![\"earthcare\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2014\/09\/earthcare.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis was originally the\u00a0sermon I preached at Redemption Church on September 21, 2014. It has been edited into a long-form essay here. If you are a pastor, feel free to copy and use any of this.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SHIFT: From Exploitation to Stewardship<\/strong><\/p>\n The Catholic theologian Ronald Rolheiser says that to be human is to live with an excess of desire.\u00a0\u201cDesire is always stronger than satisfaction,\u201d he says. (p.3) To be\u00a0humans is to have an excess of desire. Not all desire is bad. We desire justice, mercy, love, and belonging\u2014all good things. But the quintessential human move is to\u00a0attempt to maximize our ability to meet our own desires, and minimize the number of our\u00a0unmet desires.<\/p>\n The problem is that society cannot function very well if everybody is simply trying to realize their own desires. So, we band together and\u00a0set limits. Ethics, morals, culture, laws, are all about setting limits on how far you can go to meet your own desire. This, we know, is simply part of the human condition: We are all dealing with an excess of desire.<\/p>\n Rolheiser says that for Christians, \u201cSpirituality is, ultimately, about what we do with that desire.\u201d (p.5) What we do with the enduring\u00a0excess of desire is called spirituality<\/em>. If our desires and longings rule over us, they threaten our health, and the health of the world. A life ruled by desire will always become destructive.<\/p>\n Think of Adam &\u00a0Eve, presented\u00a0with lavish abundance, but they just had to have that forbidden fruit. They immediately began to use\u00a0the world in illegitimate ways to meet their desires.<\/p>\n God seemed to be aware of this potential. So, God gave\u00a0humankind a specific vocation, a job to do, something good to desire. Gen 1:26\u00a0\u201cThen God said, \u2018Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n This word dominion<\/strong> in Hebrew is radah<\/em>, which\u00a0has this connotation of responsibility for leadership and stewardship. That\u2019s the Human vocation. We are made responsible for the leadership and stewardship of the creation God has called \u201cgood\u201d. There is no hint of expatiation in the Hebrew concept of radah.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBe fruitful and multiply,\u201d humans were told, time and again. \u201cFill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over it.\u201d In Genesis 2 that vocation is extended. \u201cThe Lord God took the man & put him in the garden of Eden to till it & keep it<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n The word for \u201ckeep\u201d in Hebrew is the word shamar<\/em>. This is the word from the familiar blessing, \u201cMay the Lord bless you and shamar<\/em> you.\u201d To keep means to take care, and to watch over.<\/p>\n And the word for \u201ctill\u201d in Hebrew is the word abad<\/em>. We\u00a0know this from the verse, \u201cAs for me and my house we will abad<\/em> the Lord,\u201d To till the earth is render service to, or being a servant of the earth as an act of devotion to God.<\/p>\n Dominion is a kind of stewardship<\/em> that involves keeping & serving the creation God calls good; making it flourish. Dominion\u00a0does not involve exploitation.<\/p>\n And to make that point clear, God puts a limit on human desires: \u201cYou may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.\u201d Discipline is\u00a0imposed on the people. Humans can\u2019t do whatever they want with the earth, because God has retained ownership of the land. We are the stewards. God is the owner.<\/p>\n In Lev. 25:23-24 God says \u201c\u2026the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.\u201d The land belongs to YHWH. Our job is to work for its redemption.<\/p>\n Ps 24:1, \u201cThe earth is the Lord\u2019s and all that is in it; the world, and those who live in it.\u201d God is the owner of the world; we are the stewards. The owner decides the proper use of his possession (the earth).<\/p>\n 1 Kings 21:1-10<\/p>\n 1\u00a0Later the following events took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. 2\u00a0And Ahab said to Naboth, \u201cGive me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.\u201d<\/p>\n 3\u00a0But Naboth said to Ahab, \u201cThe Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.\u201d 4\u00a0Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, \u201cI will not give you my ancestral inheritance.\u201d He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat. 5\u00a0His wife Jezebel came to him and said, \u201cWhy are you so depressed that you will not eat?\u201d<\/p>\n 6\u00a0He said to her, \u201cBecause I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, \u2018Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it\u2019; but he answered, \u2018I will not give you my vineyard.\u2019\u201d [notice what he left out\u2026 the bit about the ancestral inheritance\u2026 interesting]. 7\u00a0His wife Jezebel said to him, \u201cDo you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.