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Vocation and Creation Care - Image of God E2
99 Plays1 year ago
How does being made in the image of God affect the way we live? Does it have real implications for the jobs we do, the art we create, and the way we care for creation? Nick and Matt dive into some practical questions around living as the image of God in a fallen world, and how Jesus’ humanity lights the way.
Resources Referenced: Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear, Earthkeeping and Character by Steven Bouma-Prediger, Culture Care by Makoto Fujimora, Every Good Endeavour by Timothy Keller and Katherine Leary Asdorf, Sermon on the Mount Series by BibleProject
Interlude Music: Everything Comes to an End by Of Water https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/xIVZrl3azc/
Theme Song: Believe by Posthumorous. https://linktr.ee/posthumorous
For more resources and recommendations, check out reparadigmed.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to God's Image and Creation Care
00:00:03
Speaker
Hey, it's the Reparatime Podcast. Today is another conversation about the image of God and what our posture should be as Christians toward creation and environmental care.
Genesis: God as Creator and Collaborator
00:00:27
Speaker
There's much wonder to behold in Genesis 1. God, for one, the divine collaborator at work enlisting the elements of creation to create life according to all its various kinds, creation for another, a finely tuned, life-hosting world cast as God's living temple, generously endowed with the natural capacities to bear and sustain life in all its diversity.
Human Role: God's Stewards on Earth
00:00:49
Speaker
And as for human beings, we are nothing less than God's walking, talking theophanies on earth.
00:00:55
Speaker
That's from the philosopher Jonathan Lear in his book, Radical Hope. It's pretty good. I mean, I liked it. In the last episode, we dove into Genesis 1 and 2 and we discussed the meaning of the phrase image of God. It's important because it's the foundational identity of humans according to the Hebrew Bible. It's the first thing we should think when we pose the question to ourselves, who are we?
00:01:19
Speaker
We are the image of God. We discuss that this phrase basically means God's deputized creation rulers. God has entrusted us with his creation to govern and steward it in an ordered way toward his end. The fundamental vocation that we, the image of God, are supposed to take up is that of ruling, filling and subduing the land. And we could always rule badly, of course.
00:01:42
Speaker
So mere ruling isn't enough to just exercise our might over creation and just bend it to our will. No, we need to rule it toward the right goal. And the goal is to serve it and preserve it in an ordered way so that God's creation remains tauve. Good. Life-giving and sustained for future generations to enjoy.
00:02:06
Speaker
That goes for all of creation, the humans, the animals, and the land. Not stated explicitly, I would assume the sea and anywhere else we explore as well, although I'm going on
Reality vs. Genesis: Faithful Image-Bearing
00:02:17
Speaker
a limb there. Maybe the Hebrews really hated the sea. They actually did. That's crazy chaos out there. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I just kind of summarize this by saying, wherever humans set foot, we are to serve and preserve that space in a good and ordered way for the future.
Jesus: Model of Restoration and Humanity
00:02:34
Speaker
But if we're honest about it, we obviously live in a world far different than the idealistic one recounted in Genesis 1 and 2. I mean, to me, honestly, the calling of humans as God's image almost seems unrealistically esoteric, unattainable.
00:02:50
Speaker
But though we humans have dropped the ball in a major way, and we've brought about the disorder that we now witness, we still affirm that it's possible to live as faithful images of God, representing God, our Maker, well in our management of His creation. We believe this because God has been at work in human history to restore the goodness that was lost. This is the story of the Bible, God's restoration of humanity.
00:03:17
Speaker
Now we'll circle around at the end of this conversation to what I think to be just the best model for seeing how the restoration of our very selves could be possible in this fallen state. And I think that's to look to Jesus of Nazareth who's called the true image of God a couple times in the New Testament in Colossians 1, 1 Corinthians 4.
00:03:36
Speaker
I think this is interesting too. Dr. Carmen Eimes, who may or may not make a guest appearance on the podcast, she makes the true observation that Jesus is the image of God precisely because he's human. Though we affirm his divinity, of course, it's not because of his divinity that he's the true image of God, it's rather his faithful humanity that makes him the true image of God.
00:04:00
Speaker
And as Jesus said in John 14, the spirit who animated him and empowered him in his ministry would empower his followers to do even greater things than the ones he was doing. This is shocking. Like, could it really be the case that God is transforming humanity so profoundly that the community of Jesus would produce goodness in an even greater way than Jesus was able to, being, you know, one man located in first century Israel
Humanity's Responsibility to Reflect God's Character
00:04:27
Speaker
and Palestine?
