Element 6. Care for and Affirmation of Creation
We affirm God's creation as essentially, good, but spoiled by the effects of human sin and satanic evil. We therefore respect nature and are committed to seeing it cared for and restored. We aim to be ecologically aware, to pray for God's creation and all his creatures, and to stand against all that would seek to violate or destroy them. We look upon creation as a sacrament, reflecting the glory of God, and seek to meet God through his creation, to bless it, and to celebrate it.
We affirm God's creation as essentially, good, but spoiled by the effects of human sin and satanic evil.
A sense of the presence of God in creation is what draws many of us to Celtic Christianity. However, there are few Christian models for a biblical view of creation. We are either offered a view of creation as a dead thing in which we are free to destroy or exploit at will, or a pagan view that reduces the living God to some impersonal force inhabiting the created order. The Celtic view, both pagan and Christian, seems to have been a balance between creation as an expression of divinity but at the same time disordered or at the least dangerous. When Christianity brought the Bible to Celtic lands, this ancient revelation seemed to affirm what the Celtic tribes had always suspected, that the creation was in itself good, but that somehow the sin of humankind had caused some intrinsic break in the created order. The human race, a single element of creation, had some terrible impact on the whole connected web of creation.
The Bible gave several important clues. First of all, the human race, though part of creation, was also distinct from it. In creation the human being was the matter/spirit interface. This was confirmed by God's original command to "subdue" the earth. Adam was to have been the one who, under God's direct tutelage, was to tend the earth, to put it in order. When Adam fell, his role as the one who blesses creation became that of the one by whom creation was cursed (Genesis 2-3) In the same way a nation may be blessed because of wise and humble leadership or cursed by greed and lust for power. In his letter to the Romans, Paul may well be giving the same message, speaking of a creation in bondage until the children of God should be revealed. (Romans 8:19-23)
One might then say that the potential of creation to fulfill its own goodness has been shackled by the sin of the creature whose responsibility it was to release that potential. The role of satanic evil (i.e., spiritual evil perpetrated by fallen angels) is less clear. The role of satanic creatures in deceiving the human race is part of the biblical revelation. What effect they may have on matter itself is unknown. Yet the desire of unadulterated evil (rarely found in human beings) to destroy for the sake of destruction is certainly communicated by the indifference towards creation found in much of the Western culture of the "Enlightenment."
We therefore respect nature and are committed to seeing it cared for and restored.
In the Aidan Way, we undertake to live with a biblical view of creation which not only reflects God's glory, but as something which proceeds from the creating Word and is held in being from moment to moment by Divine intent also continually praises its Creator. Taking into account the original role of humanity in tending God's garden, our work is that of a gardener whose estate has been allowed to fall to ruin by indifference and ignorance.
The relationship between the land and the people who live on it extends beyond either care or exploitation. We know that the scriptures speak of land being defiled by murder or by the worshiping of demons. (Leviticus 18:17) It is worthy of note that the issue of land defiled by spiritual evil is a common belief that transcends cultures. From Asia to the Americas there is an understanding in ancient cultures that land can be wounded by more than just ecological mismanagement. Our desire to see the land cared for and restored also drives us towards issues of justice and integrity in human dealings.
New ministries in reconciliation between peoples such as the International Reconciliation Commission are, in this way, also ministries of ecological healing.
We aim to be ecologically aware, to pray for God's creation and all his creatures, and to stand against all that would seek to violate or destroy them
Becoming "ecologically aware" is an enormous task. Just as our knowledge of spiritual things is "in part," so also our knowledge of creation as a system is partial. Our inability to grasp the interconnectedness of creation leads to land policies developed to care for creation which, in the end, do more damage than good. Being ecologically aware does mean that we are sensitive to the products we use, the amount we consume, the way in which waste is dealt with. But it also means the awareness that all of our actions in regard to creation have consequences we can neither foresee nor understand. Hence, as part of our ecological awareness, we recognize our need to hold creation in prayer. Having rejected God's guidance in Eden, we are now faced with tending a creation too big and too intricate to comprehend without God's vision.
We look upon creation as a sacrament, reflecting the glory of God, and seek to meet God through his creation, to bless it, and to celebrate it.
A Sacrament is by the ancient definition "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." We believe that the Spirit of God has put something of Himself into the very warp and woof of creation. It is no accident that the ancient song known as St. Patrick's Breastplate calls upon sun and moon, sea and rocks, wind, snow and rain as allies in our battle against spiritual evil. Just as all creation waits with eager longing for the revelation of God's children, so we may say that creation is "on God's side." When we are reconciled to God in Jesus Christ, then creation is on our side as well.
