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Weekly Note from Bishop-in-Charge | September 04, 2022
Every year the Cathedral has given emphasis to creation. We will again observe this annual observance during the coming month of September.
As we experience the sweltering heat and drought of summer and as we read the news about forest fires and floods we can conclude that we are living through a worsening climate crisis. These signals tell us that we have not always been caring and responsible stewards of creation.
As Christians the stories of creation in Genesis chapter one and two lay the foundation for our understanding of our world and our place in it. The majestic account in chapter one says that God created the world and that God pronounced it as being very good. That marks the start of our view of the world we inhabit, a gift---a very good gift---of God. Moreover, God tells humanity to rule and cultivate (literally, the word is “serve”) creation, which has been given to sustain human life. This underlines humanity as God’s representative, God’s stewards, who are to rule and serve the creation in the same way God world. Who can deny that we have often failed in our divine assignment?
But there is more. We remember and celebrate the news that God dispatched his Son to take on our humanity and to live among us as the both the fullness of God and of humanity. This we call the Incarnation, the enfleshment of God among us. In that act, Jesus dignifies humanity and all of creation. The Divine became human so that humanity and the whole creation can share in the life of God. We have often failed to live into this reality, haven’t we? Both humanity and the planet we inhabit now lives at a crossroad. We need to remember who we are called to be as agents of God’s care of earth and each other, to change our minds and live in a new way, and to work as God’s stewards. This stands as one of the important spiritual disciplines to which we are called.
So, we pray, “Give us all a reverence for the earth as your creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of other and to your honor and glory.” (BCP, p. 388)
Bishop Frank
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