Organizing for America | Greg M's Blog: Stewardship of God's Creation!

Stewardship of God's Creation!

By Greg M - Aug 12th, 2009 at 1:47 pm EDT

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Tags: Climate Change, Creation Care, Faith

I would encourage any Christian who holds to that always distinctive and classic evangelical notion that was deeply planted within us from very young that "Jesus is coming again soon and this world's going to burn, so I don't want to waist my energy focusing on the enviornment, but rather keep an eternal focus," to go back and truly look into what the scripture actually teaches us and not just blindly repeat what we have all heard for so very long, which I'll admit, up until the past decade of my life I repeated blindly too.

To be honest, we don't really know what will happen with the actual earth after Jesus returns for us. Most hold that it will be utterly destroyed, and perhaps this is the case, but actually the Bible is in no way clear about that. It says that humanity will cease to exist in the flesh, thus, "there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth." (Matthew 24:30 NLT) But, unless you're a hardline dispensationalist fundamentalist, you can admit that there is really no way to know the fate of the earth. Yes, there is the passage, "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear." (Matthew 24:35 NLT) However, does this refer to actual places? or perhaps states of being? who is to say? And everything Jesus says earlier in this same chapter has probably already taken place just as Jesus prophesied when the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70; at least this was the actual perspective of Matthew himself.

Either way, the way Matthew 24 ends is the clincher for me, as to our role as good stewards of God's Creation. Jesus uses the example of a faithful and sensible servant in the household of the Master. Of course, if we're to honestly translate Jesus' meaning here we have to recognize what God's household is. It is certainly not some actual house on the earth, nor would God's household servants who need to be fed only be humans in an earthly house. Jesus is certainly referring to all of God's creation in this passage.

"A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant is evil and thinks, 'My master won't be back for a while,' and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:45-51 NLT)

I'll take the frightening challenge of putting this scripture into words we might be able to relate to our situation today: "A human who is a Jesus follower is one to whom Jesus can give the responsibility of being a faithful steward of all of God's creation. One who will see to the proper use, protection and distribution of the resources of the earth, even the universe. If Jesus returns and finds that his follower has done a good job, there will be a reward... But what if that human believes that Jesus will not return in a very long time and begins to treat God's creation in ways that please himself or herself or only select humans? What if this human says 'I have everything I want at my figertips and I will use it all as I see fit and will eat, drink and be merry, and so will my friends. Besides, Jesus won't care all that much anyway since He is going to just throw it all away right after He returns!' Jesus will return unannounced and unexpected, and will be deeply hurt and disappointed with how the human He entrusted God's creation to as a steward of it has utterly misused and destroyed God's creation." I'll be kind and leave the rest for everyone else to translate for herself or himself.

As for me, I've decided to throw out the old picture from my fundamentalist past of being a Christian on a sinking ship (the earth) with my eyes to the sky waiting to be rescued off the ship before it sinks with everyone else on it! I don't even necessarily believe I'm on a sinking ship anymore. But, even if I am, I've discovered that my eyes had better be fixed on caring for the ship and all of the people on it as best I can so that when Jesus does come for rescue, many, many more will hopefully be rescued, and who really knows? maybe even the ship itself! Blessings... Greg

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