Sermon for 2nd Sunday before Lent 16.02.20

"Stewards, not Landowners"

by The Revd Preb. Marjorie Brown

What is worrying you the most these days?

It might be politics, that ever-present source of division and anxiety.  

It might be personal matters to do with the health, finances, housing and employment of yourself or those you love. 

It might be relationships – Valentine’s Day has just been and gone. For some people it is a time of rejoicing in their happy coupledom, whether it is new and exciting or long-tested and settled. But for many others it is a yearly reminder of the poignancy of loneliness or loss, or relationships that have gone sour.

Perhaps it’s the coronavirus, now renamed COVID-19. We are not sure how worried we ought to be, but it’s like a menacing cloud drawing nearer. At least we can take some sensible precautions, like the ones we are advised to use in church until this epidemic is past.

But let’s suppose for a moment that you have given up worrying about politics, that your personal life and relationships are in relatively good order, and that you are free of flu-like symptoms and in tolerable health. What then might cause you to be anxious?

Smart political campaigners know how to identify our collective fears and hopes and tap into them in three words. Take back control. Get Brexit done. Britain deserves better. Yes we can. Back in Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, the catchphrase was, The economy, stupid!

Ask anyone under 30 what we should be worrying about and they’ll tell you in three words. The environment, stupid! If we can run to five words, they would be: There is no Planet B.

So how do today’s readings help us with this global crisis that we are all at last waking up to?

First of all the reading from Genesis, with its hypnotic poetry, reminds us of the beauty and goodness of creation and its astonishing variety. The message is clearly that God loves what has been made and delights in it. There are a few things in it that I would draw your attention to.

One is that the earth is commanded to bring forth living creatures – it’s a dynamic process, and this poetic myth to my mind foreshadows the astonishing 19th century discoveries of the evolution of life on earth.

Another thing to notice is that human beings are distinguished by our likeness to God and our stewardship of the rest of creation – what an awe-inspiring birthright and responsibility. 

And a third detail that may have escaped your notice is that God seems to envision veganism as the norm for creation – human beings are given every herb bearing seed and every fruit to eat, and even for the animals and birds the menu is every green herb for meat. Perhaps this is a surprise because it’s not often pointed out. But one line of Christian environmentalist thinking is that the exploitation of animals for food is part of our fallen condition, along with pain, patriarchy and the hard labour needed to survive, which are the punishments given to Adam and Eve a few chapters later in Genesis.

We are invited by St Paul, writing to the Romans, to consider the present state of creation. We know from Genesis that God has made all things good, and yet look at the way things are. He uses words like suffering, futility, bondage, decay, groaning in labour pains. It certainly seems that the created world as we experience it is not the perfect finished article that the poetry of Genesis describes.

The world has gone wrong. Sin has entered it, and so it is perishable and full of violence and strife. But Paul promises a glorious fulfillment, the renewal of creation. Sometimes people think that Christians don’t care about this world because we are waiting to be airlifted to somewhere better. But that is to misread the whole of the Bible. A gloriously remade world, not a disembodied heaven, is what God has promised. The Spirit is at work in us, and the first fruits can already be seen, but the glorification is yet to come. We’re in labour, like a woman longing for her baby to be born. The best is still ahead.

And we are right in the middle of the picture, made in God’s image to be wise and faithful stewards of creation, called to work with the Spirit towards the renewal of all things. That is why care of the environment is one of the most important tasks humanity has been given, perhaps for our generation THE most important.

The Anglican Communion has identified Five Marks of Mission, in other words five ways in which we are called to join in the work of Christ in God’s kingdom. They begin with proclaiming the Good News, nurturing new believers, giving loving service to those in need, and working for justice and peace, but the last one is “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth”.

So it’s our Christian duty to care about the environment. And that is why St Mary’s is going to convene an earth stewardship assembly every month, to audit what we can do as a church community to work towards this mark of mission.

But how does this square with Jesus telling us not to worry? He doesn’t say we have no responsibility for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field – he says they have no fear or anxiety, because God takes care of them. Like the birds and flowers, we shouldn’t fret about our material needs, but as human beings in the image of God, we have a mission: to seek first the kingdom of God, by joining in the Spirit’s work of renewing creation. God is always active in the world. God’s creative work didn’t come to an end on that first Sabbath.

There is no need to panic and despair. God will be faithful to the covenant promise to renew all of creation and to bring about the glorious liberty of the children of God. But we are part of that covenant relationship and we will be held to account for our stewardship. Made in the image and likeness of God, we carry a tremendous responsibility for using our will and our wits to safeguard all that is good.

Storms and floods, corona and other viruses, melting glaciers, forest fires, vanishing species, rising sea levels, polluted waterways, plastic rubbish, global warming – these and many other signs of decay and bondage are warning signs to us, and we have to our collective shame been woefully slow to respond with action. Perhaps it took the combination of the 90-year-old David Attenborough and the 16-year-old Greta Thunberg to awaken the world’s conscience. Of course it is not Christians alone who are taking action now. But Christians should be at the forefront of those who are safeguarding the planet, because we see it as the good creation of a loving and faithful God.

We know, as Christians, that it is not finally on our shoulders. We must do all we can. But we are simply stewards, not landowners. The earth is the Lord’s. God is in charge. We are servants, and we must give an account of our stewardship. The day of reckoning will come. That should put into perspective all that we do.