The Earth is the Lord’s
Introduction
When we started with this series I should have explained that I have no idea how long, or how many sermons, this series will take. At first I planned around fifteen sermons. On the other hand, this is so important, that we will take as many sermons as necessary to deal comprehensively and in depth with the question — How should we live as God’s people in God’s world?
This week I realized that if I want to do justice to God’s Word, I cannot deal with our care for creation in just two sermons. I don’t want to hurry over important truths. Why this emphasis on creation, you may ask? This is where our story begins. This is where the Bible begins. The whole story is important if we are to fully understand who we are and what our mission is.
It seems that for some Christians the story begins at Genesis 3 and ends at Revelation 20. They know all about the story of the fall and sin. They know that God sent Jesus Christ to save sinners so they will be safe from hell. The grand finale for them is going to heaven when they die. The story of creation is only the background for the story of salvation. They focus on individual sinners. Jesus saves you so that you can go to heaven. In the meantime, on your way to heaven, you need fellowship. That’s what the church is for. So you better join one. The church for them becomes a safe place to hide from the world. It is an airport transfer lounge on their journey to heaven. For them our mission is to save as many souls as possible as quickly as we can. We should not waste time in saving whales and trees. Do not waste time in working for justice, peace, and love in this world.
Now, it is a glorious truth that sinners are saved through the cross of Christ. It is also true that most of the Bible tells the story of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. But that is not the whole story and the whole gospel. The good news does not begin with the birth of Jesus, but with creation. Have you ever thought about that? God, knowing fully what is going to happen, still went ahead and created the good universe through Jesus. Isn’t that amazing grace and love? That alone is already good news! God created the universe. It was ravaged by evil and sin. God committed himself to the total redemption and restoration of the whole of creation. He accomplished this through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. He will bring this redemption to its glorious completion in the new creation when Christ returns. This plan, this mission, was in place before God created the world. And the Bible tells us the story of how God has accomplished, is accomplishing, and will accomplish this mission of total, complete redemption of the universe. So we must begin at creation. Essential part of our story of who we are.
My aim is for us to have a biblical understanding of our mission to care for creation. As God’s people we do have an ecological mission. “When God created the earth, he created human beings in his own image with the express mission of ruling over creation by caring for it – a task modeled on the kingship of God himself. That human mission has never been rescinded, and Christians have not been given some exemption on the grounds that we have other or better things to do.” (Wright)
Today we will look at more biblical foundations for this calling. Next Sunday we will look at God’s mission to redeem and restore the whole of creation. We will also then explore the practical implications of caring for God’s creation.
1. All of Creation Exists to Glorify God
Last week we learned that our main purpose is to worship, serve, and glorify God. The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith states it like this, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Our “chief end”, the prime goal of all human life, is to bring glory to God, and in doing so to enjoy ourselves because we enjoy God. We share this God-focused goal with the rest of creation. The chief end of creation is to praise and glorify its creator God.
We glorify our Creator in uniquely human ways. We praise God with our minds, hearts, hands, voices, with emotion, with language, art, music and craft. The rest of creation also praises God. We may not understand the mystery of how creation praises God. But that does not mean that it does not happen. The Bible teaches the fact that creation praises God with overwhelming conviction. Psalm 19:1-4 — “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Let’s read Psalm 148.
The Bible also links God’s glory to the fullness of the earth. The creation story tells of the sea teeming with fish and the skies with birds. The earth is filled with creatures according to God’s blessing and command (Gen 1:20-22). Psalm 104:24 — “How many are your works, Lord. In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” The abundance of creation, its fullness, diversity, beauty, all these manifest, demonstrate, and declare the glory of God. ILLUS
So when we care for creation, we share in its great purpose of giving glory to God. But when we fail to do so, when we participate in the destruction, pollution and wasting of creation, we are reducing creation’s capacity to give glory to God.
2. The Earth is the Lord’s
“To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it” (Deut 10:14). “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Ps 24:1) The Lord says in Job 41:11, “Everything under heaven belongs to me.” And in Psalm 50:12 he says, “for the world is mine, and all that is in it.”
