"Summer" in Sweden is not generally very long and varies somewhat in the amount of rain, sunshine and warmth. This summer was different. Sweden, expecially the southern half, has suffered from a serious drought, worsened by record number of sunshine hours and temperature. July was the hottest month ever since records began in the 1700s (yes, the 1700s). There have been shortages of water, with many local governments imposing restrictions on its use. The drought has meant that vegetation and the soil itself has been super dry and combustible, leading to widespread restrictions on outdoor use of campfires and grills. Many municipalities forbade grilling even in people's own backyards. So it has also been a summer plagued by forest fires (quite a few started by lightning strikes, but also by careless smokers, and by forestry machinery causing sparks from metal tools hitting rocks) - like many other countries in the northern hemisphere. Although extensive damage has been done to damage, we are grateful that so far no lives have been lost from these fires.
I just happened to pick up a book half way through this summer that looked at the life of Elijah (starting with 1 Kings 17:1). Ahab and his foreign wife Jezebel are king and queen, and have moved the nation steadily away from the workship of God to the worship of Baal (god of fire). You know the story... Elijah knows his history and the warning God gave the Israelites about the consequencies of abandoning Him (Deut. 11:16-17) being a drought. He claimed God's promise in his zeal for God's reputation and the drought was a fact. Three and a half years without rain or even dew. In the end God gave the people a demonstration of his power and direct intervention in the weather. All the people agreed that "Jehovah, He is God." But Ahab did not bend or change his ways. Jezebel promised to kill Elijah (she failed).
My point is that reading this book on Elijah while watching the daily news on the drought and forest fires was almost surreal. Sweden was not able to contain the forest fires on its own (some days there were close to 70 distinct fires) and called on countries as far away as Italy, France and Turkey. Other firefighters came from Poland and Latvia. Even then the battle was not won. Everyone admitted that the only thing that could have a significant effect was rain. But no official call ever went out, even to churches, synagogues and mosques to pray for rain. (I know that many Christians and directly affected people did, but there was no official recognition that a Higher Power's intervention was needed.) At last, there was some rain, and with continued effort by many people, the first were brought under control.
Naturally, the lack of adequate preparedness for the forest fires on the scale and distribution that occured was evident. But I hear no one suggesting that the underlying causes of extreme weather combining record high temperatures over record length of time, and drought, resulting in record numbers of fire, include the profit-driven and mis-guided management of natural resources. We read of the horrendous fires of California and other parts of the USA and Canada, and of how regular controlled burn-offs at the appropriate time of year, are neglected so that when fire does strike it becomes an inferno. Now we even get to see piro-cumulus clouds (clouds that look like the huge thunderheads, but caused by fire).
It occurred to me that there are spiritual lessons here for us too. We each have "dead wood" piling up in our "hearts" - issues/sins needing to be dealt with, while the piles are small; needing to be burnt under the controlled burning of the Spirit that comes with regular confession and forgiveness, healing and "sweeping out of the ashes." We need to do this individually and collectively. If we don't, the danger is that we will be engulfed in uncontrollable catastrophic infernos that cause so much more damage. I think of recent events where long standing sin has apparently been occuring in a well known church congregation, and which has now been exposed in a major scandal. "Controlled burning" dealing with specific and individual issues as they cropped up, perhaps needed regularly, would have meant avoiding the pain inflicted now, the shame and the disrepute brought on the name of our Lord Jesus.
In Romans 8:19-22 Paul writes that creation itself is longing for redemption, and the implication is that it's salvation is linked to that of the children of God.
I read this to mean that we, the church, the children of God, have an immense responsibility for the care of God's creation. The passage itself, as well as many other parts of Scripture, show that God cares for his entire creation, not only humankind. And He still considers that its care should be a partnership with humankind, as it was in the garden of Eden.
So, is your church doing anything in terms of contributing to the sustainability of the use of natural resources, to rehabiliation of natural areas devastated by human greed, to the health and welfare of innumerable poor people caught between large exploitative corporations and destroying the land, and their immediate needs of survival, to the application of God's righteousness (Matt 6:33) in matters of fair trade and care of God's creation?
