By Millie Vette
Imagine if the Church globally took the first biblical commandment seriously? Imagine if Churches everywhere understood that a core part of following Jesus is caring for God’s good creation? Imagine if young people who were being told about
our climate crisis in schools were also being told how our hope in Jesus invites us to take action now, to care for creation?
I wonder how the church would be perceived by our wider culture?
These are the types of questions that I spend a lot of time thinking and dreaming about. And I am so blessed to actually have the privilege to get to work in the Christian conservation space. That’s what A Rocha is all about.
A Rocha International was co-founded 40 years ago by Peter and Miranda Harris in Portugal. From there, A Rocha has grown and is now present and active in more than 20 countries.
A Rocha established itself in New Zealand in 2008 with two main projects:
- The Karioi project in Raglan, which seeks to restore biodiversity in the region and protect the Oi or grey-faced petrel, a vulnerable native coastal sea bird. The sea birds’ only nesting place is Karioi Mounga in Raglan, and the conservation of their burrows is vital to maintain the flourishing of this magnificent sea bird.
- The second main A Rocha project is what we call our local groups, which are made up of Eco enthusiasts from different churches who have joined together to form groups which are actively involved in conservation projects in their local area. These groups are still present and active in conversation projects around the country.
The local group here in Auckland cares for three different streams across the city, Unsworth Reserve on the North Shore, Oakley Creek in Avondale, and Matuku Link in Bethell’s Valley. This community has grown and developed over the years,
creating beautiful sanctuaries across the city that invite and make way for God’s creation to flourish.
5 years ago, A Rocha Aotearoa began its third project, the Eco Church Project. The Eco Church project aims to see churches start to seriously take on their responsibility of the first commandment that is given to us in Genesis 1, to Care for God’s Creation – something that we are going to spend some time looking at today. We currently have 101 churches from different denominations across the country in the eco church network.
It has been a delight for me to support churches live into this vocational calling and live out care for creation within the Auckland region. I have grown up in Auckland and have lapped up the beauty and wonder of its landscape, and seeing the way that churches are starting to care for it brings me such a deep sense of hope for the future of creation.
I have been asked today to lead us in reflecting upon the interconnectedness of creation. I spent some time thinking about how best to do this. Do I take a dive into the wonder of sciences, exploring how we are now discovering the networks that
trees create beneath the earth, and how this turns us to awe and wonder at God’s brilliance? Or do I dive into a specific story within the bible that tells of creation’s response to God’s goodness and greatness? There are many places I could have
begun, but I chose to explore how interconnected we are with creation by spending time in three different parts of scripture and looking at how these three reveal to us God’s intention for the way we live with creation.
I am going to be with Genesis:
Gen 1:26-31
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings[a] in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth,[b] and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings[c] in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” 29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened. 31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
The Bible begins with God’s establishment of creation and his declaration that it is GOOD! We begin here when we talk about creation care not only because it lays the understanding of how God sees his creation, but it is where we receive instructions
on how to live in harmony with Creation. In verse 28, we hear God talking about how we are to live in relationship with Creation.
‘28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”’
What are you noticing when we read this verse?
Something that I often ask people to do in a workshop setting is to rewrite this verse in their own words. And I would encourage you to think about doing this in the week. During He Mahuri Totara, a week-long camp we run for teenagers which focuses on Caring for Creation in the context of Aotearoa, we asked the young people there to rewrite this passage in their own words. This is one of the versions that a young person came up with:
‘God gave them abundance and said to the humans, ‘Be Creative as I have been creative. Take what I have made and make more, then look after it! Care for all of it like a good parent would. Make sure that everything thrives!’
I love how the words from this young person talk about caring for creation as an exciting and enriching way of living. One that is caring and nurturing for all. Where one’s goal is to see everything thrive in relationship with each other. It makes me ask what it looks like for creation to thrive? What would our world look like if we lived so that everything we did was for the good of all creation?
We have been given a glimpse of how God intended humans would live with creation. But what happens when God himself decides to step into creation? Let’s have a look at John 21, Breakfast on the beach.
John 21:1-14
Earlier in the year, post easter, you may have spent a Sunday looking at this reading from the end of John’s book. It is common in the post-resurrection liturgy, but it’s so good I wanted to revisit it again. While I read you a summarised version of the
stories, I want you to observe this painting by John Reilly Goldsmith and imagine where you are in the story.