The whole of creation, the whole universe, belongs to God. We do not own the planet. We do not own the land we live on, even if we have the title deed. God is the landlord of the land he blessed us with. We are only stewards, tenants of his creation. God holds us accountable for how we treat his property.
We easily confess and affirm this truth. But, is it a reality for you? The land I own and work belongs to God. The factory producing things using God’s resources belongs to God. The logging company utilizing God’s trees belongs to God. What does this, that God is the Owner, my Landlord, mean for how I view, manage, care, and use the land, the factory, the company, and the resources? The crops I plant and harvest, the animals I raise, the products I produce or manufacture — am I doing it all in God’s presence, for his glory? Do I give thanks for everything? Do I realize that ultimately I am accountable not to my bank manager, or the market, or commerce, but to God?
3. Our Good God Created a Good Creation
Our good God created a good creation. Six times in Genesis 1 God declares his work to be good. And when it was all finished, the seventh and final verdict, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen 1:31).
A good creation can only be the work of a good God. The goodness of creation testifies to, and reflects the goodness, the love, grace, righteousness, and care of God. It reveals the character and nature of God. Romans 1:19-20 — “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 people are without excuse.”
God created it good. God saw that it was good. God valued it. God affirmed and declared creation good. The earth is valuable not only because it supplies our needs. It has glory-giving value — it has its own value because it glorifies God. We must avoid the arrogant human assumption that the earth exists only for our use and enjoyment. God has interest in animals, trees, and mountains for their own sake. Creation exists first to glorify God, and then to serve our needs as provided by God. This has important implications for us as God’s people.
As we speak of the sanctity of human life, we can also speak of the sanctity of creation because it belongs to God and is valuable. But creation is never divine. Creation is always subject to God. Creation obeys God, submits to God’s commands, and reveals God’s glory. Creation is sustained and provided for by God. Creation serves God’s purposes. It serves the purpose of providing for human beings. It also functions as the vehicle of God’s judgment on humans. So there is a sacredness about creation that we are called to honor, but never to worship. The biblical worldview teaches a radical monotheism. There is only one true living God. There are no lesser divinities or other gods, no sacred groves, no sacred trees, no sacred mountains. There is no Mother Earth or Gaia. All forms of polytheism, animism, astrology, totemism, and other forms of nature worship is idolatry. It is “vanity, stupidity” — it exchanges the Creator for the created. (Is 40:12-28; 43:8-13; 44:6-20; 46:1-11; Deut 4:15-20; Job 31:25-28)
Then, the greatest command is to love God with our whole being. To love God means to value what God values. To love God is to treat what belongs to God with honor, care and respect. Therefore, to participate in the abuse, pollution and destruction of creation is to trample on the goodness of God reflected in creation. It is to devalue what God values, to silence God’s praise and to diminish God’s glory. It is not loving God.
4. We Are “Earth-Creatures”
We are “earth-creatures.” Human life and creation are integrally linked. The Hebrew word for “man” is adam. The word for “ground”, or soil (and sometimes the whole earth), is adamah. So we are indeed “earth-creatures”, formed from the dust of the earth, and sharing the same basic “stuff”.
The earth provides for us — God has given the earth’s resources to us for our food and survival (Gen 1:29-30; 9:3). The earth feeds us. And clothes us. And shelters us. May be it is somewhat arrogant for us to talk about how we should care for the earth. Every day as we live on this earth, creation silently ministers to us the generous grace of God. God care for us — through creation — Psalm 65:9-13.
The earth suffers also with us. The Bible teaches a strong moral link between how humans behave on earth and the state of the earth itself. Human wickedness produces ecological stress. We reap the consequences of our actions. A greedy humanity will lead to a suffering earth — and a suffering earth will lead to a suffering humanity. We will look at this in more detail next week.
Conclusion
Care for creation, justice towards the earth, is an integral part of our mission as God’s people. We care for creation because we love and glorify God. Our views and treatment of creation and fellow human beings reflect our attitude to our Creator God.