Most of my blog posts begin life as columns for my local paper. This one was no exception. Because
of the preponderance of conservative Christian thought in the area
where I live, in this particular column I had two goals ~ to counter the
bad theology that one hears
used in support of climate change denial, and to give those Christians
of good will who want to be good stewards of earth the faith language they need
to justify moving forward. I recognize that these goals will be of less relevance to some blog readers than to others. I simply ask that readers recognize the context in which this was written. This is not an end; these are the baby steps of beginning to address the terrible threat of anthropogenic climate change from a faith perspective.
The gospel
reading for September 22 (the 18th Sunday after Pentecost) for
churches that follow the common lectionary was the Parable of the Shrewd
Manager (also titled the Parable of the Dishonest Servant), as recorded in Luke 16:1-13. Our pastors always provide a
short introduction to be read by the scripture reader to set the stage. So at Lititz Moravian we heard, “The parable
of the shrewd manager can be interpreted in many ways. At its simplest, it
reminds us that we have a Master who doesn’t want us to squander the Master’s
property. What if the Master were to say to you, ‘What is this I hear about
you? Give me an accounting of your management.’”
We could have stopped right there and
had plenty to chew on and pray about for the coming week. It’s a challenge which has occupied a
considerable part of my consciousness in recent years. My faith teaches me that the Master is God
the Creator, and that all the universe is God’s property. On the bit of the cosmos known to us as
planet earth, human beings have emerged as the dominant species. So in the language of faith, humans are the
designated managers of our portion of creation.
