The Idol of Climate Change

“They…worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever!” – Romans 1.25

Those who know me will be aware of my scepticism about climate change. In many ways, concern about climate change is the new Pharisaism: “I thank you that I am not like other men, wasteful and drivers of gas-guzzlers. I recycle, I offset my carbon footprint, and I carry my shopping in a reusable Fairtrade cotton bag.” However, I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading this morning, when I came across an article in the Telegraph in which two doctors are reported to have written in the BMJ (British Medical Journal), saying that family size is something to be brought into the realm of environmental ethics, advocating a reduction in the number of children a couple have, suggesting that they stop at two, and comparing this action to avoiding patio heaters and high carbon cars, indicating that this is a way to prevent a future increase in carbon emissions and preserve a habitable planet to be bequeathed to our descendants. Doctors are to be evangelists for this vision through the information they give on the population and the environment, through their own example, and through the provision of appropriate contraception to everyone.

I find this repugnant for a number of reasons. First, what does this say about the value of family, and children in particular? This comparison degrades them by viewing them merely as items of social paraphernalia, merely objects which we acquire for our own personal use and indulgence, and which must therefore be restricted in the wider interests of society. Contrast this with the Biblical view of children – a great blessing from God:

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127.3-5

Secondly, this is an erroneous view of how this world is to be preserved and restored, and a false doctrine of humanity. Rather than being essentially a problem to the environment which must be restricted for its future good, mankind is given the charge from God to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’ (the first commandment is not to be paraphrased, “Have sex,” as some have suggested, but rather, “Have children”) and so ’subdue it’ and ‘have dominion over’ it (Genesis 1.28). This dominion is meant to show itself in working and keeping the land (Genesis 2.15) – development rather than destruction. Though frustrated by the fall, this is being fulfilled through Christ (Hebrews 2.5-9 cf Psalm 8), the second Adam to whom everything is put in subjection at his ascension; in him again we are to be fruitful and multiply and so fill the earth and see it brought under the good and perfect rule of Christ.

Thirdly, the view of children, and of humanity in general that this opinion expresses, in contrast to the view in Scripture, idolises the climate and elevates it to the status of a thing to be served.

Fourthly, this removes the begetting of children as a normal, fundamental reason for marriage. Again, being fruitful and multiplying is the first charge that God gives to the people he creates (Genesis 1.28). The Prayer Book is right when it has, in its list of the ’causes for which Matrimony was ordained’:

“First, It was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy Name.”

(This is not to say that those who can’t have children shouldn’t marry.)

Fifthly, this puts doctors in the position of being servants of a particular political agenda, rather than being trained professionals with expertise and personal qualities to promote the health of individuals and societies, and at a time when it is increasingly difficult for a doctor to practise according to his own ethics (particularly if they are Christian) for fear of being accused of imposing one’s own beliefs on others, this imposes a still further burden upon one to impose the worldview of the prevailing culture upon patients.

I suppose this does mean, at least, that while the rest of the world are bowing before their environment god and dutifully failing to multiply, Christians can be merrily having lots of children and so gradually taking over the world.

Gospel Feasting

(And I am not talking about the mid-week Bible study.)

Last night, a friend and I were discussing Tom Wright’s new book, Surprised by Hope (actually, it was published last year, so he must have a couple more out by now). Admittedly this book has some not insignificant weaknesses – the harmony of the resurrection accounts, prayer for the dead, hell, particular applications to third-world debt and climate change. In the main, however, this is an excellent book, presenting a thoroughly God-centred gospel – it is ‘the good news that God (the world’s creator) is at last becoming king, and that Jesus, whom this God raised from the dead, is the world’s true Lord’, an announcement ‘that God is God, Jesus is Lord, that the powers of death have been defeated, that God’s new world has begun’. This is not to say that the gospel doesn’t have personal implications and wonderful implications at that: ‘once the gospel announcement is made, in whatever way, it means instantly that all people everywhere are gladly invited to come in, to join the party, to discover forgiveness for the past, an astonishing destiny in God’s future, and a vocation in the present.’ Actually following Jesus (and not merely ticking a box and praying prayer) and allowing one’s life to be reshaped by him is important. Holiness, both personal and global, matters. The Christian’s future hope is not heaven (although we do go to heaven when we die) but resurrection and life in the perfected new creation. The ground of all this is the resurrection of Christ from the dead. So Easter must be a cause for real celebration, both in our liturgy and in our life, for our own sakes and for the sake of the world. Here, Wright’s conviction, joy, passion and humour verily bursts forth:

I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday… and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration.

