John 3:16 is arguably one of the most well-known and oft-quoted
scripture passages. For those who are
still unfamiliar with it, Jesus says here that “for God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal
life.” I don’t believe that most
Christians have any issues with the latter part of this verse, because eternal
life is our shared ‘end-game’, to use a current colloquialism.
It is the first or former part which I believe is often overlooked
and largely under-highlighted and emphasized.
God loves the world. The Greek
word used for ‘world’ is where English gets the word ‘cosmos’. God doesn't just love humanity and
humankind. God loves the world and all
it contains. God does not just love
human beings and humanity. To not see
this is to fall into the danger of dualism, where there is a great emphasis on
the contrast and distinction between opposites, for e.g. darkness and light, black
and white, and matter and spirit. Mani,
a third-century Persian believed that there were two sources of creation, one
good and the other evil. Man’s spirit,
he believed, came from God, and his body was from the devil. Because of this belief, man’s spirit or the
spiritual nature of man was not only given way more emphasis, it was done so at
the expense and detriment of the body. Mani’s
teachings were called Manichaeism, and has in the development of Christianity,
been seen to be rather problematic largely due to its extreme dualism. If we understand John 3:16 in the way that is
not dualistic, it has to open up our minds to the truth that not only is the
body not to be negated, but that the world as we know it needs to be saved as
much as our spirit.
While I am not advocating any form of extreme tree-hugging as
Christians, I am in today’s reflection asking that as Christians, to see the
need to treat mother earth with more care than we have been in recent
years. After all, there is ample
evidence that this planet we call home has been experiencing the terrible
effects of climate change. Temperatures
have risen and the incidents of life-threatening hurricanes bringing untold
turmoil and upheaval in the lives of millions are becoming far too common. Mother nature has been revealing her less
docile and gentle side lately, and it is not a stretch of the imagination to
say that we are partly to blame.
We only need to take a leaf from St Paul’s letter to the Romans
where he writes how not only we human beings, but the physical creation and our
physical universe and order are ‘groaning’ as we all wait for the redemption by
Christ. It is by no means a stretch of
the imagination to see that the physical world is as much a part of God’s plan
for heaven as it is for us.
Knowing this serves to do a couple of things. Firstly, it gives us great incentive to
change from being users and consumers to being caretakers and stewards. If this notion that every one of us who
inhabits this planet is actually its caretaker and steward is offensive or
deemed insulting in any way, it could indicate that we have nurtured a rather
harmful and disquieting truth that we have developed within us a sense of
unhealthy entitlement. St Francis of
Assisi’s well-known Canticle of the Sun, composed in the early 13th
century saw him having such a great sense of love, reverence and respect for
nature.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly is this – knowing that we
should respect the environment requires of us Christians to not only have a
proper relationship with God, but relate to the physical world
differently. There is a morality to the
way that we relate to this planet. There
is much talk about how much of a carbon footprint we are leaving behind as we
live out our lives, and this carbon footprint is intoxicating the world and the
atmosphere. Dumping toxic wastes into
the sea and mindlessly using plastic that takes about 1000 years to decompose
in landfills is wrong on a moral level.
A recent documentary I came across told of how a study of fish, shellfish
and molluscs in places like Canada, USA and Indonesia revealed the presence of
plastic and fibres, raising concerns of their adverse effects on human
health. Clearly, what we are throwing
and casting onto the oceans are affecting our health and very existence. We may be poisoning ourselves without
realizing it.
It takes a universal change of mindset to want to act with a renewed
purpose. It probably starts from small
things – like taking your own shopping bag to the market or grocery store and
recycling where possible. Our spiritual
life is never one that is sustained by huge acts of Christian mindfulness. Rather, it is one where we take small steps
and make little changes to our lives. At
the end of the day, it is our souls that we are hoping to see saved. Apart from leaving a carbon footprint as we
live, we also ought to consider the Jesus footprint that follows our
paths.
If we truly believe that Christ came to save the world, those small
steps that we take to save our souls need to be just as diligently applied to
saving the world. Migration from one
country to another is an option when we are unhappy with what our country
offers us. As we only have one planet,
our moving away from it is not an option at all.
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