Many of us are aware of the Roman Catholic encyclical, Laudato Si, released by Pope Francis in 2015. It continues to be an exceptional response to the climate crisis and offers a direct yet hopeful reflection on Creation, Creator, and human responsibility. The theology is so solid and thought-provoking.
I've just become aware of a Lutheran document published in 2017 related to the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation titled Creation - Not for Sale. In one of the essays theologian Martin Kopp asks the rhetorical question: "Does nature have a price?" Later he responds by saying that nature is presenting the bill for our human exploitation and answers to the question he has posed: "There is a reform to be undertaken in our hearts, minds and deeds. For if nature has a price, creation is priceless -- it is not for sale.
These are wise words but I am also intriguted by the cover of the document, an image it took me a couple of looks to interpret. This is a stylized bar code in the shape of a tree with the word "creation" also in bar code form. This is clever and both literally and figuratively graphic.
This brings to mind the enduring "priceless" Mastercard advertising campaign going back to 1997. The first ad which ran during the World Series had a dad taking his son to his first baseball game, paying for the tickets, a hot dog and a drink with his MasterCard with the slogan "There are some things money can't buy; for everything else, there's Mastercard".
Of course, people can become deeply in debt because of credit cards and even have them revoked. Is humanity on the verge of existential bankruptcy because we haven't learned that Creation is not for sale? I pray not, for the sake of generations to come.
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