FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
There was a time in the history of our world when people sang concerning the beauty of the earth, and one could hear in Christian churches:
For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies.
Refrain:
Christ, our Lord, to you we raise
this, our hymn of grateful praise.
At such times people would also recite creation poetry such as Psalm 19, a part of which I quote:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
In them, He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Yes, not only in the churches did they recite and sing creation poetry that spoke of the beauty of nature, but in schools, homes and everywhere, where there was a high respect for the God of nature. It was done from a faith perspective. People believed then that God made the world and everything in it, and they reverenced the God of nature whose character they could see stamped on nature.
Unfortunately, things have changed, profoundly, as we have gotten more sophisticated with our technologies. The more we become technocrats, the more we think we have the right to dominate the earth and everything in it. The more we claim how much we own where we live and have the right to do what we are doing, the more we create curses on the earth that we are passing on to the next generation.
Many economists are talking about “the resource curse(s).” They speak of it in places on earth, especially in African countries, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the paradox of plenty and the poverty paradox are profoundly expressed, in corruption, in continuous conflicts and foreign competition. Of course, we can also see it in Europe and America where the rich are abusing the resources that is to be shared with all others. Yes, it is ever more evident that God’s resources have been turned into more and more curses on the earth.
Let me admonish that our children are watching the curses on the beautiful earth and are crying as they come to realize that they might not have a future earth to live in. When they hear that the largest iceberg on record, measuring more than 4,200 square miles (11,000 square kilometers), broke off in Antarctica in 2021 and that a larger iceberg, with a surface area of around 4,320 square kilometers, holding enough frozen water to lift oceans a dozen meters (40 feet), drowning cities and redrawing the planet’s coastlines, broke away from Greenland and is currently afloat in the Atlantic, they will think that our world has a rather frightening prospect of survival.
Our children need comfort, and I hope that we can give it to them by helping them to know that we who are passing off the scene of action are willing to do all we can to stop the curses on the earth that we have done so much to perpetuate. But, of course, I wish that we do not give our children any false hopes.
As messed up as things are, it seems impossible to think that we will be able to remove the curses on our own. Even if we destroyed all nuclear arsenals and the poisons of biological weaponry that have been stockpiled across the world, we would still be in a world where self-centered humanity will find a way to make a mess of things.
So here is what I want to say, while we do our best to contain the curses, while we try to control our self-centered ways, we need to pray hard: “Lord, let your kingdom come and let your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Let your rule begin now. Please come soon and bring about the new creation, for only thus will the curse(s) be lifted.”
The above prayer is not a fiction of our imagination for anyone who loves the Lord. The prayer is based on the promise that God has made. God says, “Look, I will make all things new” (Revelation 21:5), and then, “There will be no more curse.” (Revelation 22:3)
I want to live in that new earth where the curse(s) will be removed. How about you?
