When reading and reflecting on Jesus’ famous parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37), I occasionally think about how offended the lawyer would have been. Following his asking Jesus to clarify part of his statement from the law (the Torah) requiring the fellow Jew* (and all Jews) to “Love… your neighbour as yourself,” Jesus tells of the kind actions of a Samaritan, instead of a fellow Jew, to illustrate what love is and who his neighbour is. In addition to being illuminating, it would have been humbling—in an offensive smack-to-the-face sort of way. As the story is included in the Gospel of Luke, it would have been circulating among the earliest Christian groups, which increasingly included Gentiles and not just Jews. So it would have been equally corrective for them.
You might be thinking, “What’s this have to do with the title?” I don’t want to change what Jesus’ core message was in this parable, but I think there’s a less obvious principle that can be gleaned from it. Like it or not, you and I are part of a group. In fact, we’re part of many groups.
How can my group and I learn how to care for something—not from someone within our circle, but from another circle, another tribe? Not from just any tribe, though, but from one that is grossly misunderstood and perhaps, because of this, largely foreign?
Postsecondary youth from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Urban Partnership (Toronto) program and me (front row, far left) after volunteering with the City of Toronto’s Community Stewardship Program. Our work included controlling the spread of garlic mustard—an aggressively invasive plant—from around the wetlands at Riverdale Farm. I also spent time speaking with the students about the significant role that community environmental stewardship plays in “caring for creation.”
To Jesus’ contemporaries in his ethno-religious circle, an excellent candidate “other” would have been the Samaritans. As I write this, it is easy to think about the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. But I’m not thinking about them at the moment. As significant as that relationship is. Rather, I’m thinking about the relationship between the local church and the environmental conservation and stewardship community.
Just as there were Jews and Christians that exemplified what it meant to love, there are certainly Jews and Christians and their communities that exemplify what it means to “care for creation.” Working for one such community I, of course, believe this! A Rocha International, A Rocha Canada and our 19 international A Rocha partners do some fantastic conservation work. When you’re finished reading this, check out our work at www.arocha.org and follow the links to the national groups. And I know of many other Christian communities active at a variety of levels in conservation efforts. But the reality is, when the general public thinks about groups taking constructive steps to address the environmental crisis, it doesn’t think about Christians, or any religious group. And they are not far off in their thinking. A Rocha International is the only faith-based member organization of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. This is changing, although perhaps too slowly.**
The recognition that we need to learn from the secular conservation community about how to responsibly steward creation has affected how A Rocha has developed, especially in Canada. That’s not to say that we’re not filling a gap and helping to engage our churches. But unfortunately there is still an enormous gap in the number of Christians living as responsible stewards of God’s “very good” (Genesis 1.31) creation. There’s little doubt that the Church’s various Christian theologies play a role.
The need for a better understanding of why it is integral to Christian faith (biblical, catholic, orthodox…) to be responsible stewards of God’s creation has influenced the way GTA (Greater Toronto Area) A Rocha has been developing. This keeps us humble (or at least should!) and encourages us to work together with others. Significantly, that helps to reduce the “us and them” mentality that is seen in many tribes (not just religious ones). It has enabled us to get closer to some of our common goals—sometimes even achieving them! I pray that more Christians, especially along with our faith communities, would begin to look to the overall conservation community to help them with being better environmental stewards of God’s creation—on their properties (too often the “other” is there, as well) and in their neighbourhoods, parishes, municipalities,… global community, and….
If you need help taking action in the GTA, please give me a shout! And if you live in another part of the country, please send an email to action@arocha.ca.
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*I assume the lawyer is a Jew based on Jesus’ speaking with Jews in the surrounding passages and because the unnamed man was familiar with the law (the Torah). Although I’ve never read of or heard about the lawyer being interpreted as a Samaritan, it is possible that the man was one of these people despised by Jews as being neither one of their kind nor of the Gentiles. If this is the case, the slap to the face would then have been, and continues to be, to those hearing the story.
**Of significance, the Worldwatch Institute’s annual State of the World report in 2003 recognized “a quickening of religious interest,” and dedicated a whole chapter to the topic. Unfortunately, A Rocha wasn’t mentioned. Perhaps one of the Institutes’ more recent reports mentions A Rocha. I at least hope so!
