Ecclesiastes For Earth Day

Last updated on: April 22, 2018 at 6:24 am by Anne Kennedy

Ecclesiastes For Earth Day 2018-04-22T06:24:36-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Facebook reminded me just this moment that today is Earth Day, inviting me to share my wishes for a greener world. Fortunately for me, yesterday I Instagrammed all my seedlings that I will probably never be able to plant because of it’s being always winter and never anything else. All my virtue, I hope, has been appropriately signaled. Should have stopped there but, being a glutton for punishment, went over to Twitter. There leapt up a meme–a fluffy sort of tree rising out of the earth as a chick out of an egg, and the scolding, “Remember, we can’t survive without Mother Earth, but she would THRIVE without us.”

I like the word “Remember.” It’s really a very Christian word. There’s an evocative poem, right in the middle of the Bible, at least as good as anything on Twitter today, you might remember it. It goes like this.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut-when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low- they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets- before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. – Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

I am always surprised by how much more articulate the Bible is than the average tweet. I know it shouldn’t be so, twitter being so laconic, so clever, the pinncacled heights of artistic mortal self-expression. But every now and then I find the Bible measures up.

So what am I to remember? The twitterer wants me to remember the earth, the creation. She, inanimate as she is, can do very well without me, though I can do nothing without her. I have sinned against her, and so certainly I must repent, but there will not be forgiveness, not in its usual sense. I can work my way out of my sin, like Heracles, performing difficult put possible tasks like using appropriate drinking receptacles and nourishing myself with the right kinds of food. But I mustn’t do these atoning works in secret, I must do them in the light so that I will get credit, so that some of my sins will be shriven off of me. The best thing, though, will be when I die and the earth is rid of my corrupting person. If I feel guilty enough, my life will not have been in vain. I will melt into the cosmic void, perhaps healing the earth, so wounded by my existence, with the dust and ash of my scattered body.

Whereas, Ecclesiastes invites me to remember not the creation, but the Creator. Remember him, admonishes the preacher. Remember him soon, in your youth, when you are young and full of vim and vigor, when you are inclined to rush out and rescue the world by your hard work and proper belief. Remember the one who made everything, who made you. Because eventually you are going to get old, you are not going to be able to do anything but sit in your chair, still, small, lonely, perhaps afraid. And then, before too long, you will die. The silver cord will snap, the pitcher will shatter, and you will go to your eternal home and much younger mourners will go about the streets.

Don’t remember the earth that you worked, that you will work over the whole course of your life, the futility of your inconsequential person against a universe so vast, a ground so hard, a winter so lengthy. Remember instead the one who made it and you, who knows your frailty, your limitations, the purposes of your heart and mind. Remember him, because he will certainly remember you. And it won’t be whether or not you threw away a lot of plastic bottles over the course of your life, but whether you understood that the Creator was God and that you, a human person, was never God, that you couldn’t save yourself, let alone the creation he subjected so precariously under you.

It’s actually a much more terrifying proposition. God created it, and gave it over into the hand of his creature. And his creature, wanting to be like God, corrupted and subjugated that green glorious gift, a world so perfectly made, set into orbit at a felicioutous distance from the moon and sun and all the far flung planets and stars. A world so perfectly fashioned that it renews and restores itself even when the creature digs deep to bespoil its treasures. A world that groans and longs for salvation from human tyranny. There we are caught, the creature and the creation, in sin, in death, in hopelessness.

Remember your Creator, because he remembered you. He provided a way for you to be saved from the terrible sin of forgetting him and corrupting his beautiful world. He remembered you. He died so that you wouldn’t have to. He rose again so that your life could be rescued from the vanity, the futility, the frustrations of mortality. Remember that he will come again to judge, to completely remake the earth, to restore the beauty of the creature and the creation in harmonious comfortable order. For earth day, don’t worship yourself and the wide world, worship God. Go to church.

Reading the Bible

Work and the Christian

Previous Post

April 21, 2018

Notes from Home: Restoration

Next Post

April 23, 2018 Monday on the Illiterate Podcast and Links

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book tells the story of the Israelites' escape from Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Exodus Genesis Leviticus Numbers

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »