Nearly every social institution has in some way made its voice heard on the world’s environmental degradation. One voice curiously quiet has been the voice of the church. I think that should bother us.
Right along with the “delinquents” of the world, we followers of Christ have joined in the plunder of the creation [the word delinquent meaning "a person who neglects to do what obligation requires"]. Now as we gaze over the resulting degradation and the grief it is causing all living species, we are ever so slowly realizing that we may owe the world an apology—and God a humble confession. We have failed both, and if we are not ashamed, I feel we should be.
There are many things we must confess: First, we have neglected our responsibility before God. Knowing the “creation care mandate” in Genesis that clearly declares that we are stewards of our Master’s property, we have nonetheless accepted the falsehood that we are the absolute lords of the earth. Some blame the Genesis passage that tells us we are to have “dominion” over the earth as the cause of all the damage, but the Bible is clear from cover to cover that our dominion is under God’s dominion—in God’s domain. He expects us to be wise users and investors of the earth’s bounty, but somewhere along the line we stopped merely using and started consuming the earth.
Second, we have forgotten our position before God. It was not an arrogant psalmist who said that mankind is positioned only a little lower than angels yet above the remainder of creation (Psalm 8). It was a humble acknowledgment that while there is power in such a position, it carries with it great responsibility toward God and toward His creation gifts.
Christian farmer-philosopher Wendell Berry tells us that “one cannot escape the human condition except sinfully, by pride or by degradation.” In other words, to put our heads in the clouds and think ourselves to be divine is sinful pride; to grovel in the dirt and think ourselves to be no more than animals results in sinful degradation. One is an error common to the New Age Movement, which considers everything divine; the other is an error common to neo-Darwinism, which thinks of nothing as divine. While most Christians are not likely to fall into the error of such extremes, to neglect the responsibilities inherent to our “in-between” position is to bid Godspeed to people who erroneously consider themselves to be either gods or animals. There is a theology of nature found in Scripture, but it is typically unknown or misunderstood by followers of Christ today.
Next, we have readily accepted the economists’ folly that nature is only for the direct benefit of mankind. We seem to have forgotten what the apostle John declared in the last book of the Bible: “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and it is for your pleasure they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11 KJV). Unless we are arrogant enough to believe that only what pleases man pleases God, we should think again about how we tread upon the earth. Dare we see all forests as timber, all prairies as crop land, all tundra as caps on oil deposits, all Appalachian mountains as mounds of coal, and all lesser creatures as food or subjects for sport?
Fourth, we must confess that, like most of mankind, we have confused our needs with our wants. In His ever-practical “sermon on the mount,” Jesus pointed to the sparrows and lilies and declared that just as their physical needs are met each day by the natural systems God created, so will our needs be met. That this affirmation of Jesus can be construed to promise everything found in our garages, closets, and cupboards today demonstrates how far we have strayed from the plan of God. Since we seem to be blind to it, perhaps only God knows how far we have collectively gone bey
ond our needs and how much our chasing after frivolous wants has both damaged the earth and diminished us as a church.
No confession is sincere, however, unless it involves a change of behavior. To admit that one has been wrong and then refuse to replace wrong behavior with correct behavior only increases the wrongdoing. I feel it is time for the church to heed what, according to John, the Spirit said to the church in Sardis: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God” (Revelation 3:2).
Indeed, He has not. I believe He awaits our sincere repentance and our taking up again our responsibility to be godly stewards of His creation. This coming Earth Day and beyond, let’s be demonstrating that we have had a change of heart.
See you outdoors,
Dean
April 18th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Dean: We do need that change of heart and of vision, as well. The stained glass windows you used remind me of the ones in my 1920s built church. One series has a theme for each window, one of them being Nature. This window shows shepherds with sheep and their dog. I was struck by the fact that there was no wild animal in the picture–only domesticated and hybridized which are useful to man. Ninety years later, our vision still hasn’t expanded much past what affects us, I’m afraid.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:43 am
The question is: “Does ‘creation care’ have a place in the Christian life?” The premise in assuming ones response to be negative is considered, perhaps, attributable to our Christian belief that the Earth will pass away when the Lord returns. And so, the postulation goes something like this: ‘why bother?’ I cannot think of any line of thought that could be any farther removed from biblical reason.
After all- our bodies are temporal, but no one doubts our spiritual duty in caring for this, ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’ … so how much less the ground where that temple stands? And likewise, though we understand the ‘brick and mortar’ that are our church buildings to be places that will ‘also pass away,’ would anyone dare to presume that that makes structural ‘upkeep’ and ‘maintenance’ unnecessary? Of course not- and neither should we neglect anything else that might be used in the reflecting of God’s glory. And I’m pretty sure that the earth qualifies in that respect.
Romans 1:20 is often quoted in response to the ‘Creation Care’ issue and I think it appropriate enough for repeating: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” NIV
And another bit of verse comes to mind, though it is not so often quoted, is: “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:7-10 KJV
“… In whose hand is the soul of every living thing … ‘every’ living thing.” That’s grass and trees and things that crawl, fly, or swim. How dare we not care for all that our God has made?