Christianity’s Inconvenient Truths

Luke16:1-13

My sermon title is a reference to Al Gore’s now famous 2006 documentary entitled “An Inconvenient Truth,” which won two Academy Awards. But let me make it clear at the very beginning that this sermon is in no way political. Concern for the environment should transcend politics. In this respect Al Gore may have been the worst thing that could have happened to the issue of climate change or global warming because his film and his book “Earth in the Balance” politicized a scientific issue. He did not intend this to happen, but it happened nonetheless simply because he is a politician.

Once again let me say that Al Gore was both the worst thing and the best thing that happened to the issue of climate change. He was the best thing because he brought the issue of global warning to the forefront of public discussion. It was the worst thing because people immediately began to take sides on the issue based not on the scientific merit of his case but on political party. People suspected he had a political agenda. If you were a Democrat you agreed with him; if you were a Republican you disagreed with him. Science took a back seat to politics, and that is always bad for science. So let me make it clear that what I have to say this morning has nothing to do with politics. As many of you know I am not a member of either major political party.

This morning I am going to be taking about care for the environment in spiritual terms. Gore also tried to take this approach in his book “Earth in the Balance.” Gore writes: “The more deeply I search for the roots of the global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifestation of an inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual,” (p. 12). He defines “spiritual” as “the collection of values and assumptions that determine our basic understanding of how we fit into the universe.” (p. 12) That is what I am going to be dealing with this morning. I am not a scientist, but I am a Christian who is concerned about what we are doing to God’s creation. Gore is also a Christian. So whether or not you agree with his politics, he is our Christian brother. He writes: “My own faith is rooted in the unshakable belief in God as creator and sustainer, a deeply personal interpretation of and relationship with Christ.” (368) I believe that the human relationship to the earth is fundamentally a spiritual issue. How we treat the earth flows from our spiritual worldview. That is why I am addressing it in a sermon. It was also requested in a Summer Sermon Suggestion.

In the interest of full disclosure for those who are climate change skeptics, I admit up front that I believe that the scientific evidence is overwhelming that the earth’s climate is warming up. I also believe that the evidence points to the likelihood that humans have played a role in that change. Even though people use the issue for their own partisan political agendas – liberal and conservative – if we put that aside, I think that the science behind global warming is irrefutable. I also suspect that the increase in short term extreme weather events that we are seeing around the world and in our country  - from record heat, wildfires, hurricanes, floods and tornadoes - may be the result of this long term climate change pattern, although that connection needs more documentation.

But I am not going to be talking meteorology today; I going to talk about theology and spirituality. I am going to be presenting some of the Bible’s inconvenient truths about the earth and humans’ relationship to it. I am using Jesus’ Parable of the Unjust Steward as my text to expound these truths.

I. The first truth is that the earth belongs to God. The earth is not ours to do with what we want; we are the earth’s, and we and the earth belong to God, the Lord of the heavens and earth. Jesus’ story begins, “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.” I think Jesus’ story can be applied to our environmental situation. The rich man represents God, and man is God’s steward. The accusation is brought that the steward is wasting the owner’s goods. In this same way we can say that the earth is the Lord’s and we have been wasting his earthly goods. In the Psalms David makes it clear who the earth belong to. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Ps. 24:1) The Lord also says to Job, “Everything under heaven belongs to me” (Job 41:11). Psalm 104:24 declares, "The earth is full of Your possessions." In 1 Chronicles 29:11 we read, "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours."

The Earth is God’s creation and possession. This an inconvenient truth because many people – religious and nonreligious – wish that were not true. People would rather have the earth be ours to do with what we want.  Even Christians have twisted the Bible to give ourselves permission to misuse the earth, just like Christians in the American South used the Bible to justify the institution of slavery. In fact many nonreligious people have blamed the present environmental on Christianity. They point to the Genesis command for man to “have dominion” over all living creatures on the earth as the root of all our modern problems. In Ian McHarg’s frequently quoted book (Design with Nature, 1969) he describes this passage  (Genesis 1:26,28) "as one text of compounded horror which will guarantee the relationship of man to nature can only be destruction …. The Genesis story in its insistence upon dominion and subjugation of nature, encourages the most exploitative and destructive instincts in man, rather than those that are deferential and creative … God’s affirmation about man’s dominion was a declaration of war on nature."

Lynn White wrote in his paper ‘The historical roots of our ecologic crisis’ (Science, 155: 1204-7, 1967). "We are superior to nature, contemptuous of it, willing to use it for our slightest whim … Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance towards nature that no solution can be expected from them alone." It is true that Christians have been a part of the problem, just like nonchristians have been. But it not correct to blame the Bible for our present situation. Any fair examination of the whole Bible – and not just selected proof texts - will reveal that the Bible teaches that the land and animals are to be cared for and treated with respect. On the other hand Christians also blame the secularism and humanism of Western society with its view of nature as a machine and no more than a backdrop for technological advancement and commercial development as the problem. That is not completely true either. It is inconvenient to both of these worldviews to see what the Scriptures really teach. That the world is God’s creation, that it is pronounced good, and that humans are part of that creation.

II. That brings me to Christianity’s second inconvenient truth. Humans are not just part of God’s creation, they have a God-given role that no other species has: to be stewards of God’s creation on this earth. Humans are made in the image of God, which means they are to be God’s representatives on this earth toward the natural world.

