Eco-mission for elect exiles

On Sunday I heard a sermon which was the first in a series on Peter's epistles, 1 Peter 1:1-9. This section addresses readers Peter refers to as elect exiles (ESV) or in the NASB as aliens .... who are chosen. The issue of election isn't relevant to the discussion here, but the idea of exiles is. If Christians are exiles at the moment, what does that say about eco-mission? Indeed, what does it say about any action at all? If we are exiles, what does the end of exile mean?

Now exile is the non-willing removal of a person or group of people from their home. Many Christians will read this passage and immediately infer our home is heaven. Many will then go on to add that this means that things like eco-mission or creation care are optional at best, perhaps a distraction, and at worst pagan. I suspect this comes from a misunderstanding of both exile and heaven.

Graham Goldsworthy's classic expression of Old Testament hope was being God's people in God's place under God's rule, though we might replace the later as under God's blessing to bring it in line with Genesis 12:1-3, noting that God's rule was a sign of his blessing. So if any of these was out of place, there should have been a sense of exile. Daniel 9 appears to speak of exile up to the day of writing (v7 speaks of shame) because of Persian rule. So people could be in God's place but his rule not established in the sense of being usurped by a foreign power. Later in this chapter, end of exile is associated with the coming of the Messiah.

The point I am trying to get to is that while we are elect exiles, this doesn't mean that the Earth isn't our home and heaven is, as if the two are meant to be separate! Note how in verse 4 how our inheritance is reserved in heaven - but insisting that we need to go there to get it is like saying we need to go into the cupboard where our Christmas present is hidden to play with it. A few ideas to make this clearer:

Revelation 20-21 promises a new heavens and a new Earth and that one will come down to be joined with the other. Note how in the Lord's Prayer, heaven is where God's will is done now, and Jesus prays that it will be done on Earth as well. Further, if we acknowledge that heaven is where God is, heaven was on Earth for a time because (as Ed Kowalczyk noted) 'heaven wore a shirt', then since Jesus is coming back to Earth, so heaven is coming to Earth. Likewise, Romans 8 promises the Earth itself to be redeemed. Our home will ultimately be where heaven and Earth meet, not where they are separate.

So in a sense, we live like exiles because many things are impermanent. Yet as Tom Wright notes, at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, the passage on resurrection, because we will be raised from the dead (and not simply ascend to heaven for ever), what we do now is not in vain. Exiles we are, but when home comes to Earth we shall be at home, and some of the things we have done in exile will matter for eternity. This includes groaning with and caring for creation.

ABC environment blog guest post

Just to let readers know that I will have a blogpost on the ABC Environment blog tomorrow on biblical theology and the environment (ecotheology). Enjoy

Coca Cola and the NT recycling scheme

The following is a very lame attempt at mocking the 'Always Coca Cola' song. Thanks guys for showing how good you are at being corporate citizens and opposing a cash back scheme. Alternate lyrics appreciated.

"do do do do dood, do do do ,do do

do do do do dood, always corp’rate-swindle (2x)

Wherever there's a coke there's always a can

whenever there's profit, there's a recycling ban

wherever there is greed, it’s always so dumb

whenever there's junk there's always corp’rate-swindle... yeah.

chorus

The junk will always pile, the birds will always die

As long as there’s plastic, there's always the fake thing

Coca-cola is always the one

Whenever there is junk, there's always corp’rate-swindle

do do do do dood, do do do ,do do (corp’rate-swindle)

do do do do dood, always coca-cola (ooh, ooh, oooh)

do do do do dood, do do do ,do do (doo dood do do doooh)

do do do do dood, always coca-cola (hey eh)

let the cans pile, let them pile.

always, always... corp’rate-swindle

oh always.

Cultivating a concern for nature/creation: Daily awe not daily aww

You care about what you think about and value. So if we want to care about nature, or from a theological viewpoint, the creation, we should cultivate an interest in it and admiration of it. I call this daily awe. Of course this awe isn't of nature in of itself only, but insofar as it points to the God who created it. I find Psalm 104 helpful in this regard - God is a God of biodiversity, who creates many different habitats for the sake of their inhabitants, and not just for human economic needs (though not less than that in some times and places).

So the daily awe is to see God's creativity in things - be it watering the earth for all creatures, including humans, or caring for lions who can be down right dangerous for humans and their livestock. But note too this therefore isn't the daily awww as in the exclamation we make when we see something 'cute'. There are many things in nature that appear savage but yet have their own aesthetic appeal. Notwithstanding some anthropomophizing of some behaviour, only humans are cruel. Hence our awe will include predation, things not considered cute by all such as various invertebrates on which life depends (I mean creepy crawlies).

So how do we cultivate daily awe?

1. By direct experience. Look at the insects or birds around you (or if you're very lucky, mammals). Take a walk on the beach looking for shells; look at the seeds or leaves that fall to the ground and study their smell, textures and colours.
2. Organize a holiday based around nature such as ecotours.
3. Have a regular diet of good documentaries. The ABC and BBC do a good job. A lot of Animal Planet material is sensationalist rubbish.
4. The web is full of amazing pictures. I 'like' a number of Facebook pages with some wonderful daily images.
5. Read good books on natural history. In a day of cultural ADHD forced by social media, being able to sustain reflection on a topic is a virtue if not a necessity. These books should vary from celebrations of what is to reflections on what we are losing and why - but never read just one either you'll lose sight of what we value in despair or live in a fantasy where Eden still exists everywhere.

Quote of the day: 18 February 2013

Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man. No one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body. Charles Darwin

Quote of the day: 15 February 2013

The peace of nature and the innocent creatures of God seems to be secure and deep, only so long as the presence of man and his restless and unquiet spirit are not there to trouble its sanctity. Thomas de Quincey.

Quote for the day: 14 February 2013

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life becomes extinct, the climate's ruined and the law grows poorer and uglier every day. - Anton Chekhov.