The Biblical calling to care for creation

By David Rhoads Earth Day is an opportunity to reflect on our amazing world, to acknowledge the harm we humans have done to it, and to commit to the restoration of earth for future generations.

Friday, April 22, 2005 11:10 AM CDT

Christians have a biblical mandate to care for the earth. We have mistakenly read the Bible as if God is concerned only with humans. Removing the blinders reveals that God calls humans to care for creation.

Human are not just on the earth, we belong to earth. Adam was made from the dust of the earth. The name adam is the masculine form of the Hebrew adamah, meaning "soil" or "arable earth." So Adam, "earth-man," belongs to the land and is responsible to the land (Genesis 2:4-9) Creation was not formed for humans. When God created the world (Genesis 1:1-31)-plants, trees, fish, birds, cattle, creeping things, and people-after each day, "God saw everything that God had made and, indeed, it was good." God says to all creatures, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the sea and cover the earth" (Genesis 20:21).

God says to humans: "Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth" (1:26). The Hebrew word for "dominion" does not mean domination or exploitation, but to "be responsible for" and "to protect" - with earth as the "domain" of human responsibility. God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to "till it and to keep it" (2:15). The Hebrew words mean "to care for and to preserve."

Noah rescued all the creatures from extinction by flood. God made a covenant with all the animals. "This (rainbow) is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature." (Genesis 9:12). Humans are to rescue plants and animals from extinction and to secure their right to life on the earth.

Animals are to rest on the Sabbath - oxen, cattle, donkeys (Deuteronomy 5:12-16). In the seventh year, the land lies fallow (Leviticus 25:3-5). Humans should not overwork the land or exploit the animals.

God loves creatures for their sake and his delight. God made the springs of water for the wild animals and the grass for the cattle (Psalm 104:10-30). God calls humans to respect their right to life (72:19). "The whole earth is full of God's glory." Therefore, all creation is sacramental.

Creation praises God: "Worship the Lord ... all the earth. Let the sea roar and all that fills it; let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy" (I Chronicles 16:29-34). Humans are to thank God for creation and to praise God with creation! "Let all creation praise the Lord."

Justice among humans is related to the degradation of the land. "The earth dries up and withers. The world languishes and withers ... The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth." (Isaiah 24:4-7).

The New Testament says that God is "the Lord of the heaven and the earth." (Acts 17:24). The "kingdom of God" that Jesus announced was the restoration of all creation: "Your kingdom come/ your will be done on earth ... " In his temptations, Jesus was with the wild animals-neither a threat to the other (Mark 1:12-13). Indeed, "the lion shall live with the lamb" (Isaiah 11:6-9) Jesus did not die just for human beings but for all creation. "For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:19-20). We are called to be reconciled in love to all things.

Paul acknowledged human crimes against nature: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now and not only the creation but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly while we wait the adoption, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:19-23). All of nature longs for the revealing of children of God to free creation from its degradation.

The Book of Revelation portrays the unity of all creation: "I heard the whole creation, everything in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and in the sea, say: `Blessing and honor and glory and might be to our God and to the lamb forever and ever'" (Revelation 5:13). John says that God will "destroy the destroyers of the earth" (Revelation 18:11).

John envisions a "renewed heaven and a renewed earth" in which "the river of the water of life" will be "free of charge" for the poor, "the tree of life" will yield ample fruit all year round so that there is no hunger, and "the leaves of the trees are a healing for the nations" (Revelation 21).

Christian writer Wendell Berry summarizes these points well: "The ecological teaching of the Bible is inescapable. God made the world. God thinks the world is good, and God loves it. God has never relinquished title to the world. God has never revoked the conditions ... that oblige us to take excellent care of it. If God loves the world, then how might any person of faith be excused for not loving it or caring for it? If God loves the world, then how might any person of faith be ... justified in destroying it?" On this Earth Day, let us hear the groaning of creation. Let us fulfill our human calling to be earth-keepers. Let us be different so that we make a difference, for God's sake.

David Rhoads (drhoads@lstc.edu), Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago is director, Racine Green Congregation Program.

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