Environmental Stewardship Commission

There is a parallel between Mark’s brief story of the rich young man and the book of Job, written possibly 400 years earlier in a rich lament form of dialogs and narrations. The young man and Job were both invited to suffer. Job was inflicted in the cosmic dialog between the satan and God. The young man was invited by Jesus to give his wealth to the poor in order to gain eternal life.

Job endured suffering which led to a theophany with God and eventual care and understanding for all of God’s creation. The the young man, when faced with Jesus’ declaration to give away his possessions to the poor, could not take the step although he seemed eager to follow the living God.

Both men were essentially good men, yet neither had really learned total dependence on God nor real compassion for his fellow humans and creatures, nor the land he possessed. Job had lived a righteous life, was rich, had many possessions. The young man had upheld all the commandments and seemed honest and sincere enough for Jesus to accept and even love him. Yet when Jesus explained the requirement, the young man could not make the shift from a good life to an eternal, spiritual life. The young man was unable to trust God and live a life of possible pain and poverty as a dependent on the shifting sands of oppression in the land in the Roman occupation. He could not give up his power to face the possibly of living as a slave.

Job did loose all of his possessions and most of his family. His wife taunted him. He friends misunderstood and gave him bad advice to renounce God. Jobs suffering was also physical with sores and decay. Reaching desperation, Job cursed the day of his birth, but not God. Job retained his relationship with God, Then God spoke to God out fo the power of the whirlwind. God confronted Job with all the care and extent of Creation. The words are almost a preamble to Eucharistic Prayer C in The Book of Common Prayer.

Job’s sense of compassion for all of God’s Creation changed dramatically after his encounter with God. Perhaps the Rich young man knew nothing of Job. Certainly the request to give all to the poor was not new to Jesus’ teachings.

St. Francis seemed to be aware of the scriptural imperative of giving away one’s possessions. Of course he had the gospels to read. He knew how possessions and power of position kept one from being in right relationship with God and all of God’s Creation.

We Americans consume and alter Creation through the use and manipulation of land and resources more than any nation on the planet. We may think we are like Job and righteous in many ways while being good stewards of our land and its resources. However, like the rich young man, we own and use vast amounts of carbon in maintaining our rich life styles. We Americans have more cars than people now in our nation. Think of the land we have altered or destroyed in order to posses the vehicles. Do autos improve our compassion for the Creation? Do they improve our eternal life?