{"id":8237,"date":"2024-09-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/faithfulness-in-action\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T23:34:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:34:29","slug":"faithfulness-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/faithfulness-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Faithfulness in action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The environmental crisis and our mandate to care for creation <\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A word of encouragement from the MWC Faith & Life Commission and the Creation Care Task Force. <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Part 2 of 2 <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreation care\u201d is taking on ever-increasing urgency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news reminds us daily of alarming changes in our climate. We are witnessing terrible violence against God\u2019s beloved creation. And we are increasingly aware of how much we share in the harm, both as sinners and as sinned-against. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we respond? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our answers will surely vary depending on where we live, on our resources, the depth of our faith, our theology and on our willingness to respond to the call of the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human sinfulness has broken our relationship with God, with each other, and with creation in all its diversity. But the gracious and liberating Spirit of God is bringing about \u201cnew creation\u201d in and through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is that Spirit saying to us at this time? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MWC Tagline and Creation Care <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, the MWC tagline<\/a> \u201cFollowing Jesus, Living Out Unity, Building Peace\u201d <\/em>echoes the Shared Convictions<\/em>. The Spirit can use it to aid us in our environmental faithfulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Jesus <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The tagline gives first place to \u201cfollowing Jesus.\u201d The Jesus we have pledged to follow is not only the healer and teacher of the Gospels, but also the Christ who creates and holds all creation together in his transforming and re-creating embrace (Colossians 1:17). We cannot follow Jesus without sharing in the Creator\u2019s redeeming love for this world\u2014all of it! We cannot follow him without loving care, simplicity, and generosity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living out Unity <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The second item is \u201cliving out unity.\u201d The heart of Jesus\u2019 prayer for us as his followers in John 17 is that we may be one. With whom are we to be one? With whom are we to live out unity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 first <\/strong>concern is that we be one with him as he is one with his (and our!) Father (John 17:21-23). Unity with God means that we share in the love of the Creator for the whole cosmos* (John 3:16, 17). We too are to be the \u201clight of the cosmos,\u201d as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:14, John 3:21). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the body of that creating and redeeming Christ we are to participate as caretakers, custodians, and guardians of creation. Just as the sabbath was God\u2019s great act of creation care (Leviticus 25), we honour the sabbath when we allow creation to rest from our ceaseless and careless exploitation of earth\u2019s bounty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second,<\/strong> we are to be one with each other, sparing no effort to maintain the unity the Spirit creates (Ephesians 2:18; 4:3). We live out this unity in active solidarity with those in the body of Christ who are suffering the effects of the environmental crisis (1 Corinthians 12:26). This solidarity extends to all of humanity, and will be tested more and more as the impact on vulnerable populations increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live this unity out also by praying for each other to have the courage to stop harming creation, and thereby each other. We have much to confess, much to forgive and much to change as we walk in unity as the body of Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third,<\/strong> God\u2019s \u201cgathering up all things in heaven and on earth in Christ\u201d (Eph 1:10) reminds us of our deep unity with the whole of creation, a unity of all things in Christ. We rejoice in creation\u2019s beauty and its bounty. But we also share in God\u2019s grief when creation suffers, especially when it is at our hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we confess and repent of our refusal to listen to the suffering of creation and our failure to live up to Jesus\u2019 mandate to us as disciples, namely, to proclaim the gospel of salvation to all creation (Mark 16:15). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth,<\/strong> we are not only in unity with God, but God is in unity with us. We are not alone. The Spirit, the breath of life the Creator lends to all creation, indwells us, guiding, sustaining, and empowering us in our resolve to be faithful (Romans 8:9-27, 1 Corinthians 12, Galatians 5:22-25, Ephesians 4:4, Phil 2:12, 13). We dare not quench or grieve this Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) by neglecting to join in the Creator\u2019s love and care for our earthly home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building Peace <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The third element in the tagline is \u201cbuilding peace.\u201d The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, which above all means \u201cwholeness\u201d and \u201cwell-being.\u201d Shalom best characterizes that first sabbath when God looked upon creation in all its material reality and called it \u201cvery good\u201d (Genesis 1:25; 2:2-3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To commit ourselves to \u201cbuilding peace\u201d is to do all we can to turn from our ruinous ways and to engage as co-creators with God in the \u201cministry of reconciliation\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Colossians 1:20), including care for creation in all its diversity. Building peace is working at restoring creation to wholeness, where peace and justice will once again embrace and kiss each other (Psalm 85:10). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ground of Our Hope <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We struggle with troubling questions: Is there hope for this world? Can we really make a difference with our limited knowledge, energy, and resources? Or will this world pass away soon, regardless of our efforts? What should we hope for? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shared Convictions conclude with these words: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe seek to walk in [Jesus\u2019] name by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we confidently await Christ\u2019s return and the final fulfillment of God\u2019s kingdom.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConfident waiting\u201d is one way to speak of hope. This hope in God\u2019s future must, however, never be an escape from our responsibility here and now. Hope propels us to act now, where we are. Such hope is not optimism, nor does it rest on our resilience or inventiveness. It rests fully on God\u2019s faithfulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The love that the Creator pours into our hearts through the Spirit (Romans 5:1-5) empowers us to act with hope as the body of the Christ who gave his life to save this cosmos. We work with hope even as we wait in faith. All creation is groaning in eager anticipation of us putting our hope-filled faith into practice (Romans 8:22; Hebrews 11:1; 12:12-15). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we might thus restate the concluding sentence of the Shared Convictions as follows: \u201cWe seek to walk by the power of the life-giving Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ through whom all things are created, redeemed and sustained, as we eagerly and actively await the shalom the final fulfillment of God\u2019s kingdom will bring.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us ask the Spirit for clarity and vision to help us respond faithfully to the challenge of our day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pledge to practice loving care and patience with each other as we walk this challenging path together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us prayerfully support the Creation Care Task Force and all the many efforts to respond to the crisis we face together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is our prayer for the MWC family of faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earth is the Lord\u2019s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it. Psalm 24:1 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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