Pitt Street Uniting Church, 13 September 2015 A Contemporary Reflection by Rev Dr Margaret Mayman Creation 2B Genesis 1.26-28; Genesis 2.7-8, 15, 19; Mark 10.42-45 Today is the second Sunday in the liturgical season of creation. Given the importance of creation in the life of Christians and the current ecological threats to human and non-human life on earth, many Christians believe it is time to provide a focus on this dimension of Christian life and to do so at the very centre of our life together, in worship. Often the messages that we human beings get about the environment are depressing, reminding us of the damage that we have done, and that we continue to do. And it is terribly depressing to see disregard of knowledge about human-influenced climate change by our elected leaders. This week we saw the appalling callousness with which a cabinet minister regards the life-threatening impact of rising sea levels on Pacific nations. We could legitimately despair. In the Season of Creation, we need to hear and know the harsh scientific and political realities, but if we are going to change how we live, we also need to recapture a spirituality of creation. I think it is awe and wonder, reverence and relationship, rather than admonitions and rage, which have the power to bring about change in the human heart. Celebrating Creation in the church s year invites us to fall in love again with planet earth. The heavens are telling the glory of God. Thank you to the Pitt St singers for lifting our hearts and our eyes to the heavens, inviting us to pay attention. It is this spirituality and love that will form the foundation of a Christian response to the ecological crisis. On the second Sunday in the season of creation, we earth creatures are the focus of the texts. It is humanity Sunday. But the focus on humanity is not for humanity s own sake. The focus is on humanity s relationship to earth. We have heard two Bible readings from Genesis telling of the creation of humanity and the relation of humanity to the earth. The dramatized conversation (see page 5) illuminates the tensions and differences between them. It is still important to say at the outset that neither Genesis reading is concerned with the creationism debate. It s not a science text. You can believe in evolution and still find truth here, but it s a different kind of truth. These texts were written thousands of years ago, and they are concerned with God s relationship with Earth. A Reflection by Rev Dr Margaret Mayman Page 1 of 5
The two Genesis stories were authored by different people, at different times, and they disagree with one another about how human beings should relate to Earth. The story in Genesis One is not the older story, even though the Bible has it come first. It comes from a much later period than Genesis Two, and it is the biblical text has probably caused the most damage to the earth. The Genesis One story tells us. God blessed humanity and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill Earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon Earth. We are told that human beings, both male and female, are made in the image of God. This indicates that human beings are distinctive in some way. Over the centuries, this image of God in humans has been understood in many ways. Some have suggested it is our reason, our higher level of consciousness. Our ability to use language, though we now know that animals use forms of language too. Others have suggested it is our capacity to worship and to experience a spiritual dimension in our lives. But according to this text, human beings are to multiply so that they can rule over other living creatures and subdue Earth. In other words, humans may also express the image of God when they exercise their role as rulers over Earth. And that is a problem. Does the Bible give us the right to dominate and subdue creation, including indigenous people, who have often been regarded as closer to animal life than human life? As it stands, Genesis 1.26-28 reflects the language of ruling and subjugation. This text wasn t an issue for interpreters in previous generations. They were mostly happy to see themselves as representing God and dominating creation. They read this text as a mandate to dominate. However, controversy about this text has intensified in recent years as we have become more aware of our intimate relationship with Earth and with all of life on Earth. I have heard preachers who see the environmental dangers of this text try to suggest that rule really means be stewards who take care of creation, and that subdue means something like bringing order out of chaos. This might be appealing interpretations, but they don t hold up under scrutiny. A close look at the Hebrew words for rule and subdue show that they are very strong and aggressive terms. In Psalm 72, for example, at the point where the king rules in verses 8-9, his foes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust. To rule clearly means to dominate. And examination of the Hebrew word for subdue reveals a similar orientation. After Joshua conquers the Canaanites, the whole land lies subdued (Jos. 18.1). To subdue is to conquer. A Reflection by Rev Dr Margaret Mayman Page 2 of 5
In the second chapter of Genesis, the older story, we get an entirely different picture of the role of humans in relation to Earth. God makes Adam, the earth creature, who is initially neither male nor female. When God makes Adam, the first human, God places Adam in the garden to till it and keep it. A closer look at that text reveals that the Hebrew word for till normally means serve. The role of the first human then is to serve and pre-serve Earth. If we compare this text with Genesis One, they seem to be diametrically opposed. The first reading has rule and the second has serve. The first reading has subdue and the second has preserve. The verbs in the first reading imply royalty and domination, those in the second indicate service and preservation. One of the many ways in which humans have dominated life on this planet and shown little concern for living creatures, is through the destruction of entire species. It is not simply a question of hunting animals or fishing our rivers, lakes and seas. Humans have had an attitude of superiority that has led to numerous species becoming extinct and many more being endangered. We have removed the forest habitats of some species, polluted the water habitats of others and poisoned the soil habitats of still others. In the name of human progress, many living species have been considered disposable. And sadly, we have often done so as a right to dominate. It s like a reverse Genesis as we are undoing the creating that has been happening for millennia. We have regarded food, whether animal or vegetable, as a commodity for human use, rather than as a mark of our interconnectedness with earth. Food makes us and food is made