed the land as something to be used and even abused rather than a sacred gift to be stewarded, and people as ends to means rather than holy beings in and of themselves. In Martin Buber's words, we have treated people and places as "I-Its" rather than "I-Thous"; in other words, we have treated the whole world as something to be used rather than something to be treasured. This is what Paul means when he says the creation was "subjected to futility".  In other words, it was taken captive and used as a slave for the rich, powerful, and exploitative.

No wonder creation has longed for the revealing of God's children -- people who could see and turn from the error of this exploitative way.

The original vision in the Garden was that Adam serve as a kind of priest for all creation -- acting as a caretaker and steward on its behalf, and always with its best interest in mind. Anything less than this, anything exploitative or merely utilitarian falls short of this original vision and less than what creation itself longs for and needs.

The noted agrarian Wendell Berry has a new book of essays out called "Our Only World".  Even as some are fixating on the idea of sending a colony to Mars, this Earth is our only world -- at least for now; and we humans are to be fruitful and multiply and take care of it -- and for each other.

This is what it means to be truly human; the whole of creation is longing for us to realize it.

A Prayer:

LORD, my personal sins against creation and my complicity in a whole system of sins against creation also. I have viewed both people and place as means to meeting my own ends rather than sacred ends themselves. LORD, forgive my transgressions and help me to turn and learn to live another way. And may your love for all creation come to be revealed through my own life and witness.