All right, the Sundays after Easter are still within the Easter season. We still have Easter readings and hymns for several weeks. But Easter week itself ought not to be the time when all the clergy sigh with relief and go on holiday. It ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of Alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection is we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well, maybe it’s time to wake up. That always comes as a surprise.

And while we’re about it, we might write some more good Easter hymns, and take care to choose the many good ones already written that celebrate what Easter really is, rather than treating it simply as our ticket to a blissful life hereafter. Interestingly, most of the good Easter hymns turn out to be from the early church, and most of the bad ones from the nineteenth century. But we should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind. This is our greatest festival… Take Easter away, and you won’t have a New Testament; you won’t have a Christianity; as Paul says, you will still be in your sins. We shouldn’t allow the secular world, with its schedules and habits and para-religious events, its cute Easter bunnies, to blow us off course. This is our greatest day. We should put the flags out.

In particular, if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. Champagne for breakfast, again; well, of course. Christian holiness was never meant to be negative.

Surprised by Hope, pp. 268-269

Wright’s chastisement of the contemporary church in this area does not, of course, only apply to the grand celebration of Easter. It also applies to our weekly remembrance of Christ’s resurrection – the Lord’s Day, the Sabbath. We Evangelicals aren’t very good at feasting. Yet each Lord’s Day should be a scale model of Easter, picturing that great celebration. Another thing we Evangelicals aren’t very good at is tithing, and these two things are linked. We’ve got it into our heads that tithing is an Old Testament concept. Nowhere in the New Testament are we told that we have to give 10%, so we don’t have to give 10%. We just have to give generously, which may mean giving more, or (conveniently) less. Yet this command has not been abrogated; the law, rightly seen through the lens of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension, is the revelation of God’s will for his people today. The contrast between Old and New Covenants is not the law and no law, but the law on tablets of stone (which is powerless) and the law written on our hearts by the Spirit. To say any more would require another post. Moreover, Christian giving is not just about supporting Christian ministry. Yes, the Israelites had to tithe to supply the priests and Levites. But there was at least one other tithe:

You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money for whatever you desire – oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

Deuteronomy 12.22-26

This tithe was instituted so that households could eat and drink before the Lord and rejoice, and so learn to fear him always. To my knowledge, I think two families at church practise something along these lines currently (and only one of them is from Abroad), setting aside a ‘party tithe’ and having a weekly Sabbath dinner. May many more of us catch this vision. Our households are to rejoice before the Lord, to feast, to eat and drink, in celebration of his goodness and provision and liberality, in weekly remembrance of Christ’s victory over sin and death ushering in the hope of resurrection and new creation, and, as the passage above indicates, and as Wright suggests regarding Easter, this will lead to the significant transformation of ourselves and others.

Guidance

We were reminded, in a new topical sermon series at church on the Lord’s Day, that guidance is a promise, not a problem. We were referred to Psalms 23 and 119, although one might equally look in Proverbs 2.

In Proverbs 2, we have an extraordinary promise from God:

If you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity and every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed,
none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.

So you will walk in the way of the ood
and keep to the paths of the righteous
For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

The Triune God gives wisdom to his people when they ask him for it. But Biblical wisdom, as we are so often reminded, is not so much concerned with what job I should do or where I should live or what vegetables I should buy, but is first and foremost about rightly relating to God, fearing him and knowing him, and then walking in his ways. God promises to his people who ask for wisdom that he will protect them like a shield, he will guard them and watch over their ways so that they walk in the way of justice and righteousness. Such wisdom, knowledge and understanding will be theirs, and so they will be protected from dark and evil works and deeds. The wisdom that the covenant God gives to his people protects them from sexual immorality and what leads to death, and instead do what is right, and receive their inheritance of salvation from the Lord, in the language of the Proverb, ‘dwelling in the land’ and in the light of the coming of Christ, life in him and the hope of resurrection and eternity in the New Creation.

So as St. James tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting.” I take it that means we must ask God, trusting his promise to give wisdom to those who cry out to him for it, and prizing wisdom, the knowledge of how to live righteously and justly, above all else, not wanting to go both God’s way, and the way of darkness.

Wisdom

The Prayer Book lectionary has moved me on to Proverbs, and a couple of things have struck me. These thoughts are not especially profound or original.

