The big story (biblical metanarrative)
is about God and his plans to redeem his creation - the
endpoint of which is the new heavens and new Earth (revelation
21). As noted by Christopher Wright, it is not possible
to be God's people unless we are living ethically, and our
response to the big story - how we live - is a measure of
our relationship with God. This includes how we treat his
creation (environmental ethics).
A naïve, but not uncommon, Christian approach to the
environment is that if God is going to replace the existing
Earth by a new Earth then there is no need to take action
now, as God will fix it all in the future. Evangelism should
be the priority for God's people. Another misconception
arises from a particular reading of 2 Peter 3:10. The present
Earth will be destroyed, so we need not look after it now.
(Note, however, that fire is a biblical symbol of purification
(1 Corinthians 3:10-15) and that Peter also makes mention
of the flood purging evil from the world, though the language
is that of destruction (2 Peter 3:6-7).) Neither of these
approaches takes account of the big story - God's plan to
redeem the whole of creation (Romans 8:19-21).
Though we live in the present, we are to live in the light
of the new creation - for example, as we pray for the sick
to be healed (James 5:14-16) we anticipate their complete
healing in the new creation (Revelation 21:4). In the same
way, as we care for the environment and seek to fulfil the
mandate that God gave (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15), we anticipate
the coming of the new creation. This is an example of the
"now and not yet" aspect of God's kingdom.
Consider the two great kingdom commandments spoken by Jesus
- love God and love your neighbour (Matthew 22:34-40). The
Earth is a gift to from God to us. We need to ask: are we
truly loving God if we are wreaking destruction on the gift
he has given us? To quote Christopher Wright again, "trashing
someone else's property is incompatible with any claim to
love that person."
With regard to loving our neighbour, a challenging question
is: are our actions causing harm to others elsewhere on
the planet? Our western lifestyle requires high levels of
consumption, not least of energy, with the consequent release
of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This causes global
warming and so sea-level rise, impacting human populations
living in low-lying areas, generally in the poorer parts
of the world. Therefore, do we love our neighbour if that
neighbour will be displaced from their home and means of
livelihood by our actions? Inevitably, some of the people
impacted will be our brothers and sisters in Christ, so
if we do not respond we go against the clear commands in
the bible (1 John 3:17).
If reading this has made you feel uncomfortable about your
lifestyle and makes you re-think how you are living, writing
it has done the same for me. Let us then make a start on
living differently in the light of the big story.
Further reading:
Srokosz M.A. 2008 God's story and the Earth's story: grounding
our concern for the environment in the biblical metanarrative,
Science & Christian Belief, 20, 163-174.
C.J.H. Wright 2006 The mission of God: unlocking the Bible's
grand narrative. Nottingham: IVP.
Spencer N. & White R. 2007 Christianity, Climate Change
and Sustainable Living, London, SPCK.
Meric Srokosz
