[1] We Christians claim that our Christ is cosmic. We use the
word to indicate "the entire universe, this earth and all else."
Likewise, the word can be our shorthand for "all of creation, both
humankind and other-kind." If we have a cosmic Christ, what does
that mean for our calling to love our neighbor? The New Testament
offers two chief texts for the idea that our Lord is directly
related to the whole creation. One is in words we hear each
Christmas season [John 1:1-4]:
[2] In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in
the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and
without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
in him was life and the life was the light of all
people.
[3] The "him" is Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh. Christ is
central not only to God's redemption of a fallen humanity, but also
central to God's creation of everything. The same theme comes to us
powerfully in the soaring poetry of Paul's letter to the
Colossians. The key words in Col. 1:15-20 are "all things," ta
panta in Greek, and they appear five times in six verses. Hear
this hymn to our cosmic Christ.
[4] He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things
in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all things have
been created through him and for him. He himself is before all
things and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the
body, the church: he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him
all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God
was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or
in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his
cross.
[5] These are profound words, mind-stretching words. They do two
things for us. They proclaim our Lord's central role in both
creation and redemption. Equally important, they move us beyond our
prejudice that humankind is all God cares about. To say Christ is
cosmic means this: that Christ shows us God's mighty deeds in
creating everything and God's mighty deeds in redeeming everything,
which means ALL things will be reconciled back to God and ALL
creatures will be reconciled to one another.
[6] Christians have largely missed this vision of a Christ whose
purposes embrace the whole of creation. Joseph Sittler said in his
classic 1961 address to the World Council of Churches assembly in
New Delhi, India: "We [Christians] do not have...a daring,
penetrating, life-affirming Christology for nature...." Speaking on
the Colossians One text, Sittler continued, "It is true [in all
Christian traditions] that the imperial vision of Christ as
coherent in ta panta has not broken open the powers of grace to
diagnose, judge, and heal the ways of human beings as they
blasphemously strut about this hurt and threatened world as if they
owned it."1
[7] In the same vein, E.L.C.A. Lutheran Paul Santmire wrote in
the mid-1990s: "The Captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ, cares
for the ark of this universe and its eternal destiny....He cares
for every creature on board, in appropriate ways, and, in turn
calls upon the human passengers of this universal vessel to care
likewise for the whole vessel and all its creatures, in every
appropriate way."2
[8] If our Christ is truly cosmic, two questions follow. First,
what is the connection between God in Christ and the rest of
creation, the non-human part? Second, who are the non-human
neighbors to be loved and how do we love them?
l. The Rest of Creation and God in
Christ
[9] The richest biblical material on this question appears in
the older testament. We can begin with the Genesis stories of
creation and their witness that God sees all of creation as good.
And there are many other reminders that God is concerned about more
than the human part of creation. Among them:
[10] Noah and the flood, Genesis 9. The
covenant God establishes after the flood is not just with Noah and
his human family. It is with all flesh. Eight times in just 10
verses we read that the covenant includes "every living creature"
or "every animal" or "all flesh"- God is serious about species
preservation. The same idea appears in the final words of Jonah
(4:11). Nineveh is worth saving from calamity, God says, and God is
then quoted as calling it "that great city, in which there are more
than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their
left, and also many animals."
[11] The Job story. Representing all humans,
Job is told forcefully by God that there was a created world before
he, Job, appeared, and that this creation has its own integrity
apart from human beings. Job is told that he can learn a thing or
two from the rest of creation: "But ask the animals and they will
teach you, and the birds of the air, and they shall teach you; ask
the plants of the earth, and they will teach you and the fish of
the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that
the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of
every living thing." (Job 12:7-10)
[12] The Psalms. They are packed with poetic
statements that God doesn't depend on humans for praise of the
Creator. Even those parts of creation that we consider
non-living--sun, moon, stars, trees, water-are presented as giving
praise to God. Mountains, for example: "Tabor and Hermon joyously
praise your name" (Ps. 89:12).
