Sermons

"First Among Equals"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church

of Anchorage by The Reverend Mark E. Long

on September 6, 2009

Lections:  Gen. 2.4b-15

                  Lev. 25.2-5

                  Rm. 8.19-22

                  Lk. 16.10-12

There are two "in the beginning" stories of creation.  Gen. 1 tells of a creation where humans are uniquely made than all other things and put on top of the pecking order to have "dominion" over and even to "subdue" the rest of it.  Then there is another, shorter, story which tells quite a different tale.

As we saw last week, Gen. 1 has led some Christians in the name of "dominion theology" to lay claim to the belief that the rest of nature has been given them by God to do with as they please so long as other humans do not come to harm in the doing.  It is a dangerous interpretation of Gen. 1:28 that should concern all of us.

So what of this "other" story that puts humans more in the middle of things than on top?  How can it help us see our world in a cooperative frame of mind, with more hope in the nature of ourselves than simply the agents of the Apocalypse?

Today I will stake the case that the other "in the beginning" story is our best chance to survive the worst of human tendencies - to put ourselves first.

The real difficulty is that, I believe, we are "first" but the "bright or muddy" world we create from that perch depends on how we see other things from there.  We saw the "dominion" argument last week; now let's take a look at another Scripture and a whole different way of seeing our relationship to the rest of creation.

The Scripture is Gen. 2.  It describes the creation of humans principally, and for this reason has been understood by some as simply a more detailed account of Gen. 1.  But, if so, the storyteller is unforgivably sloppy with his facts.  Given this is highly unlikely, it seems the story comes from a distinctive, and distinctively different, tradition.

First in Gen. 1, the "great sea monsters and every (other) living creature" get made before humans.  In Gen. 2, man gets made and then God creates every other creature trying to find a suitable helper/partner for him.  So man is created and then the rest follows.  Second in Gen. 1, the human is created in "God's image, ex nihilo, seemingly out of nothing.  Poof!  And there he is.  In Gen. 2, the man is created out of the "dust of the ground," miraculously made for sure but out of the same stuff as every other living thing.  He is no more and no less "fearfully and wonderfully" made than anything else.  Third, "humankind" is plural in Gen. 1 and becomes singular man - alone of his kind - only in Gen. 2.

More generally, all we know from Gen. 1 is humankind is to have "dominion" over all the rest and has God's consent to "subdue" as necessary.  But in Gen. 2, the man is put in the middle of things to be a farmer, forever tied to the ground out of which he was created.  He is told to "till it and keep it."

It is this last bit of difference which strikes me as something which offers an answer to those who claim "dominion" and the right to "subdue" on the way to the Apocalypse.  "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it."

They are words easily skipped over as the readers' eyes go to the sentence immediately after which give the Lord's command not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree.  Now that gets our attention, not the commandment of the Lord to be a farmer.

Man is put in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  This seems innocuous enough - but is it?  Let's look further.

The word 'till' is a translation of the Hebrew word "avad" that much to the surprise of those who would "subdue" the world means "to serve."  It is a powerful word for service, the word used in other places to refer to slaves serving masters and humans serving God.  In Gen. 2, man serves nature upon which he is dependent for his survival.  His position is one of dependence rather than dominion.  He is put on the earth to live in cooperation with the other parts of the Lord's creation.  He cannot, in fact, survive without it; his fortunes are forever tied to it.

In light of Gen. 2, "dominion theology" begins to look a whole lot more like the benevolent stewardship commanded in Lev. 25:2-5 than the "scorched earth" policy which prevailed historically and continues, in visible and influential pockets, as Christian policy on the environment even today.

Of course, not all Christian history has been dismissive of the environment.  There have been some who looked beyond "humans first" to see that humans are but "first among equals."  Two men of the Middle Ages, Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, understood the cooperation that humans must have with nature as a key to understanding God.

Francis of Assisi raised "dependence theology" to a level of family.  He addressed the rest of creation's living things as "sisters" and "brothers," as equals not subjects to be subdued.  For Francis, "dominion" by humans over creation must be interpreted in light of Gen. 2.  It is only dominion in a form of stewardship that God gives to humans.  Humans are restricted to seeing the world, says Francis, as though through God's eyes for they behold it as creatures made in the "image of God," its creator and sustainer.

Francis of Assisi's belief in this extended "family" comes through clearly in his famous work - "Canticle of the Creature."

"All praise be yours, My Lord,

Through all that you have made.

And first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day . . .

How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord through Sister Moon and Stars;

in the heavens you have made them, bright and precious and fair.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air . . .

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,

so useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

through whom you brighten up the night . . .

All praise be yours, my Lord through Sister Earth, our mother,

who feeds us . . . and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs

Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,

and serve him with great humility."

Thomas Aquinas, a generation later, picked up from the Dominicans[1], his priestly order, Francis' reverence for nature and connected strongly the "first among equals" theme to his belief in revelation of God to humans through experience and reason.  As Thomas recognized, "any error about creation leads to an error about God."

So Thomas Aquinas brings us full circle back to the "beginning" where what we understand of ourselves and the world around us depends on what we understand about what God has given to us and why.

It is our choice to determine the "reality on the ground" in this age.  Perhaps it has not always been so, but it is now.  It is our choice whether we continue to allow humans to try and draw food out of rocks.  It is our choice whether the ground and nature remains an adversary for some in the world.  It doesn't have to be that way; it is whatever we, so called civilized women and men, will allow to be.

At this point, we are in a position to choose our way of seeing the world - "dominion" or "dependence;" but in some distant, or not so distant, day the choice may no longer be ours.  It may be taken out of our hands entirely and, as the Gospel of Luke warns, we find out the price of not behaving responsibly toward what has been entrusted to us.

So let's take to heart and pass along the lessons of Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi for our age.  Francis teaches us:  There may be more family members than we think.  Thomas teaches us:  "Any error about creation leads to an error about God."  "Humans first" or "first among equals;" the world will be surprised still again which serves us best.

This is how I see a world made and seen through the eyes of an immanent God.  Amen.