The Second Creation and the Environment

 

Consider the parallels between the creation narrative of Genesis 1 and 2 and the Gospels' account of Jesus' crucifixion. 

In both of these, Jesus is present. John 1:1-4 declares Jesus's participation the Genesis creation account. And, in the crucifixion scene, Jesus is obviously present.

Note also the presence of a singular prominent woman in each. In Genesis, there is Eve, who was made from Adam's side and would become the mother of humanity. In the Gospels, at the crucifixion, Mary is present. John 19:26-27 says, "When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, 'Woman, here is your son,' and to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.' From that time on, this disciple took her into his home." Just as Eve went from being "woman" to "mother," Mary, through Christ, goes from being called "woman" in this verse to "mother." Whose mother? The disciple whom Jesus loved (likely John). 

In Christianity, since we become heirs to God's Kingdom, Jesus in a manner becomes our senior brother in addition to being our God. Jesus' assigning of Mary as a disciple's mother assumes her broad motherhood to all who follow Jesus. Mary becomes our archetypal mother, just as Eve was. It is no wonder Mary is called the second Eve by many Christian traditions. Plus, through Adam's sleep, Eve was made from his side. Similarly, Jesus' side was pierced, and his death on the cross would bring new life. He is the second Adam.

Look also at the Sabbath. God rested on the seventh day. Jesus rose on the day following the Sabbath, after a rest in the grave. Our rest is in Him. Since Jesus declares that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), we see its fulfillment here. Our rest is salvific. We enter this rest at baptism, when we die with Christ beneath the waters, entombed in a cleansing sea. We rise into life and a renewed productivity. We participate in this rest when we take the communion elements. We participate in this rest when we repent of the activity of sin -- a de-creation that taxes the body and soul as much as being creative does. 

In Revelation 21:5, Jesus declares that he makes all things new. Many Christians see this re-creation only in the coming of the New Heavens and New Earth of Revelation. In this view, while many claim that it is a personal responsibility to pick up trash and recycle, they are essentially inactive environmentally, because in their minds, this place awaits the eschaton and the newness promised. Yet, if we consider that in the Genesis account, Adam and Eve are given the tasks as stewards of the earth -- active participants in taming and caring for the planet -- participants in creation in relationship with God -- then it stands to reason that with Jesus being the new Adam and Mary the new Eve, there is a theological return to this responsibility. This is creation part two. 

Note also that in Genesis, Adam and Eve were called to reproduce and to fill the earth. Through descendants, Adam and Eve biologically spread over the globe to take up their mantle of responsibility as the planet's regents under God. Reproduction in the new creation is spiritual. Children are produced through evangelism and discipline in the Church. Is it no wonder familial terms like brother, sister, father, and mother are used in the faith? We are the descendants of  our second parents after Adam and Eve -- Jesus and Mary. Our spirits and flesh are restored to their original wholeness in the incarnation. 

The question remains: why propagate the earth with recreated humanity? Isn't heaven our goal? Aren't we strangers in this land awaiting removal by God into eternal paradise? The New Heavens and Earth isn't about plan A failing and a new creation being plan B. There's only ever been plan A... Sin and death derailed the plan for us, but Christ brings it all back on track. The spiritual unity with the material creation is restored in Christ and lived within our recreated -- dare I say, born again -- selves. We are restored into community -- the Church. We are typified as Christ's Body. This is an incarnate reality bridging heaven and earth even as we await his return. This means that when the Church gathers, it is making real this divine unity and restoration. 

If all things are being restored or made new within the new humanity, then our purpose is restored as priests of the planet. We intercede for all of creation. Surely, this occurs in prayer and service, but also when we stand for justice and wholeness. As stewards of the planet, environmental justice and wholeness should also be seen as a restored vocation for the new humanity. Yet, I have heard Christian friends and family members suggest that beyond personal acts of environmentalism, the planet is in God's hands and will be replaced, and environmental regulations hurt people through taxes, industrial shifts, and so forth, so we cannot be so bold environmentally. 

This thinking is both Gnostic and hedonistic, or at least materialistic. On one hand, it is Gnostic because the Gnostics often did not concern themselves with service to others, instead vying for a secret esoteric knowledge of the divine in order to escape the material world for the righteous immaterial or spiritual world. They were the ones who anticipated a spiritual newness in order to depart the material failures of earth. To look only at eternity and wash our hands of concern for the planet now is ignorant of the fact that in Genesis 1, after every day of creation, God declared it was "good." 

On the other hand, hedonism is the focus on material pleasure, and materialism is the reliance on the immediate state of things in ignorance of a spiritual reality. If our focus is only on our fiscal well-being and the risk of economic shift as reasons to not boldly advocate for the environment, we are ignoring the spiritual reality of things. If in the incarnation we find in Christ and his Church a reunion between spirit and matter, then neither Gnosticism or materialism/hedonism fulfill wholeness. They are polemics at odds with one another. Only in Christ and the new creation is unity found: Jacob's ladder bridging heaven and earth. We would be remiss to only focus on one side or the other. We should be concerned for the economic well-being of people, but not to the detriment of the care of the planet. And we should be concerned for the environment, but also the state of human economy. They are not mutually exclusive.     

That said, contemporary conservative push-back, which is often the position of evangelicals, tends to minimize environmentalism for economic concerns. I don't think economics is as vital as care for the planet, though I don't want to minimize it either. Surely, we want people to live life with the necessary resources. But there is an economic principle called creative destruction that has historically demonstrated that economies regularly replace antiquated systems and industry with new ones, thus creating new vibrancy from the ashes of the old. We have a way of rebounding from even drastic change. 

I believe that big ships need time and space to turn without capsizing; however, to just make that claim has often maintained courses in aversion to the difficulty of turning. When it comes to environmentalism, those steering the ship have maintained course because they sense economic capsizing if they turn even marginally. This has fostered the rhetoric of environmental denialism, despite the masses of research to the contrary. But, if it is normative to creatively destruct -- to rebound economically through replacement industry -- our ship is actually more buoyant than the Captains [of industry] anticipate. There is less a reason to avoid the steps of environmental concern than to maintain the economic course. And for Christians, there is no mutual exclusivity. As the priests of the planet, our responsibility is toward wholeness, including the well-being of people.

In the end, the Christian faith does not place economics or material solvency above a sustained earth. We are the new humanity and we help fulfill a New Heavens and Earth mandate even as we await the completion of it all upon Christ's return.