“Dominion and Responsibility”

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

A Sermon preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

Earth Day

April 25,2004

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

      Amanda’s second grade class did a presentation on Earth Day on Thursday night.  Each cherubic child spoke earnestly and joyfully about this planet we are on.  They spoke their lines well and taught us adults a thing or two about this fragile ecosystem in which we all live.  When I was her age, shortly after the earth cooled, it was a few years before earth day was created.  I thought about the strides we have made since my youth.  And I thought about what the world might look like when she attends her own second grader’s assembly.  Will we have taken her warnings to heart?    

      When I was a child, gas was plentiful and we drove around in huge gas-guzzling cars.  The difference between now and then is that the cars were not made to drive off-road back then.  Gas has gotten more expensive and fuel economy is not as in vogue now as it was a few years ago.

      I have a number of friends who are downright evangelical about their Toyota Priuses, a hybrid gas-electric car.  I covet one of them and when our little Mazda finally gives up the ghost, we’ll invest in this new kind of technology as a way of taking better care of the earth.  I want there to be some alternatives and atmosphere around for my grandkids.

      I remember a second grade trip on a boat called the Goodtime II.  It was a riverboat that would follow the Cuyahoga River past the steel mills in scenic Cleveland, Ohio.  I remember the stench more than anything else.  It’s not surprising that that same river caught on fire than same year.  Now, the place has been cleaned up.  The Goodtime still takes its tours, but now the flats of the river is chock full of restaurants.  People even fish in the Cuyahoga.

      The past 40 years have given us a new appreciation for our natural resources.  We have the clean air act, the clean water act, emissions standards, conferences on global warming and even some tax breaks for energy efficiency.  Sadly, many of those gains have been set back in the past few years.  Many of the pollution regulations have become voluntary.  With the exception of a few hybrid models out there, the cars seems to be getting bigger.  Great environmental gains have been rolled back, largely because the new regulations have been written into law by those who were the polluters.

      I’m glad that we have moved in the direction as a church to be more energy efficient.  Most of us can attest to our increased comfort in certain rooms of this building now that we have new windows and storms.  No longer are the radiators competing with the breeze from the outside in the Library or the nursery. 

Today’s scripture reading is so familiar.  First there is chaos, but the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.  First to be created was light, followed by a firmament called heaven, then land was separated from the seas and plants began to grow, then the sun and moon and the stars.  The fifth day brought with it the living creatures.  Finally, humankind was created and it was good.  Then on the seventh day, God took a break and that was really good.

            When God made humankind, male and female in God’s image, God gave them dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the air, over the cattle, every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

            Now, this word “dominion” has been misinterpreted as free God-given licensee to destroy everything in the path of human development.

            This is how those in power can justify cutting down the Brazilian rainforest so that we can have more land to herd more cattle so that we can have more McDonald’s hamburgers.

            Taking care of the earth means being God’s representative on earth.  God gave dominion over to us since we are made in God’s image.  This means we have responsibility to each and every thing, plant and being in the world. What this verse really means is that we are given responsibility over the earth and are in charge of taking care of it.  All of us have this responsibility as children of God.

            God wants us to take care of this creation we have been given.

In Genesis I, God creates good out of chaos.  And yet for all of the popular focus on creationism, it seems that we are bent upon making the world into chaos once again.  We cut down rain forests.  We delude ourselves into thinking that nuclear waste will be safely stored anywhere for eternity.  We burn up fossil fuels at an astonishing rate.  We foster mistrust between people and nations and cultures, and the list goes on and on. 

            There is a Kenyan proverb which states, “treat the earth well…it was not given to you by your parents…it was lent to you by your children.”

      Terry Tempest Williams has written a book entitled Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Vintage books 1991).   It recounts the story of her and her people who grew up as strict Mormons in Utah where they were taught never to question authority.  The problem was that this lack of questioning resulted in hundreds of people dying from the effects of radiation poisoning.  Their holy land there in the desert is near the site of bomb testing.  As she regained a political consciousness, she called herself and her sisters the Clan of the One Breasted Women, for many had been living with or dying from breast cancer.  Even the courts ruled that this was the result of the nuclear testing. She recounts her resurrection as she gains political consciousness and takes direct action.  Here is how she ends her memoir:

            I crossed the line at the Nevada Test Site and was arrested with nine other Utahns for trespassing on military lands.  They are still conducting nuclear tests in the desert.  Ours was an act of civil disobedience.  But as I walked toward the town of Mercury, it was more than a gesture of peace.  It was a gesture on behalf of the clan of One-Breasted Women.

            As one officer cinched the handcuffs around my wrists, another frisked my body.  She found a pen and a pad of paper tucked inside my left boot.

            “And these?” she asked sternly.

            “Weapons,” I replied.

            Our eyes met. I smiled.  She pulled the leg of my trousers back over my boot.

            “Step forward, please,” she said as she took my arm.

            We were booked under an afternoon sun and bused to Tonopah, Nevada.  It was a two-hour ride.  This was familiar country.  The Joshua trees standing their ground had been named by my ancestors, who believed they looked like prophets pointing west to the Promised Land.  These were the same trees that bloomed each spring, flowers appearing like white flames in the Mojave.  And I recalled a full moon in May, when Mother and I had walked among them, flushing out mourning doves and owls.

            The bus stopped short of town.   We were released.

      The officials thought it was a cruel joke to leave us stranded in the desert with no way to get home.  What they didn’t realize was that we were home, soul-centered and strong, women who recognized the sweet smell of sage as fuel for our spirits. (pp.289,290)

 

      Behold, says God, I give you dominion over the fish and the birds and the cattle and over all the earth.  Let us make what God has given us good again.

      In a few weeks, I will plant our garden in the back yard.  One of these days soon we’ll take off all of the leaves that have been covering the sol since the fall.  We’ll replace it with some compost, turn it over a bit and then take some organic seeds from the coop, say a prayer or two and watch with tenderness what emerges.  Each time we do, we get surprised by what comes up and what doesn’t.  When you have compost, you don’t know.  We often have pumpkins and cantaloupes that we never planted, thanks to the surprises hidden in the compost.  But that’s part of the fun.  Too often we end up feeding woodchucks and bunnies, but it just feels right to tend this little plot of land.  It is part of God’s mandate to take care of the world. 

      Think of what you might plant in your little holy corner of the earth.

      If we have dominion, it means we have responsibility.

            If we have responsibility, then we ought to be intentional about how we take positive action to be stewards of this great creation.

            When we do that, then we continue the work of bringing order out of chaos.

            And I have to believe that when God sees us planting something that sows the seeds of the future,

            be they seeds in the ground,

            be it a new awareness,

            be it modeling new behavior recognizing our responsibilities,

            be it a renewed commitment to retaining and reclaiming the earth on loan from our grandchildren. 

            When we do that, then God looks down, smiles and says, “That’s good.”