\u201d<\/p>\n 8\u00a0So she wrote letters in Ahab\u2019s name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. 9\u00a0She wrote in the letters, \u201cProclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; 10\u00a0seat two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, \u2018You have cursed God and the king.\u2019 Then take him out, and stone him to death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u2026and that\u2019s exactly what they do. The elders plan a banquet, falsely accuse Naboth, kill him, & Ahab takes possession of the vineyard.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me, your first though as you read this passage might have been, \u201cTake the money and run Naboth. He\u2019s a king. Inflate your price and get while the getting\u2019s good.\u201d However, we learn that the reason Naboth doesn\u2019t want to sell has to do with stewardship.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance,\u201d Naboth replies, and this phrase ancestral inheritance<\/em> is key.<\/p>\n When the Israelites settled the Promised Land each of the twelve\u00a0tribes got part of the land, which was then divided among families and clans of the tribe, each getting their own land. It was their sacred obligation to take care of that land.<\/p>\n You see, God put Israel in the Promised Land for a reason. They were to model faithful living; to be a living breathing picture of shalom<\/em>. So this \u201cancestral inheritance\u201d wasn\u2019t just land, it was a vocation. The land didn\u2019t belong to Naboth; Naboth belonged to the land<\/em>. Naboth would have refused to yield his sacred right to anyone, especially a Samaritan king married to a Sidonian princess who worships Baal.<\/p>\n This was more than just a real estate deal. The transaction Ahab proposed had implications for the vocation of Israel, and the sacred part that Naboth was to play in that as a steward of the land.<\/p>\n A good king of Israel would\u2019ve supported this kind of faithfulness. A good king would want his land filled with guys like Naboth, who were faithful & trustworthy. But Ahab isn\u2019t a good king of Israel. In fact, the writer implies this when he calls him \u201cKing Ahab of Samaria.\u201d Naboth is the king of Israel, but he\u2019s not acting like it.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s kings weren\u2019t supposed to be like the other kings in the land. In fact, when Israel stopped at the Jordan before crossing into the Promised Land, the Lord said to them, \u201cWhen you get into the land, you\u2019re going to want a king\u2026 which is fine, but I have a few rules.\u201d (Dt. 17:14-20)<\/p>\n If\u00a0held to this standard, Ahab was failing miserably. He has two palaces: one in Samaria\u2014conquered territory\u2014and a winter palace down in Jezreel at a lower elevation, which was much warmer in the winter. Apparently two palaces wasn\u2019t\u00a0enough, because Ahab wants Naboth\u2019s Vineyard, too. He wants to make it into a vegetable garden.<\/p>\n We miss the significance of the vegetable garden\u00a0because we don\u2019t know the history and symbols of Israel. The Promised Land was the place where vineyards grew\u00a0naturally. The vineyard became a symbol of God\u2019s blessing and promise. Turning a vineyard into vegetable garden would be seen as ominous sign. The Jewish readers of scripture would\u2019ve picked up on this immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cLord Forbid\u201d Naboth says\u2026 and he\u2019s not swearing, the language means something like, \u201cthis is profane to me to do because of the Lord.\u201d Ahab cannot see the position he\u2019s put Naboth in. Ahab wants to do whatever he wants to do with the land, forgetting the three things the king of Israel is required to do, and moping when he can\u2019t meet his own desire.<\/p>\n Jezebel\u00a0sees Ahab moping, and essentially calls him a wuss. \u201cDo you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.\u201d<\/p>\n She writes letters in Ahab\u2019s name. She seals them with the king\u2019s seal. Jezebel has usurped the king\u2019s power.<\/p>\n The feast was a religious and civic rite. It was\u00a0their custom, if something needed settling in a town, to have\u00a0a feast and talk about it. Naboth didn\u2019t see it coming. Once he\u2019s\u00a0is dead, Jezebel tells Ahab, \u201cGo take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hebrew word for \u201ctake possession\u201d there is yaras<\/em>. It\u2019s the exact same term used by God when he gives the land to his people. \u201cYou shall take possession [yaras<\/em>] of the land and settle in it.\u201d (Numbers 33:53). The writer is signally that Jezebel\u00a0has seized part of a divinely given inheritance. She has\u00a0usurped not only a king\u2019s authority, but God\u2019s authority as well. She has taken possession (yaras<\/em>) of land God did not intend for her.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t really be too\u00a0hard on\u00a0Jezebel. She\u2019s just doing what kings do in the rest of the world. She doesn\u2019t know what she doesn\u2019t know, and I know the feeling. She doesn\u2019t know Israel\u2019s history with the land. She doesn\u2019t know the law. She doesn\u2019t know Israel\u2019s kings are to be different. She doesn\u2019t know YHWH. In her world, kings can do whatever they want.