Friday, September 27, 2013

So, What's a Christian to Do?

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.