I was with my son surfing small waves at the beach near our home.
The ocean blended with the horizon and the sky. No wind. Sunshine licked the surface of water. I
sat on my surfboard and watched William ride whitewater to the beach. I felt
the warmth of the day upon my shoulders. I watched a pelican that looked like a
rusted crowbar dive from the sky. As I watched the pelican emerge from the
water with a mullet, I thought about my responsibility to help preserve ocean.
I thought to myself, “As one person I can't do much. After all, the ocean is so
large. It spans continents, borders
countless towns and cities from here to Africa, and beyond. It borders homes
and churches and…” And
then I thought, “Churches—yes, that's it. That how I might help the ocean,
that's how I might help the earth. Earth Day and the Church. It could be a
perfect match. After all, Earth Day is about God's creation. From a Christian
theological perspective, Earth Day concerns the responsible stewardship of
God's planet.”
Historically, the Church, as well as
our larger culture, has understood stewardship
as the proper management of financial resources. Stewardship has, within the confines
of the Christian community, especially denoted the once-a-year pledge-drive. This
understanding of stewardship has its place. As the New American Dictionary
states, "A Steward is one who
manages another's property or financial affairs."
Yet stewardship, as the definition goes, also implies managing the real
property of another. From a Christian perspective, the earth is
ultimately God's real property.
As such, the Church is called, in general, to be a responsible steward of God’s
property.
Since the rise of earth consciousness
many critiques have been rightly leveled against the Christian tradition and
its understanding
of the earth as something to be forcefully conquered, rather than responsibly
cultivated. The traditional and
incessant misreading of "God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it (Holy Bible, Genesis
1:28),’ has errantly guided the Church in its handling of the earth’s resources.
Furthermore, this errant reading continues to cripple the Church in its moral
obligation to protect God's creation.
Admittedly, the phrase to, "subdue the
earth" is used in Genesis 1.28 (though nowhere else), but the concept does
not reflect an idea of destroying or mismanaging resources—quite the
contrary. In the context of this
particular text, the Hebrew term kabash, rendered as "subdue,"
connotes the cultivation of land, as does its English counterpart. It may be said that Genesis 1:28 embraces the
responsibility of humanity to wisely keep the earth like a house—clean, properly
managed, and with attentive care.
The idea of
keeping the earth clean and orderly like a house is aptly reflected in the word
ecology, which is derived from the Greek word oikos ("Doctrine of
the House"). Accordingly, and as
the creation narrative in Genesis suggests, we might understand the earth as
our dwelling, our house—our home. We are but tenants on the soil—one part of
the creation community. As such, we are not to be destroyers of creation, but
responsible stewards.
As the ecological crisis continues to worsen, Christians are in a
pivotal position to either make a faithful stand for the protection of the
earth, by living earth-friendly lives or to watch from the sidelines as the
ecological situation becomes even more burdensome for our children’s children. Though Christians have traditionally
been on the wrong side of the environmental issue, we have the political might
to become leaders in the responsible stewardship
of God's creation.
As I watched my son catch another wave, the breeze picked
up and the sun started going down. I caught a wave, walked to the nose of the
board, back peddled, and rode to the beach. William was waiting for me. We were
full of smiles. The sun and horizon merged completely and it seemed that all
creation was melting into one loud song of joy. Everything blended together.
And it seemed to me that God was saying, “Not alone, but together. Together you
can make a difference. Together.”