[13] Revelation. The Bible's final book, the
Revelation of St. John, also admonishes us to treat non-human
creation with respect. In Rev. 7:3, the angel with the seal of the
living God says, "Do not damage the earth or the sea or the
trees...."
[14] The theological tradition of Luther has not been strong in
creation Christology. We have been accused, rightly, of a
preoccupation with redemption and the human-divine relationship. To
a degree, we can blame Luther's own life experience for this. But
the other note is not absent in Luther. We Lutherans have simply
neglected it. In Luther's catechism, his very first sentence on the
Apostles' Creed reads: "I believe God has created me, together with
all creatures...."
[15] Luther's view of God is always a sacramental one, which
means Luther is insistent that God comes to us precisely in the
earthy stuff of this creation: water, grain, grape, oil, soil, and
supremely in the Word made human flesh, born of
Mary.3 Here are
just a few examples of Luther's creation-centered thinking:
[16] The Creator, says Luther, is wholly present "in a grain, on
a grain, over a grain, through a grain, within and without, and
that, although it is a single Majesty, it nevertheless is entirely
in each grain separately."4 He notes, in reflecting on
the mystery of Holy Communion, that if we truly understood the
growth miracle of a kernel of wheat, we would die of wonder!
[17] Luther's view of God and the creation can be termed
pan-en-theism. This is not pantheism, in which God and nature are
identical, making God indistinct from the creation. Pan-en-theism
is literally "God IN all things." God is mysteriously present in
everything that is made, while remaining transcendent and distinct
from all things. Thus we worship the Creator, not the creation. But
Luther is very clear: God is to be found in all that has been made.
Indeed, God's gift of nature should be read as Scripture, Luther
says: "All creation is the most beautiful book or Bible; in it God
has described and portrayed himself."5
[18] Luther even found good in creatures we consider pests or
threats to human well being. I have never, for example, understood
how God could make the mosquito and pronounce it good. I have had
to concede that I am seeing this humanly and have concluded that,
when God says something created is good, God is not saying it's
good necessarily for people. The mosquito has its own integrity; it
may be good only for itself and its own kind, or as part of the
inter-species chain of life. Thus Luther can say, "In a mouse we
admire God's creation and craft work. The same may be said about
flies."
[19] We can go even beyond Luther. It's now apparent that the
rest of God's creation could get along better without us human
latecomers. It even seems clear that the creatures we humans
respect least are those most vital to our ecosystem. Hear this from
a 1993 New York Times Magazine article, "Bugs Keep Planet Livable,
Yet Get No Respect":
[20] Humans may think they are evolution's finest product, but
the creeps, crawlies, and squishies rule the world. Remove people
from the...earth and the biosphere would perk along just fine,
ecologists say. Remove the invertebrates-creatures like insects,
spiders, worms, snails, and protozoans-and the global ecosystem
would collapse, humans and other vertebrates would probably last
only a few months, and the planet would belong mostly to algae and
bacteria. Invertebrates...are the biological foundation of
ecosystems and crucial to every one of the ecosystem
processes.
[21] The Bible is obviously a human-centered book. It deals
largely with God's redemptive program for humankind. Yet, reading
Scripture ecologically lets us see that fish and birds too are
blessed by God's order to be fruitful and multiply. And that the
sun and moon are instructed to govern, one lighting the day, one
the night. There's biblical support also for the idea that before
the Fall humans were not to eat other animals. We were likely
created to be herbivores and may be again once Messiah's work is
done.
[22] And does it ever occur to us that the cross of Christ
itself, the vehicle for our human redemption, is also making a
statement to other animals? By offering himself once for the
redemption of all, Jesus retires forever Judaic animal sacrifice.
Yes, the blood of the cross really does make peace for more than
just us humans!
