A sermon preached at
Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 29 June 2014 by Rydeen Yu. The scripture readings
that day were Genesis 1:26-28.
Brothers and sisters,
Good morning! Before the sermon, let’s
pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you as
you are the Creator and Provider of all creatures. May the Spirit of wisdom and truth open our
eyes and ears to understand, and may the love of Christ make us know how to
love others. In Jesus’ name we pray,
amen.
In 1997, Hong Kong was influenced by bird’s flu
H5N1. Due to the fear
of panzootic outbreak from infected poultry to human beings,
all the fowls in Hong Kong were killed – the figure
was around one million three hundred chickens, ducks and gooses. Since then, whenever the highly inflected
H5 series virus was found in dead fowl, all the others fowls in the same farm,
even in the same region, should be all killed. I am not intent to discuss whether
this massive killing of fowls correct or not, but I would like to discuss this
event from another angle.
Modern eco-concern movement can be traced back
to 1960’s. During the cold
war between the East and the West, nuclear weapons
were accumulated to an extent that they were sufficient to destroy dozens of
our living planets. Furthermore, people
recognized the horror of wars after the World War II, Vietnam
War and Korean War. ‘Green Peace’ was found in the middle of 1960’s, to
promote anti-nuclear and peace movements. She is also the forerunner
of many current eco-concern groups.
In the academic world,
there were studies on how
the development of the West influenced our planet, although these studies had not been widely known by the public.
One of the key figures, who brought the
eco-concern issue to public, is an American marine biologist, Rachel Carson. In 1962, she wrote a book
called Silent
Spring, discussing the issue of chemical
pollution. Carson collected many claims which had been published in
scientific journals and newspapers. Carson was able to present her views
in such a way lay people understand. Her primary concern was
not only affection for human beings, but for
the natural world.
Carson’s book Silent
Spring successfully influenced US government to enact a
legislation to limit the use of chemical in 1973, such as
DDT, a kind of Insecticide.
What is the role of human beings
in God’s creation? I think most of us
will refer to Genesis 1:26-28. This scripture has been
critically examined in modern debates, regarding how Western Christianity
causes
environmental crisis. In 1967, a medieval historian, Lynn White, published
an article. He said that one of the historical sources of
ecological degeneration came from the interpretation of Genesis 1:28 taken from the medieval period – “God command human beings
to fill and subdue the earth.” White argues that the corresponding anthropocentric ideology deeply influences
the way of Western development and then causes the ecological crisis of
today. Although, his argument is
over simplified and has been criticized by many scholars, we cannot deny
this is one of the key biblical texts influencing us to consider how we related
ourselves to other God’s creation.
Genesis 1:26-28 informed us that God created the universe in six days. In creating human
beings, God said –
“in our image, according to our likeness”, so human beings can
dominate and rule over other living creatures.
So God created human beings and then blessed them – “be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. In the same way,
God bless the
birds and the creatures in the water. Therefore we may
consider God’s blessings should apply to other creatures on the earth, too. It is worth to notice
that these three verbs, ‘be fruitful, multiply and fill’, in Hebrew Bible are
imperative. In the other words, they are
commands. Different from other living
creatures, God’s blessing toward human beings, or command, included
two more areas: subdue the earth and rule over other living
creatures.
From this analysis, it seems
that God created human beings in His image because God wanted
human beings
to subdue the earth and rule over the living creatures. What is the meaning of human beings created
in God’s image? This is one of the most
difficult phases in the Bible. The text tells no more details other
than subdue and rule. The
most popular interpretation of ‘in God’s image’ is human beings serve
as God’s representative. God grants
human beings authority over other living being, “dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creeps upon the earth.” It seems like human beings are given the Divine right of kings（君權神授）to rule. Human being becomes
the king of all creatures. As a result, we
can consume and exploit them. However,
an Old Testament Scholar, Norbert Lohfink, has another explanation of ‘in God’s
image’. He points out that in ancient
Israel, her neighbors believed their gods created human beings for
other reason – their gods created human beings to do the works which they
did not want to do. Human beings were
nothing but just labors. But
for Israelite, God created human beings in His image and bears
the likeness of Him.
However, regarding the Hebrew
כבשׁ (kabas) and
רדה (radah) in the Genesis 1:26-28, they
are fitted to interpret as subdue and rule over others in other
biblical texts. Is it true
that God
command human beings to conquer the earth and dominate animals? From the beginning of Genesis 1, God created
the universe from chaos. He created
light, sky, sea and land. Then God
greened the landscape, filled it with all sorts of living creatures – fishes, birds and animals on the earth.
