Have Dominion Over All the Earth

Trinity Sunday + Year A (RCL)

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4

Today’s reading from the first chapter of Genesis sets a high standard for humankind:

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” [Genesis 1:28-29]

Things were simpler in earlier times. All God expected of humanity was to be fruitful and multiply – to populate the earth with people who could recognize God’s love and return it faithfully. Today, we have done a pretty good job of “filling the earth.” It is estimated that the human population of the world reached one billion in 1804, two billion in 1927, three billion in 1960, four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, and six billion in 1999. It is projected to reach seven billion by October of this year, and around eight billion by 2025–2030. By 2045–2050, the world's population is currently projected to reach around nine billion, with alternative scenarios ranging from 7.4 billion to 10.6 billion. (source: Wikipedia)

As for “subduing” the earth, we have also more or less accomplished that, for better or worse. We have harnessed rivers behind dams, dug canals to connect continents and oceans, climbed the highest mountains and sent exploratory submarines to the depths of the oceans. We have also created the world’s largest landfill: an island of garbage floating in the northern Pacific that kills wildlife and interferes with shipping. We have produced so much air pollution that the temperature of the earth is rising and island nations are in danger of disappearing under the deepening oceans.

More important than the word “subdue” in Genesis is God’s charge to humanity to “have dominion over… every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Just what kind of dominion did God intend? Some today, even those in Christian congregations, appear to believe that God literally gave mankind the right to do anything we like with the planet and all its inhabitants, including – presumably – destroying it.

Dominion is defined as having the power or the right to govern and control someone or something. It sounds like an absolute authority that cannot be challenged. However, a closer look reveals some interesting things.

The Hebrew words of Genesis are very poetic: “fill the earth” is the word urbu and “subdue it” is urdu. “Urdu” is translated as “hold sway over” or “have power over.” It does not mean “dominate.” With power over creation comes responsibility. God has placed this planet under our care, not to abuse as we wish, but to preserve and return to God someday.

In Latin, the word for “hold dominion” (dominamini) is directly related to the word “Lord” (Dominus). God shares power with us, giving us temporary control over this earth. We are not equal to God, but we are “lords” over nature and the planet, once again in order to preserve it for God, not to destroy it for our own purposes.

There is one more important point to this passage from Genesis. God clearly states that we are to eat “every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.” I have often wondered why biblical literalists are not all vegetarians! When the Hebrew people were starving, God first gave them manna, which was probably a plant byproduct. It does appear that God placed more emphasis on humanity growing and eating crops than on killing our fellow creatures.

On this Trinity Sunday, we recognize God’s complete nature: creator, redeemer, and sustainer. God the Father prepared this world in which we live so that we would be grateful, so that we would live in relative comfort, and so that we would give God appropriate thanks for everything. God the Son promised a new heaven and a new earth, but he did not thereby give us permission to trash the old earth. God the Holy Spirit continues to inspire us today in ways that we do not always expect. One of those ways is to see the danger to this planet that has been and continues to be caused by our actions and inactions, and to call upon us to correct the damage that we have done.

Some believe that it is too late, that the tipping point has been reached and the planet will self-destruct in slow motion right before our eyes. Others refuse to believe that anything has changed. Still others feel that this is not an issue that Christians need consider, since we are only waiting for the new earth, and this old one will not matter.

One of the reasons that the designers of the Revised Common Lectionary ask us to read the first chapter of Genesis today is to remind us of the creativity of God and be thankful. The God who created this complex, amazing universe in which we live cannot be pleased with its careless or intentional destruction. It is our duty to understand “dominion” as a sharing in God’s loving care for this world, as a call to preserve it and someday hand it back to our Father in a condition that is pleasing to God. Certainly, the gospels’ parables about stewardship suggest that we will be expected to account for the ways in which we have used those things entrusted to our care by the Lord. [cf. Matthew 25:14-30]

Stewardship is a strange topic for Trinity Sunday. Some might say it is easier to explain than the mystery of the Three-in-One! However, the wisdom that placed the first chapter of Genesis before us today would suggest that we are called to consider all aspects of God’s nature today, and that proper dominion is a sharing in God’s love and care for all of creation.