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This Lecture event was publicized by the Ottawa Citizen on Sunday April 29, 2007 and the two lectures were presented on Sunday May 6, 2007 and Monday May 7, 2007 at the Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral which is Canada’s cathedral for the Orthodox Church in America. His Eminence Seraphim, Archbishop of Ottawa and Canada was in attendance.
Theology and Ecology
By Dr. W.C. Tan
The theology is the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
The ecology is on Earth as in Heaven.
The lecture begins with the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 7:9)
Our Father in Heaven Canon of Poetry from some four thousand years ago states that “Heaven begets sons and daughters”. The word Heaven written in the Oracle bones has a human figure indicating that heaven is God the Father of all the children. So when the traditional Chinese offer their ancestral worships, Prime minister of Han Dynasty Dong zhongshu at 2nd Century BC said that whenever we offer worships to our ancestor, God is our ultimate and first ancestor. So whenever the Chinese preformed the ancestral worships, they ultimately and essentially worship the heavenly God who is father of all.
Hallowed be thy name In many parts of world today, many aboriginal people still have the fear of the Lord and the respect for God’s created nature in their hearts. For instance, in Yunnan Province of China there are 26 minority tribes, many of whom still have deep respect for the forest. They are critical of those who cut down tree seedlings or trees still growing just for economic gains.
Thy kingdom come According to Chinese philosopher Mencius of 4th century BC, the essence of any kingdom is the family. The family is the foundation of any kingdom. The kingdom cannot exist without basic family unit. The word ecology indicates the study of nature but in actuality prefix eco means family. Ecology is the study of nature which is a family in itself. The human race is a part of nature. Therefore, the kingdom of God should be a family of human race and all the created nature. People may ask what is the kingdom of God? Is this kingdom a democracy or a dictatorship? The kingdom of God is neither the democracy nor the dictatorship. The Kingdom of God is a family. You may ask how do you know it is a family? I know it because Jesus said so. The kingdom of God is a family and every family has a head of family and the head of this family is the Father. Therefore, at the beginning of the Prayer Jesus called God “Our Father”.
God is not just a God of any particular person or of a few persons or a nation or a few nations. God is the father of all and that is why we called him “Our Father”.
Thy will be done We all know that the kingdom of God is a family and the head of the family is the Father, but this father is a loving Father. He would want only good things for his family, and for all his children and for all his created nature. “He would want” means he wishes and his wishes are his will. He would like his will to be done. The Chinese called this “the Mandate of Heaven”. God commands us to do his will. We can find God’s will for us in the book of Genesis.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
“Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” “And the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.” (Genesis 2:9)
The Mandate of Heaven is for us to eat the tree of life but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What is the tree of life? Tree of Life is life and life is organic, sustainable, with biodiversity. According to Chinese philosophy the Tao is the life. As the Book of Changes says “Yin and Yang is Tao”. That is the family. In the Book of Changes there is a hexagram called “Family” which says that the father is external and the mother is internal.
On Earth as in Heaven God’s Will is done in Heaven, but God’s Will is not yet done on Earth. When God’s Will is done on Earth then God’s Kingdom will come on Earth as in Heaven. When will God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom will come when His Will is done. When “they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 14:29)
What is from the east, west, north and south? In the language of the tree of life, this is biodiversity, and not monoculture or monopoly. Not one race, not one religion, not one church, not one tradition, not one creed and not one nationality alone can claim monopoly in the kingdom of God. Why? Because “For God so loved the world” and from the Chinese Canon of Poetry “Heaven begets sons and daughters”. God is the Heavenly Father and He begets with his love and the world with sons and daughters in the family of the kingdom. Therefore, the Confucian Analects says that “Within the four seas, we are brothers and sisters”, because we all have the same Father.
“Where is the kingdom?” People asked Jesus. Jesus replied, “the kingdom of God is within you and amongst you.” This is, us all in plain language means “Da Jia” which is literally the big family. The kingdom of God is a big family and they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north and from the south and shall sit down together. They may not be all the same as each other. They definitely are all different, but they shall all sit down together which means they would all mutually respect each other, while at the same time, each can still be faithful to their own respective tradition which they have originally received.
The Kingdom of God is a family. It includes the Heaven and the Earth. It is both Heaven and Earth. The German word for ecology or environment is “Umwelt” which means around the world which includes Heaven, the man and the Earth. In the Chinese Book of Changes there is the Tao of Heaven, the Tao of Man and the Tao of the Earth. “Umwelt” is the totality of Tao. Only in agriculture can this totality of Tao be fully expressed. This is the tree of life.
Give us this day our daily bread The emphasis here is on “daily bread”, daily not yearly. It is local production not industrial scale production. It is locally produced and locally consumed. This is the principle of organic farming. This daily bread is living bread.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
“They shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 14:29)
No one is perfect. We are all sinners. And we have all done wrongs to each other. At the heart of the Heavenly Father for all his children of his family is mercy. No one has the right to claim that they alone will be in the Kingdom of God. The East cannot claim that they alone will be in the Kingdom of God. And the West cannot claim that they alone will be in the Kingdom of God. And the North cannot claim that they alone will be in the Kingdom of God. And South cannot claim that they alone will be in the Kingdom of God. The only claim we can make is God is a God of Mercy. We may be able to claim to this mercy if we forgive the debts of others, and love our neighbours as ourselves.
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 8:21) And the will of the Father in Heaven is for us to love one another on Earth and to eat the tree of life.
To do family organic farming is the will of the Father.
After the Industrial Revolution mankind has abandoned family organic farming and pursued industrial scale production, progress, profits. We are now facing global warming, famine, drought, pollution, energy crisis, war and many other crises.
And lead us not into temptation It is tempting to do what is forbidden. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
To pursue the Industrial Revolution in WTO with TRIPS is to eat the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of good and evil.
From the Book of Genesis, God created each day after each kind and God saw that it was good. God created after each species. This is against Genetic Modified Organism (GMO).
But deliver us from evil How does the Lord deliver us from evil? First we have to repent.
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
To repent is the return of the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son “when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.” (Luke 16:14-18)
“I have sinned against heaven, and before thee” The Prodigal Son has sinned against nature, against the family and against the Father of the family.
The repentance and the return of the Prodigal Son happened when he encountered ecological crisis of drought and famine. He returned to a home of family organic farming saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.” We are the Prodigal Son and we have sinned against God and against nature and we produce the crisis of global warming. This brings us to the theme that the theology is ecology, and ecology of theology is that Family Organic Farming will reduce global warming.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
For in the kingdom, you alone are the father of the family. Your power is love and your glory is self-sacrifice. “For we know that the whole universe groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now”, “for the redemption” from global warming, and from the logic of the tree of good and evil, and from the self-destruction of self-righteousness.
“For the tree of life, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
This Lecture event was also publicized by the website of Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral. More>>