'CREATIONTIDE REVISITED'

Posted: 22.09.24 in Articles category

Five years ago this month I penned a short article about ‘Creationtide’ - the liturgical Season of Creation. So much has changed for us all since then, notably the experience of the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, what hasn’t changed is the existential threat to our planet posed by climate change and the growing evidence that collective human folly is its primary cause.  

Creationtide is a time when we remember that God is the creator of all life as maker of the universe. It’s a time when we remember the bonds we share with all living creatures who are precious like us because they too are divinely made and reflect aspects of God. And we also remember our God-given responsibilities as stewards of the earth tasked with its protection.

This year’s Creationtide theme is ‘Hope and Act with Creation’, based on Romans 8 verses 18-25. Simply focusing on hope is not enough when the indicators clearly show that climate change this summer is getting worse with the two months of June and August 2024 being the hottest globally on record. While we place our hope in God as the sustainer of all things, we must respond with action to safeguard and protect the natural world.

I am indebted to Arocha UK for the following study on Romans 8 which speaks so powerfully into our current sense of despair and hopelessness. St Paul’s words speak of ‘our present sufferings’ (v.18) as people and the ‘frustration’ and ‘groaning’ of creation (vs.20, 22). Real hope begins with lamenting our current hopeless situation, facing the facts of the groaning of creation. Without heartfelt lament and real repentance for our part in causing the situation that we face, there can be no genuine hope. Yet the emphasis of Romans 8 is not on creation’s groaning but on its ‘eager expectation’ (v.19). The groaning of creation is a pregnant expectation, as is our own groaning (v.23) when we bring it to God. The ‘pains of childbirth’ (v.22) may be agonising, but they are filled with the hope of new life to come. That hope is made explicit in verse 21: “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Our suffering and groaning world will be set free, released from its chains. Creation will give birth to new creation, not ‘new’ in the sense of replaced but ‘new’ in the deeply biblical sense of renewed, restored, redeemed, recycled.

Such hope is certain - one based on the character, actions and promises of God. It tells us that, however bad things get, there will be a day when Christ returns to renew and restore all things. We know this, first because God has created and cares for all things, second because God in Christ has entered our created world to “save the world” (John 3:17) through his death of the cross, and third because the resurrection of Jesus proves both that despair and death do not have the last word.  

‘With’, that small word from the Creationtide theme, is significant. Creation is already waiting in eager expectation. Creation is already groaning in pregnant longing. In one English translation, Romans 8:19 reads “The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God's glorious sons and daughters!” Our hope calls us to action. We ourselves cannot save the planet. Yet God, in his wisdom and power, has already accomplished the defeat of sin and death through Jesus’ death and resurrection. We live now in anticipation of his glorious return, and we are called to acts of prophetic anticipation – seeking to demonstrate our eternal and ultimate hope whilst operating within the constraining realities in which we live today. Hence, we are called to plant trees, conserve biodiversity, seek green technologies, treat fellow creatures with compassion, ensure climate justice for all and so forth. We do all these, not because we can save the world by doing them, but as acts of worship in hope, that Christ will take our humble offerings and transform them as part of the renewal and restoration of all things. Amen to that!