I've been reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's a great book in which he outlines how four different meals (categorized as "industrial," "industrial organic," organic, and hunter-gatherer) go from ground to plate. He's a great writer and teaches journalism at UC Berkely, which means he includes a tremendous amount of background for every little detail.
Anyway, Joel Salatin, a "beyond organic" farmer in VA, hosts him in one of the many adventures to really experience the local food movement. Salatin is a third generation farmer, whose Christian worldview informs every detail of his farming. Seeing his farm through Pollan's words reminded me of something I'd thought before I started my program here at Vanderbilt- my very reason for coming to study economic development in the first place.
Spending my early life as a Christian in a somewhat fluffy evangelicalism instilled the notion in me that one day Christ would return, put the bad guys in their place, then whisk the repentant righteous away to an other-worldly heaven. Not so. This isn't the promise of the Bible at all.
Heaven is the location of God's throne, and the promise of Revelation is not that we will we translated from this realm to some other, but that we will be transformed. Jesus isn't coming to take us away. He's coming back to stay and make his blessings known as far as the curse is found, i.e. where the land bears thorns and briars. Where we are is where we will be.
A few years ago I re-read the parable of the Master who leaves his servants in charge of his estate while he is away- to one he gives ten, to another five, and to the last he gives one. I had always interpreted "talents" (which is actually a large weight of precious metal) to mean skills, abilities, and opportunities. The parable was purely spiritual and relational. My hermeneutic was only a little different, but the ramifications were universal.
If this earth is Jesus estate, to which He is indeed returning, the parable must mean that Christ has expectations of a physical, tangible, visible, and meaningful increase on what he has given us to steward.
I'm still working out what this means to us in terms of how we deal with the physical world. How do I make an increase Christ will appreciate on my stuff- or to my stuff- or with my stuff?
Socially, it also makes me question whether Christ will judge us by the terrible soil erosion we have caused to his beautiful estate.
13 comments:
Rev. 1:1,
new earth, new Heaven.
vs. 5
see I am making ALL things NEW.
CORRECTION:
chapter 21, not 1.
same verses.
sorry.
Notice though that the earth is transformed, not done away with completely. The "garden" is restored as represented by the trees, and God does not declare, "now man can dwell with God, but, "now God dwells with man."
This earth made new.
2 Peter 3:7, 10-13.
I'm not sure why you're publishing anonymously, but I assure that conversation is welcome. In any case, the fires of 2 Peter do not imply the deletion of earth, but its purification, hence the comment on the flood ( which is like the washing of the earth).
Water and fire come together in the life of the Christian, too- baptism with water and baptism with the holy spirit (the initial instance of which is portrayed in Acts as tongues of fire).
Let us build as with gold.
Please, thoughts, too, not just random verses.
back to your original post:
so we agree this earth will be
renewed, then, but not before, is when Christ will return & then we can start caring for it, the renewed earth all over again, without all the erosion.
How does that sound???
that must be what I was getting at all along.....this is hope, by the way....I don't have a blog so I didn't know how else to comment...
sorry. I don't read anything other than the Bible so it's all I can quote. nice commenting with ya!!!
Hey Hope,
Thanks for letting me know who that was. I was a little confused. I'm new to this blogging thing myself and I hoped you weren't posting anonymously for fear of what I might think or something.
I don't mind just quoting the Bible alone, which I do believe to be the ultimate authority, but I am sometimes a little slow and some explanation of what you mean to point out would be helpful.
Nice commenting with you, too.
so my last comment....did that make any since???
I'm a little slow too...at communicating my thoughts across to people.
give your wife a big hug & hello for me!!!
Question: what do you mean by your question;
How do I make an increase Christ will appreciate on my stuff- or to my stuff- or with my stuff?
hope
Question: what do you mean by your question;
How do I make an increase Christ will appreciate on my stuff- or to my stuff- or with my stuff?
hope
Hey Hope,
Sorry to take so long in responding to your question. I mean to highlight the truth that Christianity has more than moral obligations. We are the stewards of God's land. For example, if I gave you ten acres of land and said, "I'll be back in several years. Look after my land." I would expect you to creatively improve the land however you think that I might have. Would you mend my fences? See to it that my cattle were healthy and properly harvested? Of course. You might also do soem other projects like digging a pond or replanting some forest, etc. etc. This is precisely the gist of parable of the master who leaves three servants with different levels of wealth behind. The lesson of this parable is not that we are to spiritualize the story and take this to mean make the most of your personality or interests, but that we are to use whatever God has given us to steward, not for fear of loss, but with his agenda in mind. No matter how small the stewardship, the material world is still God's and he expects us to do his will with it.
In light of all that, my question was how exactly do we do this?
Peace,
Krammy
I would say you just answered your own question. Leave things in
better condition than when you found, bought or were given them.
there's also a saying that comes to mind, "If you can't have the best of everyhting, make the best of everyhting you have."
'til next time.....love,
hope
congratulations daddy-to-be!!!
love,
hope
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