Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
God placed us in stewardship over the Earth. If God wasn't perfect, I would swear that was his mistake from the beginning.
God didn't expect us to sit around and watch the flowers grow and never progress ... he encouraged building, he placed all the resources for us, but he also told us about a master going away and leaving his three servants in charge of some of his property and when he returned, he rewarded those who made his property better. Granted, this parable speaks more about our spiritual gifts than it does about increasing a portfolio, but as with all things in scripture, there are literals and figurative meanings to everything, and I feel more secure following both sets of advice.
I think this challenges Christians today to look at how they are investing the natural gifts God has given us. Are we bettering the Earth driving big SUVs and pumping out pollution? Are we investing God's property wisely when we clearcut a forest and don't bother replanting? Are we increasing God's gift to us when we bury our waste instead of recycling? If you ask me ... we are doing worse than burying a talent, we're down at the casino giving it away to the deciever.
I think we have truly fallen to that and it is something that goes back about 500 years when European 'Christians' created an idea of Manifest Destiny that proclaimed everything they conquered was for God. What a tangled web we conceive when first we practice to deceive. We have allowed ourselves to believe that no matter what we do, its all for God. God has become progression, because we are spending more time today working for a paycheck than ever before in history. We talk about how hard life was before, but farmers a few centuries ago didn't work a quarter of the hours we spend toiling for things that evaporate.
In everything, the Earth, our time, our hearts, our minds ... all the resources God has given us, we just seem to be settling to waste away. Who cares about the Earth, God is going to give us a new one. We would love to go visit the elderly shut in, but we have to work to make a car payment, we would love to care for those children abandoned to AIDS in Africa, but couldn' they make us sick? and we would love to figure out a way of eliminating poverty from those Christian children down in El Salvador, but it seems we are too busy supporting the government that spent $30 million dollars bombing their villages under the great 'Christian' leaders Reagan and Bush.
Perhaps if we are still being decieved, we should think about another parable from Christ's ministry:
Luke 16:The Parable of the Shrewd Manager 1Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
3“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg– 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
5“So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6“ ‘Eight hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
7“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“ ‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
8“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
13“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
Maybe God has something better for us to do with all those talents we are burying in the Bank of Deception. I know there are some people in Africa and El Salvador who could sure use a hand.
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