00:04:28
Speaker
It's almost hard to believe, but if God does in fact animate the community of Jesus by his spirit, God only knows how much restoration will be wrought in the world.
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting that note that you've got from Carmen Adams there that Jesus is the true image of God because he's human. I think back to last conversation we had, you noted that Genesis 1 doesn't say that God had an image and then humans were created like in the pattern of that image, but that humans were created as the image of God. Like somehow humans image God in a way that he was not imaged before the creation of humans. So something unique about the existence of humans is that they function as that image of God.
00:05:07
Speaker
It's interesting to think of Jesus as being the image of God because he's human. I've never thought of it like that before. Yeah, that was super helpful. I mean, back to that first quote I read by Jonathan Lear. Jesus, in the most ultimate way, was a walking, talking theophany, an appearance of God himself. Sure, you think like John 1. He's pretty explicit about that.
00:05:28
Speaker
Exactly. Right. And insofar as we are called to image God, to represent Him, to be His designated representative deputies, you know, representative rulers of the land, creation and ourselves, anyone who looks at us is supposed to see in a small way what our God is like, what our Maker is like.
00:05:50
Speaker
It's not to elevate us to the status of God somehow, like you could possibly do that with a creature. That's almost just silly to even say. But it's to remind us of the high calling and the sobering calling that we have, that we carry the name of our maker. I mean, this actually goes to Karmadine's other book, Bearing God's Name.
00:06:11
Speaker
The Hebrews whom God called to be his special people that would show the way to restoration, God would work through this people to bless all the nations just like humanity was originally blessed in the garden, right? They were called to not carry the name of Yahweh their maker in vain or to ill effect.
00:06:29
Speaker
You know, that's one of the commands in the Ten Commandments. And we oftentimes think of that or translate that as like, don't use his name improperly, which certainly is true. Don't do that. That's not a good idea. But the command is actually a lot more than only not misusing Hashem, the name. You are carrying his name. It's like stamped upon you as his person, as his people. Everywhere you go, you're representing him.
00:06:53
Speaker
So be careful how you go. Be careful how you embody him because people are seeing his name stamped on you whether or not you're acting like him or
Vocation and Ethical Work in God's Image
00:07:03
Speaker
not. I mean, you are literally dragging his name through the mud if you're going through the mud with his name stamped upon you.
00:07:09
Speaker
So the way people were supposed to look at Israel and say, oh, that's Yahweh's people, all of creation is supposed to look at humans and say, oh, look, there's the image of God. Ideally, that would be true for all people, for all humans, that we all are the image of God and represent Him. That's a high calling. I think it's an honored calling, but it is an extremely high calling. Yeah, it feels a little heavy.
00:07:31
Speaker
What is heavy, which is kind of interesting, because that's what the Hebrew word kavod, translated usually glory, means. Humans were given the glory, the heaviness, in a sense, of being the image of God. What do we read in Romans 1? I mentioned this in the last conversation we had, that humans gave up that glory in idolatry, exchanging the truth about God for a lie,
00:07:57
Speaker
worship and glorifying, giving that weight, that heaviness, that honor to other things instead of where it properly belonged, which is with them as God's image bearers and worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator.
00:08:13
Speaker
So that responsibility of being the image of God is heavy, in a sense. And so when humans look to an idol or to something else and they say, oh, I want to get rid of this heaviness, I want to shirk this responsibility. I want to put it on some curved image and bow down to that rather than live up to my calling as the image of God. Dishonoring to God who installed you as his image, not that other thing that you want to give glory to.
00:09:03
Speaker
So let's talk about vocation then and try to get a little bit more practical here. I don't know if it's going to be possible and I don't want to attempt to solve everybody's problems, but perhaps the conversation can be helpful to get us thinking at least. So just in thinking about our vocation, what we do, like what we do to make money, what me and you do and what our communities of people do to provide for our families and
00:09:27
Speaker
what we get up to in the world, right? What does the image of God identity have to do with our specific vocations that we take out?
00:09:35
Speaker
At the outset of this conversation, I need to provide the caveat that I realize that many people throughout history and still today live in abysmal poverty and don't really have the luxury of considering what type of work they take up in order to make a living for themselves and their family. For the destitute, the priority will always be primarily on taking care of their own family and their own kids that day. So I get that.
