Introduction
Wherever you look around the world you see evidence of God’s creative activity as described in today’s reading. Whether it is in the ocean deeps or the skies above the earth abounds with creatures. One man probably more than any other has opened the eyes of the British public to this huge diversity: David Attenborough. His series of programmes have revealed in great detail the outcome of God’s creative mandate “Let the water teem with living creatures”. Time and again when watching these programmes one is amazed at the variety of creatures that exist. More recently Springwatch has been on the telly and one is reminded of the wonders of bird life in the U.K.
Looking at the passage in further detail we have the established pattern of God creating through his powerful word and it happening and his declaration that what he had made was good (19-21) but this is followed by a benediction / commission: “God blessed them and said “be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth” 22 Note in passing that mention is made with regard to the water of living creatures – implying more than fish. In the same way that we noted the negative imagery associated with the sea, so also sea monsters appear figuratively in the O.T. representing God’s fierce opponents. Be that as it may, the Genesis account affirms that all of God’s creation is good. Similarly the term translated as “winged bird” in v.21 refers to anything that flies including insects.
Abundance Probably this is the loudest thing which God says through these aspects of creation – the sheer quantity of different creatures. I was on a brief visit to Cornwall last week and in just a few minutes on the beach had picked up half a dozen different shells, each representing a unique creature. There were children dabbling in rock pools which in themselves contain a dazzling array of creatures and plants. Apparently there are something like 400,000 species of fish and 10,000 species of bird – not to mention all the other sea creatures and winged creatures. I have a number of friends who are bird watchers, it is quite easy even in this country to see over 50 different species of bird in one day. When we contemplate this abundance we see that our God is a generous God. He has made far more than the bare minimum needed for survival. Jesus told a story once about a young man who we know as the Prodigal son. He is called prodigal because of the way in which he squandered his inheritance. The dictionary definition of the word prodigal means “Extravagantly wasteful” and in the on-line dictionary where I looked it up it made reference to the prodigality of creation. I have often thought the story Jesus told should be called the prodigal Father – certainly the other son thought the father was “extravagantly wasteful” in the celebration of his brother’s return. Extravagance – if not wastefulness – is part of who God is and we learn this as we study the creatures he has made.
Now I know there are some fish and sea creatures which to us look very ugly but there are many which are simply stunning in their beauty. Again think back to those Attenborough movies – extraordinarily coloured jelly fish, for example, wafting through the water. I have had the privilege of snorkelling on the barrier reef in Australia and the fish, coral and other sea creatures were indeed stunningly beautiful. Similarly the joy of bird watching for me is not “twitching” or even seeing how many different types of bird I can see in one day, but having a good view of a beautiful bird however common or rare. I know the appreciation of beauty is entirely subjective – as they say it is in the eye of the beholder – nonetheless I see this profusion of beauty in the created order as a reflection of the nature of God Himself.
One of the things we saw quite frequently on Springwatch was the vulnerability of the baby birds as they made the transition from nest to the big wide world. When one considers the number of eggs laid and hatched each year it is inevitable that there will be losses, otherwise we would be swamped. The other day I found a baby blue tit squeaking around on the ground near our compost bin. I could hear the anxious adults chirping away but could not return the bird to its nest. I felt really sad knowing the prevalence of cats and magpies in our garden. As we were reminded in our gospel reading last week God is aware of the plight of sparrows and cares for us in our vulnerability.
God blessed sea creatures and winged creatures, we are to bless them too. As we shall see next week we are mandated to care for the world that God has made and all that is in it. How do we do this? How can we care for the marine environment so that they may indeed teem with creatures? You may think there is not a lot one little person like me can do about that – but if lots of people take simple steps then change can happen. One simple thing that we can do, if we eat fish, is to enquire where it came from, was it sustainably caught. We need to have an increasing awareness of the environmental impact of the food we eat – not simply air miles but much more. For example one of the observations following the devastating Asian Tsunami was that those areas which still had mangrove swamps were protected from some of the worst damage. This makes sense. So why were there large areas where mangroves have been removed? One of the main reasons was to create shrimp farms to sustain our demand for Tiger prawns.
There has been a lot of press recently about chickens and eggs – where do they come from….
In our gospel reading today Jesus says “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward” Matt.10:42 When Jesus speaks of “little ones” here we perhaps think of children. However I suspect the same could be said about our care for creation. If we exhibit kindness to the creatures God has made He will also be kind to us.