Being A Good Steward Through Humility
As a child, I remember a poignant
anti-littering campaign with “the Crying Indian.” These commercials (staring an actor named
Iron Eyes Cody) did to me exactly what they were intended to do – to have a
visceral reaction to someone else’s pain toward careless consumption and waste. I remember getting angry at my father for
throwing an apple core out of the car window – only to be (rightly) told it
would decompose and actually help the earth.
This was my early ecological education
(or lack thereof), tied mostly to emotional conviction to “do the right thing.” Unfortunately, no one really explained to me
the realities of the cycle of garbage.
We even had a compost pit in our backyard that was put on the garden,
but I didn’t know that was eco-friendly.
I do remember driving by the garbage dumps off of I-95 near Newark and
holding my breath because it smelled so bad, but didn’t think about the amount
of garbage that 4.5 billion people (in 1980) make or where it went. Then there was news of “garbage barges” dumping
off the cost of New Jersey and items washing up on shore (including medical
waste), and my interest was piqued again, but mostly to discourage use of Styrofoam. I don’t ever remember someone talking about
being a good steward of the earth, even at church.
What does it mean to be a good steward
of the earth? There is the saying, “We
don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children,”
which calls us to remember that our actions do not only effect ourselves, but
can have long lasting consequences, both positively and negatively. Yet, as faithful Christians, it is not pithy
sayings or manipulative commercials that call us to action. We know that God charged humans with being
good stewards over creation in Genesis 1.
It is our God-given duty to care for creation, one that sets humans apart
from other creatures, for whom we depend upon for our being. While we are set apart, we cannot connote
that to being set above, and arrogantly presume we can do anything we want.
St. Paul writes in the letter to the Church in Philippi, “Let
the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was
in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be
exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being
born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and
became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” (2:5-8) I
do believe that being a good steward starts with humility, of recognizing that we
are part of a greater whole, and then doing what we can to help sustain a
system that sustains all parts of creation.
With humility, we can make choices about how we live that can benefit
creation rather than abuse it.
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