Would Jesus vote green? XIII

Conclusion
Scepticism, sorrow, anger, guilt, fear: each of these five responses we’ve discussed can undermine our motivation to take positive action. But they don’t need to. The good news Jesus brings is not simply that we can feel better about these issues, but that God has begun to do something about them. In the death and resurrection of Jesus he has begun, and he will finish the job. This frees us up, not so that we can apathetically ignore the issues, or cynically rape the earth because God is going to fix it, but frees us up to think hard, ask the hard questions, love hard and work hard without falling into denial or despair.*

At this point, some of you may be wondering: am I trying to persuade you to become a Christian, or a greenie? The answer is neither. And both.

Neither, because both these terms are thrown around in so many ways that you may immediately think of connotations that I wouldn’t dream of trying to persuade anyone to accept.

And yet both, in the true sense of each.

I believe if you are a Christian who takes the Bible seriously, you are drawn to caring for the good world that God has made and of which he has made us stewards. And I believe that while it is possible to care for the living spaces of the earth without being a Christian, and even to achieve much good, only Jesus offers a deep enough analysis of the problem and radical enough solution to give a sustainable grounding to our environmental concern.
*The shape and nature of this hard and joyful work is for other posts (and other blogs). The focus in this one has been on the common emotional responses to hearing of the various ecological problems.
Fifteen points for the first to link to another picture on this blog of a Scottish mountain reflected in a loch.
Series: I; II; III; IV; V; VI; VII; VIII; IX; X; XI; XII; XIII.