Sun. March 30, 2008 (Markku Kostamo)

Markku Kostamo spoke on "Caring for Creation as Mission". Markku grew up in Nepal and is now working at Arocha ('The Rock') in White Rock, where Harold Neufeldt volunteers. Markku is a biologist (plant and soil), interested in linking Soul and Soil in our thinking and practice. The poetic descriptions of creation tell of Adam being made from the soil, and we are reminded that it is to the soil we shall return. We have been created to be in relationship with the soil/earth. One of the two creation accounts in Genesis advises people to subdue the earth, but the second account asks that we till it and take care of it. Psalm 24 builds on this by proclaiming that the "the earth is the Lord's all that is in it." Markku has come to view caring for the earth as an act of worship, and reminded us that what Hosea wrote c. 730 B.C. is currently true: "together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing." We are created in God's image, and God is portrayed as a creator and nurturer. Some believers separate the spiritual from the physical, but "matter matters to God." [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Mar. 30th using your browser's preferred media player.