Isaiah
11:1-10
According to the book of Genesis,
one of the terrible consequences of the very first human sin was that it
knocked all of nature so totally off-balance that it has never been right. The story of Adam and Eve has God informing
everyone involve how they have brought disaster on themselves.
“The Lord God
said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all
animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust
you shall eat all the days of your life. I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’
To the woman he
said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall
bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall
rule over you.’
And to the man
he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten
of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is
the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your
life; thorns and thistles it
shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall
eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are
dust, and to dust you shall return.’”
[Genesis 3:14-19]
There exists a kind of mutual
antagonism not only between humanity and nature but also within the natural
world when it should really be in harmony.
Hear the vision of Isaiah about what it would mean for nature to be at
peace with itself.
“The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the
calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead
them. The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox. The nursing child shall play over
the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s
den. They will not hurt or destroy on
all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as
the waters cover the sea.” [Isaiah 11:6-9]
It
was the belief of Isaiah that the coming of a true and faithful king (of which
there had been very few in his time or before) would lead to the beginning of
God’s own rule in the world, a rule that would be greater than any human
being’s and therefore would ultimately go so far that the whole world, in all
aspects, would be set right. Cornelius
Plantinga describes the biblical, Hebrew word for this, shalom, as
“a rich state of
affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully
employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and
Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things
ought to be.”[1]
I have some bad news and I have some
good news about that. The bad news you
already know. In the words of Woody
Allen, “The lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much
sleep.” The good news is that Isaiah was
probably not as literal-minded as Woody Allen thinks he was.
Nature, at least as we know it, is
going to include some rough edges. Nevertheless
we can see a day when, out of respect for its Creator, the creation itself is
no longer seen as a place of exploitation for its own sake. We cannot take responsibility for the actions
of the animals but we can at least recognize that human beings are capable of showing
respect for nature in a way that, yes, we all too often fail to do, but that
Jesus demonstrated for us.
He pointed out that nature isn’t
just out there on its own. The universe
is not a machine – although I would point out that even machines need a
constant input of energy and periodic maintenance. The universe exists through the constant
protection and care of its Maker.
“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow
nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” [Matthew
6:26]
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet
I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” [Matthew 6:28-29]
A basic truth is that if God is caring for
nature, when we do our part we are doing the work of God. Nature and humanity may not always be total
harmony, and it isn’t realistic to think that we all either should or could go
out and live in the woods without disturbing the ecosystem. But we can at least recognize that we
ourselves are part of creation alongside the natural world. If there’s a single sermon-word for this week
it would be “harmony”. That’s when we
sing different notes, but they blend together and even somehow make a better
sound. We could all probably do a better
job at that.
I’m
not about to lay a guilt trip on everyone, especially when I drive as much as I
do and use up as much petroleum, and produce as much carbon dioxide as I
do. When I think about how much paper I
toss away every week, I’m not about to make you feel bad about yourself, just
to point out that when you’re done with your worship bulletin, if you aren’t
taking it home to refer to later in the week, we have a recycling box in the
bell tower. When I enjoy a thick slab of
beef (with horseradish, of course), I’m not about to lay into anyone else about
land taken up by cattle production or the conditions produced by
factory-farming of poultry. All I want
to do is to remind you and myself that being at peace with the world means
being, so far as is possible, at peace with all aspects of God’s creation, and
mindful that humanity’s place within it is given to us only by God, and only as
a reflection of God’s glory.
“O Lord, our
Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the
earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants you
have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of
your fingers,
the moon and the
stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful
of them,
mortals that you
care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than
God,
and crowned them
with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works
of your hands;
you have put all
things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the
beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the
sea,
whatever passes
along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our
Sovereign,
how majestic is
your name in all the earth!” [Psalm 8]
Yes,
nature includes coyotes and tapeworms and viruses and tornadoes. Yes, we have added to that and produced strip
mines and acid rain and global warming and toxic waste dumps and huge floating
islands of trash out in the middle of the oceans. Even so, as Plantinga also wrote, a real part
of our human experience is
“on some May mornings, a sense of life’s sweetness and of
God’s goodness so sharp that we want to cry out from the sheer promise of it.
…Creation is stronger than sin and grace stronger still. Creation and grace are anvils that have worn
out a lot of our hammers.”[2]
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