<\/p>\n Jezebel doesn\u2019t know land belongs to God. She thinks it belongs to her\u2026 but that\u2019s not how it is supposed to work in\u00a0Israel.<\/p>\n God has always been serious about how his people treat the land. And the reason is, that the land constantly entices Israel, and us, to sin. Land is a source of life that has this seductive power, tempting Israel to believe they can live w\/out trusting in YHWH.<\/p>\n All the things God put in place to keep the people from forgetting, like a king who\u2019s a brother, doesn\u2019t amass great wealth, and who meditates on the law, or guys like Naboth\u2014those things have been ignored & subverted by Ahab & Jezebel. The result is that everything God was trying to avoid comes to pass:<\/p>\n The land has tempted Ahab, with his ready\u00a0excess of desire. And each of these three characters comes to symbolize different reactions to God\u2019s call to stewardship of land.<\/p>\n Naboth is faithful: he\u2019s the wise man of stewardship. This is what I think: Ahab is us\u2026 (or rather we are Ahab).<\/p>\n Held captive to limitless desire, pouting if he can\u2019t have what he wants, ruled by desires that are fueled by a culture that ignores God, powerful, but abdicating power, & responsibility to another\u2026. Is it just me or does this sound like a description of the American problem or what?<\/p>\n We are all held captive to limitless desires. We pout & go to pieces if we don\u2019t get what we want. We are filled with a desire stoked by a culture that ignores God. We are powerful but constantly abdicating power to governments & corporations, and as they tear up the planet and kill in our name. We look the other way & let it happen & say, \u201cwhat could I do?\u201d<\/p>\n Naboth was powerless. Jezebel was doing the only thing she knew to do. But Ahab? Ahab could\u2019ve stopped this whole thing at any time. \u201cLet\u2019s leave Naboth alone. He\u2019s a good man. He does his business. He\u2019s a steward. He doesn\u2019t deserve this injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, he looks the other way while Jezebel has Naboth murdered.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t fault Ahab for desiring the field. I fault him because he knew<\/em> what Jezebel would do. He knew it was wrong & he didn\u2019t do anything to stop it.<\/p>\n \u2026all of the excess desire.<\/p>\n This is surely the American problem: we suffer from an excess of desire. What we do with that desire is called spirituality.<\/p>\n Ahab\u2019s problem was he had no spirituality. He was supposed to live humbly & study the law, constantly reminding his people to be stewards of the land, but he didn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n By all accounts Ahab\u2019s reign was quite successful; it was a great economic time for the Northern Kingdom. His reign was a bit like Bill Clinton\u2019s presidency\u2014economically things were great, but it will always be remembered for a failure of integrity. It\u2019s not like Ahab was fiend for Baal, that was Jezebel. Ahab just wrote the checks. His problem was that he didn\u2019t engage any spirituality. He engaged in economics and war. Eventually his desire wrecks his integrity & he loses his reign.<\/p>\n Rolheiser says our spirituality is about what we do w\/our excess desire. Either we\u2019ll learn discipline or we\u2019ll experience dissipation.<\/p>\n Discipline<\/em> is training our desires, stewarding our lives toward God\u2019s desire for them (vocation). Discipline leads to stewardship.<\/em> Now with all this story in mind\u2014Naboth, Jezebele, and Ahab\u2014think about the way we relate to our planet today.<\/p>\n Is our use of the world more like discipline, or dissipation?<\/p>\n Do you know what scientists commonly call ecological studies? Dissipation studies: Terrestrial field dissipation studies, soil dissipation studies, habitat\u00a0dissipation studies, natural resource dissipation studies, petroleum, forest, reef, fisheries dissipation studies\u2026<\/p>\n We have unlimited desire in terms of\u00a0what we would like to make this planet do. When that\u00a0desire is not disciplined, we will act in ways that exploit the planet. This exploitation leads to dissipation, which is exactly what we are seeing in our world.<\/p>\n The church\u2019s problem is that we have no spirituality of creation. Because we have no spirituality, we have no disciplines regarding the world & how we use it as Christians.<\/p>\n So what we do instead is pivot to the ideology of culture. We pick a side with conservatives or liberals\u2014an Ahab move\u2014abdicating our vocation as stewards of creation. And this has lead to the dissipation of God\u2019s good creation.<\/p>\n God has not abdicated God\u2019s rights concerning the earth. We might have dominion,\u00a0but we do not have ownership. The earth is the Lord\u2019s & everything in it. We are held accountable for how we use it. We cannot be cavalier & arrogant about the planet.