00:10:00
Speaker
However, for a lot of us, we really do have the luxury to consider whether or not the specific vocations we have chosen are honoring to our maker. And I think one of the best ways to figure that out is to simply run the question through like a biblical grid, which would go something like this. There's a reality claim. All right. And the claim is this, we are God's image, his representative rulers on the earth. So then that leads to a question. Therefore,
00:10:26
Speaker
if I'm God's image, his representative ruler on the earth, is the way I work representing him well. Right? Do I treat other images of God properly? Do I serve and preserve the space in this little sphere of influence?
Long-term Impact of Christian Vocations
00:10:39
Speaker
This question gets to like the manner of our work, how we go about our work.
00:10:43
Speaker
And then there's a second question though that we have to ask, and that is, even if we can answer yes to the first question, we need to ask, is the final project or product or service that I'm contributing to, is it aiding in the ordering of the world, in the serving of creation, and in the keeping of the world? Or is it causing more chaos and destruction?
00:11:04
Speaker
It may be the case that, you know, the first question can be answered pretty easily. It's rather straightforward, right? Like, am I godly or Christ-like in the way that I work, no matter what I happen to be doing? Do I lie, cheat, and steal, right? And hopefully for every Christian it's like, no. Like, I'm a fairly kind guy that has decent personal ethics.
00:11:23
Speaker
We talked about this in our last conversation that it's kind of unique within the Hebrew Bible that the image of God is given to humanity as opposed to other nations where it was the king who was the image of God. So in that case, it was calling for one person to rule over other humans. Whereas within the Bible in Genesis, it's a calling for all humans to rule together.
00:11:44
Speaker
So if something about your vocation is causing you to demean other human beings or to seek to exercise power over others consistently, then you're usurping the proper role that you should be playing as the image of God. You're elevating yourself by demeaning other images. And that's not in line with the Genesis calling to be the image of God. Oh, that's a great point. Yeah, I'm glad we actually mentioned that last conversation too, that the ruling and subduing of the land and the animals does not apply to other human beings.
00:12:14
Speaker
it's inappropriate to exert that domination over other human beings. They are your equals. They too are to rule the land. And we are called to try to figure out how to be a community of people who can co-rule together. So yeah, to your point, there is no place for demeaning or demonizing other human beings in our vocation or in our leisure.
00:12:37
Speaker
There's just no place for it if we're going to be faithful images of God. But the second question, even if we do some self-examination and we're like, yeah, I think I more or less try to follow God and, you know, submit to his spirit and be filled with the fruit of the spirit. Right. I'm kind to my coworkers, my employees, whatever. I keep my space organized. I work hard. We still need to ask the second question though. And I just think it's extremely sticky, but we need to ask it.
00:13:06
Speaker
It's not always clear whether or not the actual cause we are contributing to in our daily jobs is contributing to the long-term keeping or preservation of creation. I thought some thought experiments would be kind of fun. I'm not like, honestly, I don't want to provide like what I actually think about these scenarios. They're just thought experiments and they're limited. But we need to start asking questions like this. You know, what about the structural engineers, whoever the heck does that, who design and build high-rise apartments?
00:13:36
Speaker
you know, in such a way that they're safe for the residents, right? That's good, right? Well, what if they do so for a wealthy billionaire who's linked to child trafficking, who uses these properties to house, use, and abuse his victims? Well, that's not so good. You're enabling this guy to do his evil deeds, right? At the same time, it's like, no, I mean, I'm not the cause for his using this good thing for evil. Okay, okay, so that one's kind of removed, so probably, you know, justify. Yeah, it's probably still good to be a structural engineer and to make sure buildings don't fall on people, right? Okay.