In every section of creation, God left His comment: it was good. ‘Good’, the corresponding Hebrew isטוֹב . It is a singular
adjective in Genesis 1. That
means God treated the creation as a whole, and considered this wholeness is
good. God Himself showed appreciation of
His works, and expressed His love towards His
creation. It seems to be nonsense that
God commands human beings to subdue and exploit His masterpiece.
It is also worth to notice verse 29, which is also part of God’s blessing and command: “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on
the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
They will be yours for food.” According to this verse, human beings should be vegetarian in the beginning of God’s
creation, so the existence of animals should not be
for human beings to consume and exploit. In the other words, the word rule רדה should be understood
as governing, not ruling like king.
Human beings should be aware that other animals share
the same blessing from God – “be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth”. God grants
human beings in his image and has the ability
to govern other creatures, but human beings are
not more superior than other creatures.
Go back to the case
of H5N1; it may be the first time human beings got bird’s flu in human
history. But it must
not be the first time in the bird’s world.
As human beings, if we
get flu, we need pill, but it only cures our symptoms, like fever and
running noise. In order to help us fully recover from flu, what we
need is flesh air and rest, so our body will be strengthened
and healed
by itself. However, for poultry, they
may be given pills or injections,
but they do not have flesh air and they do not have space to live apart from the inflected. In modern days, the poultry are mostly living in cages. They live in such a congested environment
because of the huge demand of human beings on fowls. Do we need so many fowls? Do you know the quantity of meat
we
need per day? 4oz or
114g of meat, whatever beef, chicken or pork, can provide the daily protein
reqired
of an adult. If you have no idea the
quantity of 4oz meat, go to Café de Carol, a chain fast food store
in Hong Kong, and observe the steak set they provide – each piece of
steak is 8oz. From this figure and observation of meat consumption around
us, you could know in general we consume too much
meat. Even though we cannot quit
consuming meat and becoming vegetarians, we do not need so many fowls
and keep them in cage.
The fowls should live in a better environment and the bird’s flu would
not be spread to human beings so easily.
I would like to show
you two pictures which I found from the internet. The first one (figure 1) is regarding the
event of H5N1, the treatment of the killed fowls. (Pause for a moment) The second one (figure 2) is regarding the
rabbits suffering from animal test. (Pause for a moment) I think the pictures have given light of some
truth. I do not make additional comment.
As Christians, I do believe that we
are created in God’s image and we can have the ability to follow God’s
command. But in God’s image, it does
not mean human beings are the masters of
all creatures, to rule and subdue the nature as the earthily king. Both human beings and other living
creatures should equally share God’s blessing –
“be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. By studying
Genesis 1:26-28, with the context of Genesis 1, we can understand the principle of
the role of human beings in God’s creation – govern
the creation with God’s love and sovereignty. Human beings are not supreme
than other creatures, we
should treat other creatures as our neighbors, even kin, like our relatives, and learn how to live with them in harmony and unity. Even you
still consider human beings should rule over other creatures as God has
commanded us, please consider how Jesus taught his disciples – who will be the
true leader, the ruler? In Mark
10:42-44, Jesus said who want to be the ruler, please make yourself as servant,
the slave of all. Could you hold this
principle towards other God’s creation?
In the epistle of James 2:18, we
are told and encouraged to live out our faith with deed, so we need to know
how to work out this eco-concern in our daily life. In the reflection
on the massive killing of fowls influencing by bird’s flu and the
eco-concern movement, we understand that we need common sense and knowledge. Frankly speaking, the
Church has not yet taken the prophetic role as prophet to foretell the
eco-crisis. We need scientists, like
Rachel Carson, tell us how worse our current situation is,
and what can we do to seek policy changes from the governments and commercial corporations. In addition, we need to improve
our knowledge, like how much meat we need per day, to review our life style and
to make changes. Do we consume more than
we need? Do we satisfy our own desire at
the expenses of the nature and other living creatures?
To live harmony with
other creatures, to enjoy and rejoice the gracious providence of God together
is not an easy task. Let us pray for the Creator God empowers us, the Holy
Spirit gives us wisdom, and the Redeemer Christ strengthens us with His
love. Amen.
* Rydeen Yu is a
summer interns in KUC. He is studying in MDiv program in the Divinity School of
Chung Chi College.
Figure 1 Figure
2