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not an environmentalist so much as I\u2019m a Christian\u2026 so I don\u2019t need to save the planet. But, I do need to be faithful. Concern for the planet is a matter of faithfulness<\/em>. While everyone else in the world seems to be ruled by their desires, the Christian needs to find discipline. The church needs a spirituality rich enough to fund faithfulness in regard to God\u2019s good creation, otherwise known as stewardship.<\/p>\n I have three simple suggestions on practices that could be a starting place for a spirituality of creation. Interestingly, they coincide with the three specific disciplines Israel\u2019s king was supposed to engage in.<\/p>\n SABBATH<\/strong>: take one day a week and rest from work. Cease from the\u00a0restless generating of income & activity. This discipline coincides with the requirement that Israel\u2019s king should be a brother, because more than any other discipline, keeping the Sabbath is what made Israel, Israel.<\/p>\n Sabbath doesn\u2019t mean lying around on the couch watching television. Sabbath is the practice of relating to the world from a posture of receptive delight. Get out in the midst of creation. Cook a meal. Take a nap. Take a walk. Eat with friends, Play with your kids. Tend a garden. Go to a museum, movie, concert, or play. Play music. Have a long conversation. Stare at a tree. Take pictures of nature. Sit by a stream. Skip rocks. Stand in a meadow. Gaze at the stars.<\/p>\n Do this and you will start to see what is happening to the planet. I can\u2019t even explain it. You\u2019ll just have to trust me. If you\u2019ll do Sabbath every single week, you\u2019ll start to connect back to the earth in healthy ways.<\/p>\n SIMPLICITY:<\/strong> Simplicity is about moving toward less in everything. This discipline corresponds to the call for Israel\u2019s king to refrain from amassing great wealth and lands.<\/p>\n Simplicity is, forgive me, quite simple. Use less, dispose of less, spend less, consume, store, acquire less. Simplicity means less electricity, less money, less worry, less anxiety, less fear.Who could do with a little less worry, anxiety, & fear? Losing those things is a movement toward simplicity.<\/p>\n You know the most radical discipline any of us could do in our lives right now? It would be to: simplify our schedule.<\/em><\/p>\n Most of what humans do to harm the planet is done in the name of things like speed, expediency, efficiency, convenience. (If you want a great book on this I highly recommend Slow Church<\/em> by Christopher Smith & John Pattison. They are thinking carefully about how church life and practices must become more simple\u2026 slower). They point out that we are so busy we don\u2019t have the time to be good stewards. I mean, nobody eats McDonalds because it tastes good. We eat it because it\u2019s fast. Pursuing the God-ordained human vocation of stewardship can never become fast and easy. You can\u2019t streamline calling & optimize it for efficiency.<\/p>\n STUDY:<\/strong> We have to become students of our societies, and understand what our contemporary industrial world is doing to the planet. This coincides to the call for Israel\u2019s king to remain a student of the law.<\/p>\n Read up on the environment. Watch movies. Read articles and books. And, as you read try not to pivot to your favorite political ideology. Above all, involve the scriptures. Here are four quick issues you could focus on.<\/p>\n These 3 disciplines\u2014Sabbath, simplicity, study\u2014could form the beginning of a Spirituality of creation<\/em>. These simple spiritual practices can train us to participate in our God given vocation to care for creation.<\/p>\n Wendell Berry says, \u201cThere are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.\u201d We could use with more sacred places & fewer desecrated places, yeah?<\/p>\n Christians should be leading the way on this, shifting from exploitation to stewardship; not for political reasons, but as a matter of stewardship. Every day is a chance to shift toward stewardship & discipline in terms of the way we care for creation. Our presence in any place, our stewardship of that place becomes an act of worship, making that place the place of a sacred encounter with the creator.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was originally the\u00a0sermon I preached at Redemption Church on September 21, 2014. It has been edited into a long-form essay here. If you are a pastor, feel free to copy and use any of this. \u00a0 SHIFT: From Exploitation to Stewardship The Catholic theologian Ronald Rolheiser says that to be human is to live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[993,126,1155,1111,429,1154,1156,1157],"class_list":["post-3594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-creation-care","tag-sabbath","tag-simplicity","tag-slow-church","tag-spirituality","tag-spirituality-of-creation","tag-study","tag-wendell-berry-ronald-rolheiser"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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\nJezebel isn\u2019t faithful: she is a symbol of exploitation.
\nAhab\u2026 what does Ahab symbolize?<\/p>\n
\nDissipation<\/em> is wasting by misuse, amusement, or self-indulgence; synonyms are words like \u201cbinging, going on a bender.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nDissipation leads to exploitative<\/em> practices.<\/p>\n\n