00:14:06
Speaker
You know, what about graphic designers at a partisan news outlet that make a profit off of fear mongering? No twisting stories and doing highly selective coverage in order to stir people's fears and anxieties, driving them to consume ever more partisan and divisive content, which then drives further profits. Good thing this doesn't actually happen anywhere.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah, I've never heard of this happening before. But like, it'd be easy to be like, I'm just the graphic designer, right? Like, I do good work. I do good and ordered work in this space. Well, what about the cause that it's contributing to? That one's getting a little more entwined and you can see how there's a little bit of tension there now, maybe. It'd still be easy to say, oh, well, I'm not the one picking the story. It's like, you know, my task here is pretty limited.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, or you should see the other guy. They're so much worse that the ends justify the means here, you know? Yeah, I mean, we have to consider. What about the congressional staffer who works as an aide to a congressperson, a congressperson who maintains their position of power through lies and bribery, and who profits off of legislating in certain ways, even in ways that harm fellow images of God? It's like,
00:15:12
Speaker
Well, I'm just the staffer. I'm not the person doing the bad deeds. In fact, my presence here might be good. And maybe that's the case. I'm just saying like this gets complicated. What about the security worker at a plant protecting the plant workers from potential harm? Well, that's good, right? You know, securing the premises. What if it's a weapon manufacturing plant where bombs are being created that the government will sell to other governments who will drop them on three-year-old children, just like mine waiting for me at home?
00:15:38
Speaker
That's not so good now is it? Am I aiding in the production of that whole mess and that whole debacle? There's no easy answers to these questions and you know at some level we can't really separate ourselves from the interconnectedness our work has with genuine evil in the world.
00:15:56
Speaker
That's pretty obvious to me. I don't think that the answer is to remove ourselves completely from society either because one doesn't want to have any blood on their hands, right? How is the world to be restored if we hide from all of its problems, right?
00:16:11
Speaker
However, I do think that each of us needs to think big picture about our vocation, especially if we have the luxury to do so. We need to consider whether we are directly contributing to the disorder, the destruction, and unsustainable management of the world that God called good. We can't afford to escape the results of our actions by refusing to think about them, or by appealing to this sentiment that God will destroy it all anyway.
00:16:37
Speaker
Like I would really challenge you if you kind of have that view, like where in the Bible does it give us permission to have a to hell with it attitude and to rebel further from our identity as God's creation stewards?
00:16:53
Speaker
that idea of coming up with excuses or finding permissions is you're going through all of those scenarios. It's really easy to imagine how somebody in those positions would find ways to kind of manipulate a story that either doesn't drive them to ask those questions or justifies what they're doing or kind of narrows down their viewpoint. There's a thousand ways that somebody could very easily justify any of those and do so in a way that the members of their local church would completely support them.
00:17:20
Speaker
going through these, I'm just struck thinking about how seldom we talk about the way that our vocations, our habits, our patterns really affect the world around us. Yeah. I mean, in the church experience that I have, and I've had the privilege of being part of very healthy churches, I don't feel at all that I'm coming out of some weirdo cult or something like that. So I say this very generously and graciously to my fellow like theologically evangelical Christians.
00:17:46
Speaker
I don't think we do talk in these terms and I don't know all the reasons why. It does seem a little bit theologically off to not talk about our individual vocations and even our corporate vocations and what we're doing as a church community to not talk about the contribution
00:18:04
Speaker
that we're making towards the ordering and sustained creation that is around us in our little pocket of the woods. It seems like an extremely appropriate way to be talking in our church communities about both our individual vocations and what we're up to corporately as well. Because whether or not you're mindful of it, you're functioning in and you're contributing to some sort of a culture.
Culture, Creativity, and Reflection of God's Beauty
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think whether we like it or not, we do reflect something in the world. Is it Yahweh our maker and his intentions or is it something else?
00:18:34
Speaker
Or is it a mix of both? The muddy middle? Probably. That's kind of what I wanted to talk about next is culture making. What does the image of God have to do with what type of communities we develop? Whether our families, obviously first, or our church communities, or our friend groups, or city councils. This includes like our day drops, of course, but it's even bigger because it's a question that encroaches upon our leisure time and our home lives as well. We think of the question of what type of culture are we building?
00:19:04
Speaker
you
00:19:16
Speaker
Are you familiar with Makoto Fujimura? No. He's a prominent American artist on the scene today, and he wrote a couple books, Theology of Making and Culture Care. In Culture Care, he opines for a more embodied pursuit of what is beautiful, not for its utilitarian value, his resale value, but as an end to itself, as what is beautiful reflects and proclaims in creation the character and the ordered goodness of God himself.
00:19:44
Speaker
Honestly, his book was really encouraging to me, and it's actually shaped how I've gone about doing some of this podcast.
00:19:51
Speaker
Now, I don't know if the quality of the podcast is that good, but it has influenced how I thought about the effort I put into it. And we've tried to put a lot of effort into it and make it a pleasurable listen because I believe that the way you present something embodies part of the importance of the thing. We think our message is important, so the way we present it should also be well thought through, should also be beautiful, should be organized, and should be done well.
