Stewards of Creation

Spring Flowers, Easter 2010, photo by the author.

Earth Care Sunday, Genesis 1:1, 26-31; Colossians 1:15-20

“. .. for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.”  –Colossians 1:16

In preparation for “Earth Care Sunday,” I got to thinking about how this day of celebration started. It began within the lifetime of many of us, not dozens of generations ago like Christmas or Easter. We celebrate it around the time of Earth Day, so it’s natural to suspect an encroachment of secular influence upon the theology and practices of the Church. But, in this case, the story is more complicated, and influence has traveled in both directions. John McConnell and many other advocates for environmental conservation, who were instrumental in the founding of Earth Day in 1970, were motivated by a sense of God’s call to be better stewards of creation. The effort was bipartisan, and, to some extent, an ecumenical undertaking of Christians in several traditions.

Each April, thousands of congregations set aside a day to pray, learn, and take action on a Sunday close to Earth Day.  For more than ten years, our church has been recertified annually as an Earth Care Congregation by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Presbyterian Hunger. To become an Earth Care Congregation, the session affirmed an Earth Care Pledge to integrate environmental practices into worship, education, facilities, and outreach. This year, we are just one of 305 churches in our denomination that have dedicated themselves to earth care in this way.

When I entered ministry in the late 1980s, I served as a neighborhood recycling coordinator, and our congregation volunteered for and helped pilot a new community recycling program in Kalamazoo. What seemed rather cutting edge in that time has become routine in most households. Most of us consider it just a normal activity to sort out our metal, glass, plastics, and paper. It’s even easier now that we have “single-stream” recycling, and all our items go into one big container. Today, the cutting edge of earth-care conversation might consider what we should do about micro-plastics, a topic introduced to us by Sam Hangsleben a few years ago, or ethical lithium mining practices, or how we will recycle all the batteries that will accumulate in our increasingly battery-powered world.

Today, you’ll see and hear some suggestions about how to practice earth care, and there are several other forums for dialogue about these things. One of the things that a preacher might best focus upon is the “why” of earth care. Why should earth care matter to Christians?

Some people more intelligent than me have asked this question, and come to the conclusion that there’s not much in the Bible to support earth care. They’ve said that the creation stories of the Bible emphasize God's relationship to humanity, and the rest of the created order as a means to improving human lives. They’ve said that a consequence of the Bible’s emphasis on human dominance among other subservient life forms is that we end up viewing morality only in human terms  - what is right or wrong for people - and ignoring what is right or wrong for the rest of Creation. 

If you study today’s Hebrew Testament reading, then you’ll find out they have a point. The Hebrew word “kabash,” in verse 28 of our text, is commonly translated “subdue.” It’s related to Akkadian and Arabic words meaning “to tread down,” and “to knead, stamp, or press.”  The meaning of “kabash” is something like “to make to serve, by force if necessary.”  The implication of the text is that the earth will not easily or gladly work for our good.  Therefore, we must bring it into submission. 

This makes good sense when we remember that until relatively recent times, nature was in many ways an opponent to be overcome.  Humans spent most of their time and energy in an effort to survive. They were carving out protected spaces in a world that often was very hostile to them.

Several factors in recent history have forced Christians to rethink this emphasis. One is what we might call the impact of industrialization, the ability of larger and more powerful tools that not only help subdue the earth, but sometimes tear it apart. The advent of nuclear weapons made it conceivable that huge parts of the earth could be instantly destroyed.

At a recent gathering of our regional presbytery, Professor Clint McCann from Eden Seminary lectured on earth care. He said something I found memorable: humans have found ways to break nearly all of God’s commands except one. That is the command of the Genesis text to “Be fruitful, and multiply ….” At eight-billion people and counting, the earth is more populated with humans than it has ever been, and the resources they consume ever growing.  No wonder that many today say it’s not sustainable to subdue the earth according to the traditional meaning, and that we, as Christians, should be thinking instead how to be wise stewards of creation.

Of all the possible texts to pair with our Genesis text, I chose a passage from the third chapter of Colossians, the “Great Christology” it has been called. It’s difficult to imagine a more dramatic way of describing Jesus is God than saying that He is “the goal or purpose towards which creation is destined to move.”[1] I read it to make what may seem like obvious connections: If “all things have been created through him and for him,” then Christ is the owner of all. And if Christ is owner, and we are temporary managers, then how can it be right than to do anything other than serve as wise stewards during our brief time in the management role?

Years ago, Readers Digest carried a short story.  It told about a couple living in a home in West Palm Beach, Florida, who told a film crew that it was okay to use the front lawn as a set for an episode of a TV action series. They knew cars would be crashing violently in front of the house.  While the front yard was collecting automotive shrapnel, and otherwise being damaged, the owner of the home was tipped off by a neighbor. He called from New York wanting to know what was happening to his yard. Soon word got around to the producer, and filming came to a halt.  The people living in the house were only tenants and had no right to allow such damage.

Similar things happen daily when businesses, governmental agencies, and individuals act as if a portion of the earth over which we exercise control belongs solely to us, for our dreams, our purposes, our pleasure.  One of the first fundamental truths of the Bible about the earth is that God is the creator, and so, ultimately, everything belongs to God. 

Wendell Berry – author, farmer, and environmental activist – is nearly ninety years old. His book The Gift of Good Land appeared about the time I started college. He writes,  “How can you love your neighbor if you don't know how to build or mend a fence, to keep your filth out of his water supply or your poison out of his air? How will you practice virtue without skill?  The ability to be good is not the ability to do nothing. It is the ability to do something well - to do good work for good reasons.”[2]

Thank you to each one of you providing leadership to our Earth Care Sunday. Thanks to the many more among you who participate with us in earth care efforts. May God bless us with wisdom, courage, and strength to be wise stewards of the corner of earth that has been entrusted to our care.

NOTES

[1] C.F.D. Moule, “The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians and to Philemon,” Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary, Cambridge: The University Press, 1957, p. 59.

[2] Wendell Berry, The Gift of Good Land, as cited in Leadership, Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 3.

READ MORE, https://www.fpcedw.org/pastors-blog