Raw sewage, clear streams – and the gospel of the King

This week sees yet another instalment in the UK water company saga. In 2023, untreated sewage was discharged for 3.6 million hours into our lakes, rivers and seas.

Only 15% of English rivers are in good ecological health. Who’s going to pay to have them run clear? To teem again with living creatures? Thames, Anglian, United, etc.? Their customers? Their shareholders? (Spoiler alert: As a veteran of a regulated industry, I’m sorry to say, it’s us, the bill-paying customers. Profiteers took advantage of a cheap sale and hands-off regulation to make super-returns. But they’re long gone, together with the cash. Poor policy and regulation time and again leaves customers to pick up the pieces.) And, moreover, what does the gospel of Jesus Christ have to say?

Clean water is home to some of the greatest beauty on earth. Whether the bright chalk streams and sticklebacks of my south London youth. Or luminous coral reefs of the tropics and their orchestra of living creatures. From leaping salmon to wading dipper, from short-snouted seahorse to ocean-going humpback whale, it teems with life. And is essential to human health and prosperity. So much so that it’s always in the news, though seldom for reasons to celebrate: intensifying storms, flooding, plastic on our beaches, melting icecaps, rising sea levels (and, if we’re attentive, drying streams, algal blooms, acidifying oceans, scoured seabeds, and marine heatwaves). Such beauty. Such brokenness. Broken indeed by God’s moral agents, the very ones mandated to guard and keep it. Truly, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”

But does the gospel of Jesus the Christ have anything to say?

Well, that depends what you mean by “the gospel”. For too long, we’ve confined it to matters only of personal salvation. But there are two problems with that. The first is it makes clear-running streams, flourishing oceans and responsible, prospering humanity – surely central Biblical priorities – optional extras. The second, much more importantly for us evangelicals, is it’s emphatically not how Jesus and the New Testament authors use the word.

More Biblically, “the gospel” is about the true king and His kingdom. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the gospel” says Jesus (Mark 1:14,15). Paul in Rome proclaims the kingdom of God (Acts 28:23-31) and self-describes as an ambassador for the king (Rom.1:1-5). This detracts not one iota from the saving work of Christ on the cross. Jesus the King indeed died for the forgiveness of sins – the way by which we enter His kingdom. But as Matthew Bates, Tom Wright and many others (including Chris Wright and Dave Bookless, in last month’s en), have shown, “the gospel” more Biblically – “more precisely” – is that Jesus has become King of heaven and earth. And that means God’s priorities – a flourishing earth and prospering humanity – must become our priorities. This more-Biblical gospel integrates justice, flourishing and salvation.

It’s cheaper to dump raw sewage (and agricultural runoff, forever chemicals and pharmaceuticals) in our lakes, rivers and oceans, and greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. But cheapness doesn’t make for flourishing or prospering. So, yes, in obedience to the gospel, we all willingly – rejoicing indeed! – pay a water bill high enough to manage our water well. To take less and dump less. And even more, like my friend Tessa, we do the weekly shop with eyes that look for clear-running streams and flourishing oceans. And Tim, who pauses for ten seconds before he shops to pray that his choices will be good news for humanity and the whole earth. And Sarah, who’s chosen to work with onshore fishermen for the restoration of Britain’s kelp forests. All these and many more. Because Jesus the Anointed – through whom and for whom all things were made – has become King of heaven and earth. Repent and believe the gospel!