All Creation
I want to talk a bit about E-day….Oh, you are thinking Easter aren’t you. I am referring to April 22nd 2017. It’s Earth Day. Believe it or not Earth day and Easter have a grand connection. Just like Easter and we have a grand connection. What is it? While first I want to define what Earth Day is. Earth day was started in 1970, and celebrated in more than 190 countries, Earth Day is a day used to bring attention to environmental issues. It got a big boost in the 90’s due to a push to increase recycling and worries about the O-Zone layer’s deterioration. These days it’s more frequently used to champion pollution reduction, clean energy production and concerns over global warming. Now I am sure you are scratching your head at this point and wondering what this has to do with Easter. Easter is for the Earth as well. Hear me out here. In western culture we tend to embrace a Plato driven thought process that everything to do with the physical world is bad, and everything spiritual is good. For example:
Body: weak, aging, fragile, will die…….bad right?
Soul: strong, intangible, immortal…… good right?
Yet God looked down in Genesis each time He created and said “It is good.” You can say sin ruined the Earth, and that sin ruined us as well, so I ask you this question? Did Jesus come to redeem the Earth?
It is sort of a trick question. Please note; I am not saying there is a mother Earth, or the Earth has a soul or spirit, and I am not challenging you to “paint with all the colors of the wind”. But we do need to acknowledge this world as God’s creation. God is a master craftsman and took great pride in His work. Not just you and me, but the water and the land, the birds of the air, and the creatures of the sea. He declared it all good. Jesus stood upon this world. He played in the mud, he chased animals, and He stared up at the heavens in awe at its midnight majesty. This is God’s soil, and God’s creation. He gave that creation to us, out of love, that we might be stewards of this great gift.
Not only is it good but one day it will be better. Like us it will be what God intended for it to be. It will be made complete. God says in Revelation 21 that there will be a “new heaven and a new earth”. It will have a new capital and life will be better than good there. It is talked about in the Old Testament as well. Take a peek at Isaiah 65 starting at verse 17 (ESV)
17 “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young man shall die a hundred years old,
and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
At this new creation, this new beginning, God will once again walk with His people in the gardens. Dare I say He will even dance through and alongside His creation? Like Easter there will be a time for our Sunday best, and time to rest under the shade of trees. God will answer before we ask and take pleasure in our creations. Like a Father takes pleasure in his children’s creations. Christ didn’t just leave the tomb to end the threat of death or to bring you eternal life. He left that grave carrying with Him the very seeds of new life. In that tomb in the garden, the purchase of new Garden of Eden was made. So, for now, let’s celebrate the risen Christ. Enjoy your jellybeans and your chocolate bunnies and your peeps. Be thankful for this world that we have been blessed with. Take pride (and perhaps take better care of) this world we have been made custodians of. Because like our bodies, the day will come when this too is remade. All because of gift of Easter. All because of our creator, the Lord and author of life.
It Is Finished
It is Good
The Lord is Risen
- Pastor Dan