As part of our series on “Eternal Hope”, Paul Cooper preached on the role given to us by God to care for and “steward” the earth and creation. Rather than exploit it or abuse it for our own selfish purposes, we are to use the minerals and resources sustainably and for the good of the world and creation itself. The problem of course is our tendency toward greed, hoarding, and comfortability at the cost of others and creation. The post-industrial Western world at its extreme tends to assign values to everything and everyone. People themselves become commodities that have a “value” for the company and who are discarded when they are no longer useful or productive. Time itself has a value put on it and the idea of Sabbath is easily replaced by endless work and production. Chickens and pigs are farmed in cruel ways that are a total abuse of the animal created by God for us to care for. But although these are human tendencies, I don’t believe they are truly the human heart. All of us are created in the image of God, and the heart and essence of God is love and relationship. This is where the heart and nature of Godly stewardship comes from; where it is fueled and sustained in a way that is not legalistic but rather relational.
God is love and he loves humanity in an illogical and excessive way; so much so that he was willing to come and die and take on death himself to free us from our bondage to sin and decay. The cost was extremely high for God when he could have just started again and wiped the slate clean so to speak. But he didn’t because he loves us and values us as his beloved children. We get a bit of a glimpse into this high cost kind of irrational love when we reflect on how people treat their pets and plants at times. When we care for an animal or a plant that we love, we will go to great lengths and spend ridiculous amounts of money in trying to look after it; way more than the value of the animal or bird that the rest of the world would put on it. People spend hundreds of dollars on things like guinea pigs when you can just go and buy a new one at the shop for $10! Why do we do that? Because it belongs to us and we love it – we have a relationship with it and that “worth” cannot be measured simply in dollars and logic.
Similarly, as people created and loved by God, we are called by God to care for and love his creation and the wider world. To steward the world in which we live so that animals and plants and people can thrive and flourish and live well. Why? Because they have value and worth in the sight of God; our role is not to dominate and rule (exploit) the world, but to care for it and be relational in it rather than always “transactional”. Rather than just asking what is good for me, we should ask what is good for the other in the way we approach our work, our time, our use of resources, the way we build and develop our cities and communities. Perhaps take a few minutes this week to sit quietly somewhere and reflect on how you do with stewarding across your life and relationships (both with people but also wider creation). Would the sum of your life and interaction be greater for the flourishing of others and creation, or more of taking and using? Would the use of your time and your approach to rhythms of Sabbath and rest with work be a good model of stewardship or slavery? How would your personal time and the resources (yourself, not just money) you give to God each week be viewed in terms of love and relational stewarding? God has given us a mandate to steward rather than pillage so that all may flourish and his kingdom be at work through us “on earth as it is in heaven”. Let’s wrestle with this in the light and love of Christ who gave himself up for us, but not only for us – also for the whole of creation that it may be renewed in the power of his resurrection life.
Grace and Peace - Garry