Creation, Food & Kingdom Come

This is the second post on the subject of Creation Care, one of the five spheres of a Christian ethic of eating.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:29-30)

One of the sticking points for Christians on both sides of the creation care issue is the definition of subdue. Subdue can either mean

train, domesticate, neuter, control, extract value

or

love, care for, nurture, protect, watch over

How you view creation is rooted in what your view of God is. Is God a controlling god, one who subdues you by lassoing you like a wild horse and taming you until you submit to his every command? Or, is God a nurturing god, one who subdues you by loving, caring, watching over and protecting?

The whole tone of Genesis 1 is of a nurturing God. As covered in the previous post, God’s nature is one of a gardener. In Genesis 1 in particular, God is a loving protector. The Spirit subdues the earth by hovering over it like a mother bird cares for her young. God gives the earth to humankind and says subdue it, but we cannot interpret “subdue” the way humankind has distorted it—reigning in, harnessing, and breaking until something is under control. We are called to be like God, and God subdues things through love, nurture and overcoming.

So what does this have to do with food? If we care for creation, we must care about food. Creation is primarily a large garden, available to us for our food, as the passage above elaborates. This is not the way the world operates though.

The world, but particularly in America, subdues creation in a negative way—to break it down and tame it so that every bit of value can be extracted from it. Take this attitude to its logical conclusion, and you end up with large scale material waste, deadly pollution, mountaintop removal mining, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and chemically eviscerated soil and waterways.

There is hope though. Through Christ’s kingdom, we are called to no longer conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed. Part of this transformation must be to commit to treat the earth the way God did at creation and continues to do so even now: with love and nurture, until the time comes when there is a new heavens and new earth.

We don’t know when that time will be, but we have time right now. Let’s use it to continue God’s loving protection and care for all creation.

Discussion Questions:

How do you view the call to subdue?

Think about how your daily actions affect creation. Are you contributing to harming the earth or protecting it? Or both?

What are some changes you can make to your daily routine to help nurture and take care of the earth?