Words for Worship

Ministry Today

 

 

When anyone asks me

 

if I had a good holiday,

 

I invariably say Yes.

 

 

But there is one experience

 

I would not repeat.

 

 

It happened when

 

I took a folding seat

 

to sit outside the caravan

 

to drink a cup of coffee.

 

 

Now I should have known better

 

because Somerset is

 

the bug county of Britain.

 

 

But I forgot

 

and sat down without looking.

 

 

The next moment

 

I was in agony

 

as a blessed wasp

 

had stung me.

 

 

Why I thought did God,

 

who had made the mistake

 

of creating wasps,

 

then compound it

 

by allowing them

 

aboard Noah’s ark?

 

 

But that is the problem

 

with many stories

 

in Old Testament.

 

 

For people tend to see them

 

as quaint tales

 

from primitive people

 

or a cute flannel graph

 

for kids.

 

 

But with these jokey misconceptions,

 

they forget that

 

the whole of Hebraic tradition

 

has something uniquely deep

 

to say.

 

 

Or as Swiss theologian Karl Barth,

 

when asked

 

whether the snake

 

in the garden of Eden

 

really talked,

 

he responded,

 

"The important point is

 

not whether the snake spoke,

 

but what he said."

 

 

What then

 

is Noah’s arc and God’s rainbow

 

saying to us

 

as we continue to look

 

at our planet in crisis?

 

 

Well, crucially, they help us

 

solve some of the greatest global dilemmas

 

of today.

 

 

For example,

 

on the edge of Bangalore –

 

one of India’s fastest growing cities –

 

people are facing

 

a big quandary.

 

 

For this city is now

 

a global centre

 

for high-tech industries

 

and as a result,

 

it growing inexorably outwards.

 

 

But this includes intrusion

 

into a protected forest area

 

where there is population

 

of wild elephants.

 

 

Now these animals

 

often leave the forest

 

to raid crops

 

or to follow their migratory routes

 

which have become disrupted

 

by buildings and roads.

 

 

As a result,

 

sometimes elephants get killed,

 

and sometimes people get killed

 

or their livelihoods destroyed.

 

 

And so,

 

as in many other places,

 

rapid population growth

 

is putting

 

a huge pressure on wildlife.

 

 

Now, generally in this situation,

 

Christians have sided with people;

 

say helping poor villagers

 

whose lives

 

and livelihoods are threatened,

 

even if it is at the expense

 

of wildlife-protection.

 

 

Yet perhaps that is not

 

the whole biblical picture.

 

 

For Noah’s whole story

 

reminds us

 

that God cares both

 

for the human and the non-human.

 

 

Christ too provokes us

 

to see that God

 

values sparrows

 

as well as you and I.

 

 

What then is to be done?

 

 

Well we could start off

 

by accepting all creatures

 

are in the same boat.

 

 

Because Noah’s Ark can be seen

 

as a picture of planet earth today –

 

a planet where all of us

 

are squashed together,

 

often competing

 

for space and resources.

 

 

However it is also a planet

 

where God has made

 

enough for all

 

if we recognise our interdependence.

 

To take one case study,

 

in recent years

 

there has been a lot of publicity

 

about rapid declining honey-bee populations.

 

 

The causes are complex and uncertain –

 

maybe it’s disease

 

or maybe it’s pesticides.

 

 

But whatever the reasons,

 

we are now realising

 

how closely our welfare

 

is tied to the humble honey-bee.

 

 

For it is estimated that

 

70% of all crops

 

are pollinated by bees,

 

and in the unlikely

 

but scary event

 

that they became extinct,

 

it is predicted that

 

a very severe famine

 

could be permenantly visited upon us.

 

 

 

 

Well, whether or not

 

that is scaremongering,

 

it illustrates

 

just how closely our welfare

 

is tied to that

 

of other parts of God’s creation.

 

 

Without bees there

 

would certainly be

 

no land flowing with milk and honey.

 

 

In God’s creation,

 

all our relationships –

 

like living in the Ark –

 

are therefore essential.

 

 

Although I suspect the jury

 

is still out on wasps.

 

 

But in addition

 

to being a reminder

 

of our interdependence,

 

the story of Noah

 

tells us something else.

 

 

For the Ark was full

 

of all the other species –

 

with only a very few human beings

 

on board!

 

 

Yet still God sent the rainbow

 

as a sign of his Covenant promise.

 

 

Because, as Genesis points out,

 

that promise is

 

with ‘every living creature on earth’

 

and with ‘the earth’

 

and with ‘all life on earth’.

 

 

And as we think about that further,

 

we realise that our theology

 

of what salvation means

 

has got very limited.

 

 

It has become focussed

 

largely on God’s saving plans

 

for humanity

 

and forgotten the bigger picture.

 

 

We have indeed

 

converted in our own minds

 

Matthew’s parable

 

into one that discounts

 

the sparrow’s life.

 

 

Where as we should delight

 

in the divine valuing

 

of all creatures

 

by truly understanding the majesty of –

 

not one of them falls to the ground

 

apart from the will of the Father.

 

 

Therefore the final thing

 

that Noah must remind us of

 

is how we humans fit

 

into God’s bigger plans

 

for the whole of creation.

 

 

Since Noah was,

 

of course,

 

the first great conservationist.

 

 

However, in another sense

 

he was also

 

the first great missionary.

 

 

In other words,

 

he was the first person

 

to whom God gave a specific mission

 

and job description to.

 

 

And that mission was very specific –

 

it was to demonstrate

 

responsible leadership

 

within creation.

 

 

For in ‘The Message’ version

 

of Genesis

 

God says:

 

"Let us make human beings in our image,

 

make them reflecting our nature

 

So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,

 

the birds in the air, the cattle,

 

and, yes, Earth itself,

 

and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."

 

 

Needless to say Noah’s mission

 

is also ours nowadays.

 

 

For this responsibility

 

for creation’s welfare

 

is fundamental

 

to who we are as human beings.

 

 

It is not about having a ‘dominion’

 

that results in domination

 

and exploitation.

 

 

It is rather about

 

reflecting God’s image

 

in how we exert our rule

 

and responsibility

 

for creation’s well-being.

 

 

Therefore we can truly say

 

that wildlife conservation

 

is an essential expression

 

of Christian mission.

 

 

This was the very point of view

 

taken by the book –

 

Bonds of Affection.

 

 

In it, was set out

 

the increasingly well-known

 

‘Five Marks of Mission’

 

which collectively

 

are being adopted

 

as a mission statement

 

by many denominations.

 

 

For these outline

 

all the aspects of following Jesus

 

in this 21st Century world in Crisis.

 

Let me therefore list them:

 

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

 

• To teach, baptise and nurture new believers

 

• To respond to human need by loving service

 

• To seek to transform unjust structures of society

 

• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

 

 

Here then

 

in the last of the marks of mission

 

we return to where we started

 

in the city of Bangalore.

 

 

Since we must resist

 

the pressure to choose between

 

helping people

 

and helping wildlife.

 

 

For if we truly seek God’s Kingdom,

 

we must indeed be

 

like Noah

 

and work with all creation harmoniously.

 

 

We must seek lifestyles and policies

 

that both help to protect

 

the ark-like diversity

 

of this planet

 

whilst letting no one go hungry.

 

 

Moreover, we must resist pressures

 

to drive a wedge

 

between these goals.

 

 

Because, as Christians,

 

we remain missionaries

 

for the rainbow

 

that promises the good heaven

 

to this multicoloured earth –

 

wasps and all!

 

 

Amen

 

 

Offering

 

 

HYMN…………..

 

 

 

Humans & Wildlife