[23] Lastly, the relationship between God and the rest of
creation is a direct one. It does not need human beings to mediate
it. God has immediate contact with the lilies of the field, the
cattle on a thousand hills, all wild beasts and things that creep
on the earth, and the creatures of the ocean deep. These all have
their own reason for being, apart from what we may see as their
utility or their hostility to humans. They have their own history
with God. It's a history that is independent of God's history with
humankind, even as the two, humankind and other-kind, are
intimately and inevitably linked together.
2. Who Are the Neighbors To Be Loved
and How Do We Love Them?
[24] This is our other question. Given the sort of
distress-filled creation that we know, and a Christ who is cosmic,
how do we follow his command that we are to love our neighbors?
[25] Paul Santmire reminds us that, while reading the Bible with
ecological lenses changes much, it does not change everything. The
Reformation principle of GRACE ALONE stays at the center. But,
unlike the Reformation's focus, grace is not limited to humans.
Santmire notes that in the ecological paradigm the grace of God
overflows not just to the human creature but to all creaturedom.
The scriptural promise is that the gift of a new heaven and a new
earth will shower blessings on all beings, that all creatures will
dwell in a land filled with righteousness.6
[26] The fact that we humans are justified by grace alone gives
us a pair of vital freedoms. One is that, since we don't have to do
anything to earn our salvation, we are entirely free to concentrate
all energies on loving our neighbor. Indeed, what you do when you
don't HAVE to do anything is precisely that: you love your
neighbor. Someone has observed that, to a community of pickpockets,
the whole world is filled with pockets to be picked. Our adaptation
of that is: to a community of Christians the whole world is filled
with neighbors to be loved.
[27] The second freedom provided us by justification through
grace is the freedom to make mistakes. Since salvation does not
depend on our good deeds, we are free to risk being wrong, even as
we seek to love the neighbor. Sometimes Christians choose to deal
with tough ethical questions by doing nothing rather than making a
choice that could be wrong. I'm arguing that, in caring for
creation, it is better to try another way, better to change human
behavior, than to do nothing, if no action means continuing on
present, obviously destructive paths. We may not be certain that
accelerated climate change and erosion of the ozone layer will be
reduced by curbing carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. But
if we wait till certainty comes, it will be too late. Thus we act
today and, knowing sin is attached always to any human activity, we
rejoice that our God is a forgiving God.
[28] Now, to the specific neighbors needing our love. I find it
helpful to picture the relationship among God, humankind, and
other-kind as a triangle with equal sides. God is at the apex. One
of the downward sides leads to the human part of creation. The
other downward side connects God with the rest of creation. God and
either aspect of physical nature are in direct contact. God does
not need to move through one to reach the other. The reverse is
also true: humankind and other-kind separately have their own
immediate relationship with their Creator.
[29] Across the bottom of our triangle is the third side, the
third relationship: that of human-kind and other-kind. We clearly
have a connection, one could call it a kinship, that doesn't
require us to reach the other by way of the Creator, or even to
acknowledge we have a Creator. We share this community called
creaturedom. We are alike in that as creatures we owe our very
being to an outside power, which believers call God, the Creator.
"In his hand is the life of every living thing," Job is reminded
(12:10). And Larry Rasmussen's memorable summary is "The createds
are all relateds."7
[30] But we see two differences between these two parts of
nature at the triangle's bottom. One part, humankind, has wilfully
rebelled against its Creator. The other part has not, though the
human rebellion has drastic consequences for the well being of
other-kind. Secondly, one part, humankind, is said to be made in
"the image of God." Biblically, IMAGO DEI is never really defined.
Some scholars argue that "image of God" is mainly about free will
and the ability to make decisions. Others say it refers to our
human knowledge of right and wrong.
