CREATION SABBATHS
Covid-19 has likely disrupted your life and the life of your family in significant ways. As I sit in my home, day after day, I have begun to ponder, with the privileged time I have, what we as God’s people are to do on the other side of this pandemic. This time has been radically shaping my view of the mission of God’s people, grafted into the Hebrew nation, recipient of God’s redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. This redeeming work doesn’t begin and end with Christ’s crucifixion however, which we, as Christians, sometimes forget. We are a redeeming people of all things and that redemption effort includes God’s creation.
One of the wonderful things I’ve witnessed during these difficult times has been seeing God’s creation released from the yolk of slavery we have placed upon it.
I’ve seen skies that were once smog filled in brilliant blues, dolphins swimming in clear waters in the canals of Venice, lions slumbering on the sides of roads in Africa- in places once their natural habitats. The hole in the Ozone has shrunk; greenhouse emissions have been dramatically reduced.
While we as humans and our economy are enduring this painful virus, all of creation is reminding us that God is in control. While we are forced to Sabbath (many of us longer than we have ever wanted to) all of nature is joining in the Sabbath with us, and that part of this Sabbath is beautiful.
I’ve heard it said that if we don’t choose to Sabbath, God will force us to rest. When we work to exhaustion, we force our bodies to compromise on sleep, exercise, and food choices. We choose convenience, and sometimes that convenience is costly not only for us, but takes a physical toll on our environment.
I am reading a book called “The Mission of God’s People” and the author, Christopher Wright says this, “The Old Testament insists on a strong moral link between how humans behave on earth and the state of the earth itself- for good or ill… human wickedness produces ecological distress”. While we mourn the way that this Sabbath affects us financially, relationally, and spiritually, I suspect that the Sabbath the earth is getting to embrace during this time is being radically diminished in respect to the great mercy that the Lord is might be providing us.
Is it possible for us to both mourn our loss and proclaim the goodness of Christ during this moment; do we have to choose just one or the other?
Creation is a part of God’s redemption plan, and we are getting to see, in real time, before our very eyes, small pieces of what that new earth might look like- things I could not have imagined to see with my own eyes in this generation.
As we ponder and find spiritual meaning for this health and economic crisis, I pray that we may see God’s redemptive work in this as well.
Creation is not just a disposable backdrop to the lives of human creatures who were really intended to live somewhere else, and someday will do so. We are not redeemed out of creation, but as part of the redeemed creation itself- a creation that will again be fully and eternally for God’s glory, for our joy and benefit, and forever
When we emerge from our homes someday in the future, may we see the great blessing of creation, thank God for giving our earth a Sabbath, and seek to provide opportunities for our creation to be a part of God’s redeeming work in us and for us. May we one day, seek to truly Sabbath with all creation, at the same time, proclaiming God’s glory in every part of our being; in that moment, may it be like what is proclaimed in Isaiah 65.
One day, all God’s creation will Sabbath together, and it will be beautiful.
While this is a painful time, God is giving us a small piece of that new heaven and new earth, and hope of what we will see one day.
Isaiah 65: 17-25
17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
20
“Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach[a] a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21
They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22
No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23
They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them.
24
Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25
The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
- Emily Thien