Building a Playground for God – 3/08/09

If Julie and Josh and Wil and I leave our house and walk five blocks to the west we will come to a park with a playground. It’s a park attached to a school and there is a lot of room to run around and plenty of trees for shade. Unfortunately, the playground is not very conducive for playing; at least not for Wil. They don’t have the usual steps that take you from the ground up to one level and more steps that take you to another level. You have to be able to take a pretty big first step to get onto the play ground structure. Or, you have to be able to maneuver a rope ladder or some other structure that requires a level of coordination that most 3-years-olds don’t haven. Whoever built that playground wasn’t thinking of small children when they built it.

If Julie and Josh and Wil and I leave our house and walk five blocks to the east we will come to another park with another playground. This park is attached to what used to be a school and is now a church. There are a couple of big trees for shade and the playground is much more accessible for Wil and even for Josh. The steps are short and there is more than one set of them so that anybody can get from one level to the next without a lot of trouble. There are plenty of slides and they are of various heights and speeds for kids of different ages. And, there are more challenging obstacles and monkey bars for the older kids to play on and enjoy. Whoever built this playground did a much better job of considering kids of different sizes and ages who might play together.

This morning we’ll spend some time talking about creation and justice; what some might call environmental justice. The playground serves as a nice metaphor for what the Bible seems to say about our relationship with the earth and the environment around us. In other words, the Bible seems to say that God has given us this earth as a kind of unfinished work of art; like a mural. Each generation and each person is given the opportunity to add to that mural or alter that mural. We build on the earth all kinds of things like houses and stores and neighborhoods and cities. So, the first thing to say about the environment and justice is that all of this building and shaping that we do is a good thing. When we create something we are joining in God’s creative activity.

At the same time, since we are fallen, we have to admit that we don’t always create in ways that honor what God has given us. And, we don’t always create in ways that allow other people to participate or that consider future generations and the work that they will want to do. If you imagine the mural and imagine the natural world as God’s major contribution, then you can see how anything we will add would change what God has done. Thankfully, God is not a self-centered artist and wants us to add to his work of art. But that means we should think of our work as artistic. Meaning we don’t just plop a bright red square in the middle of an impressionist landscape. There are ways to add to a piece of art that take into consideration what previous artists have done. There are also ways to add to a piece of art that take into consideration what future artists will do. If we cover the whole canvas as with our own ideas there won’t be as much room for the next generation to create. O.k. enough with the art. Let’s move on to a real example: cars.

We have in this country a whole network of roads and highways and interstates that have allowed for a level of mobility and freedom not known by everyone in the world. If you have a car, that is. We can start by saying that this is network is not a bad thing by itself. However, the car and the interstate have led to sprawl and segregation and smog. Because people have cars and because there are nice big roads to drive real fast on, people can live far from where they work or where they shop. As people moved out to the country, so did the shops and the businesses and the playgrounds. Of course, we know that the history of America is such that not everyone was able to enjoy that mobility. Many people of color were denied that move and subsequent generations are brought up in neighborhoods with fewer opportunities to work and play.

With more cars on the road there was less public transportation and fewer walk able neighborhoods. You are at a clear disadvantage when it comes to time and efficiency if your only choice is the bus. And, forget about walking. I don’t know many people who have two playgrounds within 5 blocks of their house. Many people have to drive to get to a park and almost everyone has to drive to get to the grocery store. With all the cars on the road we have to worry about pollution and asthma and other health-related diseases that stem from a lack of activity. Now, I know you can’t blame roads and cars anymore than you can blame the TV. But they are part of what we have added to the environment, to the mural of creation, and the repercussions are not all good.

One of the reasons Christians at least have come to believe that we can mold and shape the earth however we see fit is that we have been given dominion. At least that’s what it says in Genesis 1. God spoke and said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion.” God says that humans are to have dominion, authority, the power to control the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and the animals on the ground. A few verses later, after God created humanity he blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion. There’s that word again. Dominion seems to mean that humans have been given the right to grow and expand and reproduce and subdue the world as necessary to carry on that privilege.

We should pause here and celebrate that. In a sense God, is saying, “Here’s your playground. Have fun! I’ve built if for you so that you can play and laugh and get exercise. Fill it up. Conquer its challenges. Change it around if you want to. I’m giving it to you and you have the power to do anything you want with it.” The words of the simple children’s prayer come to mind at this point: God is great and God is good. Let us thank him. Amen? More and more, Christians are coming to the conclusion that one of the ways to thank God for what we have been given is to be better stewards of it. That stewardship begins by hearing all of the words that surround God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.”

The first thing we can say is that we are not the only ones to receive the blessing to be fruitful and multiply. On the fifth day of creation, when God created the birds of the air and the fish of the sea he blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas and let birds multiply on the earth.” The words are no different, the blessing is the same as the one that humanity would receive a few verses later. Birds and fish are definitely not a priority over humans, but it seems fair to say that any multiplication of humans should be done in a way that allows the birds of the air and the fish of the sea to multiply as well. Unfortunately, we are over-fishing our waters, polluting our air and cutting down our forests so that the rate of extinction for species around the globe is higher than ever. Genesis 1 points out that this is not just a liberal, environmentalist’s concern.