[31] In my view, Douglas John Hall has it right. To this
Canadian theologian, the central significance of IMAGO DEI is the
human responsibility to care for the rest of creation. In this
view, God has designated humankind as God's trustee to tend this
garden, the creation, as a loving and gentle caregiver. The human
calling within the created order is to image the Creator, to
reflect the Creator's loving purpose.8
[32] "Having dominion" then means not domination, not
exploitation, but respect for the integrity of all that God has
entrusted to us, along with a decent humility regarding the mandate
God gives us and our place in the divine scheme of things. Indeed,
the model for our relating to the rest of creation is none other
than Jesus, our cosmic Christ. He comes to us as Lord of all,
surely. But he comes also as servant of all. He brings us God's
love not by top-down power and glory. He shows us love by entering
our history as one who is poor and lowly. From the under-side of
human existence he comes to us. So we can imagine our triangle
turned upside-down, with God-in-Christ at the bottom, humbling
himself as servant of all that God has made. In like manner, human
creatures are to serve the rest of creation-tenderly, gently,
lovingly, carefully.
[33] Our role does not, in my view, mean human caregivers can't
cut down trees or break sod with a plow or eat other animals or
extract oil and ores from the earth. It does mean that all we do is
guided by the principle of renewing life, of sustainability. When
the spirit or breath of God goes forth, all things are created "and
you renew the face of the earth" (Ps. 104:30). That is how WE are
to live with the earth, always renewing it.
[34] Being in the image of God lets us use the soil. It does not
justify our using up the soil. Being in God's image lets us cut
trees for building material and fuel. But it requires that we
routinely plant new trees and leave alone trees that protect
life-giving soil from erosion. Being in God's image means we see
God's gifts in the rest of nature as more than commodities in a
global market. These gifts are, in a profound way, flesh of our
flesh and bone of our bone. Native Americans can teach us much in
this regard. They have a deep sense that all living things are
family. The earth is seen as our mother; the other creatures are
called "all my relatives." In this tradition the killing of an
animal for meat is allowed but only after one first thanks the
animal and asks its forgiveness.
[35] The practice of at least the past half-millennium,
led by Europeans all around this planet, has shown little sense of
need to be forgiven. The chief theme has not been one of nurturing
the earth, not one of renewal and sustainability. It has been one
of mastery over the earth as a human right. Larry Rasmussen notes
that it was not humanity as a whole conducting this campaign of
conquest, but European and North American white, male humanity.
Rasmussen quotes an observation made by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 70
years ago: "Human conquest of nature is the foundational theme of
Euro-American history."9
[36] What has resulted from this conquest, this
mastery/domination approach to nature? The human/non-human
relationship has been consistently degraded, and most dramatically
during the century just past. Listen to this summary
indictment:
[37] For the first time since humans appeared, soil loss is
exceeding soil formation, freshwater use is exceeding aquifer
replenishment, forest destruction is exceeding forest regeneration,
fish catches are exceeding fish reproduction, carbon emissions are
exceeding carbon fixation, and species extinction is exceeding
species evolution. Some of the effects...are or may be
irreversible. Species loss is one example, accelerated global
climate change possibly another. In short, cumulative human power
to destroy is gradually outstripping earth's power to
restore.10
[38] But enough of the bad news. The good news is, since it is
humans who have degraded Planet Earth in these ways, it is humans
who have the skills and the power needed for a planetary renewal
campaign. Now we can talk about the neighbors we're to love in such
a world. They come in three categories:
* Our non-human sisters and brothers, all our relatives who are
fellow creatures
* Our human heirs, still unborn, who will follow us in years to
come
* All the human passengers sharing Spaceship Earth with us
today
[39] First, our fellow creatures. How do we show them love? One
powerful clue comes in the guidelines for observing the Sabbath in
the Hebrew Scriptures, which appear mainly in Deuteronomy 22-26.
The Hebrews understood the Sabbath as good not just for humans, but
also for the rest of creation. The land needs a rest, a break from
continual cultivation.
[40] And even if you, O Human One, are tempted to pursue
economic gain seven days out of seven, your beasts of burden
deserve a day off. Further, you dare not muzzle your oxen to
prevent their eating the fruits of the earth as they tread the
grain. Nor shall you reap to the very edges of your fields; you
must leave something behind for poor people and for wild animals.
