The Beauty of Creation and the Sabbath

Well, this is my first post here. Let me begin with a handful of “I” statements. I’m thankful that Jared and Caleb started this blog and have invited me to join in the conversation. I realize that this first (long) article is just preaching to the choir. I’ll try to rant just this once. I believe God is calling each of us to make A Better World. Let the dialog continue…

I could be wrong, but it is my perception that we Adventists spend a significant amount of time trying to prove truths. The idea seems to be, “If I can leave you no logical options other than the truth or doctrine I am teaching, then you will necessarily decide to join me in this belief. Together we can then convince others.” We can get animated in our proving and disproving, but we don’t always live with the same level of fervor. What if half of the beauty of truth is in experiencing it, not just knowing it?

Let’s consider two related environmental examples—creation and Sabbath. With the first topic, creation, we want to prove that the visible world was in fact created by God. The universe has an Intelligent Designer. We proceeded from God, not soup. The Geoscience Research Institute has spent thousands of hours and dollars to discount natural processes as the source of life and to find evidence to support the young-earth hypothesis, and most (or all) of our colleges and universities offer an Origins class. I’m not saying these are bad; I just mean that they reveal our priority—proof.

Despite this emphasis, I have met many people in my local churches that are opposed to the environmental movement in word and indifferent to it in lifestyle. Like Chantel, I hear, “Jesus is coming soon, so why does it matter?” Once the rubber hits the road where we need to live the points we prove, we are less than perfect at being practical. We are unanimously comfortable with the proposition, “God created Earth.” But the conversation shouldn’t stop there. If it is from God, and God said it is good, and God gave us stewardship over it, then it follows that we should be fairly serious about keeping it good. To proof, let’s add preservation.

With our understanding of origins and stewardship, Christians should be the first environmentalists. We shouldn’t need a doomsday scenario like global warming to wake us up to our role as caretakers of our Father’s world. Blogs like this one and organizations such as A Rocha, Creation Care and Restoring Eden are growing as they do this very work.

Let’s consider the second example of experiencing truth rather than just proof-texting it—the SD in SDA. It is my perception that our first priority on this issue is to show that the seventh day is still the Lord’s Day and still part of God’s expectations for us. This is quickly followed with biblical guidelines for proper observance—go to church, don’t work, etc.

This seems to be a pretty good start, but proving a biblical point does not necessarily mean we’ve made it present truth, good news for today. What might happen if we invited people to share in the goodness of the day with us before pointing out the theology behind it? If it has to be proven to be appreciated, maybe we’re missing the point.

Voices in the church have attempted to teach the physiological and psychological benefits of rest, but more can be done. For example, one individual who is teaching the relevance of Sabbath is the conservationist, Matthew Sleeth, M.D. He is the author of Serve God, Save the Planet and the director of the U.S. branch of A Rocha.

As Sleeth began to notice the effects of environmental degradation on the health of his patients, he made a few changes. The family now inhabits a house the size of their old garage. They live on 1/10th their previous income and produce about four pounds of trash a week instead of the 40 or so pounds that the rest of us generate. According to Sleeth, the most important change was leaving his medical practice “to focus on the most pressing health issue of all time: Earth care” (Alternet). [More at Serve God, Save the Planet & Chelsea Green Publishing.]

Dr. Sleeth, a non-Adventist Christian, teaches that “one of the first steps… in creation care is to begin to take a day of rest” (Conservation). While disagreeing with his conclusion that the specific day of observance is spiritually irrelevant, I think we have a lot to learn from him on the environmental practicality of a Sabbath well observed.

Catholic Online (Oct ’07) published an interview about his early steps to sustainable living:

“I starting [sic] keeping the Sabbath,” he said. He and his family agreed to avoid shopping on Sundays and making unnecessary trips in the car. That resulted in staying home and doing things together as a family as well as carving out time for personal reading and reflection. This method of Sabbath-keeping also drastically cut their family’s consumption of energy every Sunday.If all families “kept the Sabbath” in a similar manner, Matthew said, we would use 14 percent less electricity as a country – and improve the quality of our lives!

Sleeth explains that “if Americans did no work, no shopping, and no driving one day a week, we would instantly produce fewer greenhouse gases, use billions of gallons less fuel, and be closer to sanity and to God. The Sabbath is God’s gift to man, 52 times a year” (AlterNet, 23 Apr ‘05).

If you’re like me, you drive to church most weeks. While I don’t advocate adding a “rule” about not driving on Sabbath, contemplating eco-friendly activities is worth our time. Carpooling to church makes sense; it builds community and cuts down on emissions. What else?

Sabbath observance has significance for our planet. Let’s look for ways to live the day in ways that show appreciation for the world God has given us and for the neighbors he has put in our lives.

Sabbath is beautiful. Creation is beautiful. Truth is practical.

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