Humans
share a universal capacity to have compassion for other people and living
creatures, including those who are in no position to offer them anything in
return, such that self-interest cannot fully account for the compassion shown.
The body of experience, and reflection on experience, passed down in my faith
tradition would claim that this is because every human being is created in the
likeness of a loving God, whose love overflows to others.
Humans
also share a universal capacity for wounding—ourselves, one another, and any
other living thing. The same body of experience diagnoses this in that we
believe God exists, but do not confidently believe that God consistently has
our best interests at heart, and so we try to take for ourselves that which is
already gifted to us.
September,
in the life of the Church, is Creationtide or the Season of Creation, and this
Sunday is the Feast of Creation in Christ. And this (northern hemisphere)
summer, we have been reminded of the wounds we have inflicted on creation, from
wildfires burning across Europe to landslides in Nepal.
Many
people have an awareness of God’s power in the majesty of the natural world.
Some claim to be more aware of God’s presence on a mountain than in a church
building. But, are we also able to discern the presence of the wounded
Christ—the suffering servant marred beyond recognition—in the visible wounds of
the natural world?
The
ancient Jewish prophet Isaiah was given visions of the suffering of God’s
people somehow being taken up into God’s redemptive plan; visions that
coalesced around the hope of a Messiah; and which, for Christians, found their
fulfilment in Jesus. If Isaiah’s vision includes the revelation, ‘by his wounds
we are healed,’ then, can we see, in the places where the earth has been
scarred and afterwards experienced regeneration, the presence of our
resurrected Lord? The promise of hope that one day all creation will be made
new?
When
we look at the world around us, it can feel an intractable mess. On the left,
political voices insist we have not done enough to avert environmental
disaster. On the right, political voices insist that nothing we do can make a
difference, so it is just a distraction. The super rich have given up on the
rest of us and dream of starting a new world on Mars. A whole cohort of young
people are paralysed by anxiety and despair; while others are numbed by
indifference.
And
yet. And yet there are stories from all around the world of people, empowered
as children of God, whose ingenuity and care are healing our wounded world.
Whose actions participate in the making all things new, the reconciliation of
all things to their Creator in and through Jesus. Whose hope is sustained,
whose joy is renewed.
God
chose to dwell, in divine fullness, in Jesus, who was pierced and wounded. And
somehow, in some great mystery that cannot be explained, only experienced, that
blood brought about peace.
So,
where do you see God, in the beauty and the brokenness and the renewed life of
the world around you? And where, and how, might you join in the great
reconciliation?
Colossians
1.15-20
15
He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
16
for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have
been created through him and for him.
17
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18
He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
19
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20
and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on
earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
John
1.1-14
1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2
He was in the beginning with God.
3
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. What has come into being
4
in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7
He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through
him.
8
He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
9
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world
did not know him.
11
He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
12
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become
children of God,
13
who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man,
but of God.
14
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the
glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
