Scripture: Psalm 8; Hebrews 2: 5-9
Sermon: Masters or Maggots?
Topics: humanity, creation, dominion, Jesus, new creation, praise
Preached: October 12, 2008
Rev. Mike Abma
Psalm 8
1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Hebrews 2: 5-9
Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. 6But someone has testified somewhere,
‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
7 You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honour,
8 subjecting all things under their feet.’
Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
The environment and environmental issues have been a bit of a battleground for the last while. There are books out there with titles like God is Green. Then there are other books with titles like God is Not Green. A big part of the battle involves figuring out what our – that is humanity’s – relationship is to the non-human part of this earth. Not so long ago the Acton Institute here in Grand Rapids, published a critique of what they called “radical green spirituality.” In that critique, they wrote that “nothing in nature – no plant, no animal — has a metaphysical right to be preserved… or adored unless it is somehow useful to us humans.” Why did they say that? Well, they write, it is pretty clear that we humans have been given dominion over creation. All things have been put under our feet. We humans are, in fact, masters of this universe. So creation is here to serve us.
Now you can understand how this type of attitude might get some people hopping mad. In fact, for some, it sours them on religion altogether. They point to this arrogant Judaeo-Christian viewpoint as the greatest threat to our planet. This attitude has done more to create our current ecological crisis than anything else, they say. In fact, some voices in this camp, which some have labeled “deep ecology,” go so far as to say that our planet would be better off without any humans on it. I remember being at a pro-environment rally of some sort. There was a full length mirror. You looked at yourself in the mirror and there, on top of the mirror, was a placard: “You are now looking at the worst piece of pollution on the planet.” Kind of makes you feel a bit like a worm or a maggot. And I guess that was their point – that we feel an affinity with worms and maggots because, according to them, we are no better than they are, with no more right to life.
PSALM 8 – The Place of Praise
So, are we Masters of the Universe or are we Worms and Maggots?
By the time we get to verses 3-4 of Psalm 8, it sounds like we may be more maggoty.
The psalmist says you don’t have to look far,
just look up into the night sky — the moon, the stars.
They are enough to tell us that, in the Big Picture of things, we are pretty puny.
Remember, this Psalm was written long before telescopes.
Long before we began realizing that our cosmos has over 10 billion galaxies.
Long before we realized that each of these galaxies has over 100 billion
stars.
Long before we realized that even the closest tiny galaxy to us is over 42,000 light years away (the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy)
and the closest large galaxy to us is over 2 million light years away.
The size of our cosmos is simply mind-boggling.
The more we think about it, the punier we seem.
The more we know about our relative size in comparison to the cosmos,
the more relevant and poignant the psalmist’s questions are:
What are human beings that you are mindful of them?
What are mere mortals that you care for them?
On the cosmic scale of things,
there really is not a whole lot separating us from worms.
So, score one for the “We are Worms and Maggots” camp.
But then things in Psalm 8 suddenly take a dramatic turn in verse 5 with the word “yet.”
Yet you have made human beings a little lower than God.
You have crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over all the works of your hands
And put all things under their feet.
Sheep and oxen
The Beasts of the field
The Birds of the air
The Fish of the sea
(…And the worms of the earth.)
Hmmm ….that sounds rather wonderful, doesn’t it?
We are not worms and maggots after all.
By the sounds of it, we are in fact pretty important stuff.
Score one for the “We are Masters of the Universe Camp.”
So is that the verdict of Psalm 8?
In this battle between the Maggot Camp
(we are no better than worms, pro-environment side)
and the Masters of the Universe Camp
(we are the rulers of all things, pro-humanity side)
does Psalm 8 declare the “Masters of the Universe” the clear winners?
Is that what Psalm 8 says?
Well, actually, not exactly.
That is because before Psalm 8 is about this Cosmos;
and before Psalm 8 is about us human beings,
it is about God, the Creator.
Praise for God is what begins Psalm 8.
Praise for God is what ends Psalm 8.
Praise is the alpha and omega of this psalm.
Without praise there is no point in even arguing about
what is more important – humanity or the environment.
Without beginning with praise, there is no recognition that all creation
is a theater of God’s glory (as John Calvin puts it).
Only in the context of praise and worship do we see God’s glory
in the sun and the moon and the stars.
