Stewardship

We need to talk about the environment. We need to talk about this planet we inhabit, this planet God has given us, and the ways in which it has been desecrated. We need to talk about the climate, the ways in which it is changing, the ways humanity is changing it. A climate emergency is upon us and our lives are going to change – either through the effects of climate change upon our lives, or through the radical actions required to avoid the worst effects of the climate emergency. Either way, our lives are going to change. Are we ready? We can no longer avoid talking about the environment.

Through this series of two articles, I want to start a conversation within our community about the environment and about the climate emergency. We need to start thinking seriously about how we face the challenges that lie ahead and how we understand our role in protecting the environment. In this first article, I want us to think about how we, as Christians, should feel about environmental issues and the responsibility we bear as stewards of God’s creation. In a second article, we will think about the climate emergency, its impacts, and what we can do about it.

You might think that the Bible doesn’t have a lot to say about the environment, animal welfare, or the climate. After all, there are no commandments to save the whales, or rules against dropping litter, or instructions about avoiding climate change. So you might conclude that environmental issues really aren’t of any concern for the Christian. This would be a mistake. After all, if we think that the only things relevant for the Christian are the things that the Bible expressly talks about, then we risk making the Bible irrelevant for most of modern life. And that cannot be correct. We need a deeper understanding of what the Bible is and how we use it. The Bible is a tool to bring us closer to God and to his ways, to align our values with God’s values, to care about the things he cares about.

Stewardship

Jesus tells more than one parable about servants or stewards. He says,

Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. (Luke 12:42-44)

In this parable, like other similar parables, Jesus introduces a principle of stewardship. The owner of the house, the master, entrusts responsibility for his house to a steward, a manager, who will look after the house until the master returns. The steward is held accountable for all the areas where he has responsibility and is rewarded for faithfully discharging that responsibility. Jesus says,

The servant who knows the master’s will and … does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. …From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:47-48)

The master holds his stewards accountable in proportion to the responsibility with which they have been entrusted, and in proportion to their awareness and their ability.

Whilst these parables, in their original context, are not primarily about environmental issues, they establish a principle that we bear a duty of care for those areas we have been given responsibility for. In the past we may have overlooked our responsibility towards the environment, not considering it to be part of our calling. But once we are aware that we have a position of stewardship over the Earth, then we cannot escape responsibility to act accordingly. Our master expects us to act in proportion to our ability and opportunity.

This world belongs to God. Psalm 24:1 affirms, The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.Psalm 50:10-11 builds on this theme, saying, For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.The Lord God, the creator, rightly claims ownership over this planet, as he does over all creation. We (humankind) are his stewards, a position of responsibility established at our creation. In Genesis 1:26, God says to the man and woman he created that they are to have dominion over the Earth and all that is in it. Psalm 8 develops this same theme, saying,

You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
(Psalm 8:5-8)

Humans have been given this immense privilege to be the pinnacle of God’s creation, made in the image of God, to have dominion over the world God created. Yet, we shouldn’t let this talk of dominion lead us to think that creation is there for us to do whatever we like with. This dominion comes with responsibility.

In Genesis 2, it describes how God created Adam and gave him Eden. It says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Gen 2:15). Adam is the first gardener, the first steward of God’s gift. His privileged status comes with the responsibility to tend and care for what God has created. Humanity has been given charge over this world for a period, and each of us shares a part of that responsibility to care for this world. We are not – individually – accountable for protecting the whole world. But we do have a responsibility for that bit of the world around us, for the ways in which we can make a difference.

When the Lord Jesus returns to the earth, do you think he will be pleased with what we humans have done to creation? Will he commend us as good and faithful servants over the world? Or will he judge that we have not properly fulfilled the responsibility given to us at creation to tend and care for this Earth? The owner of this house, the creator of this world, has the right to expect that those to whom he has entrusted it will show responsibility and care towards this planet, towards the environment.

