Christian Conservation?

I am in Mombassa, Kenya this week discussing theology, ecology, and community development.  It has been an amazing time of thinking about how our theology effects our interaction with others and the environment.  This is a topic that is not talked about in many churches and there are a number of poor theologies that either do not care or disregard the environment all together.  We have been grappling with the idea that our environment is connected to our spirituality.  And, that our theology reflects our treatment of the environment.

A passage that keeps coming up is Colossians 1.19-20.  It has been interesting how we forget that 'all things' means 'all things.'  God is reconciling everything, both humankind and nature.  This morning we were challenged to think about the Gospel as a message to the whole world.  The reconciliation of Christ brings people into right relationship with God as well as right relationship with nature.  The rural poor rely on 100% of the environment to live.  So, the issues facing the poor are environmental issues.  If we simply focus on souls and not the soil, we miss out the central message of the Gospel, which is the reconciliation of everything.  John 3.16, uses an interesting term.  It states that God loved the 'kosmos' (were we get the word cosmos from).  God loved everything, the whole of the cosmos.  It has been challenging and empowering to see the relationship we have to the environment and God's relationship with the same environment.

I had a good discussion with one of the presenters about N.T. Wright's book Surprised by Hope.  That book has been a great influence on understanding a right relationship with the world around us, and how that is reflected in our view of heaven.  Those who do care about the world today, tend to have far off, distant, raptured, views of heaven.  As Wright says, "Jesus is coming, go plant a tree!"