Only in the context of praise and worship do we see God’s glory
also in the
Karner Blue Butterfly
The Kirkland Warbler
And the Monkey-flower —
All endangered species in Michigan, by the way
In many ways, praise of the Lord,
is the beginning of all wisdom,
the wisdom of how the human or non-human parts of this creation relate to one another.
That is the biggest problem in this battle between the pro-Master and pro-Maggot sides.
Each side prefers beginning with praise for some part of Creation:
We either
begin with praise for ourselves as Masters of the Universe
or we begin with praise this creation – have you hugged a tree lately?
OUR DIVINE TASK – Defiled and Distorted
Psalm 8 reminds us that the place to start is with praising God, the Creator of all things.
From him, we received a job back when we were created.
We received the job of taking care of his planet.
But the truth is, we are not quite fit for that job anymore.
Ever since the Fall,
we have tended to see thorns and thistles simply as enemies in our way.
We have tended to see fields and streams as resources to plunder.
We have tended to see flora and fauna as ways to make a buck.
We still see things that way today.
Have you noticed that everyone seems to be turning “Green” these days – political parties, corporations, almost everyone.
Does anyone really think this is out of a deep reverence for God’s planet?
Don’t we all realize it often comes out of a selfish desire
to sell us more computers and cars,
or to get us to vote for this party over that one?
The truth is, ever since our fall into sin,
we haven’t been quite fit for the job of taking care of this planet.
Our divine image has been tarnished and stained.
Even God realized we could not be fully trusted with this job.
When Israel was about to enter the Promised Land,
God said,
“Don’t enslave your livestock –
let your animals have a rest on the Sabbath just like everybody else.
Don’t exploit your fields –
let them lie fallow (no crops) every seventh year.
When you find eggs in a nest,
you may take the eggs but don’t kill the mother.
That is an abomination (Deut. 22:6).
And if you ever have to lay siege to a city, don’t destroy the trees.
Your battle is not against the trees (Deut. 20:19).
Why did God have to remind Israel with all these environmental-friendly rules?
Because when it came to truly taking care of God’s creation,
Israel back then had a tendency to drop the ball.
They wanted to win wars.
They wanted to maximize profits.
They didn’t always think about the shape they were leaving this earth
for the next generation.
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
We may have been created in God’s image.
Of all the creatures on this planet,
there is nothing quite so miraculous, wondrous, glorious,
as a human being.
And yet, we aren’t quite what we were created to be.
When it comes to taking care of this planet,
we have a tendency of turning dominion into domination.
Once under our feet,
we tend to stomp this world into submission to our wants.
JESUS – RESTORING OUR TARNISHED IMAGE
So how should we read Psalm 8?
What is really interesting about this Psalm is that, when the early church read it,
it wasn’t all about them.
It wasn’t even all about their role in the universe.
No, when they read Psalm 8, they saw Jesus.
God loved this creation so much, he sent Jesus.
God the Father sent Jesus the Son,
to become a little lower than the angels for a while.
And so Jesus came.
The Creator of all things was born as part of this Creation.
He was born small and wiggly,
as tiny as little baby.
Not only did he become tiny for our sake,
but he was treated as a nobody for our sake.
The way Psalm 22 describes it, he was treated like a worm and a maggot.
He was scorned and despised.
He suffered.
He died.
He tasted death for everyone.
So, is that the end of the story?
No, because he rose from the dead.
He ascended into heaven.
He is now crowned with glory and honor.
You know,
whenever the New Testament talks about
all things being subjected under feet,
it isn’t talking about your feet, or my feet.
It is always talking about
all things being subjected under the feet of the risen and ascended
Jesus. (1 Cor 15: 24ff and Eph. 1:22).
The truth is,
We cannot begin to do the job of taking care of this planet
until we take our place under his feet.
We cannot begin to do the job of taking care of this earth
until we are united with Jesus in his death and resurrection.
We cannot truly begin to do this job
until our tarnished divine image
has been polished in the blood of the Lamb.
We cannot begin to do this job
until we have become slaves of Jesus Christ,
and servants to his creation.
What is the beginning of wisdom?
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
That name is Jesus.
That name is the name that is above every other name.
And so,
when it comes to how
the human and non-human parts of Creation need to relate,
the truth is,
we must all be moving toward the day when
every knee will bend
every tongue will confess
and every fur, feather, fin, and scale will acknowledge
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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