God cares about creation

The Bible says God cares about creation. At the very end of the book of Jonah, there is a final line that might almost feel like an afterthought. The last verse reads,

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? (Jonah 4:11)

Also much cattle. God cares about the people of Nineveh. He cares about them so much that he is unwilling to destroy their city and instead gives them opportunity to repent. Because he created them. Because they are his creatures. And so are the cattle. God cares about the animals.

In Deuteronomy, God instructs the Israelites, saying,

When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? (Deut 20:19)

Even at a time of war, when an invading army might want to cut down trees for making siege ramps or battering rams, God says no. And his reason? Because they are not the enemy – they should not be besieged like an enemy combatant. God cares about the plants.

Also in the Law of Moses, new fruit trees were protected until their fifth year. No fruit was to be harvested whilst the sapling was growing. Why? To increase its harvest. To allow the tree time to grow and become strong before fruit was taken from it (Lev 19:23-25). And, of course, every seventh year the land was given its own Sabbath, its own year of rest (Lev 25:1-7). God cares about the land.

In the gospels, Jesus says, Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God (Luke 12:6). The sparrow – one of the cheapest birds in the marketplace – and not one of them is outside the Father’s care. God cares about them too. In Matthew, Jesus reminds us that our heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field (Matt 6:26-29). Cattle, trees, land, birds, flowers – these are all part of God’s creation and he cares about them.

In our pride we sometimes think that God only cares about us, about humans – that it is all about us. And whilst humans do have a special place in creation, God cares about plants and animals too.

So if God cares about his creation, what should our attitude be? If God was unwilling to destroy Nineveh because of the cattle living in it, if God forbad the Israelites to cut down the trees even at a time of war, if God feeds the bird and clothes the flowers, shouldn’t we also care about those things? Our attitude, our character, should be the same as our heavenly Father. We should care about the things he cares about. God loves all his creation, including plants and animals. We should care about those things too.

Gratitude

When we think about this world, this beautiful planet on which we live, we should think about it as a gift. Paul says as much in his speech at Areopagus, saying, [God] gives everyone life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25). The first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1, describes how God created the world and filled it with plants and animals. Then God creates man and woman and he gives this world to them, to us, to have dominion over. God expressly says that he is giving the plants to humans for food. This world, this very good creation, is a gift to us from God.

Now, if someone you care about gives you a precious gift, how do you treat it? Do you drop it on the floor? Or shove it down the back of the cupboard? Do you let it get dirty or broken? No. You treat that gift with care and respect, because your care expresses your gratitude for the gift. The way you treat the gift is part of your return of thanks for what has been given. Paul says, For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (1Tim 4:4). The way we receive the gift is a sign of our gratitude towards our creator. Thanksgiving, gratitude, is owed to our creator for his very good creation.

When you think about the way we humans have treated this world, do you think that it shows care and respect for what has been given? Have we shown gratitude for our Father’s great love in the way we have treated his gift? When the rainforests are destroyed for industrialised meat production, does that show respect for the gift? When the oceans are choked with plastic waste, does that show gratitude to the giver? When the air is filled with pollution, is that a sign of a thankful heart and grateful spirit?

Praise

In Psalm 98, the psalmist calls on all creation to praise the Lord God, Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music (Ps 98:4). He continues,

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy.
(Psalm 98:7-8)

In the same vein, Psalm 148 says,

Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds.
(Psalm 148:7-10)

All creation brings praise to our heavenly Father. Sea, rivers, mountains, plains. And everything that is in them. Fish in the sea, animals on land, birds in the air. All of them glorify and praise the God who made them. Creation brings praise to its creator by being his creation. When created things are as the creator intended, they praise the Lord God.

But does a turtle choked to death by plastic bags bring praise to God? Does an orangutan whose habitat has been completely destroyed by deforestation bring glory to God? Does a landscape made barren by overflow of untreated chemical waste exalt the name of our heavenly Father? Does a world scared by floods and wildfires and extreme weather and rising sea levels and unliveable heat, does such a world bring glory and honour to the one who made it? Creation should praise the LORD. What a dreadful condemnation that we might be preventing creation from glorifying our God!

