the green bible

December 2007 LUBH 7 – The Green Bible

The Green Bible


Some basic principles

• God is creator, we are creatures

• The earth belongs to God (Ps 24.1, Lev 25.23)

• God is the first gardener (Gen 2.8)

• In Christ the creation is renewed (Romans 8 vs Genesis 2)

• The promised land is the vision


Therefore the land mourns…

• Common language

• Examples: Hosea 4, Jeremiah 4

• Link with sin – (cursed is the ground because of you)

• No separation between creature and creation– (that’s gnosticism)


Three tools:

• Idolatry

• Wrath

• Eschatology


This is how you should farm:

• Do not reap to the edge of your field (Lev 19.9)

• Do not harvest fruit for four years (Lev 19.23)

• The Jubilee – do not farm!

• Radical trust in God’s provision

• But.. But.. But…


What are our motivations?

• Hunger?

• Fear?

• Greed?

• Let us consider Baal


Baalism

• Canaanite fertility God

• Entry of Israel is clash of YHWH with Baal– Cultic prostitution

• Control of fertility

• Driven by…?


Contemporary Baalism

• A form of idolatry– The world belongs to us– We have the power to remake it

• Control of fertility by own efforts

• Systematic exploitation

• Rooted in lack of trust– Hunger? Fear? Greed?


Examples

• Monoculture

• Factory farming

• Fossil fuelled fertiliser

• “Agribusiness”– ie motivated by corporate priorities not organic

priorities– ‘strip-mining the soil’


Wrathful consequences

• Disease– CJD? Salmonella? Avian flu?

• Loss of topsoil– 30-40t/ha average in 3rd world– 17t/ha in US (source:Pimentel)– 4.3m km² lost over 40yrs (=30%)


nothing beside remains…


Wrathful consequences

• Disease– CJD? Salmonella? Avian flu?

• Loss of topsoil– 30-40t/ha average in 3rd world– 17t/ha in US (source:Pimentel)

• Dependence upon fossil fuels

• GM contamination?


If you defile the land, it will vomit

you out

(Lev 18.28)


Wider issues

• How to live within the world

• World – and creatures – as inherently worthy of respect (Job 40/41)

• Environmental crisis as symptom of spiritual crisis


Environmental crisis

• Creation has integrity

• Scientific revolution undermines this– The idol called techne– Sapientia not scientia– We are radically anti-phronetic

• Consequences are all around us


The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your

servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence

your name, both small and great - and for destroying those who

destroy the earth.Revelation 11.18


Eschatology

• Putting on the armour of light

• Shifting to Kingdom patterns of life

• Being at peace in creation

• Dominion (stewardship, creation-care)– Not domination

• The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God


Specifically

• Learning how to garden

• Applying those principles more widely

• Eg organic, but local more important

• Consume less

• Walk lightly on the earth


“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and

pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their

sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7.13-14)


Wendell Berry

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

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