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See Genesis 6-8

1. It is remarkable that God asked Noah to take animals with him into the ark. It seems he wanted to preserve his world's biodiversity. I tend to think that God relates primarily with humans, but it's clear in this account that he is concerned for all creatures.

2. The whole account is not just about Noah and God's concern for people, but the animals too and God's concern for all creatures.

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark. . . . Come out . . . Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you . . . so they can multiply on the earth and increase in number upon it." (8:1, 16-17)

3. God's promise to Noah and the living creatures precludes the motivation of fear for creation care. I don't recycle because I'm afraid that the earth will burn if I don't. Even granted man's continued wickedness, there's no doomsday scenario here:

Never again will I curse the ground because of man. . . And never will I destroy all living creatures . . . As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." (8:21-22)

4. There is also no argument for population control in this account.

"As for you, be fruitful and multiply . . ." (9:7)

I think we're supposed to have kids. Even if some say we'll outgrow the earth's capacity to produce food.

5. God makes his covenant with Noah and

"every living creature that was with you . . . every living creature on earth." (9:10)

God is active in his concern for all creatures. He didn't just make the earth and leave us to take care of it. He's taking care of it too, and it appears that he is relating to his creatures apart from our activity.

In summary:
I think this is one of the strongest passages for our responsibility to creation to care for it tenderly. And yet it is not an environmentalist passage. I honestly don't see how the alarms about global warming fits into this framework. (I honestly don't know how we're supposed to comprehend something as massive as the warming of the entire planet).

I believe that in relating to God's non-human handiwork we can know God more intimately, as we know the living things he treasures.

Ultimately, creation care is stewardship and worship. It is a matter of obedience and love.

I've been reading lots of scripture over the last few days about covenants, circumicisions, and baptism, but to be honest I don't really see the connection in scripture. How did baptism get to be a sign of the covenant? I'd be interested in historical answers to this question as well as biblical ones.

That's one question. Another and I think more foundational one is about the nature of "signs and seals". As I understand it, a Presbyterian would tell me that (infant) baptism is much more than a symbol, that something real is happening, although most would say the child is not being saved. So it's more than a dedication, but less than salvation.

The same is true of communion, I guess -- more than a memory, but less than transubstantiation. I think I understand the concept better as it applies to communion than to baptism.

A final question, for now: is baptism always the same word in the Greek New Testament? Or is there a semantic way to tell the difference between the baptism of the Spirit and water baptism? I'm wondering this especially in regard to mentions of baptism in the epistles like Eph. 4:5 and I Cor. 12:13.

And while we're on the subject, what do you make of I Corinthians 15:29?

So, any thoughts? Good articles or books? (I'd especially be interested if church fathers addressed the issue, which I'm sure they did).