Some of the disciples, including Simon Peter, Thomas and John, along with you, have been unsuccessfully fishing all night. As dawn begins to break, you see a figure on the shoreline. He calls out, asking if you have caught anything. Someone replies
no, he then suggests moving your nets to the other side of the boat and casting from there. You do so, and suddenly your net is so full that you struggle to bring it in. You then hear John say, ‘It’s the Lord!’ and Simon Peter jumps out of the boat and goes
to him as you help bring the boat and the catch to shore.
This is not the first time in the bible that we have seen Jesus help fishermen fish. At the beginning of Luke, Jesus suggests to some of his disciples that casting their nets on the other side of the boat may be more helpful than they thought. The outcome is the same as what we see here in the end of John. While these stories are similar, there is a key difference between them. Unlike at the beginning of the book of Luke, the Jesus that we encounter here is the resurrected Jesus. He is now the firstborn of the new creation. And we see in this story the way the created order is quick to respond, knowing the commands of its creator and the new life that is to come from him.
Jesus, who is intimately connected with the natural world, enables connection between him, the disciples and the natural world around him, and we see the abundance that flows from that.
I invite you to recenter yourself on this image. Look at how it captures the relationship, the connections and the fruitfulness that flows out of these things. And it makes me wonder, how intimately connected to the natural world are we? When was the last time you were somewhere in Creation and you felt awe and wonder? When was the last time you felt deeply connected
to the place you were in and maybe even had a sense of God’s Spirit in your midst?
Romans 8:19-20
So far, we have considered how the beginning of Genesis depicts God’s intention and delight in the creation of the world. We have then looked at how Jesus reigns over creation and how creation acknowledges its creator. But what about now? Romans chapter eight speaks of creation awaiting in eager anticipation for the day that it will be united with God. “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Paul goes on to speaks of this as a deep “groan” that is not only felt with in creation but also ourselves and even the Spirit in verse 26.
What Paul is speaking about here, and what we are living through, is the fact that Jesus didn’t come just to bring new life for our own souls, but for the whole of creation.
Daily, we are seeing headlines about water levels rising, glaciers receding, and people who are indifferent to treating God’s creation as a gift are unwilling to commit to actions that will restore Creation, and young people are increasingly anxious
about their future. We hear and see all around us situations where God’s Creation is groaning.
At the beginning of my reflection, I spoke about how in Genesis 1, God says to care for creation in order for it to flourish. We see here in Romans that creation is still groaning for this. It desires to thrive as an act of worship to God, and God desires for
it to flourish, but we are responsible for its flourishing through our relationship with it.
But in verse 29, Paul reminds us that those who love God and follow Jesus are called to be like Jesus. And to be like Jesus is to be people who are deeply connected with Creation and involved in its care and restoration.
So I am going to end my time with you today by sharing some stories of churches who are doing just that!
Stories Quick Fire
Another one of the joys of my job is that I get to see church communities recognise and respond to this call to be like Jesus.
St Paul’s Napier – Flower Foam
Last year, St Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Napier made the description to make their flower arangements eco-friendly by chosing to stop using Floral foam, plastic packaging and chemicals in their floral arrangements.
Onewa Christian Community – Repair Cafe.
Onewa Christian Community in Birkenhead hosts Repair Cafés 3-4 times a year, in conjunction with Highbury House, the Birkenhead Community Centre.
St Andrew’s Hamilton
The small groups at St Andrew’s Presbyterian in Hamilton are working though the Rich Living Study Series, a resource that we offer, and out of that have raised money to support A Rocha Uganda to provide easy to use bio-sand water filters to produce
clean and safe drinking water for one A Rocha Uganda’s local communities.
I began today asking you to imagine what it would look like for churches to take seriously the first commandment in Genesis. I now ask you, what does it look like for All Saints, Howick to live into this commandment? Does it look like joining with the
local community to start a repair cafe? Swapping out floral foam for an eco option?
Or is it simply pausing while you are on your daily walk to give thanks for the wonder and gift of our creation?
Let us pray.
E te Atua,
You walked in the garden at dawn,
bringing life where there was death,
hope where there was despair.
May we honour and celebrate Your resurrection
by planting peace, sowing justice,
and caring for the Earth with aroha.
May we listen for the songs of the birds,
and the whisper of the wind through the trees
reminding us that You are near —
always restoring, always creating, always loving.
Āmine.