Introduction
by Mary Schramm

It is easy for many of us to remember when words such as ecology, ecosystems or ecofeminism were not in our vocabulary. Recycling was not in our consciousness, energy sources seemed unlimited and folks who purchased praying mantises to eat insects in their garden were thought to be misguided at least and weird at worst. But a revolution began and, like many social revolutions, the change did not come from the Christian church or as a faith response to God's gift of creation to us. Busy with personal salvation and other justice concerns, the church paid little attention to care of the earth.

And yet, tucked in Paul's letter to the Romans is the almost offhand comment that the creation is groaning, waiting to be set free in order to share in the glorious liberty of God. (Romans 8:19-23)

It would be hard to miss the central salvation theme flowing through Scripture. The concern for liberty, freedom from oppression and justice crash through the tale of God's love for us. But until recent years we in the church have failed to pay attention to he salvation theme as it relates to creation. To use Paul Tillich's phrase, "The church has never behaved as if the integrity of creation was of ultimate concern." Integrity means the quality of being complete, unbroken, whole. From the beginning this was God's vision of shalom. Nature, too, needs to be freed from the manipulation and degradation by us humans. Historically we have thought ourselves successful when the land was "conquered."

We have a problem of unprecedented proportions! Mother earth - the womb, the fertile source of all good life, the nurturer and sustainer of all that is - has been violated. The rape and humiliation of that which gives and sustains life is evidence of human arrogance and our mind set of individualism.

Because we do not see the interrelatedness of all creation, we have failed to understand that "we cannot do merely one thing." We increase crop yield by the use of pesticides but by doing so we destroy the honeybees. We chose the convenience of disposable diapers and create great landfill problems. Industrial wastes contaminate our ground water. We live and shop in air-conditioned rooms so cold we must keep a sweater handy. We insist on driving everywhere and our cars contribute to global warming. We end up fighting "Gulf Wars" because we do not admit we are addicts, hooked on lifestyles that demand too much from the environment and contribute too little to the global vision of God's shalom. We have not learned to live lightly on the earth.

These are not words from the latest scientific journal or a recent book of ecological poetry. They are words from the prophet Isaiah (24:4-6).

There are other modern day prophets - Joseph Sittler, Gerald Barney, Rachel Carson, Paul Santmire among them - who echo Isaiah's words. Thomas Berry writes in Dream of the Earth, "We have changed the topography, the chemistry, altered the bio-systems and even the geological structure of the planet - structures and functions that have taken billions of years to bring into existence. Never before has change of this magnitude entered into earth history of human consciousness."

Scientists are now telling us that growing evidence shows if we do not change the way we live, in a few decades the earth will lose its capacity to regenerate itself. If the earth does survive, it will no longer be home for plant and animal life.

Can the earth afford another country like our nation - a nation that produces 50 times more pollution per individual than a person living in India? There are now few places in the world where water is not contaminated, so our children die by the millions from lack of water or from its pollution. Estimates are that one out of six species of life is destroyed each year. For every bushel of corn produced, two to ten bushels of topsoil disappear.

Statistics can be guilt producing and frightening, making us feel impotent to change what is. Perhaps it would be more helpful to look at earth care issues in another way. Even with scientific evidence and the growing awareness of "ecocide," we continue to live as if this were a minor problem, one among a variety of other irritations. Instead of seeing the rape of creation as evidence of a brokenness of God's shalom, we view the pollution of our rain and water supply, the desecration of our forests, the loss of agricultural land, the destruction of animal life as a problem, yes, but a problem to be addressed by someone else. We may even have a deep emotional response as we see our home trashed, but have not yet seen the crisis as one requiring a deep faith response. It is, perhaps, the lack of a faith response that is the crisis. What we have done to our home is a symptom of our sin.

Theologian Douglas John Hall tells the story of an entomologist studying bugs on a river in Canada. During a lecture on the subject someone in the audience wanted to know why the bugs were dying.

"I suppose it because the river is polluted," he responded.

"Why, Sir, is the river polluted?" his questioner wanted to know.

"Probably because of the chemicals dumped into the water upstream."

"But why are chemicals allowed to be dumped upstream, Sir?"

Somewhat dismayed the lecturer answered, "There are probably no laws prohibiting it."

Another question. "But why are there no laws?"

"Look," the scientist exploded, "I'm just a man who studies bugs!" There was a long, thoughtful pause and then the scientist said quietly, "Something is really wrong and I suspect the reason is me."

Few of us understand the interrelatedness, the connections, the cooperative spirit that must exist between our lifestyles and the trees that praise God or the stones that will cry out for justice.

In loving awareness, St. Francis considered the moon and sky his relatives. Modern humanity has a difficult time with concepts such as those captured in a quote attributed to Chief Seattle, "This we know, all things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All thing are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons [and daughters] of the earth."

The problem is not new. It is as old as "in the beginning." Our fall from grace always comes when we put ourselves in the center of the world, when we play God or push beyond the limits as did our first parents, taking fruit fro ma tree that was not meant for them. We have "pushed beyond the limits" of sustainability. The problem for the creation is our addictive behavior, our failure to live into the vision of shalom.

We need new ways of seeing. As Teilhard de Chardin wrote, "All of life is in that verb, seeing." To see that God has provided enough to sustain all God has created requires new eyes because it calls into question lifestyles that consume more than we need. To understand sufficiency as a justice lifestyle is a way of looking not only at our careful care of the environment, but also at our concern for one global family.

As Christians, a conversion begins with new eyes which see all that God created and called good, needs careful consideration. We need grateful hearts to say thank you for the fringe benefits of sunsets and wind whistling through the pines, for starlight and bird calls. We ask God to accept our thanksgiving, forgive our apathy and misunderstanding and fill us with a renewed biblical hope to live into God's vision of shalom.

Mary Schramm is a popular retreat and conference speaker and author of several books including Gifts of Grace and Extravagant Love. She and her husband John manage St. Martin's Table, a Christian education center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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