00:20:20
Speaker
I'm not by any means an artist, but I will say that his book Culture Care was extremely encouraging to me who just has like some creative bent. So if you're a creative out there, I highly recommend Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura. In his book, he also quotes the theologian Dallas Willard, who I think has been kind of influential on you, right? Yep, definitely.
00:20:40
Speaker
Dallas Willard said, beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses. I thought this is actually really appropriate to bring up in this conversation because God calls his creation good, seven times. Good, good, good, good, good, good, good. So what more appropriate thing to do as God's creation managers than to viscerally create, present and project beauty into the world by concrete means,
00:21:07
Speaker
What else is art but that? If indeed, as Willard posits, that goodness, the goodness of God himself, is manifested to our senses through the perception of beauty.
00:21:20
Speaker
So even if you're not an artist, like how is this thought not inspiring? To re-paradigm how you think about whatever your hands find to do. To do it with all your strengths to produce something genuinely ordered and beautiful. And in this way, to put tove, to put good back into the disordered, raw world.
Ethical Theories in a Christian Framework
00:21:40
Speaker
And so reflect the good, ordered way of God himself, the Maker. I feel like I need to just sit and spin on that one for a while.
00:21:49
Speaker
Well, so do I. I'm definitely not a creative type person. I don't tend to appreciate beauty the same way a lot. Most people tend to. All right. Well, someone out there appreciated it, even if you didn't met. I'm talking to the wrong guy. Maybe. Structural engineer. I need to insert here a hobby horse of mine. My brief thoughts here on ethics. Okay.
00:22:14
Speaker
There is deontology, areteology, which is virtue ethics, and teleology. Deontology would be that espoused by Immanuel Kant. I'm no philosopher, but something like what's important is that in any moment of ethical decision that you make the right decision, regardless of the end, right?
00:22:31
Speaker
Teleology would be more focused on the end goal to make sure you get there. Unfortunately, that can slide into like the ends justify the means, right? Areteology or virtue ethics would focus more on the type of being, the type of person that you are through time. If you're familiar with like stoicism, that would be very virtue ethics based.
00:22:52
Speaker
Oh yeah, good connection. So these three ethical theories, I think, don't have to be mutually exclusive. And this is something that Stephen Boma Predator makes the case for in his book, Earthkeeping in Character. Because on the Christian worldview, the end goal, teleology, right, that matters. And there is a secured hope for a future, for a good future, that God will in fact bring about, right? The end goal matters.
00:23:18
Speaker
Also, the way of being matters. You know, the means to get there. The type of person you are along the way, which would be like virtue ethics. And every individual moral choice that makes you the type of being you are also matters. That'd be like deontology. Make the right decision in every moment because all of our small choices affect the type of beings that we become.
00:23:42
Speaker
So I don't think we should think about these as mutually exclusive and I think the Christian worldview does a wonderful job of tying them together and actually seeing them as complementary and having kind of a full view of ethics. All right, slightly aside, but I was thinking about that today and I had to bring it up.
00:23:59
Speaker
I like it. That is interesting to think that our hope in the future and what Jesus will accomplish restoring all of creation should inspire us both to seek to be a certain type of person to be conformed to Jesus image and also to live a certain way. So even if we can't always see that immediate connection between the way we live now and those ends, we trust that it exists. We trust that what we're living out now is connected to this final end that Jesus is going to bring about.
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah, and that is the Christian hope of the resurrection. That everything we do right now matters, in probably a more ultimate way than me and you can realize right now, as we say here. But that's what we've done in our lives, corporately and individually, will be tested
00:24:45
Speaker
as Paul said, so I was by fire, right? Obviously there's a negative way to see that and to be like, oh man, that could be bad for me, right? You can think about it that way, but think of the encouragement that all the good, the genuine good, faithful acts that you do that are never seen will be the stuff that's lasting through that purging. The stuff that's lasting that can be built on into the future in probably more ultimate ways than me and you can even imagine right now.
00:25:08
Speaker
I find that super encouraging. Part of my reason for stepping aside into this conversation about ethics a little bit is because I do feel some type of way about our view of ethics because of the utilitarian nature of a lot of the ethics that we see in our culture today.
00:25:23
Speaker
The ends justify the means, you know, views that are, I don't know, they're so prominent, like in politics and even in the Christian church, I think sometimes where we feel like sometimes it's justifiable to demean image bearers of God because they're so bad. And this will be a more powerful way to get to the end that I want, which is a good end, right?