There are two creation stories in Genesis. One in chapter 1 and the other in chapter 2. People will quote the first and not the second, but to get the whole story you have to have both. The first story God makes humans in his own image and then says to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (1:28) People critical of Christianity interpret subdue and dominion in a violent destructive abusive sense. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you read how this command was applied in the rest of the laws of the OT you see it was meant in the sense of cultivate the land and domesticate the animals for human use, and to care for those animals not for human use. That is the whole point of Noah’s ark! Why put all these “unclean” animals that humans cannot eat or use on the ark? The whole purpose of the ark was to protect all living animals on the planet – whether or not they were useful for man. The second creation story in Genesis 2 makes it clear when it says “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (2:15) He was to tend and keep all the plants and trees, to make it a beautiful garden on earth, which meant in this chapter to stay completely away from some of the trees.

I know you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say. Shakespeare wrote “the devil can cite scripture for his purpose.” But if you look at all the evidence then it is clear that the Bible does not give humans a license to strip the earth and abuse it, to decimate whole species, but instead instructs us to care for the flora and fauna of earth as God’s stewards.

III. This brings me to my third inconvenient truth – that we are accountable to God. In Jesus’ parable, the steward was supposed to take care of the master’s goods, but he does not. “an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’” We are to give an account before God for how we have fulfilled his instructions as a human race. There is a need for confession and repentance here. I don’t see a whole lot of confession and repentance happening on the national political scene when it comes to the environment. This is where the Christian church can play a leadership role. When you hear discussion about protecting the environment, reversing global warming and protecting endangered species, all the talk is about the effect of environmental policies on economics and politics and international relations.

They mostly have to do with economics – what it is going to cost us. Is it going to help us or hurt us as a nation? There is a lot of talk about what is fair in regard to each country, the developing world and the industrial world, and what other countries are doing or have to do. I don’t hear a lot of talk about accountability to God. That is where religion can play a role. We have been given a job to do on this earth from the very beginning by the CEO of the cosmos. Our task on this little planet is to “tend and keep it.” In the midst of our economic problems and our international relations we have lost sight of the big picture. Before there ever was a United States or a China or a European Union, human beings were assigned a task to do – to care for our common earthly home - and we are not doing it. To use the words of the parable, word has come to the owner of this planet that his stewards are not doing their job, that we are wasting God’s resources. The man in the parable calls his steward to account. “So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

IV. This is Christianity’s fourth inconvenient truth. We are in danger of being fired from our job as stewards. In this parable there is an apocalyptic urgency to take action. If you want to know what that might look like if we don’t act, then read Alan Weisman’s book “The World Without Us.” It describes what the earth would be like if human beings were no longer present. Wilderness reclaims urban areas. It turns out that it is not so bad for the earth. Considering how we have been destroying habitats, poisoning the ocean, and extinguishing species of animals, maybe we are doing more harm than good to God’s property. Remember these animals are God’s not ours. “For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.” (Psalm 50)

I have had the misfortune of being a landlord at various times in my life, both seasonal rentals and long term. If you have ever rented property to tenants then you know that some tenants treat your property with respect and others destroy your property. One of the tenants we had in our little in-law apartment in Pennsylvania ruined the place. It had to be completely redone to make it livable and rentable again. I ended up kicking the guy out, which is not an easy thing to do legally these days. We are God’s tenants here on this planet. God is the landlord – the Lord of the land. Not only are we the tenants, but it was our job to be the caretakers of the property – live-in caretakers. We are assigned the task of managing the property. Look what we have done to the owner’s property! If I were the owner and landlord I would begin legal action to kick us out of the job and off the property. Maybe that is what God has in mind. It seems to be the message of this parable, and not only this parable. Jesus tells a number of apocalyptic parables about people who are judged for not fulfilling their duties.

Look what the steward does in the parable. When he learns that his judgment day is coming, he panics. He says in verses 3-4 “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’” Then he spends the little time he has left before he has to leave scrambling to make amends the best he can. He tries to recover as much as he can for his boss in as short a time as he possible can. He doesn’t care if he is not getting the best return on the investment, he is just trying to save his own neck. When the owner finds out what the steward did, he praises him for his shrewdness, cleverness, and creativity. He says in verse 8 “So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.”

This is what is needed in regards to environmental issues today. The ‘sons of this world” are doing more than the church to care for the earth’s environment. People don’t feel any sense of urgency when it comes to this topic. We are more concerned with homeland security and the world economy than the environment. The average person is more interested in family, job, personal finances and health concerns. In this presidential election I don’t hear the issue raised much. There is no sense of urgency. That is because politicians don’t feel they are accountable to anyone but the constituents who elect them and the individuals and groups who give them the most money. I see little sense of accountability to God.

Only the church feels any accountability to God, and not even then all the time. To be honest, with the shrinking role of the church’s influence in society I don’t know if our call to be accountable to God on this issue can be heard. The church seems more concerned with the morality of contraception than the fact that we might be making the planet uninhabitable for our descendants. The consequences of not taking environmental action seem too far down the road for most people to worry about right now. We have more important issues to attend to. That seems to be the prevalent. But that doesn’t mean we can give up. It means that we need to be faithful to what we know to be true. To do our task as stewards on this earth as God’s people, to keep repeating these inconvenient biblical truths at this time in history.