And when hunting fowl, you may not take both the mother bird and
her young.
[41] Something other than pure market economics is going on
here. We moderns would serve our neighbors in the rest of creation
quite well, were we to return to the ancient Hebrew laws: of fallow
land, limited cropping, gleaning, first-fruits set aside for God's
purposes, which include the needs of the poor. Yes, Adam, the
garden trees are yours, but there are limits. Of the fruit of one
tree you shall not eat. Enough is enough, Adam!
[42] Behaving as God's redeemed ones, those with whom God has
made peace through the cross, does in fact mean a change in how we
relate to the rest of nature. St. Paul,in his Romans 8 discussion
of Christ's redemption of humankind, says that human redemption is
to transform ALL of the natural order. "The creation itself will be
set free from its bondage to decay...the whole creation has been
groaning in labor pains until now...." So you and I aren't the only
ones born-again. In Christ there is a new birth for the earth,
too.
[43] A second crop of neighbors to be loved are not yet here.
They're the children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren of us
who are here. They are the future generations to whom we will
bequeath an earth. The kind of earth we leave them is being decided
by our decisions today.
[44] In our day we hear much about sustainability: sustainable
agriculture, sustainable development. Sustainability can be defined
as using the earth's resources in a way that provides a decent
quality of life for present generations without compromising that
of future generations. It asserts that when we today do not exist
sustainably with the creation, we are literally stealing from our
children. A worldview of sustainability understands the charge of
Genesis 2:15 in its original Hebrew. The meaning of our human
directive to "till and keep" the Garden is literally to "serve and
preserve" the Garden.
[45] I grew up among farm folk in the Upper Midwest. One of the
favorite sayings of those farmers was, "I want to farm in a way
that lets me turn this land over to my children in better condition
than I received it from my parents." Such farmers knew how to farm
so that the soil would be upgraded, not degraded. Many of them,
pleading short-term economic necessity, often abandoned those
methods. But some refused to do so. Their philosophy reflected a
belief that the farmer's land is not hers or his alone. It is also
that of those who will farm it after them. Most such farmers know
that the true owner of the land is God, and that they are God's
stewards over it for just a brief time.
[46] Lastly, we are called to love all the human passengers now
on board Spaceship Earth. That's easy to say. What is hard is to
make judgments about WHICH neighbors to love WHEN. The biblical
imperative is that we always tilt toward those who are poor:
orphans and widows, landless ones, the exiles in our midst. And it
is true, in rich and poor countries alike, that environmental
degradation hurts first and worst those who are the most vulnerable
economically. And so economic justice and environmental justice
always walk together.
[47] Under a christology of nature, as in any human setting, it
is clear that loving the neighbor is not only altruism. Loving my
neighbors bears fruit for me, too. That fruit takes many forms that
I find advantageous: healthier and more peaceful community, a
creation sustained to keep on blessing me, and the simple joy of
knowing I am in step with God's will for my existence on this
earth.
[48] Thus loving my neighbor is about caring for both my
neighbor AND myself. Neighbor-love, in other words, is always
linked with my own self-interest. And that too is biblical. Jesus
does not ask us to love the neighbor INSTEAD of ourselves. Jesus
says, "Love your neighbor AS yourself." "Do this," Jesus says, "and
you will live." (Luke 10:27-28).
[49] And so we are freed to live out our lives in precisely that
way. Let us believe the promise that loving our neighbors in the
whole of God's creation will give life to ourselves as well.
[50] Now, to a few practical implications of such neighbor-love.
A key word for biblical people is the Hebrew "shalom." Often
translated peace, it really means more than an absence of violence.
It has the content of harmony or wholeness, among all parts of the
created order. If we say a harmonious and just interacting of the
human and non-human creation is our goal, what might some specifics
look like? Let me suggest four.