In chapter 1.20-33, we have Wisdom personified crying aloud in the streets, rebuking the simple ones, scoffers and fools (i.e. those who do not fear the Lord, see the contrast in 1.7), and calling them to turn, or, if you like, repent. Wisdom promises to pour out her spirit to the one who does, and make known her words. Those who don’t listen, will experience calamity, terror, distress and anguish and at that point it will be too late; they will face the consequences of their choice of action and be destroyed. In contrast, the one who listens to wisdom (and by implication acts on what he or she hears) will be at ease and will face no disaster.

Although Wisdom here is personified as a woman, it is quite clear we have in these verses the gospel in shadow form. When we come to the New Testament, everything comes into focus and we see the Word incarnate, Christ the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1.30, Colossians 2.3), who walked the streets and marketplaces of Palestine calling sinners to repent and listen to him. Christ pours out the Holy Spirit on those who do and he makes known his word to them (Acts 2.17). The Holy Spirit is, of course, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Isaiah 11.1-2). Those who reject Christ will face the consequences of their actions and experience God’s judgement, whereas those who listen to him and respond to him find security and know that no ultimate disaster will befall them, because Christ has been raised from the dead, as will those who belong to him. I wonder if this passages goes some way to explain why St. Matthew and St. Luke report Jesus using that curious phrase, when after describing the unbelieving response to the Son of Man, he says that ‘wisdom is justified by her deeds’ or ‘children’ (Matthew 11.19, Luke 7.35). The Son of Man is the Wisdom of God who is rejected by men, but is ultimately vindicated by what he does and achieves: his perfect life, atoning death and glorious resurrection, ransoming sinners for God.

Matthew 24.1-35

While I admit that I’m in a minority who hold this view, I don’t think it’s exegetically sustainable at all to read this passage as teaching about Christ’s return, for a number of reasons:

1. The context is Jesus talking about the destruction of the temple (v. 2), which the disciples then ask him about (v. 3).
2. We can’t just assume ‘the close of the age’ (v. 3) means ‘the end of the world’. Given that Christ is talking about the destruction of the temple, it is quite natural to read it as talking about the close of the Old Covenant era with the destruction of its apparatus.
3. Jesus is addressing those disciples immediately gathered before him. They are the ones who are not to be led astray, be alarmed and who will be delivered up to death and hated (vv. 4-9).
4. vv. 15-21 are clearly talking about AD70 and the destruction of the temple, and not solely as an illustration of the persecution that will characterise the period leading up to Jesus return – this is the climactic event in Jesus’ discourse.
5. The apocalyptic language of v. 29 doesn’t have to be speaking about the end of the world. In fact, it echoes language used of the destruction of Babylon in Isaiah 13.10, and appears to be making the point that is made at length in the book of Revelation: that Babylon is Jerusalem and is being destroyed.
6. The coming of the Son of Man (v. 30) is in its biblical context most emphatically not about his coming to earth to judge but about his coming to heaven in vindication over and against his enemies, and to receive authority over the whole earth (Daniel 7.13-14, 21-22).
7. Fig trees (v. 32) are symbolic of Israel (see e.g. 1 Kings 4.25)
8. All the things mentioned in Matthew 24.1-33 – including the coming of the Son of Man – will take place in the lifetime of those disciples to whom Jesus was speaking (v. 34).

Now, that doesn’t mean Matthew 24 doesn’t have application to the church today. We can still learn from the exhortations not to be led astray by false prophets and false Christs, not to fear at natural disaster, to stand fast in persecution, to remember God’s grace in restraining persecution for the sake of his elect, to recognize Christ’s authority over all things &c.

Liturgy and Life

Extracts from ‘The Deacon and the Liturgy’, Being a Deacon Today by Rosalind Brown (Canterbury Press 2005):

It is sometimes supposed that conduct is primary and worship tests it, whereas the truth is that worship is primary and conduct tests it.

We do, indeed, assemble in buildings to worship, but the deacon is the constant irritant to anyone who thereby supposes that daily life is left at the door when we enter, or that worship ends with the dismissal; it merely changes location and expression. Liturgy is radically related to how we live our lives, how we fulfil our baptismal vocation, how we offer God our souls and bodies to be a reasonable sacrifice.

