Next month the world’s attention will be directed to Glasgow, writes Rev Sydney Maitland, as the COP26 conference is held and world leaders try to agree measures to control emissions of carbon dioxide and at least moderate the warming of the global atmosphere. And yes, there will be visitors who are taking part in, observing and commenting on and objecting to the proceedings.
In the Christian understanding the relationship between humanity and the environment starts with the duty laid upon Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to ‘tend it and keep it’ (Genesis 2: 13). This task was however subject to the condition that they have nothing to do with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So their tenure was subject to moral and spiritual constraints – God’s direct and personal instruction.
We know of the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the garden in order to prevent them from gaining access to the Tree of Life which would have kept them in eternal life, but a fallen and corrupted eternal life beyond hope or salvation.
The land, its fertility, the guarantee of rainfall, the offerings from the crops and the livestock, were all part of the relationship of Israel with God and its bounty rested on the faithfulness of Israel in serving God and avoiding the deities of their neighbours. Again land and morality were interrelated.
By the time we come to the judgments of the world again it is not only the world’s institutions and people that are judged but the earth itself which is the place where people live. Again there is the sense that security of tenure of the land and faithfulness to the Lord of their salvation were interrelated and the one followed the other. The judgments of the Book of Revelation also take place against the backdrop of the land and its fertility – and that includes the seas and their fisheries.
The judgments are severe but never total. There is always space for a remnant to continue faithfully to the Lord and hence the judgments of the earth, its fresh and salt waters, are never total. The picture is of Jesus coming back to the world as King of Kings and Lord of Lords: to an earth that is not wholly uninhabitable, irradiated by nuclear fallout and polluted beyond recovery.
To this extent there is both judgment and mercy and this is primarily in the moral and spiritual spheres yet it takes place upon the earth and in the physical environment.
For us there is that sense in which our institutions and our social, economic, cultural and political relationships should all be conducted under the moral and spiritual direction of God – made known to us in Jesus Christ. It starts with our personal faith and commitment – and as this spreads to communities and to society as a whole so there is space for the land itself to be healed.
Blaming others – capitalists, the western world, the Americans, and within America, its businesses is only a form of blame-shifting. To demand a world governance is also to avoid the issue as even this would demand compromises between the main power-brokers, and would we really want a multinational, multicultural dictatorship ultimately determining our lives? What rights would be guaranteed and how would they be enforced? Even in the United Nations actions can be obstructed by the interests of dictatorships.
While the politics of global climate change may be attractive to some, I still conclude that this is an evasion of the real issues and if initiated apart from the authority of the God and Father of Jesus Christ then the result will only be a dictatorship and the land will continue to suffer. Sadly there are no short cuts.
Every blessing in a difficult and challenging time,
Sydney Maitland
