Is "Green" the New Forbidden Fruit?
Green has come to mean a lot of things these days. It is earth-friendly, organic, natural, and green asks us to consider our personal responsibility for the collective global footprint. Green is also sensitive to the poor and disenfranchised, though intolerant of those insensitive to the same. It courageously confronts injustice and inequity, and resonates with most of us at some central level. This Green Gospel is good news in many ways, but according to Jesus, it is flawed…..
Green is popular and green is good, but is green enough?
“You tithe mint, rue, cumin,” he noted. “You honor the prophet’s tombs by not stepping on them; you are careful to be clean, take care about what you eat, and selective with whom you associate yourselves; yet you miss everything. You ought to continue in your careful attention to these things, but you’re missing the most important element.” (Obviously, my paraphrase of Jesus’ words)
Their flaw? They left out Jesus, “You search the Scriptures, but fail to come to me.” They didn’t see the obvious, “How can you say, show us the Father after I’ve been among you so long?” His early followers missed the main point, and today’s missional church runs the same risk.
Green is good, but it is not God.
Being green is valuable, but no amount of good works can redeem us.
Works salvation, in any era or color, is never enough. It is in Christ that all things hold together and have their being.
Controlling carbon emissions is obviously good, but it isn’t ‘spiritual’ (at least for most of us). Few, I would imagine, suspect that driving a more fuel efficient vehicle merits special favor with God. But what about feeding the poor, or fighting injustice? Don’t those glean points with the Almighty? What about caring for neighbor, listening to the lonely, giving more and living on less? All marks of ‘green’. None marks for righteousness.
No. I’m not out of my mind. Re-read the last sentence of the previous paragraph. “None marks FOR righteousness”. Certainly they are marks OF righteousness, but in no manner do they merit spiritual ‘rightness’ with God. We are still saved by grace—green movements , red states, SUV owners and all. Grace is essential. Jesus is our grace. He is essential. The Green Gospel will include Him as essential.
Missional living must include the good news story of Jesus. Jesus is the original missional life; from Him we gain our cues on how to rightly be ‘green’. We learn from Him how to love the unlovely—even those unlovely who don’t love the unlovely. We learn to care for the earth– in balance with caring for those created to care for the earth, but who don’t. In Him we witness an advocate for the oppressed take on human injustice without bending a bruised reed (meekly). We find an anti-establishmentarian who rejects public protest (he slipped quietly into Jerusalem). And above all else, we find one who can do for us what no amount of good green living can; we find a savior.
This is the fatal flaw of the green movement—it cannot save. It cannot re-ligament us to God. We can save the planet and loose our selves (gain the whole world and forfeit our souls). We can spend ourselves on the poor and do all manner of good, but apart from a living relationship with Jesus all our righteousness is filthy rags. “But Lord! Didn’t we cast out demons? Didn’t we control carbon emissions? Didn’t we speak against injustice?” some will offer. But those aren’t the crux of it. They never have been and they won’t be, ever.
It all about re-linking with God. That’s the goal. That is THE center of our existence.
Then. Once that is in place. After our relationship with God has been reestablished. We can begin, truly begin, rightly begin to love our neighbor by providing him with cleaner drinking water, paying him a fair wage, giving to him more generously, listening more intently, standing with him when possible, even dying for him when necessary.
Why can’t we do all these without Jesus? We can, almost. We can give, serve, love, share, even die. But we cannot save. And our neighbor needs salvation. He needs to re-link, to re-ligament with God. Only Jesus does that. That’s why we cannot go green without Jesus.
Therefore, as you preach ‘green’…include the Gospel….better yet…..emphasize it.
Tags: Christianity, green, missional church, missional life, Missional Living, missional movement, Poor, Poverty, works salvation
Filed under: Church Planting, Missional Living, Poverty | No Comments »
et child turns to glue sniffing due to hunger, or when a woman is traded as property, or when a product is manufactured by slaves then who is to blame? Me? You?