This world IS my home,
I’m NOT just passin’ through!
The gospel ditty that I learned during my childhood is wrong.
I have a responsibility to steward what God has given me.
What God has given me includes this world and this life.
I am accountable for my family, church, neighbors, and home.
I am liable for my home, my car, my possessions, and my person.
I bear a duty to my teaching, writing, speaking, and counseling.
My tasks include community with my students, colleagues, superiors, and strangers on a plane.
I am conscientious about purchases I make, the resources I consume, waste I produce, and refrigerator leftovers.
I am answerable toward my dependents, my relatives, those I lead, and those I follow.
This world and this life ARE my home: the intention of God since Genesis 2 verse 5 and 15.
Theology I from last week highlighted our dignity, depravity, and the need for a Big Brother Incarnate who would eradicate our sin. Theology II this week reminds us humans that God’s original intention is our responsible reclamation. (Click on hyperlinks.)
God’s creation is ours to manage and conserve.
So-called “environmental science” should begin with believers who take seriously creation-keeping.
If we have an unbiblical view of creation, science, and place we may fall into the trap of dividing The Creator from His creation. Ever since Genesis 3, we have been attempting to separate the created from The Creator. We fall into bifurcating spiritual from material. We create false divisions, believing “good things” belong to God and “bad things” are the domain of Satan. But most of all, we distance ourselves from a wholistic engagement with life, thinking our source of authority is human rather than divine.
I do not have to be a Christian to take care of the earth. But without a source of authority outside of myself, I have no reason to take care of the earth. Earth-keeping, creation-care, reduce-reuse-recycle all have their origin, their dictate from The Creator of creation. As God’s creature, while I’m in this world, this world IS my home, until I am called home to be with Him.
Mark believes that leftovers gone bad in his frig is sin, a lack of stewardship on his part. Dr. Mark Eckel takes care of his Indianapolis home and encourages his students to know WHY “being Green” is cool.