00:25:43
Speaker
I think we ought to have no time for that as Christians. We ought to have no time for demeaning other image bearers of God in pursuit of the good end of whatever Christian vision we have. Or we should also have no time for, and this is where it gets back to image of God stuff here, creation management stuff. We also should have no time for short looked solutions.
00:26:06
Speaker
short-looked, profit-motivated actions that put the long-term health of ecosystems, of animals, at risk. I just think it's unfaithful to being the image, to being the steward that God intended us to be, to take shortcuts like that. And we need to consider the type of being we are at all moments, and also the end towards which we're working.
00:26:30
Speaker
To be a little bit more specific here on creation care in particular or environmental concerns, environmental ethics.
00:26:38
Speaker
What does the image of God have to do explicitly with environmental care? I don't have any interest in particular. I don't have the ability either to try to wax eloquently about the exact measures that need to be taken to preserve the planet in an ordered and sustainable way. I'm not qualified to talk about it even. However, I'm really interested in theologizing about what our general attitude should be toward the preservation of God's creation.
00:27:04
Speaker
Maybe a couple of questions could prime our mental pumps here a little bit. Is it generally good or generally bad for God's creature managers to allow species entrusted to them to die out and go extinct and mass?
Environmental Care and Human Flourishing
00:27:19
Speaker
What kind of managers are we if we have no concern for the species entrusted to us? It's kind of weird to disregard that or to have no feelings towards it if you are the manager of those species.
00:27:33
Speaker
It's like, oh, I let half of them die, sorry, but it's just kind of weird. Yeah, it's hard to imagine a situation where good management of something would involve allowing large portions of it to just die out.
00:27:47
Speaker
And I'm not at all trying to set up some weird ethical dilemma where it's like, well, what if you have to choose between that and human beings? Are the human beings more important, you earth worshipper? I'm not trying to set all that up. I'm just saying it would seem that a good manager of the creatures of the land, which is what the image of God is to be, it would seem that a good manager would at least have tabs on and be interested in and would in fact try to prevent the killing off of those species entrusted to them.
00:28:16
Speaker
So I think dispositionally, we should have a view toward the life of all species as much as possible. We should be a little concerned if there's mass extinction going on, especially if it's caused by us. Is it generally good or generally bad if God's land managers allow deforestation and mass to take place?
00:28:36
Speaker
What kind of land managers are we if we engage in practices that cause permanent negative effects on ecosystems, which affects creatures and humans in the region, if not on the whole planet? Yeah, your question there is it good or bad, even if you're just looking at is this good or bad for the humans involved?
00:28:54
Speaker
As the images of God, we're created to function best when we function in a world where things are managed and ordered well. So even if you don't immediately see the impacts on humans as a result of these things going on in the environment, the fact that that environment is not functioning the way it's supposed to anymore is going to have a negative impact in the end on the humans that are part of that environment.
00:29:17
Speaker
That's a good point. If your primary concern is other images of God, which I think is understandable for sure. I mean, I am more concerned about people than I am animals too. I think there's room to be concerned about both. But if your primary concern is, you know, about the human tool, it is hard to put a measuring stick on exactly how negatively this affects humans in the region. Although sometimes, honestly, I think that the land management or lack
00:29:40
Speaker
thereof that we have employed in some areas of the world has actually directly affected humans like right away, which is awful. And there should be no time for that in the Christian community to support anything that does that to other humans. But that being said, sometimes the effects aren't immediate. And as Dr. Sandra Richter says, she makes a point of this in her book, it's always the most vulnerable people to end up bearing the brunt of really bad land management.
00:30:05
Speaker
And sometimes it's not right away, so you can't put a measuring stick on it. But in generations to come all of a sudden, the hens come home to roost. And myriads of unintended consequences happen. I mean, be sure your sin will find you out.
00:30:20
Speaker
I have conversations with my daughters about a lot of things. One of my daughters is very interested in Mars and what travel to Mars would look like. She used to tell me all the time that she wants to be the first person to go to Mars. And then we talked about what life would actually be like on Mars.
00:30:36
Speaker
where there's not an environment that's well suited to human thriving. It's only made possible through science and technology and your life would be very limited, what you could do. There'd only be specific hours of the day that you could go outside and even then in a very special suit. You have to live in this small confined housing where you'd grow your own food and everything. We talked about this for a while and eventually she started saying, I don't think I want to go to Mars anymore, Chad.
