Genesis 1:26-31

Job 38:1-11

This is a reflection on last weeks Summer School - a couple of days spent visiting various locations around Cumbria from a Hill farm, to some small environmental projects to a wind farm to Sellafield. The connecting theme was creation and the environment and from a reflection on Blakes The Tyger, set to music by John Taverner we ask the question "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"

How are we to use the power of creation? Hill farms creating a managed pastoral landscape seems like a natural use of creation - yet the economics may be unsustainable, the social conditions make it difficult for future generations. Small communities using sustainable energy like ground heat source, micro wind and solar energy - consuming less energy using renewable energies.

How do we react to other forms of renewable energies? Wind Farms, tidal barrages, nuclear power stations. Is this creation, this technology to be used? If we are concerned about global warming, limited goal and gas resources then these solutions are better than conventional power stations - but each has problems and the environmental lobby are divided about the way forward.

Blake contrasts the awesome power of the  - Tyger, Tyger, burning bright/ In the forests of the night,/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry? - with The Lamb, the classic pastoral setting - Jesus the sacrificial lamb - “Did he who made the lamb make thee?” Is that pastoral setting the voice of innocence? -  Are those small efforts in village hall and suburban street, so worthy,  nothing more than quaint feel good efforts? The real decisions are about wind, tide, nuclear, coal, gas - are they God’s gifts to us? how are we to use them? Do we use our God given creative skill to exploit every resource available to us? Each has a cost - economic, social, environmental - can we include a theological cost? a creation cost?