When we are unaware of the social implications of the liturgy, or ignore those implications, we fail to that extent to offer ourselves to God as a ‘reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice.’ For each time we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, we are by that act sent to be witnesses to Him before the world. This does not mean that we are to lead pious lives, but that we are to be in the thick of the struggle for justice and freedom and peace.

What will it do, for example, to our missionary responsibilities, when we realise that we not only proclaim Christ’s redemptive work in the liturgy, but we offer our own souls and bodies with His in the very same work? And what sort of a social order shall we be content with after we experience a community in which the elements of food and drink are provided and blessed at Christ’s table?

The deacon as a liturgical person must be a person who understands what is being grasped at here – that liturgy is formative in ways of which the casual worshipper cannot dream, that to be given to liturgical ministry is to set outselves in the path of constant transformation.

Long to reign over us

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Here she is on her throne in the House of Lords, wearing the Imperial Crown and robes at the opening of the new session of Parliament.

I want to take this opportunity to celebrate life under the British Monarchy. There was a time when the British Empire extended over a quarter of the world’s population and a quarter of the Earth’s land area. It was the largest empire the world has known. All that remains are the British Overseas Territories – Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Monserrat, Pitcairn Islands, St. Helena (including Ascension, Tristan da Cunha), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekielia and Turks and Caicos Islands. Her Majesty the Queen is also head of state of sixteen independent commonwealth states. The role of the Queen is very important. As the monarch, she is the one who has to give Royal Assent to legislation passed in Parliament. She opens each session of Parliament, the Prime Minister has to ask her permission to dissolve Parliament when he wishes to call a General Election, and it is the Queen who invites an individual to form a government as the next Prime Minister. She is well-informed about what is happening in her realms, spending several hours a day reading through her ‘red boxes’, containing papers from government departments and offices. Since she has been the monarch for over fifty years, and has seen ten Prime Ministers during the course of her reign, she is in a position of considerable wisdom, and has regular meetings with her ministers, including a weekly meeting with the Prime Minister, in which she has a right to be heard, to encourage and to warn. She also has an important representative function, outwardly to other nations, and also inwardly, in her honouring of the achievements of her subjects. The monarchy is good value for the British people, costing each of us only sixty-six pence a year.

It is of course sad that there are those who in the past violently rejected British rule and now forgo this great privilege, for example, the Thirteen Colonies who declared independence on this day in 1776. I can’t help but recall in regard to this affair the words of the apostle Paul: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13.1). I also think of his injunction to ‘pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed’ (Romans 13.7), which he did not qualify with “no taxation without representation”, at least not in my Bible. I was heartened therefore to receive an e-mail this morning from an American friend whose uncle wishes he were a subject of the British Crown, is an imperialist, and thinks the American Revolution was sinful and that they ought to have been loyal subjects of King George.

God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen:

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us:

God save the Queen.

O Lord, our God, arise,

Scatter her enemies,

And make them fall.

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix,

God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,

On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign:

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause

To sing with heart and voice

God save the Queen.

The Fourth of July

Today is a very special day. In the Calendar of the Book of Common Prayer, today is the day when we remember the translation of Martin, Bishop of Tours in the fourth century AD.

At the age of 10, Martin, against the wishes of his parents, went to the church and became a catechumen. At the age of fifteen, he had to serve in the army and, a few years later at the gates of the city of Amiens, he met a beggar and gave him half his cloak to clothe him. That night, as legend has it, he had a vision of Jesus wearing the half-cloak, and so he was subsequently baptised at the age of 18. Two years later he was convicted that he shouldn’t serve in the army, just before a battle with the Gauls at Worms, was imprisoned for cowardice, volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the battle, but before his superiors could agree, peace was made.

Once released from military service, Martin went to serve under Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, after whom the term after Christmas before Easter is named in Oxford, and who defended Trinitarianism against the Arian heretics. Hilary went into exile and Martin became a hermit, but when Hilary returned, Martin and he set up a monastery which was a centre for evangelism in the surrounding area and Martin himself travelled and preached through Western Gaul. When he was consecrated Bishop of Tours in 371, he enthusiastically destroyed the apparatus of pagan religion.

The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us:

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. – Hebrews 13.7-9

The significance of this day, the fourth of July, lie in its challenge to us to follow the example of God’s faithful servant Martin, and obey Jesus’ word that ‘whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me’, hold fast with Martin our faith in God the Holy Trinity, and like him preach the gospel of Christ that many would turn ‘from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.’