Working Toward a Christian Ecology

Let’s face it. Sometimes we Christians can get so focused on the hereafter, that we can forget some of what we are here for. Helping others come into a relationship with God is vitally important, but even that does not give us a reason to drop God’s other concerns.

In particular, scripture is clear that humans are to be caretakers of the earth. Proper stewardship of creation was an important task God gave to humanity. We should be as interested in caring for the earth as we are in fulfilling God’s other commands.

Even before God created humans, God’s plan called for a symbiotic relationship between humanity and the rest of creation. For example, we can look closely at Genesis 2:4-25 and find a deep connection between the human and the plants. God did not create the “sprouting things of the field” before he created the human. For not only does the humus (or fertile soil) need the rain, which God will provide, but it needs the human.

Genesis 2:5 says that “all the plants of the field were not yet sprung up because the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no human (Hebrew is Adam) for the working of the humus (Hebrew is Adamah).”

For in 2:15 God places the “human of humus” (this captures the close connection found in the original Hebrew) in the Garden with a purpose. I think a more detailed look at this translation is helpful in establishing the reason Christians should be concerned for the environment.

The New International Version translates Genesis 2:15 saying God put the human in the garden in order to “to till it and keep it.” The Hebrew words are avad and shamar. The range of meaning for avad includes “work,” “worship,” and “service.” Avad can mean to “dress” or “till” when applied to farming. Shamar has a range of meaning including “guard,” “watch,” “observe,” “preserve,” and “keep.”

Range of meaning means that even such a venerable translation as the King James Bible will translate the words avad  and shamar in these different ways depending on the context. One may translate Genesis 2:15 saying we were put in the garden “to work and to watch” or “to serve and preserve.” Whatever translation you arrive at should be consistent with the rest of scripture.

The balance is at a point between the religions referred to in scripture as Baalism and Gnosticism. Baalism is worship of the earth, which finds it’s closest parallels today in pagan groups who worship the creation rather than the creator. The tendency in Baalism would be to translate Genesis 2:15 as something like “to worship and to guard,” which deifies the earth. This option is ruled out by the creation account (and other texts such as Psalm 104), which emphasizes the creator over the created things.

The other extreme is Gnosticism, a group that saw a sharp division between the spiritual and the material. All the created order is bad in Gnosticism, only the things of the spirit matter. This group would be indifferent to Genesis 2:15, as they place no value on the rest of creation. The modern equivalent of this group can be found in any religious group, including some Christians, who devalues creation while elevating things spiritual.

            I feel that a proper translation is “to work and to watch” the garden. This shows a relationship that is more symbiotic than dominant. This is consistent with the Prophet Amos who demonstrated the organic connection between the plants of the field and the humans (Amos 4:7-10). When humans are out of relationship with God (as shown through the treatment of the poor in a time of relative wealth) the crops suffer along with the people.

The Prophet Hosea also cried out against the people (Hosea 2:8-9) for forgetting that the fruit of the land comes from God. When the people return to right relationship with God (Hosea 2:14-23), the land is made fruitful once again.

            Humanity was created to be in relationship with the land as well as with God. We are to care for the land through working the land and preserving the land. When humans fail to steward the land, as God created us to do, both land and humanity suffer.

The creation account in Genesis shows how the balance point looked in a perfect world (if only for a moment). Humans were to live in symbiosis with the rest of creation. God provided for all we needed, but working and watching were also commanded. While returning to the garden is no longer an option, biblically sound stewardship of the land remains open to all of us.

            (The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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