Comments to the weekly Sabbath School Quarterly
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Commentary: Creation Care: Why should we care?
Creation Care: Why should we care?
This is a different kind of commentary this week. The reason for this is that no matter how I looked at the subject I had no illustration to ponder and expand on the lesson. The title of our quarterly lesson is "glimpses of God." So, each week we are to ask ourselves: what glimpse of God can the subject in question give us? So, what glimpse of God does Creation Care gives to us? Our lesson is not really about how God cares for Creation, but about how we should care for it. In the past lessons we have established that Creation reveals God in many different ways and at many different levels. We know that God sustains His creation. God cares. And, man is included in what God cares. This is evident in Matthew 6:27 – 30.
Mat 6: 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Mat 6: 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6: 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith??
God provides all for all of these. The Birds have an expanse to fly and trees to dwell in. The expanse is full of air from with trees, animals and man can breathe from. The trees release waste that animals and man can use, and animals and man release waste that trees can use. God has created an interdependent circle of beneficence. All are suppose to take to give.
However, although man participates somewhat in the eco-system cycle, man breaks away from it, in other ways. Man's selfishness is evidenced by how they make choices that directly or indirectly aversely affects nature. What Ellen White says about man contrasted with nature is disturbing but true: "There is nothing, save the selfish heart of man, that lives unto itself" (Desire of the Ages, p. 20). Almost everything in nature takes to give.
There is an elite group on Earth that has built for themselves plush mansion in large extension of landscape fields. For this they have destroyed the ecosystem of the place where they built, without any concerns for it. This comes at a cost to those who work for them in adverse conditions for virtually pennies. It goes without saying that the living conditions of these workers are very deprived.
In the meantime there are those who are concerned with the relentless destruction and abuse – the environmentally concerned green crowd. They maintain that the world cannot sustain itself if these elite continue with their practices. They offer alternatives that will help preserve the world longer: recycling, carpooling, electric cars, etc. What this environmentally concerned group does not know is that underlying the environmental troubles we face today is a spiritual problem which cannot be solved merely by recycling plastic bottles or using cloth shopping bags; good though these things may be.
The reason our planet is in trouble today is because mankind has lived against the law of agape, or self-giving love. All creatures, plants, flowers, and trees live to give. As established Man alone lives to get without giving back. We are reaping the consequences of a 6,000-year experiment in self-centered living. Even unbelievers recognize this way of living is unsustainable. The only thing that will solve the problem is the redemption of man's heart at the feet of the Cross.
Where should Christians stand? That is the question that the lesson asks. 2 Peter 3:7 says that "… the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Do we join the destroyers since the World will be destroyed anyway? Or do we join the preservers knowing that there work will in the long run be in vain? On the one hand we know that the earth is cursed, why would we want to preserve a curse? On the other hand, should we let the curse have its way with others, if we can relieve their suffering?
If any life, human or otherwise, exists is because of the grace of God, namely, Christ's redemption at the cross. Then our responsibility is those for whom Christ died, and relieving suffering is part of that.
When the earth is devastated by poor environmental practices, the result is human and animal misery. How can we expect people to hear the Gospel of Christ's cross when so much of the world population is challenged with the simple business of subsisting. To the extent it is within our power, are we entitled to deny any responsibility to "keep" the earth so that people are not so distracted with survival they cannot hear the Gospel? We are to relieve the suffering of those who are afflicted. We are to be good managers of the earth which God has entrusted to us. It is the pure truth of the gospel, however, which brings the ultimate "rest" from sin which human souls so desperately need.
The world believes in survival of the fittest so if an animal's habitat is destroyed, too bad for it. It is true that humans remain most important, but Christians must show the world a different standard. The example that Christ gave while on earth is useful. He consistently focused on bringing people to an understanding of the Gospel. He never became involved in human causes but He did live a simple life. In modern times we would say He left a very small "carbon footprint." His focus remained on the people He came to save and He went around relieving suffering. The fact that the earth will be destroyed and remade cannot be an excuse to increase suffering by careless practices.
Caring for God's creation includes everything from lobsters to rare plants and animals about to become extinct, the earth itself and yes, even people. All are part of God's creation that suffers under the curse of sin. We need to tell the world that because of the Cross, "there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it …" (Rev. 22:3). So, let us remember what Christ told the sheep on right in the judgment, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25: 40).
Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com
Friday, February 17, 2012
Commentary: "Sabbath: A Day of Love"
Sabbath: A Day of Love
A group of young people from the Pentecostal Church in Ethiopia had heard Pastor John a 7th Day Adventist Preacher - and they put his name up to be a speaker at their camp meeting. The leaders of the Church were horrified that the young people had asked a Seventh-day Adventist preacher to be their speaker at camp meeting (this was for the youth department).
