October 21 2017
WHY ARE WE HERE?
We, you and I, are here for one purpose only: to look after creation. Nothing else comes even close. It’s also a rewarding affair: when we look after creation, creation looks after us.
This ‘cultural mandate’ was given to the first human pair: there, in the beginning, before time started (because it was supposed to be FOREVER) the original human calling was service in its fullest scope and doing this gladly with all it possessed. That was clearly evident when God entrusted Adam and Eve with the occupancy and care for the cosmos. Entrusting implied full ownership: total possession.
Caring for creation was then and still is now our primary cultural mandate.
Faint notions of this original assignment are still visible to us. Actually it’s becoming more evident now that creation is in such a state of imbalance because our creational sins are catching up on us. You see the opposite is true as well: neglecting, abusing creation makes it our enemy.
Still………
Scientific observations confirm that living along greenery, close to trees, in the midst of vegetation, soaking in nature makes us happier, and lengthens our lifespan.
It is really striking how great our powers were at the time of creation when God allotted us full ownership of creation.
Basically the Creator said: “I give you complete freedom to develop the earth as you see fit. I will first allow you a learning period, in which you can begin to see the intricacy of all created matter, so that you can respect and understand how all things fit together. After that you can start to develop created matter, to deploy the means of creation, use your brains and so serve God.”
When we start to learn about ourselves, which is perhaps the highest goal of every human, we realize that all of us have many diverse abilities and talents, but we all need three specific traits: (1) We have to acquire special knowledge, (2) Must aim for total peace with the Highest, and (3) See the holiness of all creation.
Life, from the very beginning was a classroom; life from the very outset was a harmonious relationship with the Creator; life was always to be a constant, never ceasing learning and worship experience.
Those three features give us humans our unique stamp, lending us a character that distinguishes us from every other creature, making us rational, spiritual, and moral beings.
Last week I was reading “TENDING THE GARDEN: essays on the Gospel and the earth.” The introduction cited a survey done by Yale University, tracing human attitudes toward nature and wildlife. The outcome was rather startling: “the more frequently an individual attended religious services, the higher the probability that his or her attitudes toward animals would tend toward those of domination or even outright negativity. Similarly, those who reported that they rarely (if ever) attended religious services were far more likely to display an ecological or naturalistic stance toward the animal world.”
One key rule.
Of course we must respect creation as an extension of God, the Creator: it is the earthly, natural reality of God’s creativity.
When we look around us into the whole wide world out there, we immediately are overwhelmed by the rich diversity we see everywhere. The immense richness is simply astounding. The abundance of varieties of beings and the many kinds of creatures is beyond belief.
A closer survey discovers ever-newer shapes and forms and ever more encounters with different, previously unknown species.
When we more closely examine what goes on around us, then instead of mere admiration for the amazing newness of it all, we are struck even more by the unity and order that are evident everywhere, because everything on earth is somehow harmoniously connected to everything else. The one species influences the other and the one creature depends on the other.
Plants cannot exist without the earth that feeds them. Animals, on the other hand, cannot function without plants, as these are often the sole source for their food.
The phenomena of day and night, of summer and winter, of rain and drought, of heat and cold, all are part of the grand chain
of happenings, depending on where the sun happens to be and from where the wind blows. The one event influences another and yet the one cannot exist without the presence of the other.
We continuously discover that the order is one full of purpose. The great connectedness of all these entities is at the same time the reason why the totality is served by it as well. We don’t even need to explore everything too deeply to discover the amazing fact that behind everything there is an invisible set of laws: that the one as it were serves to complete the other. The butterflies serve the flowers just as much as the flowers serve the butterflies. The sun, that big, beneficial celestial body, which from an immeasurable distance bathes the earth in multicolored splendor, is itself not conscious that from a distance of millions of miles it brings light and warmth. It is the sun that maintains life on earth. It is the sun that causes plants to sprout out of the moist earth. It is the sun that removes mourning and remakes it into merriment. If the sun had a mind of its own, then perhaps it would muse: I shine because that’s my nature: I delight in it; it’s the joy of my life. But it knows not that a Hand mightier than the sun has included it in the beautiful law of serving. Because, unknowingly, that so superior sun serves the tiny, tiny plant that full of life expectancy courageously stretches its stem to absorb its rays.
When we look around us with open eyes and minds, then there
is one thing that time and again touches us to the core: it’s all about serving. The law of serving is at the heart of every creature: it is the overarching purpose for every being. That law makes it possible for the entire world to exist.