00:31:01
Speaker
that idea that we're so connected to our environment. And that's obviously an extreme example. But we start taking the environment around us and it starts to not function quite as well as it should be. That's going to have an effect on humans. Like we can't function well if the environment that we're living in is not functioning well. Like you said, it's not always going to be, oh, you know, I do something bad today and so suddenly my life's gonna be worse tomorrow. No, maybe it's over time.
00:31:26
Speaker
But that idea that humans are not connected to the order of the earth, and so it's something that we don't need to care about, is I think both foreign to the story of Genesis, and it's also just foreign to good common sense. Yeah. You know what Adam means or comes from? From the dust, from the ground.
00:31:45
Speaker
Adam is dust. Adam is the dust being humanity. We are from the ground. We are land creatures. We are ground dwellers. We are of the dust and to dust we return. It doesn't seem very healthy to think ourselves so above it that we neglect to think about or give consideration to the dust from whence we've come and to the dust to which we will return.
Biblical Teachings vs. Political Influences
00:32:10
Speaker
One last question here, is it generally good or bad to use sustainable means of energy to power our ways of life? What kind of resource managers are we if we don't count the cost of using energy sources that will dry up and we'll leave our grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren whenever the energy sources dry up, we'll leave them in a horrible place to try to rapidly innovate to make up for the loss.
00:32:39
Speaker
It generally seems like a solid, biblically rooted Christian ethic would be inclined toward innovations and technologies that allow us to pursue more renewable resources as best as possible.
00:32:55
Speaker
Now, none of these examples or considerations or questions I'm asking are really specific and for good reason, but I think we need to ask them. My general assumption is that our audience probably leans right politically in our context here in the United States.
00:33:10
Speaker
If that's you, and if you're kind of of that persuasion, I really urge you to consider whether or not your worldview on this whole topic has been shaped more by your politics or your politicians or pundits than it has the Bible. Because it seems like the obvious answer to some of these questions would produce a person with a disposition that is attuned to cries of environmental degradation,
00:33:36
Speaker
cries of the annihilation of species, especially in mass and at rapid scales, and we don't know all the effects of that, and cries of overuse of specific resources that cannot be replaced for future generations. It seems the only reason sometimes that we don't think
00:33:52
Speaker
in a Christianly way about this is perhaps our politics. And I'd really urge you, if you're on the right politically, if you're a Christian, make this an issue that the people like you, the conservatives like you, care about. Because this is an explicitly Christian biblical issue.
00:34:11
Speaker
Don't cede that territory to those left-wing people that you probably don't like. This should just be a universal Christian issue. And if you lean left, don't let the fear-mongering that sometimes takes place around this conversation drive you to take unethical actions.
00:34:28
Speaker
because the ends justify the means. We need to, I mean, sometimes, sadly, even harm people because the crises are so bad. Whether it's your favorite political commentator or whatever that's drumming up that fear, do not let that fear drive you. We never make good decisions in a state of panic and fear.
00:34:46
Speaker
So let's think Christianly about this topic and let's not think politically about it. Man, I'm so concerned by the way we in the Christian community just seem to be dragging behind being brainwashed by whatever political pundits want us to be thinking about these issues.
00:35:01
Speaker
We should just have a very clear biblical vision for this stuff. And we should be leading the conversation. And the conversation should be thoroughly Christian and thoroughly concerned about the ends, the means, and every decision in between.
00:36:15
Speaker
It's hard to really see a way out of the disorder and destruction that we see around us, both in the human community and the animal community and the land around us. There are a lot of problems that we've created that need to be addressed.
00:36:30
Speaker
But we need to start with ourselves and we need a guiding star we need to build our lives upon a foundation that will stand. Start with ourselves and work our way outward to be the type of people again i got a fan of virtue ethics here to be the type of people that we need to be otherwise we won't even see clearly.
00:36:49
Speaker
when it comes to complicated issues like environmental degradation. Like I don't even, I don't know if all the claims are right or which ones are right or which ones are wrong. I'm not even getting into that. I'm just saying these are very complex issues for us to even like care about them and to be wise heading into those conversations and have a wise and robust stature. We need to have our lives built upon a rock.
