Beginnings: A Search for Meaning & Identity in Genesis 1-3
#8 – “Caring For God’s Creation”
Genesis 1:26,28; 2:15
June 12, 2005
1. most if not all of us have seen pictures of Mt Everest. It stands 2 ½ times taller than Mt Hood. Awesome, glorious, majestic. The tallest mountain on the face of the earth.
But today Everest is littered with trash – wind shredded tents, 1000s of empty oxygen canisters & abandoned climbing equipment
2. let me pose this question today – what is man’s relationship to God’s created world? This question gets answered in a number of ways:
--> biocentrism = plants, animals & humans are equal inhabitants of earth. An endangered bird is as important as a human life in this view.
--> anthrocentricism = man is the center of the natural world & all its resources are to be used in any way that pleases him.
--> theocentricism = the world belongs to God & should be cared for as God cares for it. This is what Genesis & the rest of Scripture teaches.
3. a theocentric view of creation is not pantheism. We can see God in nature, yes, but nature is not God. God is not everything. God stands distinctly apart from his created world.
4. how should we relate to creation? We begin to answer this question, 1st, by acknowledging that creation belongs to God. To further unpack this I have 8 passages of Scripture I want to look at this morning.
Exploring the Text
Genesis 1:26 & 28: to rule
Genesis 1:28: to subdue
1. I want to take these together – to rule over fish, birds & livestock & to subdue the earth. So often these are interpreted to mean that the earth & the animal kingdom exist solely for the benefit of man. That he can use them & exploit them all he wishes – the anthrocentric view.
2. it is best to read these verses in their context:
--> God has endowed humanity with a double uniqueness: we are made in his image (rational, moral, social & spiritual beings) & we have been given responsibility over the earth
--> God has set humanity midway between himself as Creator & the rest of creation
--> biologically we are like animals – we breathe, eat, reproduce like them BUT we enjoy a higher level of experience similar to God’s in that we are able to think, choose, create, love, pray & lead
--> we combine dependence on God with dominion over his world
3. to rule & to subdue is to act as God’s representative, to be a caretaker over his creation. This is stewardship NOT ownership. We manage the earth for God. We are both created by God & are responsible to him.
Psalm 24:1 – the earth is God’s
1. God is the Creator & Owner of the earth. Ultimately we own nothing. It is all God’s. We are invited guests sharing his urban & country estate.
Psalm 115:16 – the earth has been given to man
1. the earth is ours. This is our home. But not in the sense that God retains no rights to it or control over it. We are tenants, leaseholders, renters, so to speak.
2. this world belongs to both God & us. To God because he made it & to us because he has made us his caretakers.
John 1:3 – Jesus made the world
1. through him (Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. This is the New Testament way of repeating Genesis 1 & Psalm 24:1. As the Maker of the earth, Jesus has the definitive ownership over all he has made.
Colossians 1:16-17 – the world is made by Jesus & for Jesus
1. Colossians takes the truth of John 1 a few steps farther. All things were created by him & for him. Creation itself exists for the sake of Jesus. We are not the center of this wonderful, fabulous creation. Jesus is & always will be the center.
2. and in him all things hold together. My friend Will reminded me this week that there are four basic forces of physics – gravity, electromagnetism, the weak atomic, and the strong atomic. These keep the world from falling or blowing apart, they order creation.
3. Jesus is behind all the laws of physics that keep a hundred million things of God’s creation running smoothly.
Romans 8:19-22 – creation itself will be liberated one day
1. these words have intrigued me for years. Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, personalizes creation. We groan because of our sinful experience in this fallen world. We wait in expectation for our final deliverance.
2. and so does the created world of rocks, trees, plants, mountains, water, fire, and wind. Creation itself, because of the fall, exists in bondage today & waits to be liberated into the glorious freedom of the children of God!
3. Christ’s coming as the savior of the world does not stop with delivering people from their sins – it continues on to deliver the earth itself from people’s sins. This is the very high view of creation that the Bible teaches us.
Revelation 21:1 – we await a new heaven & a new earth
1. we all await a new heaven & a new earth. Get on the edge of your seats. The biblical view of the future is not about the end of creation but of the beginning of creation. I am making everything new (21:5).
2. it can’t be said any better than Eugene Peterson says it in his commentary on Revelation – the biblical story began, quite logically, with a beginning. Now it draws to an end, not quite so logically, also with a beginning. The sin-ruined creation of Genesis is restored in the sacrifice-renewed creation of Revelation. The product of these beginning & ending acts of creation are the same – ‘the heavens and earth’ in Genesis, and ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ in Revelation. The story that has creation for its first word, has creation for its last word. Creation in Genesis, Consummation in Revelation. God both makes & remakes his world.
3. the Christian faith is the most materialistic of all faiths, meaning that it is the most earthy. Heaven is described by materiality. There’s tangible stuff there – stones, gems, walls, gates, streets, trees, fruit, a river. Darrell Johnson writes in his commentary on Revelation, God originally made us for earth, and in Jesus, God will fulfill that original intent in a new earth.
4. as evangelical Christians we are guilty of not valuing, respecting, guarding & caring for the earth as those who have been appointed caretakers by the Creator. We who pride ourselves on being ‘Christ-centered’ so often seem to care little for the earth that was created by him & exists for him & in him is held together. Like with everything, it all begins, comes back to, and ends in Christ.
Answer
1. I started with a question – what is man’s relationship to God’s created world?
2. I would sum up the teaching of Scripture by saying – we are commissioned to take care of the earth, use it appropriately for our needs, and keep it healthy & beautiful for the glory of God!
3. 1 reason I love the writings of Thomas Merton is for his love of creation. A Prayer to God my Father on the Vigil of Pentecost from his journal: Today, Father, this blue sky praises You. The delicate green and orange flowers of the tulip popular praise You. The distant blue hills praise You together with the sweet smelling air that is full of brilliant light. The bickering flycatchers praise You with the lowing cattle and the quails that whistle over there. I, too, praise You with these creatures, my brothers and sisters. You have made us all together and You have placed me here this morning in the midst of them (Turning Toward the World, p. 120).
4. that kind of biblical understanding of creation, that kind of perspective, that kind of prayer understands that we are commissioned to take care of the earth, use it appropriately for our needs, and keep it healthy & beautiful for the glory of God.
5. how can we express our caretaking responsibilities for God’s creation?
6. We can begin by confessing to God our sin – our waste and pollution of your creation and our lack of concern for those who come after us (A Litany of Penitence). After being in existence for 40-50 years the National Association of Evangelicals has just now added to their platform a concern for the environment.
7. some other expressions:
--> recycle as much & as often as possible
--> we can support efforts to conserve & protect our natural resources (they are not infinite)
--> we can control our human greed & our lust for more & more things, products & materials – as Americans we consume the majority of the world’s natural resources – simply lifestyle
--> we can begin to see the land that we do own from God’s perspective – how does he want us to care for it as his representatives & use it for his glory?
8. I end by calling all of us to become more biblical in our understanding & caretaking of creation.
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