It seems quite a long time ago that the issue of the role of Christians in the stewardship of natural resources (as God's creation) was a matter of concern. Has it disappeared? Have our churches become part of the problem or part of the solution?
I don't intend to point a finger here ... I know that when and if I do, I have three pointing back at myself. (I need the Spirit's 'controlled burning" often...)
Thoughts, reactions, ideas ...?
I just happened to pick up a book half way through this summer that looked at the life of Elijah (starting with 1 Kings 17:1). Ahab and his foreign wife Jezebel are king and queen, and have moved the nation steadily away from the workship of God to the worship of Baal (god of fire). You know the story... Elijah knows his history and the warning God gave the Israelites about the consequencies of abandoning Him (Deut. 11:16-17) being a drought. He claimed God's promise in his zeal for God's reputation and the drought was a fact. Three and a half years without rain or even dew. In the end God gave the people a demonstration of his power and direct intervention in the weather. All the people agreed that "Jehovah, He is God." But Ahab did not bend or change his ways. Jezebel promised to kill Elijah (she failed).
My point is that reading this book on Elijah while watching the daily news on the drought and forest fires was almost surreal. Sweden was not able to contain the forest fires on its own (some days there were close to 70 distinct fires) and called on countries as far away as Italy, France and Turkey. Other firefighters came from Poland and Latvia. Even then the battle was not won. Everyone admitted that the only thing that could have a significant effect was rain. But no official call ever went out, even to churches, synagogues and mosques to pray for rain. (I know that many Christians and directly affected people did, but there was no official recognition that a Higher Power's intervention was needed.) At last, there was some rain, and with continued effort by many people, the first were brought under control.
Naturally, the lack of adequate preparedness for the forest fires on the scale and distribution that occured was evident. But I hear no one suggesting that the underlying causes of extreme weather combining record high temperatures over record length of time, and drought, resulting in record numbers of fire, include the profit-driven and mis-guided management of natural resources. We read of the horrendous fires of California and other parts of the USA and Canada, and of how regular controlled burn-offs at the appropriate time of year, are neglected so that when fire does strike it becomes an inferno. Now we even get to see piro-cumulus clouds (clouds that look like the huge thunderheads, but caused by fire).
It occurred to me that there are spiritual lessons here for us too. We each have "dead wood" piling up in our "hearts" - issues/sins needing to be dealt with, while the piles are small; needing to be burnt under the controlled burning of the Spirit that comes with regular confession and forgiveness, healing and "sweeping out of the ashes." We need to do this individually and collectively. If we don't, the danger is that we will be engulfed in uncontrollable catastrophic infernos that cause so much more damage. I think of recent events where long standing sin has apparently been occuring in a well known church congregation, and which has now been exposed in a major scandal. "Controlled burning" dealing with specific and individual issues as they cropped up, perhaps needed regularly, would have meant avoiding the pain inflicted now, the shame and the disrepute brought on the name of our Lord Jesus.
In Romans 8:19-22 Paul writes that creation itself is longing for redemption, and the implication is that it's salvation is linked to that of the children of God.
"For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."
I read this to mean that we, the church, the children of God, have an immense responsibility for the care of God's creation. The passage itself, as well as many other parts of Scripture, show that God cares for his entire creation, not only humankind. And He still considers that its care should be a partnership with humankind, as it was in the garden of Eden.
So, is your church doing anything in terms of contributing to the sustainability of the use of natural resources, to rehabiliation of natural areas devastated by human greed, to the health and welfare of innumerable poor people caught between large exploitative corporations and destroying the land, and their immediate needs of survival, to the application of God's righteousness (Matt 6:33) in matters of fair trade and care of God's creation?
It seems quite a long time ago that the issue of the role of Christians in the stewardship of natural resources (as God's creation) was a matter of concern. Has it disappeared? Have our churches become part of the problem or part of the solution?
I don't intend to point a finger here ... I know that when and if I do, I have three pointing back at myself. (I need the Spirit's 'controlled burning" often...)
Thoughts, reactions, ideas ...?
