June 2015 | Pentecost Volume XIIl | Issue 6 | Rs.150 per annum Towards understanding our 'green' God ot international terrorism, but global supper is a meal that warming and climate change are anticipates the saving death of Nbecoming the most dangerous security Jesus by celebrating the gifts of threat to our civilization today. And spirituality alone creation - bread and wine. has the symbolic potency and moral authority to break the collective carbon addiction cycle by M a n y o f J e s u s ' motivating communities to look beyond self-interest parables - the Lilies of the to the greater good of the planet. Faith communities Field, the Birds of the Air, the have the power to gather together the fragments of Lost Sheep, the Mustard Seed, human vision for a just and sustainable world into a the Sower and the Seed, and Editor’s Desk coherent, mega narrative that can enable the Great Banquet - are revolutionary social change needed at this historic demonstrations of the natural world as the moment. The Churches are articulating a response to expression of God's loving relation with the world of global warming by promoting renewable energy, humans, animals, and plants. Indeed, the food web community-based agriculture, and conservation of itself is infused with divine power: "Look at the birds of natural resources. the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them" (Matt 6:26). The Bible speaks of God as the Creator; God God feeds the birds and other animals through inter- reveals himself in and through creation. God's connected food chains. God is not an external force handiwork introduces the nature of God himself; in that is far removed from the concerns of everyday the orderliness, inter-relatedness, coordination, plants and animals but the animating power of the cooperation and harmony of creation, God is web of life, necessary for the survival and fruition of encountered and experienced. Creation is not God; all beings, human and nonhuman alike. "Consider the Creation declares the glory of God. In the Old lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor Testament, the God experience is described in spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not interesting 'green' language. It begins with clothed like one of these" (Matt 6:28-29). Jesus introducing God as hovering over the waters. It reverses the priority we assign to grandiosely built narrates about God's stroll with the humans in the structures and favours instead the quiet beauty garden of Eden. God reveals himself and talks to inherent in the natural order of things. The most Moses from a burning bush. God is the accompanier spectacular architectural treasures of the world are and guardian of his people on their long walk to inferior to the rich colours and textures that shine freedom as a pillar of fire during night and a pillar of forth from the highways and byways of Jesus' earthly cloud by day. In the thunder, and lightening, at ministry. Mount Sinai, as a cloud covering the tabernacle, Israel experienced intensely the God its liberator. Jesus' major sermons take place at natural Through Elijah the prophet it also understood God as sites filled with divine power - the Mount of Olives, the soothing, whispering wind. Garden of Gethsemane, the Pool at Siloam - and his famous sayings referring to himself are consistently In the New Testament, Jesus' ministry drawn from nature - I am the Bread of Life, I am the celebrates the beauty of the earth and proclaims a True Vine, I am the Good Shepherd. He is crucified on caring search for justice for all the denizens of the a wooden cross; a tree fashioned into lumber is the good creation. In the Gospels we encounter Jesus the mode of Jesus' saving death; he is raised from the green prophet. Jesus' incarnation begins in a barn dead from a tomb hewed out of the side of a mountain surrounded by farm animals, where he enters - a poignant reminder that the deep reaches of the consciousness already intimate with the rhythms of earth can be the medium though which God's power agricultural life. The expanse of nature plays a crucial will initiate new life. The witness of Jesus to the world role in his baptism as well: a full immersion in the is that our planet is the home of life-giving Spirit - the Jordan river prepares Jesus for his work ahead, and Earth is God's here-and-now dwelling place where God appears as a dove, , the form of the Holy Spirit everyday life is charged with sacred presence and who alights on Jesus as he emerges from the Jordan. power. After his baptism, Jesus inaugurates his public ministry by departing alone into the desert for forty When we experience the Holy Spirit, we days. In this quest in the wild, he begins a lifelong experience God not as a concept but as a living reality. practice of finding peace and sustenance through The Spirit in the biblical literatures is depicted as one regular sojourns in the wilderness. In his first with the four elements - earth, air, water, and fire. As miracle, he turns water into wine at Cana and his first earth - the Spirit is often a dove, who brings peace and miracle with his disciples is a huge fish catch both renewal to a broken and divided world (Gen 8:11; Matt celebrations of the goodness of creation. The last 3:16; Jn 1:32). As air - the Spirit is both the breath 3 ! CSI Life June 2015 that animates all living things (Gen 1:2; Ps 104:29-30) respect God's glory revealed in creation. The Bible and the prophetic wind who brings salvation and new narrates and reminds humans that we are created life (Judg 6:34; Jn 3:6-8; Acts 2:1-4). The nouns for from the soil. It is a way of describing how intrinsically the Spirit in the Biblical texts - ruakh in Hebrew and human life is intertwined with the earth's. Generally pneuma in Greek - mean "breath", "air" or "wind." The unrecognized and taken for granted, soil is essential Spirit is God's all-encompassing, presence who gives to the well-being of life on Earth. Soil traps and life, envelops and sustains the whole earth. As living recharges rainwater for drinking purposes; it water, the Spirit quickens and refreshes all who drink provides habitat for numerous plants and animals; it from eternal springs (Jn 3:1-15; 4:14; 7:37-38). As recycles decaying organic matter which in turn physical and spiritual sustenance, the Spirit inspires becomes a source of new energy; and soil functions as all life-sustaining acts, with ever flowing divine a giant carbon sink for trapping dangerous carbon presence and power. Finally, the Spirit is the bright dioxide emissions that would otherwise escape into flame who alternately judges evildoers and ignites the the atmosphere. Unheralded and neglected, the prophetic mission of the early church (Matt 3:11-12; earth's soil is worthy of our respect, even our Acts 2:1-4). Fire is an expression of God's strict and adoration and reverence, because it is foundational to severe power; on one level, it is biblically viewed as the the life-sustaining ecosystems we rely on for our daily element God uses to punish, destroy and purify. But sustenance. Sacred is the ground we stand on; holy is it is also the symbol of God's unifying presence in the the land where we are planted; blessed is the Earth fledgling Christian community, as was the case on the within which we live and move and have our being. day of Pentecost with the Spirit's arrival in tongues or flames of fire. May the Church wake up to fathom and comprehend the Earth, to respect and foster the inter- While God is beyond all things, God is also connected web of life, and strive to be a faithful and radically enfleshed within all things. Caring for diligent steward of God's Creation. creation, restoring the earth as a garden of beauty blessed by God and tended by God's special Rev. Dr. D. Rathnakara Sadananda caretakers, we, the human community should General Secretary-CSI South Asia Consultation of the World Communion of Reformed Churches The South Asia Regional Consultation of the Mr. A. K. Goldsmith presented the World Communion of Reformed Churches was held challenges posed due to the economic degradation on 30th of April and 1st of May 2015 in the CSI of the region. Dr. Matthew Koshy Punnakadu Centre, Chennai. The theme of the Consultation shared the CSI story of practically addressing was 'Economic and Ecological degradation'. ecological degradation. Rev. Asir Ebenezer revisited the Accra confession of the WCRC with specific Inaugurating the consultation, the Most reference to localising the confession in a South Rev. Dr. Govada Dyvasirvadam, Moderator of the Asian context. It was significant that Rev. James Church of South India, said that addressing the Ponraj, Director of Social Concerns in CSI Diocese of economic and ecological degradation was an Madras, who was present in Accra when the ecumenical imperative of the times. He said that the confession was drafted ten years ago, was also churches have been addressing the concern as good present in this meeting. stewards; there is a need however for human persons to see themselves as part of the kosmos that Representatives of the WCRC constituents looks to be redeemed.