Stewart Weaver

Why didn’t God create a better world?

A question posed by a member of the congregation.  Tempting as it is to respond with a Gallic shrug and say, ‘Ask God’, a response (not an answer!  too presumptuous!) is required.

Let’s look at the texts for the day.  A description of the Fall in Genesis 3.  Adam and Eve want to be like God: knowing good and evil, eternal life.  They take the fruit and eat.  Then, banishment from Eden and so much that follows stems from that fateful decision.  Original sin often is mentioned and sin is often seen as the focus on the self, cutting oneself off from God.  The middle letter in ‘sin’ is ‘I’.  Me first.

Genesis emphasises, however, that the created world is good.  God calls it good several times in Genesis 1 and twice (I think) calls it very good.  God perhaps could have created a better world but the world as originally conceived by the writers of Genesis is nevertheless good.  One might suggest that it is humans who have rendered it less good than it could be.  And that is what Eden is all about.

What would a better world be?  It would undoubtedly be one in which there was peace and justice and fairness and equality.  It would be one where perhaps the lamb would lie down with the lion and there would be no more war and people we know and love would not suffer from cancer or strokes or the awful inevitability of watching their bodies crumble.  Worse yet, watching a young body fall apart or a child die.

What would a better world be?  PT Barnum once said that we could have lambs lying down with lions.  The lions would need to be very well fed and the lambs would be very nervous indeed.  The lion is going to be a lion and the lamb a lamb.  They are following their nature and nature can be red in tooth and claw.  But so too it can be gorgeous in its colours and its movements and its rhythms.

What would a better world be?  There would be an end to the evil and suffering that we see around us.  Watching loved ones suffer needlessly or die slowly.  But without the changes and alterations of the natural world we would not see children grow and develop and become adults.  We would not see people moving from times and periods of stress and sadness to times and periods when things are going better and we can rejoice with them.  We would not grow and develop ourselves and appreciate all that experience and hopefully wisdom can bring us.

So much of that which could improve the world is human, is it not?  Fairness and peace and justice are all within our reach and our grasp if we are willing to do it.  A recent article discussing the taxation system which is used to redistribute wealth is typically accepted as a necessity.  If the logic of the system were followed to its conclusion, then we in the wealthy North Atlantic states should be taxed to support and pay for the poorer countries in Africa or in Asia.  It is within our grasp, in theory.

We could make a better world in so many ways.  We cannot make lions vegetarian.  We cannot stop the aging process and at this point cancer is beyond us.  But so much more is not beyond us.  If we took all the money that is spent on golf in the Western world we could send every child to school until the age of 8.  If.

And, what would be that perfect world which is the image looming behind the question?  Would it be a world that never existed?  Most likely.  And, perfect for whom?  What is perfect for me would not be perfect for so many others.  What is a beautiful garden in my book is not in yours.  What constitutes freedom and expression and faithfulness in my book will not be the same as yours.  If we want a better world, not just a perfect one, we need to think about better from a particular point of view.  Whose point of view?

We can make a better world.  It is in our grasp.  We cannot and we should not absolve ourselves of the responsibility and ask God to do it.  Adam was put in the garden to till it, to work it.  The root of the verb is the same as that for servant or slave.  We are on this earth to serve God, in freedom.  We are not coerced by Christ.  Dostoevsky’s key theme is the freedom given to us by Christ.  If we want a better world we can make one.  We cannot recreate Eden–it simply is not within our grasp.  But we, working in harmony with God, can make it better.

Why didn’t God create a better world?  God did create a beautiful, wonderful, GOOD world for us.  Have we been good stewards?  Do we emphasise love and our fellow humans?  Or have we gone down the other route, tasting that fruit and striving to become gods?

If we want a better world it is up to us to respond to the needs of the world and the call of Christ.  That’s how it happens.  Not us alone: our horizon is too limited.  Not God alone: we become mere appendages.  In the harmony of faith we can see the glimpses of the Garden.