There was a little bit of discussion and then the leaders said, "Why don't we let God solve the outcome?" So they agreed to have three days of fasting and prayer. On the third day, while they were praying together, the leader (our equivalent of Conference President) said, "The Lord has impressed me that the answer should be yes." So they called Pastor John and he gave a series on the cross and then some of these young people, mainly university students, began coming to the Adventist Church. And, some of the leaders began coming, and then the Pastor of Church where they had the camp meeting (with a membership of over 800) began coming. In fact, the whole church began keeping the Sabbath and called themselves "Seventh-day Pentecostals."
The Sabbath School Secretary of the Union saw this Pastor coming out of the church and he said to Pastor John, "Why don't you try to bring these people into our church?" And I said, "Why don't you ask him?" (The Pentecostal leader had already told Pastor John why they wouldn't join the Adventist church.). So, the Pentecostal Pastor said to Pastor John, "Now you are putting me on the spot." Pastor John said, "No, I want [the other Adventist Pastor] to hear from your own lips why you are not joining our church." The Pentecostal leader said, "When you Adventists learn to love each other, (like the Pentecostals love each other) we'll join your church." Unfortunately, The Pentecostal leader saw that the church was divided into factions — tribal and nationals. So, during the Sabbath the worship was segregated, because of prejudice and discrimination That is why he said, "When you Adventists learn to love each other, we will join your church." . And, the poor Sabbath School Secretary had no answer to give him.
The Church in Christ day was no different. They had taken Sabbath rest to mean that God stopped working, but that is not what it meant. God rested from creating not working. So, in order to enforce their no working policy during the Sabbath, the Jews had made the Sabbath a burden with their strict rules and requirements. They turned the Sabbath into a curse instead of a blessing.
In Desire of Ages pages 206 and 207 Ellen White elaborated upon the difference between the Jewish Sabbath and Jesus' Sabbath says that Jesus had come to "magnify the law, and make it honorable." He was not to lessen its dignity, but to exalt it. The scripture says, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth" (Isaiah 42:21, 4). He had come to free the Sabbath from those burdensome requirements that had made it a curse instead of a blessing.
She adds that "it was for this reason He had chosen the Sabbath upon which to perform the act of healing at Bethesda (John 5). He could have healed the sick man as well on any other day of the week; or He might simply have cured him, without bidding him bear away his bed. But this would not have given Him the opportunity He desired. A wise purpose underlay every act of Christ's life on earth. Everything He did was important in itself and in its teaching. Among the afflicted ones at the pool He selected the worst case upon whom to exercise His healing power, and bade the man carry his bed through the city in order to publish the great work that had been wrought upon him. This would raise the question of what it was lawful to do on the Sabbath, and would open the way for Him to denounce the restrictions of the Jews in regard to the Lord's Day, and to declare their traditions void.
You would think that the healing of a fellow Jew would have made them rejoice, but the Jews were more interested in their rules than the wellbeing of their neighbor. This hardness of the religious establishment could be seen in the healing of the man blind from birth (John 9). Verse 16 reveals how little mercy they had,
John 9:16 Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
Talk about law without love!
Ellen White continues saying that Jesus stated to them that the work of relieving the afflicted was in harmony with the Sabbath law. God's angels are ever descending and ascending between heaven and earth to minister to suffering humanity. Jesus declared, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." All days are God's, in which to carry out His plans for the human race. If the Jews' interpretation of the law was correct, then Jehovah was at fault, whose work has quickened and upheld every living thing since first He laid the foundations of the earth; then He who pronounced His work good, and instituted the Sabbath to commemorate its completion, must put a period to His labor, and stop the never-ending routine of the universe. Should God forbid nature from continuing it's never ending work from which all men benefit? In such a case, men would faint and die.
And man also has a work to perform on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, and the wants of the needy must be supplied. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve suffering on the Sabbath. God's holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day.
The demands upon God are even greater upon the Sabbath than upon other days. His people then leave their usual employment, and spend the time in meditation and worship. They ask more favors of Him on the Sabbath than upon other days. They demand His special attention. They crave His choicest blessings. God does not wait for the Sabbath to pass before He grants these requests. Heaven's work never ceases, and men should never rest from doing good. The Sabbath is not intended to be a period of useless inactivity. The law forbids secular labor on the rest day of the Lord; the toil that gains a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day; but as God ceased His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath and blessed it, so man is to leave the occupations of his daily life, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds. The work of Christ in healing the sick was in perfect accord with the law. It honored the Sabbath.
Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com