DOES THIS EARTH MATTER?
“The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it…” (Ps. 24:1).
Compare this statement with the common belief of some Christians who respond to “creation care” with “But it’s all going to burn up anyways.” We read in the Bible of the apocalypse and how the elements will pass away with a roar and wonder if this earth matters.
If we are honest, our eyes roll back into our heads when we hear environmentalists talk about saving the earth. I confess too that the talk of “global warming” and Greta Thunberg ranting about how we have destroyed her future makes me tired. Our world is consumed with the earth to the degree that it seems like idolatry, worshiping the earth, and that alone causes Christians to reject talk of creation care.
But the earth is the LORD’s…What does the Bible say our attitude ought to be with respect to the earth?
A native leader by the name of Chief Seattle spoke to US officials in 1854 saying, “All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. People did not weave the earth; they are merely strands in it. The earth does not belong to mankind; mankind belongs to the earth. Whatever they do to the web of life they do to themselves. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. The earth is precious to the creator and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.”
In the speech, Seattle not only talked about fouling God’s creation, but also about how the connected are the land, the people, and God. This sounds very close to the OT teaching on God and the gift of the land to God’s people.
Time, talents, and money are given to us as a trust by God to care for, use, invest, and grow. The earth is also a gift to us and the Bible teaches us what it means to God.
1. Humanity’s Role in Creation (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15)
God’s creation is beautiful. As Chief Seattle observed, it is intricately woven with the threads of the natural world, human beings, and all living things. God created it all, the whole world and everything in it. And he entrusted this amazing creation to humans.
This interwovenness is seen in Genesis. First God creates the basic elements of life, fills the land, sea, and skies with creatures. Then God creates the pinnacle of creation - humankind:
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground,'"
(Genesis 1:26-28).
I say “pinnacle” with humility because humankind is given the ability to think, reason, and be responsible.
This text shapes and charges us with our interpretation of stewardship. It also begs a lot of questions like, “What does it mean to be created in God’s likeness?” I believe that stewardship and being created in God’s likeness are very closely related.
What does it mean to be made in God’s image? An image may make you think of a statue. Kings and great leaders would set up statues around their kingdoms and territories to remind their subjects who is in power. An image is a physical representation of the king. We are the image of God on earth. Part of what offends God when Israel makes a golden calf or other image is that it replaces the image God has already set up: you and me. If we are the image of God on earth, living reminders of the Creator who is the King of the universe, what does that say about our role in creation? It means that we have been given the responsibility of representing God in the midst of God’s creation.
As stewards we have been given dominion over the earth. The words “rule” and “subdue” are used in our text to speak of this dominion. It means to “tread down” but that’s misleading. It doesn’t mean to exploit or destroy, it means to exercise care and responsibility for God’s domain, specifically to care for the poor and marginalized. That’s the role Adam is given in Genesis 2:15, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Stewardship is at the heart of this command. As God’s image bearers they were to reflect the heart of a benevolent God to the world in a caring and wise way.
Caring for the environment is important. But the motivation for creation care is found in worshiping the Creator. We care for God’s creation precisely because it is God’s creation.
2. The Result of Sin on Creation (Romans 8:18-22)
The world is a messy place. Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and rising sea levels threaten everything we have built. Not to mention forest fires. For the most part, we are fortunate in Manitoba to experience only one or two of those disasters.
I am not wise enough to correlate the cause-effect of human abuse of creation and the consequent disasters. But I do know biblically that human sin is the reason for our unpredictable world. Adam and Eve sinned. We continue to sin. Greed and exploitation of earth’s resources bring many troubles. And the earth suffers.
The Apostle Paul described the effects of sin on creation and how creation responds in Roman 8 (see slide). Note that “creation” appears four times in this text and speaks to a future hope:
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. Why? Paul talked about our present sufferings, how we struggle with sin, with the pain of life in a cursed world, with the people rejecting our faith in Christ. And he says this isn’t worth comparing with the glory to come when Jesus returns. But even creation waits for the children of God to be revealed. The mountains, streams, fields, bunnies, lions – everything in creation – is waiting for us to be glorified when Jesus comes, because then creation will be cared for properly.
