I Speak for the Trees!

Though Earth Day was more than a month ago, I felt moved to talk about Creation Care, about good earth stewardship.  I’ve always been a bit of a tree hugger.  I was active in environmental groups during college, and I even fought against corporate pig farms in Iowa several years ago.  It’s simply that I care about our earth and all of our earth’s many life forms, and I care about future generations.  I stand with the Lorax (thanks Dr. Suess!), who defiantly and prophetically says, “I speak for the trees!”

Why do I care?  I care because of my faith and because God cares for all the earth.  I care because we are instructed to care by God’s Word.  Our Creator has blessed us in so many ways, and the Lord has asked us to be good and faithful stewards (managers) of Creation.  We have a covenantal responsibility to care for the earth.

In the first creation story, after God created the heaven and earth, the Lord places Adam (literally earth creature) in the garden to work (literally serve) the earth and take care of it.

"In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to work (literally serve) the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed Adam (literally Earth Creature) from the dust of the ground (Adama), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. … The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work (literally serve) it and take care of it."  -Genesis 2:4a-9, 15

Creation is not just a collection of resources, something we, as human beings, can do with as we please.  This world and all her blessings do not exist simply to serve our needs.  In fact, our faith tells it’s the other way around.  If anything, we are called to serve creation and ultimately the purpose, namely God, behind her.

The Lorax has always been a kind of prophet for me, calling us human beings back to our sacred covenant and what our faith should be about.

“Mister!” he said with a sawdusty sneeze,
“I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,
and I’m asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs’—
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed—
“What’s that THING you’ve made out of my Truffulla tuft?”

Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody) of the Nuxalk Nation seemed to have some Lorax in him when he said, “We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.”

And an ancient Native American proverb: “Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

Creation, taking care of the environment, being a good and faithful steward of this wondrous gift we have been given in planet earth—it all comes down to responsibility, about realizing it’s not all about us in this moment in time, but that we need to think about the future, about our children’s future and their children’s future.

I’ll end by quoting once again from the Gospel of Dr. Seuss.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks, with the one word … “UNLESS.”
Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn’t guess.

That as long, long ago.
But Each day since that day
I’ve sat here and worried
And worried away.
Through the years, while my buildings have fallen apart,
I’ve worried about it
with all of my heart.

“But now,” says the Onceler,
"Now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.

 
I recently became active in a new faith-based environmental group called the Interfaith Eco-Network.  Come join us as we work to help our planet and care for God’s creation.  Their next meeting is June 12 at 7pm at First United Methodist Church.  Click her to visit the Interfaith Eco-Network website.

Ron Trimmer is pastor of Hope United, a new church in Georgetown, Texas. Click here to visit Hope United’s website.