Our second reading today comes from the Book of Revelation, which is the last book in the Bible. But before we talk about the reading from Revelation, we need to go back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. We go all the way back to the beginning, in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. Do you recognize that phrase, heavens and earth? We heard it in Revelation today. In the beginning when God created the earth, it was a formless void, welter and waste, and the Holy Spirit moved over the waters of the Creation. God spoke and said, let there be light. And there was light, and God said that it was good. Each day goes on like this. The next day God takes the waters and separates them. The waters below, which are called seas, the dome, called sky, and the waters above, which we call outer space. The next day those waters below, the seas, are separated so the earth can be seen. Then God creates vegetation, the plants, the trees, the seeds, the fruits. The next day God creates the sun and the moon and the stars. The next day, all the animals that go in those seas and go in the sky--the fish, the whales, the dolphins, the oysters, clams, shrimp, and all those wonderful birds up in the sky. The next day God creates all the land animals. At the end of each day God looks out over the Creation and says, it is good, it is good, it is very, very good. Then God takes a day to rest.
At the end of the Creation of all those land animals, he creates one more land animal, which is you and me. We are made in God’s image, and God tells us to take care of this Creation that he has made. God asks us to be the stewards of His good Creation.
Then Genesis tells us another Creation story. The order of things is a little different, but in this Creation story it is basically asking the question: if all of this is good, why does it seem that everything in this world is so messed up? This is the main thing about this Creation story, but there is still the theme that we are meant to be taking care of God’s Creation.
Now let’s go back to Revelation. It says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, referencing the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. God is creating a new heaven and a new earth. Creation is about the past, Revelation is about the future, which we call the eschatology, the end times, when God is going to come again. So while in the beginning we are talking about Creation, in the end we are talking about salvation and whatever that means, and scholars have written tomes about that topic. I will simply say that Revelation is addressing whatever salvation means. But notice that in this salvific moment, this eschatological moment way out in the future that has not yet happened but will occur, God says there is going to be a new Creation. In this Creation there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
What we have in both of these stories is God is telling us that Creation matters to God. It is good, and it is our work to help take care of it, to steward it. It nourishes us, it gives us food, it gives us drink, we have in the new Creation springs that are giving us life. We are connected to the Creation, we are related to it, and we have the sense that it matters to God, both in the past and in the end.
If it matters to God in the past, and it matters to God at the end, then it matters to God now, too. Creation matters in this present moment. The commandment to take care of this Creation, to be stewards of it, never went away. It is still there. We are still meant to take care of this Creation, to see its goodness and to tend to it. Of course we use it to nourish us, but not to abuse it. Remember that it does not belong to us, it belongs to God and we are its stewards.
One of my favorite interpretations of the Creation story comes from Desmond Tutu in his Children’s Bible. He says that Creation comes about because God’s love bubbled up and spilled over into Creation. All of Creation is a manifestation of God’s love. In Revelation, the new Creation is a manifestation of God’s love, a love so intense that as it says, God is going to dwell there in this new Creation with us. God’s greatest desire is to be with us in this new Creation, all manifestations of God’s love. When we hear in the Gospel reading that we are to love one another, I do not think that God means that we are only to love other people. We are meant to love this good earth that God has made and entrusted to us.
So, my friends, take care of this planet. Take care, be stewards of this Creation as God has asked us to do because it matters to God. And you are a part of the Creation, and you matter to God, as well.
AMEN.