For the creation was subjected to frustration…vanity is another word translated here sometimes. Perhaps Paul was thinking of Genesis 3:17-19 where God says to Adam that because he listened to his wife, thorns and thistles infest the ground. Perhaps it was Adam’s vanity in thinking he could be like God. “Frustration” could also mean “ineffectiveness” in that creation is not doing what it’s supposed to do because humans aren’t doing their part. Humans are the chief actors in the drama of God’s praise and if we fail to contribute our part, creation as a whole suffers.
The hope of creation is that it will be set free from its bondage to decay. Sin has done this. And Paul’s implication is that as a creation of God, the earth has been robbed of its divinely appointed right to be treated with respect. It is God’s after all. As Christians we focus so much on our salvation from sin and our “next life” in eternity we scarcely consider this aspect. Jesus is going to free us from sin surely, but also all of creation from its slow death at the hands of humanity.
The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. There is hope. Perhaps the hurricanes and tremors are an indication that the baby is kicking and about to be born. Though the earth is groaning and suffering, there is a promise of new birth. When we who trust in Jesus are finally redeemed, the earth will experience redemption also.
3. The Restoration Includes Creation (Colossians 1:15-20)
So, does “matter” matter? Too often in our Christianity, we have been suspicious of environmentalism. It seems idolatrous. It seems to elevate the trees and animals above humankind. One of them said he would rather kill a man than harm a woodland creature.
But Christianity goes too far the other way at times. There is a story of a Puritan walking along the road with a friend who remarked, “There’s a lovely flower.” And the Puritan answered, “I have learned to call nothing lovely in this lost and sinful world.” That isn’t just unchristian, it’s heresy.
At the time Paul wrote to the Colossians, there were these intellectuals who wanted to turn Christianity into a philosophy. They believed that matter was completely evil and that only things of the spirit were good. That meant that creation was evil and nothing physical was good. Even Jesus, if he was the Son of God, could not have been a physical person because matter is evil. Jesus must have been a spirit.
To answer this, Paul wrote, “He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him,” (15-17).
There’s that word “image” again. Jesus is the perfect representation of what God is like. He perfectly represents God to us in a form that we can see and know and understand. Where we failed to rule over creation, Jesus succeeds because he not only obeys the Father’s intention for creation, but he is also the one who created all things.
Paul says “by him and for him” which means Jesus was the agent through which God created (John 1:3). And all things were created for him. Creation belongs to Jesus. We could say that humanity lost creation to Satan when we sinned, and that Christ took it back through the cross. But we also have to say that it always belonged to Jesus.
If creation is Christ’s and all things were created for him and his purposes, then we have to conclude one thing: “matter” matters and when Christ returns, he will restore creation to the Paradise it was meant to be before sin entered the world.
The NLT puts it simply in Ephesians 1:9-10, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth,” (1:9-10).
What does a biblical teaching on the stewardship of creation mean for us as Christians in a practical sense?
Reduce – Reuse – Recycle
But I would add another “re” word: respect. As in we ought to respect the Creator and his creation as gifts given for his glory. Conservation is God’s idea. Environmental care is God’s idea. Ecological justice is God’s idea. They were his intention when he first said, “Let there be light.”
The difference between the follower of Jesus and the environmentalist is motivation. The environmentalist who wants to save the planet has everything to lose if the planet is destroyed. Their hope and future is a green earth for the sake of a green earth. And I have seen documents that propose eradicating human presence to do it. Abortion activists are deeply connected to sustainability principles of the earth.
For the Christian, our motivation is to glorify God and honor him by protecting, preserving and sustaining his creation. It is like the parable in Luke 12:42-46 where the master returns having left his possessions in the hands of his servants. The master will come and ask what they have done with what he left them.
Pope Francis in 2015 made a statement that implied every believer’s responsibility is ecological conservation. He said, “The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’ (Romans 8:22).”
God has left us with a charge to look after his Son’s creation until he comes to claim it for himself. How is God calling us to take part in this?
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment