God’s the Owner, But We’re Accountable

Earth Day is Monday, April 22. This year the focus is upon climate change and how that impacts human society and the natural world around us. People on every continent will be called upon to see how man’s interaction with nature may be hurting it. Whatever your feelings may be concerning the reality of climate change and its causes, the truth is by living on this planet you are affecting it.

I grew up on a farm. We grew most of our food. It was not unusual on a mid-summer day to look around the dinner table and note the only thing we had not raised was the cornbread. My mother refused to use the corn meal my father would occasionally try to grind. The milk, the beef, the vegetables, and the fruit had all been raised on our farm. My father’s guiding philosophy was “Take care of the land and it will take care of you.” Another part of my father’s philosophy concerning farming was expressed one day while surveying a 20-acre field of half grown corn. Leaning on a gate at the edge of the field, Pop said, “It’s good to be able to work with God and raise a crop like this.”

The East African word of wisdom has much truth, but it comes up a little short. “We have not inherited the earth from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children.” It misses the issue of true ownership. While we care for the land, we are stewards, but stewardship is far more than a matter of economics. It is far more than just acknowledging that others will use the land after we are gone.

It is a matter of understanding who the real Owner is and acting accordingly. It is a matter of understanding the world is not ours to do with as we please. It is a matter of understanding the consequences of our actions not just for the generations who follow us but also in our accountability before the One who is both Creator and Owner.

The Psalmist wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1, RSV) A good steward will care for what does not belong to him in the same way he would if it was his own. He will make sure it is there for him next year even though he must use it this year. He will understand even as he depends upon that resource so will those who come after him whether it is to be his children or a stranger.

Humanity is a steward of this planet and its resources. Even if we had other planets to which we could go as colonists, we would still have a responsibility for this world. The fact that we are stewards would not change. We have a responsibility. We must consider ourselves accountable. To our children, yes, but even more so we must consider ourselves accountable to the One Creator and Owner.

Global warming may well indeed be related to the way we have used our natural resources. It may be related more to the fact of our wastefulness than our simple use of those resources. Even if we have used the resources in a responsible way, when we impact our environment in a way that changes it, we are to be held accountable. We must live in this world in a way that shows we are not thinking in a sense of personal ownership.

Christians more than any others should understand their positions as stewards. Caring for the earth should come as a natural part of worship of the Creator. Recycling is good economics for both the present and the future. Using fewer resources for personal desires makes more materials available to meet the needs of the poor and more food for those facing hunger. Good stewardship of the earth should always point to a responsibility for our fellow man.

Earth Day should be every day for those who honor the Creator above the creation.

Taking Care of the Temple

How is the custodian rewarded for taking care of the temple? Maybe you don't see any need for a reward. Maybe you expect some well-intended soul to take care of matters out of a simple love for the Lord. That's all very spiritually minded, but it rarely gets you the best results. Why? That is a very good question.

Especially when you consider what the temple might be. What if the temple is your physical body, sometimes referred to as the temple of the Holy Spirit? What if it is the congregation of believers which is also sometimes referred to as the temple of the Holy Spirit? Looking at the big picture, what if the temple is the created order itself, the realm in which the Creator has chosen to reveal himself to man? Is the custodian taking care of the temple and is he doing a job worth rewarding?

As a minister I am conscious of the image my fellow ministers and I present to the public. We preach that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6), but I see a lot of temples falling into ruin through neglect. We are all familiar with the litany of causes handed to us by our doctors. We eat too much. We sit too much. We don't eat the right kind of foods, and we don't handle stress well. Our faith tells us that God will take care of us even while we ignore him as he says, "I gave you a brain. Use it!"

I do not relish rising before the sun at 5:00 AM to walk two miles on a treadmill and work through other simple exercises. If it had not been for that arterial stint, I might not be so committed. Instead there I am, six days a week, heading for the torture room, and then considering what I can eat the rest of the day that will be tasty, cheap, and good for me. The menu has grown slim. Yet if my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then he deserves the best maintenance that I can provide.

For 25 years I served in a local church. The Apostles Paul and Peter refer to the people of God as a temple the Holy Spirit is building, one living stone at a time (Ephesians 2; I Peter 2). You have to wonder sometimes how God ever chose some of the building materials we see walking into a morning worship service (including ourselves). Yet there they are, chipped and cracked, stained and sticky, rough and ragged, from all walks of life. God looks at this ragtag bunch and tells us that this is our family, the brothers and sisters of Christ. These are the ones he welcomes into the Kingdom before all those Pharisees and scribes. Are we doing our part to take care of the temple?

Jesus reminded his listeners that it was the sick who needed the physician, not the healthy (Matthew 9). In the doctor's office the intake nurse finds out all the gruesome details. No treatment is provided. Only when the doctor sees you can the treatment begin. How often we as church members forget that we are not the doctor, nor do we expect those who see no need to meet the doctor to come into our midst. We welcome. We offer comfort and companionship, but the healing that is needed comes only through the hand of the Great Physician. He does not leave unchanged those who seek him. Do we take care of the congregational temple?

Can all creation be described as the temple of God? Jesus used the image of the earth as being the footstool of God (Matthew 5). He who is too great to be contained in any temple still sees himself vitally connected to his creation. It is a part of his royal throne room. And as such it deserves our special care.

The ecological concerns of our day should not be new or novel to the Christian. Such concerns should be a fundamental part of the way we express our recognition that we are stewards, not owners, of creation. Whether you see the present generation inheriting nature from our parents or borrowing it from our children, the Owner remains the Creator (Psalm 24). As stewards we are caretakers and will be held responsible for our stewardship. We honor God in the way we care for his creation.

We are the temple keepers, all the temples. In many ways we are winners and losers through the methods we care for the temples in this mortal existence. In other ways we will stand before the Owner, give an accounting for what has been in our charge, and receive the judgment. I know the reward I want to hear (Matthew 25:21).