Another point to make about Genesis 1 relates to food. God says, “I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” Dieticians, by the way, will tell you that a diet heavy in green plants is the healthiest for our bodies and the most sustainable for the earth. God has given us these green plants for our health and enjoyment. But it’s worth noting that God has also given them to the animals. “To every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for good.” I think that means we have to share.

Now, I’m not a vegetarian. In fact, last night I ate a nice big, juicy Porterhouse and will probably eat more of it today. It’s true that, after the flood, God told Noah that, just as he had given every green plant he was now giving Noah and his family every animal for food as well. But it’s worth noting that the covenant God made with Noah, God also made with the animals saying, “I establish my covenant with you and with every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.” In Psalm 36, when the Psalmist says, God saves humans and animals alike, he wasn’t joking. Today, we eat too much meat and, after cars, that greatest pollutant of our earth comes from the raising of cattle for food. Their ill-treatment, their disgusting diet, and the amount of energy used to ship and package the meat is harmful for us and the earth. No doubt part of environmental justice, part of caring for creation, is eating more local foods that come from lower on the food chain.

There are some who will say that we just have too many people in the world. The problem is over population, they say. There’s some crazy statistic, however, that says all 6 billion people could fit in the state of Texas in 2 person homes on city-sized lots. It would be crowded, but it proves the point that there aren’t too many people. We just aren’t using what we have very well. In a sense, too many of the playgrounds we have built are like the ones to the west of my house: not everyone can play and enjoy the benefits. The ways we use land in our cities and our country sides benefits fewer and fewer people. City neighborhoods are segregated as we’ve spread ourselves all over the place, paving over farmland and putting up shopping malls. The farmland that is left is devoted mostly to two crops much of which gets processed for cattle feed or corn syrup. This doesn’t seem to be what God had in mind when he put Adam in the garden. In fact, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. On the surface, those sound like simple gardening terms, but there’s more to them than meets the eye.

I can prove it to you if you like, but the words are much more caring and kind than till and keep. I’ve heard other people translate them as serve and protect. This last week I heard someone translate them as serve and preserve. I like the words nurture and guard. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to nurture and guard it; to help it along, to give it what it needs, and to make sure that no one tramples on it. It’s almost as if the earth is to be treated as a person. So, rather than using it up as fast as we can, we would honor what the earth can do and allow it to grow at its own pace. We’d be surprised by how much it fruit it will bear. The earth is awfully resilient and generous with us and there are ways to grow things in the soil that don’t require pesticides and genetic engineering; ways that are sustainable and will leave a fruitful land to the next generations; ways that have a heart for creation. Part of environmental justice is to take the words seriously that we care for creation. At the moment, most people believe that technology will save us.

Technology is all about efficiency, speed, and convenience. The printing press, the steam engine, the light bulb, refrigerators, cars, heart monitors, and cell phones are all examples of technology. Technology has created a lot of wealth and a lot of health in the world and there is a lot for which we can be thankful. Again, the Bible seems to say that God has called us to join him in creating and technology is one of the places we look to see humanities great potential for creativity. Technology has been used to make our air and water cleaner again. Technology is used to make our appliances more energy efficient. Unfortunately, we too often use technology to support our bad habits. TV’s, refrigerators, and cars are more environmentally-friendly than ever, but we use them more than ever too so that CO2 levels continue to rise. Computers are faster than ever, but are filled with toxic chemicals that get dumped on poor women and children around the world because companies want us to get a new one every two years. The reason we want renewable energy is so that we can continue our fervent pace of life and growth. It’s obvious that many of the problems we are looking to technology to solve don’t have to be problems in the first place. There are plenty of perfectly happy and healthy people who live long lives without technology. The message for this second Sunday of Lent is that technology will not save us, but God will.

You may have heard it said before that the Bible begins in a garden and ends in a city. Many people think that’s not a mistake. It seems to say that God will honor what we have done; that the new heaven and the new earth will have space for the kinds of things that we have added to the canvas. It will be a glorious city and most glorious of all will be God. There will be no temple because the temple will be the Lord himself and the Lamb. But there will still be kings and nations and cities. The people of these places will stream in and out of that city and the gates will never be closed to anyone whose name is written in the book of life. This playground of God will allow everyone to play. People from every nation and tribe and language will walk in the glory of the Lord and the Lamb will be his lamp with no need for sun or moon to shine on them.

Here’s the fascinating part, flowing from the throne of God is a river. It’s flowing through the middle of the city street and it’s bright as crystal. On either side of the river is the tree of life. It produces twelve kinds of fruit and it does it every month. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. So, in the end, with all the glory of the cities jewels and gates and walls, it is the natural beauty that brings life. The river and the tree with its fruit and its leaves bring healing to the world. On that day, all the servants of God will worship him around that tree and by that river and they will see God’s face. The good news is that we don’t have to wait for that glorious day to come. There are rivers and trees all around us, there is healing to be found in this earth if we will let it have a place in our life. In caring for creation we are caring for ourselves, any gardener will tell you that and the Bible says that God has made it that way. We may not see God’s face in creation, but we do see God’s hand; a hand that has put before us a land in which we can live and move and have our being; a land on which we can work and play and create; a creation that God cared for so much, a world that God loved so much that he sent his one and only son so that whoever believes in him would not die but have eternal life. Amen.