I went for a very beautiful bike ride this morning along the Third Creek Greenway. This follows its eponymous watercourse, surrounded by trees and full of flowers. Just next to it, but almost invisible, are railroad tracks and industrial facilities. The contrast was quite striking- the greenway smelling of honeysuckle, and the loom of the larger factory buildings just beyond the trees.
I believe these words are from Isaiah, but I might be wrong. 'For all flesh is grass, and all the pride of man nothing but the flower of the grass.' In German, as set in the Brahms Requiem, it is more striking to me- 'und alle herrlichkeit des menschen vie das grasses blumen'- all the 'highishness' of man. Smelling, seeing and feeling the greenway made all those factories and rail lines even less than the prideful accomplishments of man. They felt like wounds to the landscape, like desecrations.
One of the more perniciously interpreted lines from the Bible is God giving 'dominion' over the earth to Adam. This has been interpreted as a God-given right to use and alter the earth as we see fit, making humans in some sense 'co-creators' with God. This seems like a false interpretation to me.
Dominion carries with it responsibility. The Old Testament God is one of jealous and vengeful judgement, requiring of His servants lawful and detailed devotion to avoid punishment. This has been combined with the Christian image of substitutional atonement and salvation to allow Christians the equivalent of a 'free pass'. The law as a means of salvation has been superseded by grace. Unfortunately, this also allows a loosening of a sense of responsibility to God and creation.
The judgmental and forgiving aspects of God have been emphasized in this paradigm, but what about other attributes. I do not like the anthropomorphism of God, but it is relevant if we are to attribute anthropomorphic emotions and reactions like judgement and forgiveness. When Adam and Eve taste of the tree they should not, God's response is 'what is this that you have done'? Every mediterranean son recognizes those words from his father on returning late to the home having done wrong. It is typically followed by the backhand gesture of Jesus on the Sistine Chapel wall, and a slap.
What is not seen by the offending sons until they are fathers are the sadness and tears of the father for the failure, shame and suffering of his son. If God is offended by sin, so surely He must be grieved by it. Perhaps He is grieved by what we do to the world entrusted to us. One of the most intense lines of the Old Testament for me occurs after Cain has killed Abel. When Cain cannot account for his brother, God says 'What have you done? I hear the blood of your brother crying to me from out of the ground'.
God is repeatedly described as seeing and knowing all. Night and day are the same to God. Darkness does not hide misdeeds. Surely, if this is true, our misuse of the world and its creatures are plainly seen. We may not hear the earth groaning with pollution, animals wailing in pain or distress, fields tortured with chemicals and machinery, forests slaughtered for paper, but I believe God does. The answer of Jesus to the somewhat argumentative man in the parable of the Good Samaritan is relevant here. When he is told to love your brother as yourself, he asks who his brother is. The famous answer is the one who helped was his brother. In consideration of the blood of Abel crying out of the ground, the earth and its life are our brothers, to be cared for, not destroyed in the name of dominance.
We cut down as weeds beautiful flowers, destroy watercourses with factory pollution, pour filth into the air, poison animals, torture creatures for our pleasure or convenience, demand energy far in excess of our real needs (as opposed to wants). Surely God hears and sees what we have done. The blood of our many desecrations of the world cries out, both to God and us.
So much of what we have created is not simply 'herrlichkeit'. It is destructive, murderous of the world for which we have been given trust. It is a desecration of the world God created. The disasters we experience are the natural consequence of our behavior, whether oil spills in the ocean or filth in our streams. It is not God's fault- it is ours, and a wake-up call to think carefully about our needs versus our wants, and our impact on the world. Dominion implies responsibility.
Ted
I believe these words are from Isaiah, but I might be wrong. 'For all flesh is grass, and all the pride of man nothing but the flower of the grass.' In German, as set in the Brahms Requiem, it is more striking to me- 'und alle herrlichkeit des menschen vie das grasses blumen'- all the 'highishness' of man. Smelling, seeing and feeling the greenway made all those factories and rail lines even less than the prideful accomplishments of man. They felt like wounds to the landscape, like desecrations.
One of the more perniciously interpreted lines from the Bible is God giving 'dominion' over the earth to Adam. This has been interpreted as a God-given right to use and alter the earth as we see fit, making humans in some sense 'co-creators' with God. This seems like a false interpretation to me.
Dominion carries with it responsibility. The Old Testament God is one of jealous and vengeful judgement, requiring of His servants lawful and detailed devotion to avoid punishment. This has been combined with the Christian image of substitutional atonement and salvation to allow Christians the equivalent of a 'free pass'. The law as a means of salvation has been superseded by grace. Unfortunately, this also allows a loosening of a sense of responsibility to God and creation.
The judgmental and forgiving aspects of God have been emphasized in this paradigm, but what about other attributes. I do not like the anthropomorphism of God, but it is relevant if we are to attribute anthropomorphic emotions and reactions like judgement and forgiveness. When Adam and Eve taste of the tree they should not, God's response is 'what is this that you have done'? Every mediterranean son recognizes those words from his father on returning late to the home having done wrong. It is typically followed by the backhand gesture of Jesus on the Sistine Chapel wall, and a slap.
What is not seen by the offending sons until they are fathers are the sadness and tears of the father for the failure, shame and suffering of his son. If God is offended by sin, so surely He must be grieved by it. Perhaps He is grieved by what we do to the world entrusted to us. One of the most intense lines of the Old Testament for me occurs after Cain has killed Abel. When Cain cannot account for his brother, God says 'What have you done? I hear the blood of your brother crying to me from out of the ground'.
God is repeatedly described as seeing and knowing all. Night and day are the same to God. Darkness does not hide misdeeds. Surely, if this is true, our misuse of the world and its creatures are plainly seen. We may not hear the earth groaning with pollution, animals wailing in pain or distress, fields tortured with chemicals and machinery, forests slaughtered for paper, but I believe God does. The answer of Jesus to the somewhat argumentative man in the parable of the Good Samaritan is relevant here. When he is told to love your brother as yourself, he asks who his brother is. The famous answer is the one who helped was his brother. In consideration of the blood of Abel crying out of the ground, the earth and its life are our brothers, to be cared for, not destroyed in the name of dominance.
We cut down as weeds beautiful flowers, destroy watercourses with factory pollution, pour filth into the air, poison animals, torture creatures for our pleasure or convenience, demand energy far in excess of our real needs (as opposed to wants). Surely God hears and sees what we have done. The blood of our many desecrations of the world cries out, both to God and us.
So much of what we have created is not simply 'herrlichkeit'. It is destructive, murderous of the world for which we have been given trust. It is a desecration of the world God created. The disasters we experience are the natural consequence of our behavior, whether oil spills in the ocean or filth in our streams. It is not God's fault- it is ours, and a wake-up call to think carefully about our needs versus our wants, and our impact on the world. Dominion implies responsibility.
Ted
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