1. Our care of the earth itself, its soil and water, its grasses
and its glaciers, is surely at the heart of loving the whole
creation. We have now learned that the crass human over-consumerism
of the industrial age is changing drastically everything from
climate to sea levels to quality of the air we breathe. A pastor
who once served me preached on occasion about SUVs as an
earth-stewardship issue, an ethical concern, a matter for the
biblically faithful to weigh. He didn't ask "What Would Jesus
Drive?" but he might have.
2. Love of our non-human neighbors surely demands a drastic
change in U.S. animal farming. "To visit a modern CAFO (Confined
Animal Feeding Operation) is to enter a world that, for all its
technological sophistication, is still designed according to
Cartesian principles: animals are machines incapable of feeling
pain. Since no thinking person can possibly believe this any more,
industrial animal agriculture depends on a suspension of disbelief
on the part of the people who operate it and a willingness to avert
your eyes on the part of everyone else."11 If all of us meat-eaters
knew how brutally, how unnaturally our food animals are raised and
slaughtered, I think there'd be a fully deserved outcry of anguish.
It is incumbent on a biblical people to help make known this
phenomenon in our food production, a relatively recent development,
and to advocate intensely for change.
3. Can we look seriously at our urban/suburban lawncare
practices? Can't we find an alternative to chemically fertilizing
crops of unneeded grass production, which we then use fossil fuels
to cut and have carted away to landfills, with lawn runoff
meanwhile polluting our lakes and streams? There has to be another
way.
4. And, with tongue just partly in cheek, let me note a chemical
development that's more hopeful. The question concerns Viagra. Is
it a creation-friendly drug? (I didn't say PRO-creation-friendly.)
Yes, it seems so. The New York Times Magazine reported recently
that, in just five years, sales of Viagra have significantly
reduced the market for animal-product alternatives in certain
cultures, especially in Asia. The writer cites decline in demand
for such supposed aphrodisiacs as the velvet from Alaskan reindeer
antlers and products from sea horses and geckos and green
turtles.(11) Maybe a new ad slogan is coming: "Better living for
wildlife through chemistry" March 18, 2003? Sometimes unintended
side effects can be good for our siblings in the rest of God's
creation.
© March 2003
Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE)
Volume 3, Issue 3
1 Joseph Sittler, "Called To Unity," address to WCC
Assembly in New Delhi, November 1961, South East Asia Journal of
Theology, April 1962, 6-15.
2 H. Paul Santmire, "Toward a Christology of Nature:
Claiming the Legacy of Joseph Sittler and Karl Barth," Dialog, Fall
1995, 279.
3 For a fine overview of Luther&=javascript:goNote(39s
earth-friendly theology, see Larry Rasmussen and Cynthia
Moe-Lobeda's "The Reform Dynamic," The Promise of Lutheran Ethics,
ed. Karen L. Bloomquist and John R. Stumme (Minneapolis: Fortress,
1998), 131ff.
4 Martin Luther, WA 32.134.34-235.36, as cited by
Santmire, The Travail of Nature (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985).
5 Cf. WA 48.201.5. Cited by Heinrich Bornkamm,
Luther&=javascript:goNote(39s World of Thought, trans. Martin
H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia, 1958), 179.
6 Santmire, Brother Earth: Nature, God, and Ecology in a
Time of Crisis (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1970), 131. Santmire makes
this point consistently in his writings; see also The Travail of
Nature: the Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1985) and Nature Reborn: the Ecological and
Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress,
2000).
7 Larry L. Rasmussen, Earth Community Earth Ethics
(Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1998), 262.
8 Douglas John Hall, Imaging God: Dominion as Stewardship
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1986).
9 Bonhoeffer, "Das Recht auf Selbstbehauptung," in
Gesammelte Schriften, 3:262-63, cited in Earth Community Earth
Ethics, 313.
10 Rasmussen and Moe-Lobeda, op. cit., 131-2.
11 Margaret Talbot, New York Times Magazine, 15 December
2002, p. 133.