If the World Were to End Tomorrow, Would You Plant a Tree on Earth Day?

Last updated on: April 22, 2017 at 11:55 am by Paul Louis Metzger

If the World Were to End Tomorrow, Would You Plant a Tree on Earth Day? 2017-04-22T11:55:19-07:00 Paul Louis Metzger

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Today marks Earth Day. A quote attributed to Martin Luther reads, “If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant an apple tree today!” Whether Luther ever said it, could an equivalent statement ever be attributed to you and me?

This year, global marches involving advocacy for science also mark the occasion. While multitudes of scientists and science advocates are marching today, how about theological advocates? Are they also marching and advocating in various other ways for Earth Day and for science? No doubt, many are. How about you and me? Do we advocate for Earth Day, and also for science?

While it is difficult to know what exactly Luther might have meant about planting a tree today if the world were to end tomorrow, if he even said it, here’s what I mean by the importance of planting trees today or any day if we knew the world were to end the next.

There are all kinds of eschatological frameworks that bear upon creation care, or the lack of it. One perspective goes something like, “It’s all going to burn in the end anyway…” or “Why save it when you can pave it?” Another one—from the opposite end of the spectrum—goes, “Regardless of whether the world ends tomorrow, we need to be good stewards today.” I resonate with this latter line of reasoning. Moreover, if we do plant trees today and on other days, perhaps we will be able to put off the end of the world a bit longer. After all, human actions have something to do with the state of the environment, including the plight of the planet.

Human health and environmental health go hand in hand, along with economic well-being and national and international security. While I do not agree with his historiographical take on faith and science in the West, I do agree with Neil deGrasse Tyson’s take on science’s importance for human well-being. As he tweeted yesterday, “Show me a Nation with a science-hostile government, and I’ll show you a society with failing health, wealth, & security.” The same would go for the environment in my estimation (Refer also to my recent interview with Environmental Scientist Steven A. Kolmes for a multi-faceted engagement of environmental stewardship and comprehensive health concerns).

I love the metanarrative of Christian Scripture which includes references to the tree of life in the garden of God at the beginning of Genesis (2:9) and close of Revelation:

And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9; ESV).

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5; ESV).

Moreover, the Bible teaches that the curse of humanity’s fall that impacted the whole creation came from eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (See Genesis 3). So, too, salvation came through the Savior’s recapitulating or transforming work as he hung as the curse on the tree (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13).

The Bible’s historiographical account of salvation history shows that there is no conflict ultimately between Christian spirituality and creation care. As with scientists, theologians should also advocate for environmental stewardship on Earth Day and beyond. God recapitulates or transforms all creation.

Along these lines, I relish the following quotation from second century theologian Irenaeus of Lyons, who championed the theological notion of recapitulation and claimed that just as humans will be raised from the dead, the earth will not be annihilated. His was an earthy spirituality in contrast to the Gnostic heretics with their disdain for the physical world and physical redemption, a worldview which Irenaeus combatted in Against Heresies:

For since there are real men, so must there also be a real establishment (plantationem), that they vanish not away among non-existent things, but progress among those which have an actual existence. For neither is the substance nor the essence of the creation annihilated (for faithful and true is He who has established it), but “the fashion of the world passeth away;” that is, those things among which transgression has occurred, since man has grown old in them. And therefore this [present] fashion has been formed temporary, God foreknowing all things; as I have pointed out in the preceding book, and have also shown, as far as was possible, the cause of the creation of this world of temporal things. But when this [present] fashion [of things] passes away, and man has been renewed, and flourishes in an incorruptible state, so as to preclude the possibility of becoming old, [then] there shall be the new heaven and the new earth, in which the new man shall remain [continually], always holding fresh converse with God. And since (or, that) these things shall ever continue without end, Isaiah declares, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I do make, continue in my sight, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.” And as the presbyters say, Then those who are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the city; for everywhere the Saviour shall be seen according as they who see Him shall be worthy (Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, 5.36.1).

While I do not know if Luther made the statement about planting a tree that is often attributed to him, I do believe that if Irenaeus were here today, he would be advocating for Earth Day every day. After all, it is not separate from Irenaeus’ advocacy for an earthy spirituality involving an embodied humanity and the incarnate Savior, Jesus Christ, who will make all things new. While the fashion of the world will pass away, its substance will remain.

Just as Irenaeus rejected the notion of the annihilation of the Earth, so theologians and other Christians who embrace Irenaeus’ theology and critique of Gnosticism should annihilate indifference to creation care on Earth Day and beyond.

If you are in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday, April 25th from 7-9 PM, please join New Wine, New Wineskins for a forum on environmental stewardship and human flourishing.

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