The Lutheran, May 2008

A monthly column by Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson

In creation, find hope
God in, above, outside all things

As I write, people around the world are turning off their lights in observance of Earth Hour. Earlier today my wife, Ione, and I purchased a vehicle with a renewed consciousness of our decision’s environmental impact. Only days ago a section of the Antarctic West Ice Shelf the size of a major city broke off, drifting away and continuing to melt.

With a growing awareness of the precarious state of the environment and our commitment to stewardship of God’s creation ("Troubled by stewardship"), please reflect with me on Romans 8:18-25. Although I read this passage through the lens of this current crisis, I believe these words, written in another context, say something to us of God’s call to steward God’s creation.

Paul’s words invite us to listen to the creation. What do we hear?

The creation is waiting. “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (8:19). For whom is the creation waiting? For us! The creation is waiting for us to show up as children of God, to live out our vocation as stewards freed in Christ.

The creation is groaning. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (8:22-23).

The image is not of the Earth as a god that can be manipulated for humankind’s whims or that must be appeased for humankind’s survival. Yet it is more than “just dirt,” the “third rock” from a flaming sphere of gas. This planet—the whole creation—is a cherished possession, God’s beloved creature. The groaning of the creation is not a death rattle—it is the announcement of birth. The creation awaits its fulfillment, eagerly, with the passion of a woman in labor awaiting new life. With all of creation you and I share in this relationship. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

The creation will be set free by God. “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). The good news is that God’s purposes for us and the whole creation are being revealed in Jesus Christ. By God’s grace through faith on account of Christ we can live a more fully human life: a new creation. We are set free to live with the creation, neither dominating nor neglecting the intricate web of all of life.

In Gravity and Grace, Lutheran theologian Joseph Sittler writes, “I am interested in the reality of the presence of God in the creation, because only the doctrine of grace will be adequate to change the spirit of our minds whereby we deal with timber or oil, fish and animals, and the structure of cities, urban design, homes for people, planes to work—all those mundane concrete things that yet constitute the anchorage of our hearts, the home of our daily lives.”

With the creation we live in hope. Paul ends on a resounding note of hope. “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (8:24-25). It is hope borne of faith—Spirit-given confidence in God’s faithfulness to God’s promise to redeem the whole creation. It is hope grounded in the belief that, as Martin Luther wrote in “Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper,” “God ... exists at the same time in every little seed, whole and entire, and yet also in all and above all and outside all created things.”

Such hope frees us to sing God’s praises for the beauty and wonder of all creation. Such hope calls us to receive life as a gift of God’s grace through Christ. Such hope compels us to be disciplined and faithful stewards of the whole creation.

The Lutheran, May 2008

A monthly column by Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson

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