The Ultimate Earthkeeper

For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care, by Steven Bouma-Prediger
progress: 160/187


In my series of lectures on Earthkeeping, I covered many of the same texts that Bouma-Prediger discussed in detail in the fourth chapter of his book, entitled, "Is there a connection between scripture and ecology?" as well as a few extras. In Genesis, we looked at several themes, some of which I had previously overlooked, or which I hadn't thought through fully enough to discover all of the implications for creation care.


1. Relationality. In the creation story, we read that God created the heavens and the earth. Throughout the creation, God declares his creation to be "good." Only once, however, does he consider his creation to be "very good." Which part of creation was blessed with this superlative? In my ignorance, I would have assumed it was the creation of humans - we are pretty special, after all, being singled out in all of creation to be the bearers of God's own image. And so it was with surprise that I discovered that it wasn't any one part of creation, but in fact the whole of creation: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (1:31) As glorious the celestial array, as majestic the oceans and mountains, as diverse the multitudes of plants and creatures, God wasn't fully pleased with these things until they were all created, together. Just as God himself is a community of three Persons, just as he declared it "not good" for Adam to be alone (2:18), God is not ultimately satisfied until his creation reflects the community of his own nature. We were made to live in relationship with the sun, which grows our crops; with the plants, which feed us and provide shade for us; and with the animals and other humans, who provide companionship and friendship. The harmony of God's creation (BP refers to it as "shalom") was characterised by an interconnectedness with God, and through him, with everything else he created.


2. Theocentrism. On a similar theme to the first point, I was intrigued to find that, although God blessed many of his individual creations, there was only one day that he blessed in its entirety. "And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." (2:3) Again, it was not the sixth day, in which he created humans in his image, but the seventh day, in which he rested from his work. As BP points out, the climax of creation is the Sabbath. I've still got a lot of thinking to do to discover all of the implications of that fact. The point I want to draw out at this moment is that God is at the centre of creation, not humans. It's ultimately about him. Many mistakes have been made, I believe, because we view ourselves as the end of creation, rather than him and his glory. 


3. Responsibility. In the fall story, we see the splintering of that harmony in which God created the world. 

Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. (3:17b-19)

As soon as Eve and Adam chose their own way over God's way, they discovered the awful consequences of that choice. Not only was their relationship with God broken, but their relationship with each other. And beyond that, the shalom of all of creation was broken: harmony and cooperation would be replaced by toil and adversity. And why? "Because of you."

4. Covenant. In the flood story, we see the further consequences of that disharmony. Humans are evil, and so God uses his own creation (ie, rain) to destroy all but a few representatives of the rest of creation. Mountains, trees, and creatures of every kind are washed away by his grief. When Noah and Company finally set foot on solid ground again, God makes a promise: 

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

Again, humans are not at the centre of this story, God is. Creation is saved because of his mercy, goodness and faithfulness. He declares this faithfulness by way of a covenant. Never again will he destroy creation in this way. And with whom does he make this covenant? Just to be clear, he says it six times: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth." God's dealings with our world encompass the whole of creation. To be sure, his dealings with humans are unique and most amazing, but the reach of his care and concern are cosmic.


These four points raise the following questions to consider with regard to the topic of earthkeeping:

1. Given the interrelatedness of humans with the rest of creation (as well as God and other humans), how should this inform our role as God's appointed keepers of creation?
2. How does our tendency to put ourselves at the middle of the story muddle our thinking about the point and priorities of creation?
3. If humans are responsible for bringing disharmony into creation, what then is our role for righting that wrong?
4. If God deals with all of creation, what is his plan for the cosmos in its entirety?

The answers are not quick or easy, but a good starting place can be found in Romans 8:18-22:

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 

Verse 18 tells us that, although we suffer, there is a future glorification which will render our current sufferings puny in comparison. Verse 19 tells us that creation plays a role in our glorification: it waits, eagerly. Verses 20-22 give us the reason for this anxious expectation: it is currently oppressed, frustrated, decaying. It groans. But these three verses also speak of something beyond the present reality: there is hope, liberation, and a promise of a new birth. This raises the question of the means of this liberation - how does it come about? Colossians 1:15-20 reveals that the better question is, by Whom?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

By Whom does the liberation of creation come about? By Jesus! He is the firstborn over all creation. All things were made by him, for him, through him. He is the centre of the cosmos, and by him all things hold together. He is before all things, after all things, above all things, and by him all things will be reconciled. Jesus is the Ultimate Earthkeeper. As Randy Alcorn points out in his book entitled Heaven, whenever Jesus speaks of his work, he uses words like "reconcile, redeem, restore, recover, return, renew, regenerate, resurrect" (88) - all of which suggest a return to what was before, a return to that perfect shalom in which the world was created (if you are of the persuasion that the world will be destroyed by fire according to 2 Peter 3:10 see BP explanation of why this is most likely a misinterpretation of the Greek text, pages 77-78). 


The creation in its entirety anxiously awaits redemption. This redemption is a reversal of the curse, put into effect by Jesus' death on the cross. If you previously thought Jesus only died on the cross to save souls, you need to enlarge your imagination and expand your understanding to see just how HUGE, how utterly complete God's salvation is. I especially like the way Steven Lawson puts it, 

Whatever sin has touched and polluted, God will redeem and cleanse. If redemption does not go as far as the curse of sin, then God has failed. Whatever the extent of the consequences of sin, so must the extent of redemption be.” (quoted in Heaven, by Randy Alcorn, page 91) 

Revelation 21-22 as well as Isaiah 60 help us to see the extent of what God had planned from the beginning to redeem, restore and reconcile. Jesus died to repair all that is wrong with the world, souls, bodies, lands, creatures, ecosystems, cultures, and nations. 


And the clincher is this: as God's appointed keepers of the earth who are called to be imitators of God (Eph 5:1), we have a role to play in that redeeming.

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