Humans, not other animals

Here's my sermon from the Broughton Civic Service 2024.  The readings were Psalm 8 and Luke 12:4-7.

At school, one of my favourite lessons was Latin, and so I'm really enjoying teaching it to my own children. I mention this because we are here at our Civic Service, and the word 'civic' is derived from the Latin word civis which means 'citizen.' And so this reminds us that whenever we talk about 'civic' things we are talking about people; we're not talking about positions or committees, except insofar as they are focused on people. Civic amenities, civic duty and civic authorities are all there to serve the common good; they're there to serve the people. And so at the heart of the Civic Service should be the celebration of the people, their achievements and their good works; as well as a dedication of ourselves to work for the benefit of all members of the community.

But the question this raises is why? Why should those in positions of power use that power for the common good? Why do we feel that with great power comes great responsibility? Indeed why should any of us spend our time and energy doing things for other people? If someone asks for our help, why don't we respond with the phrase that I'm told the young people like to use: “That sounds like a you problem!”?

The reason we do care for others is because we believe that they are worthy of our care because they are fellow human beings. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: all members of the human family have an inherent dignity, and equal and inalienable rights. This dignity and these rights aren't given to us by the UN, or by governments; we don't get them on the basis of our achievements or what we contribute in economic terms; we don't get them only if we're healthy or wanted; from the moment of our conception this dignity and these rights are ours inherently and inalienably: they are ours simply because we are humans.

We believe this because this is what the Bible tells us. Right at the beginning of the Bible we are told that God has made us male and female in his image and likeness. Alone of all the animals and the rest of creation, he has made us in his image and put his breath within us. As our first reading, Psalm 8 says, he has made us a little lower than the angels and crowned us with glory and honour. We are both lesser than the angels and also greater. Not only that, he gives us dominion and responsibility for the rest of creation under his rule. But best of all he cares for us – for each one of us, for each of you; as Jesus says he knows how many hairs are on our heads and cares for us above all the rest of his creation!

And he continues to care for us even when we fail to treat each other as fellow image-bearers; even when we fail to live the way God wants us to; even when we don't believe in him at all. He still cares for us. And he cares for us so much that in Jesus, he became human to share our humanity and to die to take the punishment for all our failures, so that through repentance and faith in Jesus that image of God that we mar through our failures can be restored. So if you want to know how valuable you are, the answer is: you're worth as much as God's own blood!

This vision of humanity as having inherent dignity and inalienable rights only comes to us through the Bible. In no other religion is humanity made in God's image, and in no other religion does God become fully human, and in no other religion does God die to save us. And nor can our human rights be established through scientific investigation or reasoned thinking, because on any rational comparison every human being can be ranked according to size, strength, intellect, popularity, wealth, power etc. etc. therefore we can all be said to be better than others but there is no rational basis for saying that we all have an equal dignity and value. The scientific and rational evidence shows difference and hierarchy not equality and parity.

This is what made the fledgling Christian communities an object of derision to the surrounding Roman culture and society. To the Romans it was ridiculous to think that women were equal to men; that children were as important as adults; that slaves were as valuable as freemen; that barbarians had the same dignity as Roman citizens.

If you believe that all humans, whatever age or ability or status, have an equal dignity and equal rights, but you don't believe in the God of the Bible, you have made a massive leap of faith. Only Jesus can give firm ground for believing that you, me and our fellow human beings are worthy of care and respect.

We are always tempted to return to those pre-Christian beliefs that some people are better and more valuable than others; that some people have less dignity and fewer rights. But today we celebrate and honour all those who instead embrace the biblical values of caring for and working for the good of all people in the community. And we pray that you will come to know and believe in the God who makes sense of that civic duty.

Have we angered Mother Earth?

Here's my magazine article for October:

October is often a month when we think about Harvest Festivals and the natural world.  The year started (though it seems a lifetime ago!) with rallies and protests about climate change, and the rise of Extinction Rebellion, and the reminder again of humanity's rôle in looking after the world in which we live.

This has deep biblical roots which go back to the first book of the Bible in the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2.  There we learn that God is the Creator “of all that is, seen and unseen” (as we say in the Creed), and that it was good.  We also learn that after the creation of humanity, in the image and likeness of God, it became very good.  However humanity's position as the pinnacle of creation comes with responsibilities: to rule over the natural world (Genesis 1:26) and to work the ground (Genesis 2:5).  The responsibility to work the ground helps define what is meant by 'ruling over' the natural world: we're to work in harmony with it; to look after it; for the good of us and it. Thus we sometimes talk of being 'stewards' rather than 'rulers' of the world.  Unfortunately, due to the sinfulness of humanity, described in Genesis 3, we have taken that responsibility to rule over the natural world and turned it into an excuse to exploit the world's resources for our own selfish needs.  

The environmental situation was then displaced in the news by the COVID-19 pandemic, but some made a link between the two.  The need to reduce carbon emissions which was said to be impossible at the beginning of the year, suddenly became a reality as airports were shut and only essential travel in cars was allowed.  Some claimed that the world was fighting back, and that Mother Nature had created the virus in order to heal herself.  Whilst a lot of this talk was metaphorical, it shows that you only need to scratch the surface to find pagan ideas latent in our folk memory.  In many ancient belief systems the natural world was controlled by (often capricious) gods who needed to be placated otherwise they would send punishments of plague or disasters such as droughts or floods.  Supreme amongst these nature gods was the Earth goddess, and 'Mother Earth' often played the key rôle in creating the universe through intercourse with the 'Father Sky' god.

Amidst these ideas the biblical creation narrative stands out as unique.  God alone creates all that is and amongst the things it specifies that he creates are sky, water, earth, sun, moon and stars.  In ancient beliefs these were often said to be the most powerful of the 'nature gods', but the Bible tells us they are not divine at all, indeed humanity is greater than all of them.  Therefore there is no Mother Earth that we have angered and need to placate by our environmentally friendly actions.  However there is a Father God, whose love we have rejected by disobeying his commands, including to be stewards of the world.  The problem of environmental damage is ultimately a problem of human sin, not just because of our exploitation of it but because our rebellion also cursed creation (Genesis 3:17-18).  Therefore the remedy for environmental damage is a Saviour: not in the form of a Mother goddess nor an environmental activist, but in Jesus who invites us to repent of our sins and promises us his Spirit to help us to change; and at whose return all creation will be renewed.