Stewards of God’s Creation—Genesis 1: 1-24; Revelation 11:18
I remember back in high school my mom brought home this really large package and asked me to help her get it set up. I was afraid this was going to be another house project with “some assembly required,” so I was quite skeptical. What came out of the box was three large containers which stacked on top of one another: yellow, green, and blue. As best I remember, they were labeled for paper, aluminum, and plastic. Then came a very clear edict: we were going to start recycling, period.
This was a bit surprising as we lived in coal country, in a rural area well outside of town, the kind of rural that has iffy internet, is too far for cable, and has septic tanks. But I learned an important lesson both in action and in word. I watched my mom sort all of the items in those bins, load them up every other week and drive them off to be recycled (because there was no pick up for recycling). When I asked why, she said, “Well I figure God gave us this Earth, and we need to do a little something to look after it.”
That idea of care of God’s creation has been mishandled and thrown aside for years as “liberal talk” or unimportant to the grand scheme of faith, but there is more to being stewards of our earth than just a few political talking points. So, hear this sermon out a bit. In Genesis, we read how God created the heavens and the earth; how God made evening and morning, the birds, the space, the plants and trees, the animals each and every one, and finally God created humankind: men from dirt and women from a fully created functioning person. (I make no conclusions based on that about men or women. I will let the origins speak for themselves.)
But after God made human kind, they were given a command in Genesis 1:28—“Then the Lord blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it.’” We were called to govern the earth, or rather, given charge of it. Think of that idea—to be given charge over. If you are given charge over a classroom you teach and make it better. If you are given charge over a project you complete it making something better. If you are given charge over a number of family heirlooms you look after them to keep them from deteriorating.
Many denominations have looked toward this idea of being called to care for God’s creation. In 2006, the Souther Baptist Convention passed a resolution saying both, “that we urge all Southern Baptists toward the conservation and preservation of our natural resources for further generations.” And that phrasing was couched in the same terms that we have charge of God’s handiwork.
The question we must ask ourselves is this: how would God want us to look after what we have been given? Revelation 11:18 is revealing—“It is time to destroy all who have caused destruction on the earth.” Okay, so that scripture is about as subtle as a heart attack, it would seem. But this scripture gets to a deeper point. Being stewards of God’s earth doesn’t just mean recycling, and so on. We ought not abuse other humans who are also part of God’s creation.
Everyday we see stories of violence, murder, hatred…messages to be tough in a way that is not firm but truly abusive of our fellow human. Look instead at how Jesus lived: healing, loving, gently asking those who encountered him to go and sin no more. And yet, we see people abused all the time, and so often in the name of religion. I love the quote that says, “If your religion requires you to hate someone, my friend, you need a new religion.” Jesus was often tough on people, especially the Pharisees and religious leaders. He challenged them and pushed them, but there’s a final word there.
On the cross, even as he suffered his own abuse at the hands of religion, Jesus prayed in Luke 23:34, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’” I have often been mad at people. I have often wanted to say something I know would cut them to the quick. And sometimes, I have even said it. But as faith grows, so do we in the maturity of our responses, and in our knowledge that abusing another human, created in God’s own image, is just as sinful as what that other person may have done to us. Because we are given charge of the earth, we should be mindful to set an example of Christ in all of our words, in all of our actions, and in all of our daily lives.
And now the truly personal part of being stewards of God’s creation. We, too, were created by God and in God’s own image; therefore, we ought not abuse ourselves either. Some of us struggle with feelings that we are insufficient at everything, at life. Some of us push ourselves physically beyond what we are really capable of. Some of us carry weights and burdens so heavy and for so long that the tears will no longer even flow. Some of us would rather hide in food, booze, or other destructive behaviors because we are too afraid to let God’s grace lead us to healing, not of chemical imbalances and actual diagnosed diseases, but of unresolved pain and trauma.
I love the quote by writer Kathleen Winter, “It was not fair, she felt, to treat people as if they were finished beings. Everyone was always becoming and unbecoming.” In order to follow Christ you must give up the old and embrace the new. To continue following Christ, we must realize that God is never going to stop challenging us. But I believe, I firmly believe, that as God challenges us, we are offered strength and healing in proportion to the challenge. For God is never done working in us and through us here on earth until we take our final breath.
For the same God who created the heavens and the earth, light and dark, birds, fish, trees, and yes, even that weird little platypus creature, created you and I as well. But there was something special because we were created in God’s image and to have a relationship with God. And in that relationship, God offers us a gentle healing from our own self-abuse. God offers us love and forgiveness, then tells us these gifts, these lessons, we are to share with the whole world for we’ve been given charge of it.
That’s why I appreciated my Mom’s lesson on recycling. I got to see both the extra effort put in as well as the wise words, “I figure God gave us this Earth, and we need to do a little something to look after it.” And so we should. We must remember that we have charge over the beauty and majesty of what God has created to love and protect the vulnerable and the weak. We must remember that Revelation warns us against abusing other people, as they too are created in God’s own image. And lastly, we must treat our own selves gently seeking healing and peace in our own lives especially if the past weighs heavy upon us. Each portion of the creation story in Genesis 1 finishes up with these words: “And God saw that it was good.” May we remember that we are made in God’s image and to have a relationship of love and grace with our Creator.