of the same elements as we are. When I was a young adult I thought only pious people bothered saying grace before meals. Now I see saying grace as an opportunity for honouring the earth that sustains us, as we will sustain it when we return to it at the end of our lives. And as an opportunity to remember that the earth s resources are not shared fairly or equally. To remember those who have too little when we have more than enough. So in the midst of destruction of habitats and species, we are faced with a problem of interpretation. We have two biblical texts Gen. 1.26-28 and Gen. 2.15 which seem to present diametrically opposed positions about our role as humans in relationship to Earth. The first says dominate and the second says serve. Which of these perspectives shall we choose and why? One answer is to listen to the voice of the Earth which last week we heard as a character in the same Genesis One creation story that now presents us with the problem of domination. Which perspective invites compassion for Earth? A Reflection by Rev Dr Margaret Mayman Page 3 of 5
If Earth could speak, which of these positions would Earth support for the benefit of all creatures on Earth, including humans? The people who compiled the lectionary readings for the season of creation believe that interpretive guidance is found in the Gospel reading for this Sunday. Here Jesus explicitly compares the way of Gentile rulers and those who follow his Way. Roman rulers are tyrants who dominate their people (Mark 10.42). Among Jesus friends, however, ruling and dominating are not acceptable. Instead, Jesus people are to become servants who are willing to serve others (10.43-44). And Jesus is the model for that remarkable re-orientation. As the Human One, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve; he came to live and die for others, not to dominate (10.45). In other words, the message of the Gospel itself, reflected in Jesus words, guides us as we choose between the two Genesis texts that we have heard this morning. Clearly the gospel rejects the Genesis One model of domination. And it invites us to go further, even beyond the model of service in Genesis Two, to mutuality and justice, to be a friend of Earth as a follower of Jesus. In Mark s gospel, we are told that Jesus interpreted scripture. He preached against hardness of heart and against domination. We have to interpret scripture and we have to make choices, because we are made in God s image. The people who like to wield the Bible as a weapon, either against other humans or against earth, claim that they're just reading it all literally. They're not. They pick and choose what they will take seriously, just as Jesus did. They just prefer not to admit to what they're doing. Jesus knew what he was doing and did it openly. Jesus wasn't a biblical conservative. But he wasn't exactly a biblical liberal, either. He expected something important from the Scriptures; he expected to be challenged and surprised by God. And he also expected that when you are challenged and surprised by God, some of the details enshrined in the sacred text will be revealed for what they really are, as concessions to hardness of heart and domination and they will have to go. But how do you decide which ones to discard? This is still a challenging and disturbing question for many people. Following Jesus though, when the Bible seems to confirm your own hardness of heart, it's probably wrong. Reject it, just the way Jesus did. Conversely, when the Bible breaks your world open and makes it bigger and more loving, it is achieving its true goal. Hardness of heart and domination, toward the earth and toward one another in the human community and the earth creature community, is a sure sign that we have it wrong. Only generous love and true mutuality can open the door to a deeper truth. The image on the cover of the order of service invites us to consider our footprints, the marks we make on planet earth. Are we sharing in and benefitting from the bull-dozing, mining, fracking, carbon producing, oil consuming activities, that will leave scars on the planet that will take generations to recover if it ever recovers - or are we willing to make changes in our lives, so that we are imprinting gentle images of bare feet on sand that will be washed away with the next high tide. A Reflection by Rev Dr Margaret Mayman Page 4 of 5
Can we listen to the wisdom of the earth? Do we know that the heavens are proclaiming the glory of God? Can we pay attention to the ancient wisdom of Genesis 2, to the challenge of Jesus to resist domination, and create a new relationship between humanity and earth? How shall we live as friends of earth, as friends of God? Dramatized Reading: Genesis 2.7-8, 15, 19 I am the first human being, the voice of the human being in the first chapter of Genesis. I am Adam and Eve. I am humanity! I am the first human being, the voice of the human being in the second chapter of Genesis. I am Adam and Eve. I am humanity! God made me in a special way. The word of God in Genesis One says so! And God made me in a special way. The word of God in Genesis Two says so! I am created in the image of God. Do you understand? The very image of God! I have been made personally by God. Do you understand? By God s own hands! I am like God, created in God s own likeness. I am liked by God. I even live in a garden where God likes to walk and talk! I have human reason. That makes me superior to all other living creatures! Superior! Get it! I am flesh taken from Earth itself and breath that comes from God. So I am kin with all other creatures. We are family! Do you understand? Family! Family? Rubbish! I have dominion over all creatures. I dominate! I tame! I rule all other creatures. I have a partnership with all other creatures. We are friends. We are partners. I am authorised by God to subdue Earth, to harness nature, to put creation under my feet. Yes, to control your friends! I have been given the responsibility by God to serve Earth and preserve it, to care for Earth as God s garden. I can conquer creation. I rule! I rule! I groan with creation. When you rule, I suffer. I suffer! I am the king of Earth. I bear the image of God! I am king over creation! I rule! I am a servant on Earth, caring for creation. I am king! God said so! God said so! I am a servant, God said so! Wait just a minute! Stop your arguing! Voices 1 & 2 I have God s word on my side! Sure you have! But do you have the final word? Do you have Jesus word? Do you? (Silence) & 2 & 2 Who is the one who reflects the true image of God on Earth? Jesus the Christ! Who is the true friend of God? Jesus the Christ! And how does Jesus invite us to live? To rule like the Romans and dominate like their Caesars?! Or to follow the way of the cross and serve as Jesus came to serve? Listen to his word from the Gospel for today! A Reflection by Rev Dr Margaret Mayman Page 5 of 5