Psalm 104 O God, how many are your works! With Wisdom beside you, they were all made. The earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, great and wide, all kinds of creeping and swimming things there, both large and small. The ships, sail on it – and the great whales, Leviathan, made to play in it. These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you turn away, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to ordinary soil.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.
Revelation 21:1-7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life, without paying for it. Those who win the victory will receive this from me: I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
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Imagine you are in the future, in a galaxy far, far away, the year 2154. Human beings finally have depleted all earth’s natural resources. In greed to find more, having learned nothing, humans are mining for a rare mineral called ‘unobtanium’ on the planet Pandora, a forested habitable moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. The planet is inhabited by the Na'vi; tall, blue-skinned, intelligent humanoids who live in harmony with nature, and worship a mother goddess, Eywa. The atmosphere of Pandora is toxic to humans, so the scientists use Na'vi-human hybrids called "avatars", operated by genetically matched humans. The clan's gathering place is a giant tree called Hometree, which also stands above the richest deposit of ‘unobtanium’ on the planet. The mining company cares nothing for the ecology of the planet, but only for what it can extract, even if it means destroying a people and a whole planet yet again. But there is another tree, sentient, called the Tree of Souls. It has power to heal and renew, and sometimes even resurrect. When attack from the military-type mining company becomes imminent, the tree connects to the animals of the planet, together defeating the humans, and saving their home.
Seems far-fetched and fantastical doesn’t it? Aboriginal people living in harmony with their planet, who use just what they need, and recognise the interconnectedness of everything - over against humans who dismiss the aboriginals as primitives who don’t understand anything; humans who still believe that anything anywhere is there for the taking, with violence if necessary, from places and planets which are not theirs.
Far out? Scientists here on earth have learned that trees and other plants do have sentience. Trees connect in the forest through their roots, which function as a neural network; when trees are cut, other trees try to support the remaining stump by diverting nutrients and water into it. Forest ecologist Dr Suzanne Simard, from the University of British Colombia studies a type of fungi that forms underground communication networks between trees in North American forests. Big old trees — dubbed 'mother trees' — are hubs in this mycorrhizal fungal network, playing a key role in supporting other trees in the forest, especially their offspring.
The reality is that earth is an intricate and involved network of many things which survives because of the interaction and interconnectedness of those many things. Human beings – perhaps with the exception of those who live off the land – have unfortunately seen ourselves as separate from the rest of the living earth.
Because of our insistence on seeing ourselves as separate from the earth and other animals, we have created chaos where there was a balance. Here’s just one example – in the 1930’s wolves were eliminated because ranchers didn’t want their cattle being eaten. With the loss of the wolves, other animals species also declined, and so did the land. After the wolves were gone, the beaver population dropped to one colony. The elk were still preyed upon by bears, cougars and coyotes, but the absence of wolves took much predatory pressure off the elk, and as a result the elk populations did too well. They pushed the limits of Yellowstone’s carrying capacity, and in the winter instead of moving around as they once did, stayed and ate the young willow, aspen and cottonwood plants. That affected the beaver, who need willows to survive in winter.
This
is, in fact, a counterintuitive situation. Back in 1968 when the elk population
was about a third what it is today, the willow stands along streams were in bad
shape. Today, with three times as many elk, willow stands are robust. Why?
Because the predatory pressure from wolves keeps elk on the move, so they don’t
have time to browse the trees as much. With elk moving during the winter, the
tree stands recovered, and beaver rediscovered an abundant food source. The
beavers built new dams and ponds, and those dams have multiple effects on
stream hydrology. They even out the seasonal pulses of runoff; they store water
for recharging the water table; and provide cold, shaded water for fish, and
the willow stands provide habitat for songbirds.
Researchers have also determined
that wolves are now the primary reason for elk mortality. Before wolf
reintroduction, deep snows were the main determinant of whether an elk was
going to die. So rather than a boom and bust cycle of elk carrion - as existed
before wolves and when winters were harder - there’s now a more equitable
distribution of carrion throughout winter and early spring. Scavengers which once
relied on winter-killed elk for food now depend on wolf-killed elk. That
benefits ravens, eagles, magpies, coyotes and bears. Indian legends spoke of
ravens following wolves – turns out it was literal. Wolves mean food for
others.
Today’s two scriptures don’t say
exactly how, but rather hint at what’s possible. Psalm 104 is a plea to Yahweh
to send the winds of the Spirit to renew the earth. Revelation is a vision of
what can be – what can happen with the renewal of the earth, and it places the
throne, once again – at the centre – the symbol of stability and balance. Jesus
kept saying the ‘realm of God’ is at hand – it’s near – it’s possible. Jesus
never said just sit and wait, God will do it. In so many words, Jesus was
saying that humans are co-creators with God.
The Bible sees life as a continuum,
with the present flowing into the future. Eternal life begins in the
present rather than something we finally get at the end of this life. However,
everlasting existence could be hell in certain circumstances. In the “Avatar” movie
example, the people of earth have created an everlasting hell – but instead of
learning from that, they are out on other planets, recreating that hell. The
word "eternal" is not simply an indication of length, but also of a quality
of life.
"The Realm of God is among
you." said Jesus. Don't go off looking for some future event to be thrust
upon the world from the outside. God's realm is expressed wherever people
are moved to make it so - it starts within the heart and becomes ever widening
circles. It’s a process of conversion to creating the realm through peaceable
means.
Well, where do I get this ‘co-creator
stuff, and how does that link to Psalm 104 and Revelation?
God creates – Genesis 1, God creates
everything else first, then human beings – or so we are told. “In the beginning
when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging
ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of
God was moving over the water. ….God said “And now we will make human beings;
they will be like us and resemble us.”
The Spirit of God, Ruach the breath,
the feminine principle – associated with Wisdom. “Like us, resemble us.” In
older translations of Genesis, we are ‘made in God’s image’. I don’t know about
you, but for me that’s a profound statement of who humans are, and how we
should be in the world, if we are made in God’s image. God the Creator together
with Wisdom, and we are made in that
likeness.
In the Proverbs of Solomon Wisdom
speaks: “God formed me from the beginning, before anything else was created. I
was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began. I was
born before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled forth their
waters. Before the mountains were formed, before the hills, I was born—before the
earth and fields and the first handfuls of soil were made. I was there when the
heavens were established, when the horizon was drawn on the oceans. I was there
when the clouds were set above, and springs established deep in the earth. I
was there when the limits of the seas were set, so they would not spread beyond
their boundaries. When God marked off the earth’s foundations, I was the
architect at God’s side. I was God’s constant delight, rejoicing always in his
presence. How happy I was with the world God created; how I rejoiced with the
human family!"
So here we are on the Earth Day
weekend, praying for God to send the Spirit to renew the earth, and reading the
words “And now I make all things new!” If we listen to and follow the words of
Jesus, however, it won’t happen by itself. We are an integral part of this
Creation, are we not? Made in the likeness of the one we call God, given the same
calling – to be co-creators in the renewal, not the destruction. I believe God
continues to call us to a conversion – to be converted to seeing ourselves as
God’s likeness, the hands and feet of God in the world, taking care of the creation
into which we were born. It is a calling. May it be so.
Sources:
1.
“Heaven Here and There” by Dr. David
Rogne
2.
“Avatar” 2009 movie of James Cameron.
(from Wikipedia)
3.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/05
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