Page 5 - Moravian Messenger March 2019

The World Council of Churches at its Vancouver assembly in 1983 urged member churches to engage in a conciliar process of mutual commitment (covenant) to justice, peace and the integrity of creation. This was a response to a situation of crisis: arms race, worldwide injustice and severe mistreatment of our planet.
All three areas of crisis are major threats to life and are interconnected.
Our Moravian Church's Mission Statement contains all three elements. Here we shall emphasis the ‘integrity of creation’. Point 5 of our Mission Statement states, ‘we commit ourselves to safeguard the integrity of creation, sustaining and renewing the life of the earth’.
At Ockbrook we have embarked on an exploration of this statement. In June 2017 a seminar was held with the title 'Introduction to Creation Theology in the Bible', facilitated by Dr Margaret Barker and Dr Ann Hope. Theological and practical considerations came together and a series of ecumenical meetings followed. The Co-op in Borrowash did not only open their meeting room for our gatherings but they also provided a notice board for environmental issues and have generally been very supportive.
The meetings culminated in three public gatherings, held in the Methodist Church in Borrowash:
1. The problem of packaging
(with speakers from the Council and local businesses).
2. What happens to our local waste? (with the Refuse Supervisor of Erewash Council).
3. Plastic pollution in seas and rivers (with a local business person and an expert on water pollution).
Synod has commissioned our congregations to work further on the topic of integrity of creation.
Dr Margaret Barker is providing a series of articles that
outline Creation Theology. They will be published in the months to come.
We are also working on practical advice that we intend to share.
Integrity of Creation
Br Joachim Kreusel
Ockbrook
Creation Theology in the Bible
The Bible has no single passage that describes the theology of creation. We have to piece it together from many texts and from material outside the Bible which shows how the first Christians would have understood the creation and their place in it.
The temple in Jerusalem was built to represent the six days of creation. All the worship and teaching there centred on praising the Creator and caring for the creation. Adam and all human beings were created to be the high priests of the temple and to lead the worship. Any sins in the creation polluted the temple.
THE CREATION IS ONE SYSTEM HELD TOGETHER BY LOVING KINDNESS.
BREAKING GOD'S LAWS DESTROYS THE CREATION AND HUMAN SOCIETY
They believed that creation was held in one system by the LORD's eternal covenant, which had several names.
• The everlasting or eternal covenant: 'the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.' Genesis 9.16.
• The covenant of peace: 'My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed.' Isaiah 54.10.
• The covenant of steadfast love; this was the name used in the time of Jesus, for example in the Dead Sea Scrolls. 'By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' John 13.35.
The creation covenant bound all the natural order and human society into one system, and so human sin could destroy the creation. The creation covenant was imagined as a great net that kept all things secure. Adam the high priest had to give correct teachings so that there were no sins through ignorance; and he had to repair the covenant when it was broken. Jesus our great high priest (Hebrews 4.14), made this covenant new at the Last Supper, removing the sins that destroyed it (Matthew 26.28). Isaiah described the broken covenant (Isaiah 24.4-8), and the nightmare pictures in Revelation 6.12-14 are a vision of the covenant collapsing.
The covenant bonds were restored by atonement. The high priest ritually removed from the temple the pollutions caused by sin, and thus restored the covenant and healed the creation. He healed by sprinkling and pouring out blood, a symbol of his own life. This was called the sin offering (Isaiah 53.10). St Paul said that all Christians must offer themselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12.1-2), thinking differently, and so being a part of the healing atonement.
The music of the angels praises God and expresses the harmony of creation, but sin made it impossible
to hear the song of the angels. The
shepherds at Bethlehem heard the song
again when the Saviour was born. St Paul taught that all the new children of God, led by the Spirit, should release creation from decay (Romans 8.12-25).
Dr Margaret Barker
Methodist Preacher and Theologian
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