00:37:10
Speaker
When we listen to Jesus' teachings, we're building a worldview and a way of life on the rock of faithful human identity as God's image. Yes, that question about what it looks like to be the image of God in a fallen world. Well, Jesus came into a very fallen world.
00:37:27
Speaker
Oh man, exactly. It's like, what does it even look like to start being faithful in this world? Look at Jesus of Nazareth. There's a man who is faithful in this fallen world. I think there's no more powerful example in the Bible for re-paradiving our fallen worldview, our fallen ways of thinking about our identity and our role in the world, into conformity with God's vision of restored humanity than the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.
00:37:54
Speaker
I was really excited actually this year to see that the Bible Project is taking that entire year and just focusing on this Sermon on the Mount. So they're doing like weekly podcast episodes and releasing videos, I think every month or something like that, every five weeks on the Sermon on the Mount. So definitely look forward to that. If you guys don't follow the Bible Project, I'd definitely recommend what those guys are doing over there.
00:38:13
Speaker
In any case, this extended discourse in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shatters our fallen worldview and introduces us to a restored one, one that's more faithful to the created intentions of God for his image bearers in the beginning. For example, if we happen to have the worldview, the view of life that, you know, life's about short-term happiness, earning enough money to get the things that we want, get old-fashioned capitalism, right? We may need to consider Jesus's words.
00:38:42
Speaker
Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in in steel, but accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in in steel. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus' Teachings on Wealth and Trust
00:38:56
Speaker
The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
00:39:07
Speaker
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. If we happen to have the view of life that, you know, life is all about long-term security, and we spend all of our time thinking about how to set up generational wealth so that our children are perpetually taken care of. That seems good, right? Well, we may need to consider Jesus's words.
00:39:32
Speaker
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow. They do not work or spin.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was clothed like one of these. And if this is how God clothes, the wild grass, which is here today, and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won't he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don't worry, saying, what will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear?
00:40:11
Speaker
For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all, pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own." Yeah, if we happen to have the view that life is about protecting ourselves and our own as long as possible from the enemy, you know, however to find.
00:40:36
Speaker
then we may need to consider Jesus's words. Do not resist the evil doer, but whoever strikes you on the right cheek turn the other to him as well. And if someone wants to sue you and to take your tunic, give him your coat also. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to the one who asks you and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
00:40:57
Speaker
But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. And if we happen to have the view that life is about working as hard as possible for as long as possible and forcing the change that you want to see in the world by mere grit, then we may need to consider Jesus' words.
00:41:22
Speaker
Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?
00:41:46
Speaker
The fact of the matter is that we need to look bigger at the vocation that we humans are called to. We need to look to Jesus to begin that restoration process of our very selves. We need to start considering that God is good and kind and he wants us to find fulfillment in the calling that he's prescribed for us.
00:42:06
Speaker
God wants us to live in such a way that we trust in His generosity, as Jesus did, that there is enough for us in our littles so that we can be free to simply obey His ethic. We need to stop living in fear, fear of need or fear of harm.
00:42:23
Speaker
We need to begin living in love and faithfulness to God and His purposes for us. We need to begin considering that everything we do is either contributing toward or diminishing the good. The good, long-lasting, sustainable and ordered creation. So here's some of the takeaways I think that we should consider from these reflections on our identity as the image of God.
00:42:47
Speaker
We need to believe. Believe what Jesus said about reality. Believe what the Bible says about us. That we are God's image as representative rulers of the land. We need to embody this reality. Trust God to animate us by His Spirit to live as faithful human rulers of the land. Even in this fallen world, you know, just like King Jesus did. Obey Jesus' words. And we need to trust that God will make all things new. We don't know when. We don't really know how, even.
00:43:16
Speaker
But the restoration of the good and ordered world will become a reality. And all of our small acts of faithfulness in this fallen era will be carried over as something solid into the restored world to come. In other words, nothing is forgotten. Everything we do matters far beyond the causal chain that we can perceive with our senses.
00:43:38
Speaker
I'll leave us all with this quote from the late Presbyterian pastor, New York City, Timothy Keller, from his great book, which I highly recommend, Every Good Endeavor, Connecting Your Work to God's Plan for the World. It's a great book in this context, in this conversation. But he says this, wherever we bring order out of chaos,
00:43:59
Speaker
Whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and unfold creation beyond where it was where we found it, we are following God's pattern of creative cultural development. Just as God subdued the earth in his work of creation, so he calls us now to labor as his representatives in a continuation and extension of that work of subduing.