An Unexpected Resource 08-17-15

It’s significant that in the Story of Beginnings, after God creates human beings and gives them the responsibility of stewarding creation, God provides a resource to help them do this well. “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 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.” (Genesis 2:1-3, NIV)

God provides a weekly Sabbath—a time to stop, rest, and engage in spiritual activities—as a reminder of creation and His creative activity. In the beginning, God created. God “deputized” human beings to care for that creation. And then God stopped; God sabbathed. That weekly Sabbath was given as a gift, an opportunity for humanity and all creation to enter into God’s rest, God’s wholeness. Every seven days human beings were given a reminder of their stewardship on God’s behalf for the sake of creation. Preservation and rest and caring concern and nurture and protection are gifts the Sabbath memorializes for all of creation. Wholeness was given by God for everyone and everything. And the weekly Sabbath was God’s gift to not only remind but also to empower that kind of life.

Here’s the way one author puts it: “The distinctive Sabbath lifestyle, characterized not by exploitation but by admiration of the earth, not by devastation of nature but the exaltation of its Creator, provides a valuable model of responsible stewardship in an otherwise irresponsible society. It teaches a person to view herself not as a predator but as a curator of God’s creation.” (Bacchiochi, p. 213)

Bacchiocchi describes how the Sabbath is key to the solution of the ecological crisis facing humanity. On the Sabbath day we must leave nature untouched. To change it by building on it or by destroying it would be a violation of the Sabbath rest. The Sabbath is the day not to alter nature, but to admire it as an expression of the beauty and glory of God’s handiwork, Psalms 19:1. (Bacchiochi, pp. 204-214)

Instead of plundering natural resources, the Sabbath teaches us to cease pollution, to appreciate and respect God’s creation, and especially other human beings. “Sabbath keeping is an exercise in responsible stewardship of the whole earth. … The acknowledgement of God’s ownership, expressed on the Sabbath by surrendering the right to use gainfully human and natural resources, affects the Christian’s general attitude toward God and the world. It teaches a person to view himself not as a predator but as a curator [guardian, protector] of God’s creation.”

Long after creation, God repeated this responsibility to the Jews when he said, “You are aliens in this land I have given you. You are my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.” (Leviticus 25:23-24)

Tenants are not the owners. They are simply temporary dwellers in a space owned by another. Their responsibility is to treat that space in harmony with the wishes of the owner. Those of us who rent apartments or homes understand this dynamic well.

Significantly, in these verses God is telling the people that not only are they to treat others with respect and care (bringing redemption to those in need of it) but they are also to bring redemption to the land. The rest of Scripture reveals that God has a comprehensive restoration plan not only for people but also for the rest of creation. And God is calling for human beings to be a part of that redemptive plan. That is the stewardship job description God gave to human beings from the beginning.

So our continual questions as responsible stewards must be, What can we do to restore the earth to its intended state? How can we cooperate with the environment in achieving greater wholeness? What does “highest potential” mean for species in the natural world? How can we nurture and protect that? What steps can we take to be curators rather than predators? How can we manifest genuine respect for all creation? What would sincere Sabbath-keeping look like in this context? How could the weekly Sabbath be a resource for our stewardship of creation?