And We Groan

One of the inescapable realities of being sons of Adam and daughters of Eve is that we perpetually pollute this world that God created and called "good". We point fingers at one another and shake our heads in disgust at the ways and means that others pollute this beautiful planet...and all the while justify the ways in which we bring our own trash into this world. All have sinned. Which is a theological way of saying that we all pollute. We all bring garbage into this world, albeit, in different ways. Yes, we trash this world daily. It is just a matter of what poison we choose to pollute this earth with. Choose your poison. We may dispense our poison through power, money, sex, security, materialism, self-ambition, apathy towards others or indifference towards the created world. And, don't think for a second that your contamination is just "personal" as if you are only trashing your life. Nothing in this world is merely "personal". Personal pollutants have universal implications. The poison of our lives has a way of emerging beyond valves of our hearts and moving outwards, bringing untold damage to people and things we could have never foreseen. . .even those we love.

Human life alienated from the life of God is a life that will continue to regurgitate toxins of its own making creating disaster on ourselves and one another and the world we live in even when we, ironically, have good intentions. As a result, the apostle Paul reminds us that both we humans and the creation itself, as we see in the picture above, groan. We groan over a world full of toxins called sin...recognizing at the same time, that these toxins are not only contaminating the world, but us as well. The Romans text reads, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. No only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." All of God's creatures and creation knows intuitively that all is not right. And, we live unified by this truth. Beneath the surface, we are all together on this...this world is not at all is not the way it is supposed to be.

Lord willing, BP and the gang will find a solution to the gulf oil crisis. And, hopefully, their patch-up efforts will prove effective in the end. And, in these situations, Christians, I believe, should reach out with good-will towards those impacted (the people, creatures and environment) by this tragedy because we should seek to honor and protect "Our Father's world".

Yet, situations like this also give us ample time to reflect that outside a relationship with our Creator God, we are a people of pollutants. And, no simplistic patch-up job (be it technology, more education, world peace, etc.) will clean up the mess we are in. Our mess goes much deeper than that. Like a disastrous oil leak deep down, humanity will keep spewing and erupting hazardous waste until we latch on to a remedy that goes deep enough. We are in need of One whose rescue-mission that is powerful enough to rescue us from our contamination without being contaminated in the process. That one is Jesus Christ.

The Biblical text tells us that our Creator incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus Christ and sought to rescue us from ourselves and to turn these toxic souls into life-giving fruits that feed the stomachs and quench the thirst of a world groaning and grasping for life. This clean-up mission is accomplished not by our power or efforts, but by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel message is clear: We are more polluted than we ever dared to believe. And, simultaneously more loved and cherished than we ever dared to hope or dream.

I actually believe that today. I believe it with all my heart. He has been the only relief worker that has ever gone deep enough into my polluted world to save me from this world...and from myself.