Every creature may think that it is there only for itself, but in the final analysis it is nothing else but a servant for others. To be alive, to exist at all, finds it destination simply in serving others. Without that law nothing else can be. Yet that law of serving is remarkable in more than one way.
What is so truly amazing is that, as a rule, no creature is there for the sole reason of serving, as they all think that self-help
is their sole goal, but all that serving goes automatically, and thus is simply an unconscious act. It is as if a mighty hand brings all this into motion and, in spite of itself, stimulates this self-less serving. This serving, therefore, is not a sacrifice, is not a duty, but an in-born act, without compulsion, without intent. Each single being is there according to its nature, but everything together is so oriented that the existence of the one supports the other and maintains it.
It also soon becomes clear that the act of serving changes in direct proportion to the higher status of the species.
There are three categories of beings in creation, three large classes, which differ among themselves.
The first category consists of the ordinary, lifeless material. That
too involves service, but it is one that is ostensibly accidental. The fertile soil serves the tiny seeds that germinate there but they are unaware of this, and that’s alright with them. A blanket of snow, with its dense cover, serves to protect the field against the bitter cold. The high mountains also serve when they gather the snow in the winter and preserve it throughout the spring only to release it in the summer and so replenish the rivers with their pure and cool water. But all this proceeds unknowingly.
Then there is the rotating of the earth around its axis. Is this not also a serving of immense meaning because this daily motion makes the transition from day to night possible, something that, in the final analysis, enables us to live?
All these elements are unaware of their serving. Sometimes, circumstances may cause severe damage. This happens, for instance, when unusual rainfall results in widespread flooding, or when a merciless sun burns the promising harvest to a crisp. In the seemingly nonliving world the great order of natural law still rules, generally attuned to the great law of service; but under the prodding of the great Adversary it is now more and more inclined toward destruction.
In the second place another broad range of species can be found in the smaller of the animals and plants. In that segment service takes on a more defined role, has more purpose, more unity, and looks to be more intentional. The plant offers itself with all its tender organs, and, when circumstances become unfavorable, it even changes its approach to other methods to serve better.
Upon closer examination it appears that the typical plant is less concerned about its own welfare and more about the well-being of its progeny.
The mother offers her life to advance that of her child. The full ear shrivels to dust when the seeds have been released into the earth. To propagate the line the single specimen brings the ultimate sacrifice.
The mother protects the young against all danger and would rather perish than neglect her newborn. There also is evidence of a peculiar “specimen-egoism.”
We are on top, but…..
At the very top of these three compartments is the final stage, that of the conscious possessors of free will, the human species.
With humans service is simply different, is infinitely richer, but because of that also more difficult. It is self-evident that the aforementioned natural instincts are also present in the human race.
There too they care for children; there too a touch of “specimen-egoism.” But these powerful instinctive forces are here recognized as such. Humans know exactly what they do and why they do it.
Consequently humans have much greater opportunity to serve.
Service becomes specialized as each assumes a small part of the great societal task. The trouble with us humans is that the inclination to only serve our specific needs is both stronger and more dangerous, promoting our welfare at the expense of our fellow citizens and creation. Even though we are more conscious of what we do and are able to gauge our needs we also can easily ignore the plight of our neighbors and creation.
That happens all too easily when we center life around our own interests, while often pushing away the needs of others. In short: serving is for most of us something we are loath to do, driven by egoism, the “I come first” instinct. That “I come first” inclination
often overwhelms all other feelings, stifles them, and comes out on top. With us humans the urge of “me first” usually takes priority over conflict, the struggle, the concept of serving.
Given this weakness, we have been given a command: serve one another! This serving, something all other species of the world accomplish automatically and by instinct, we have to implement in full awareness of what we do. In this third category we are given the command, the moral code: Love your neighbor as yourself, and God and his creation above everything else.
There has been one, the human Jesus Christ, who has expressed
his life’s calling: The Son of Man, Humanity personified, has not come to be served, but to serve.
Not serving creation comes at a price.
Already we see the contours of the end times. This past week it was discovered that 75 percent of all insects world-wide have disappeared: jeopardizing pollination and starving birds. That is just one sign.
The end manifests itself in an increasing and senseless chaos among the human race in ways far greater than ever before experienced. In the very end, thoroughly evil elements will use the powerful instruments of modern technology to make life totally machine-dominated.
Still, we, you and I, are here for one purpose only: to look after creation. Nothing else comes even close. It’s also a rewarding affair: when we look after creation, creation looks after us.
That was and still is our ‘cultural mandate’.
P.S. Some of these thoughts I owe to J.H. Bavinck in his book “The Riddle of Life”.