Love

Then there comes love. The Bible says that we should love our neighbours. In fact, Jesus goes further than that: Jesus says we should love our enemies. Just as our heavenly Father sends both sun and rain on both the good and the evil, so our love and compassion should extend to every other person on this planet (Matt 5:43-48). With that love comes a responsibility to our fellow human beings to do to them as we would have others do to us, and to not create circumstances that will lead them into harm, nor to make problems for other people to fix. Inasmuch as this planet, this environment, is the home of our fellow human beings, then caring for this planet is an act of love towards fellow human beings. But to act in such a way that makes this planet – our home – more dangerous to live on is straightforwardly incompatible with the command to love.

This year, 2021, a heatwave hit the west of the United States and Canada, resulting in wildfires that destroyed homes and livelihoods, and cost lives. People were killed and homes swept away in flash floods in Germany and Belgium. Hundreds more were killed, and thousands displaced, by floods in eastern Indonesia. In Texas, there was a humanitarian crisis due to record cold temperatures. Some whose heating failed died of cold. And these are just a few examples. These incidents are becoming more frequent and more severe. And it is climate change that is driving them.

None of us would wish such events on anyone – that would be incompatible with the love we hold for all humanity. And yet it is possible, even likely, that humanity has unwittingly contributed to these disasters by fuelling climate change. Once we realise that our actions might be contributing to that change of our climate with devastating results, then the imperative to love our neighbour, to even love our enemy, compels us to change our ways.

Just passing through

So, it is evident that we have a responsibility as stewards over the planet. We should care about the environment, care about creation. We should care about creation because God cares about creation. We should care about creation because it is a gift from our heavenly Father. We should care about creation because we have been given the role of stewards over creation. We should care about creation because it brings praise and glory to the Lord God. We should care about creation out of love for our fellow humans who share this planet with us. As faithful stewards over creation, we have responsibility to keep and nurture it, and we will be held accountable to the creator for what we have done. This is the message of scripture.

There is sometimes a suggestion that this present world is only temporary, that we are only “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb 11:13), that we are just passing through. The idea seems to be that our “real” home is the Kingdom, the world to come – that this present world is just a testing ground for that future world. On that view, it doesn’t matter what we do with this world – it’s not important, and God will fix it all when Christ returns. We shouldn’t devote our time and efforts towards environmental issues – our primary responsibility is to preach the gospel. All we have to do is to get people into the Kingdom, and God will fix all the other problems for us.

Such a view posits a sharp disjunction between this planet and our eternal home. This is not what the Bible teaches. The Christian hope is in the resurrection on this Earth. We are not “strangers and pilgrims” on this planet. We may be foreigners within this present world order, but this Earth is our eternal home. The biblical teaching about the resurrection means there is a continuity between this present age and the age to come. Yes, this earth will be restored. And yes, we pray the creator to renew this earth to his creation intention. But it is, ultimately, the same Earth. We should not see this Earth as a strange and foreign land, but as our home for which we bear responsibility and gratitude.

It is unhelpful and unbiblical to think that our only responsibility in this present age is to preach the gospel. It suggests that God is really only interested in people accepting the gospel, rather than the gospel message being a means to an end. What God wants is to change hearts and minds, nothing less. And when our hearts and minds are changed, then our values are conformed to the values of our heavenly Father. Someone who has been converted, has converted their values from their previous way of life to the values of God. The idea that we could preach the gospel without also caring about the things God cares about is a contradiction. Such preaching would be empty, meaningless. We should care about the things God cares about, and our preaching should seek to change the hearts and minds of others so they too care about the things God cares about. And one of the things God cares about is creation – the Earth and everything in it.

Environmental issues are not a distraction from the “things of God”. Care for creation is part-and-parcel of what it means to be a Christian.