Sunday 8th February, 2nd Sunday before Lent (Sexagesima)

The challenge of climate change is – arguably – the great issue of our times. Many people are exercised about it, for a variety of reasons: some are concerned for justice, for the unfair impact upon the most needy; some are concerned for the loss of animal and plant species, impoverishing the world’s beauty and diversity; some are afraid for the future their children and grandchildren will face. In Christian debate, often the finger is pointed at Genesis’ command to human beings to have ‘dominion’.

But what kind of dominion does Genesis have in view? It means to have lordship, but to exercise that lordship in the likeness of the Lord who made us. That Lord makes not only us but the whole creation out of love, a desire for wholeness, fruitfulness, flourishing, a bountiful, glorious beauty. Genesis calls us to live up to the image of the Father who creates and sustains his creation, tending and providing for its needs (Ps 104). In the same way the whole creation, Paul says in Romans, is waiting for us to live up to our calling (Ro 8:19) to grow into the likeness of the Son, “in whom all things hold together” (Col 1:17), and who “sustains all things by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3). We need to recognise our calling to serve creation as part of creation, in the image of the God who came to be like us, and not to be served but to serve (Matt 20:28).

Every blessing,

Roger.