To Serve and Protect

In the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2:5-15, Adam’s priestly task also included a protective role. He was to ‘tend’ the garden and to ‘watch over’ it. Other translations say to ‘keep’ it or ‘take care of’ it.

The Hebrew word for ‘keep’, samar, is a military term. It is exactly the same word used in the next chapter when the angel with a flaming sword ‘guards’ the way to the tree of life against intruders. It is used again in the fourth chapter in Cain’s retort, “Am I my brother’s keeper?

Adam and Eve were not just care-takers in Eden, they were guardians, tasked with protecting and preserving the garden and all its inhabitants, which is part of the reason God brought all the animals to Adam to understand them and to name them. This was part of humanity’s original calling and purpose – and the need for this work has never been greater than it is today.

God’s world needs to be guarded lest its rivers and air be polluted, its forests and minerals depleted, and its living creatures ruthlessly destroyed. Ecological responsibility is part of the cultural mandate given to our first parents and all their descendents. Genesis regards the work of human beings as vital for the eco-system of the planet. It teaches us our vocation as stewards of creation, our fundamental responsibility for the environment and its resources entrusted to us.

In his book Announcing the Kingdom, Arthur Glasser notes that this creation mandate extends to every arena of human life – family and community, law and order, culture and civilization as well as ecological concern. As it continues to unfold through scripture, it widens and deepens as God’s call to all who bear his image to fulfill their role as vice-regents over this world to participate responsibly in this task.

But our gifting for this vocation opens us to great temptations. The gift of supremacy in stewarding creation can only be sustained by deep humility, by trust and by being rooted a sense of partnership with God and one another.

Sadly, this is not how Genesis or the rest of human history unfolds. They tell a saga of distrust, deceit and greed, of rivalry, envy and violence; a story of fear and domination. Vibrant civilizations and many-splendored cultures are also part of the human story, but all are tainted by the fruits of our twisted self-serving sense of privilege and entitlement. Today we find ourselves in a world of deepening ecologic crisis, economic inequity and global hostility. Our vocation today must be to begin to find a way out of this mess.

Water is one of the critical focal points of this challenge. In her book Last Oasis, Sandra Postel says, “water is the basis of life, and our stewardship of it will determine not only the quality but the staying power of human societies.” She argues that “we need a water ethic,” a commitment to treating water not just as a commodity to be managed.

"We have lost a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports. Grasping the connection between our own destiny and that of the water world around us is integral to the challenge of meeting human needs while protecting the ecological functions that all life depends on.”

"Falling freely from the sky, water has deluded us into believing it is abundant, inexhaustible, and immune to harm. The challenge now is to put as much human ingenuity into learning to live in balance with water as we have put into control-ling and manipulating it. The “last oasis” of conservation, efficiency, recycling, and reuse is large enough to get us through many of the shortages on the horizon, buying us time to develop a new relationship with water systems.”

Lifeguard - Jacksonville, Florida