In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). This vast and interconnected creation was good (Gen. 1:10, 25, 31) and flourished in united fulfillment of the purposes for which God has set in the grain of all that he has made (Gen. 2:1). The biblical account presents humans as being members of this greater creation. We come about within the sequence of God’s creative activity – not apart from it. We are creatures of the late sixth day (Gen. 1:24-31). It is among this placed neighborhood of all created things that we claim common membership. We are, along with everything else, creatures of the Creator that are meant to flourish together and alongside each other.
But surely, as we survey the biblical narrative we also find that we are something in addition to mere members. Surely being made in the image of the Creator carries with it enormous weight and significance in distinction from the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26). The human call to dominion - to rule, subdue, work, and care for creation (Gen. 1:26-28, 2:15) - places humans in a unique position within the rest of what God has made.
These two human callings of “membership” and “dominion” have often been held in distinction from one another as if they were different and competing claims. But actually, we are to serve as God’s representatives within the whole of creation. God instructs Adam and Eve to nurture and care, to cultivate and create, to rule and serve all that God has made in order that creation might be free to continue in its complete, interconnected and united goodness. We do not exit membership in creation to pursue the call to rule, subdue, work, and care. It is as members that God calls us to exercise responsible dominion over all fellow members of His creation.
If we are then members of creation, membership ought to inform, shape and situate our calling to be members of creation wherever we are. But, what would this look like in rural Iowa? Wouldn’t this mean understanding that our neighbors are more than just the young family next door or the older man in the next section over? It seems to me that the placed neighborhood of all created things in rural Iowa means that we would share a certain degree of membership and a commonality with hogs, corn, beans, dogs, gardens, terraces, creeks, and wind-rows. Wouldn’t something like that be correct if we are to respond biblically as members of creation in rural Iowa?
I’ve already said that “dominion” means caring for creation as God’s representatives on earth. How might we go about doing that in rural Iowa? Should we care about our rural communities differently? If so, how? Should we think differently about the well-being and productivity of our fields? How should we think about our relation to livestock? Should we somehow treat our animals differently? If so, how? Should we care differently for rural towns and schools and fields and groves and food-systems and methods of farming? How are we doing things well? Where do we need to change? How might we care about all such things in order to better properly reflect the character of God? It seems that we must ask many questions like these in applying both membership and dominion in rural Iowa.
The disobedience of our first parents brought sin into the world (Gen. 3). Sin shatters and perverts the goodness of creation. But it was not just Adam, Eve and their descendants who would suffer the consequences of this turning from God. Our relationship to all of creation was infected by sin as well so we have caused all of creation to groan under the weight and consequences of our sin (Rom. 8:22). All of this good and interconnected creation that once flourished in wholeness and fulfillment now suffers under the effects of human sin.
The extent of sin stretches to the far reaches of creation. This means that we no longer respond properly in membership or dominion. We shirk our membership responsibilities by elevating ourselves improperly above the rest of creation – seeking our own self-interest and fulfillment. We misunderstand dominion to mean oppression and domineering instead of the up-building and well-being of all things.
What does this look like in rural Iowa? We all recognize some of the effects of sin in the lives of many people that we know in rural Iowa. Aren’t depression, loneliness, spiritual emptiness, pride, arrogance, suicide, drug abuse, hopelessness, and many other things some of the symptoms of a fallen world?
But if the consequences of sin are seen through all things then the rift of sin in rural Iowa must also run through all structures, people, churches, landscapes, businesses, fields, farms, and families. In what ways are rural Iowa communities struggling, dying, and disintegrating? Is the death of a small town a result of sin? How? Which sins? How have we misunderstood membership and dominion in rural Iowa? What have been the effects of this misunderstanding? Is school consolidation a result of sin? What about a younger generation leaving rural Iowa? What about the increase in field size? Is soil erosion a consequence of sin? How? Where does chemical pollution fit in? Unfit drinking water? Fish kill-offs? What about the decline of rural population? How do rural downtowns die? Where have we gone wrong? Where have we got things right? How has sin affected the health of rural Iowa?
In Jesus Christ the whole of creation is being restored from its brokenness. His mission is to seek out all that has fallen and redeem all that he has made. In the resurrection we see that Jesus is the beginning of this redemption of all things. He is the firstborn from the dead of a fallen creation and through him all things are made right (Col. 1:18-20). The good news is that followers of Jesus are chosen by God to be his people (Eph. 1:3-14), set free from the bonds of sin and death by Christ’s work on the cross (Rom. 8:2), and enlivened by the activity of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11) to participate in Christ’s mission to redeem all things (Matt. 6:33, Is. 61:1-4, Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8).
In Christ, God is untangling and mending each strand and interwoven piece of his frayed creation. We are central to this mission of restoration for we are still God’s representatives on earth. Our duties have not changed, but we have been transformed so that we might complete them. For we have been crucified with Christ and now live by faith in the Son of God who lives in us (Ga. 2:20). It is only through this gift of new life that we are newly enabled to exercise redemptive dominion and experience renewed membership in a creation that is being made new through Christ.
But we are not called to be “lone ranger” followers of Christ or individual agents of redemption. We do not go at this redemptive dominion alone. It is the church (Eph. 1:22-23, 1 Cor. 12), through the presence of the Holy Spirit, that incarnates our redemptive Savior. It is the church as the body of Christ through whom God chooses to work. And it is as members of local bodies of believers that we participate in the mission of God to redeem all of creation.
Participating in God’s all-encompassing redemptive mission as members of a rural Iowa community must involve daring to stretch the redemptive reign of Christ to the far reaches of my rural community. Certainly this must involve the local members of Christ’s body to believe, proclaim, and live a gospel that is nothing short of God’s mission to redeem all of creation through Christ. And certainly central to any mission must be prayer. We are not agents of redemption. It is the resurrected Christ, working in and through us by the presence of His Spirit, who redeems creation. So we must pray. We must turn to Him and ask Him to intercede for the redemption of rural Iowa.
But the redemption of rural Iowa begins and ends with the redemption of people from the clutches of sin and death. We must share the Good News of forgiveness, acceptance, and new life in Christ with our human neighbors. But how do we pray for and participate in the redemption of all things in rural Iowa? How do we work towards redemptive dominion over all of creation? Wouldn’t we need to think carefully and deliberately about methods of agriculture? How might we think about and address proper economic development? What about community well-being? How have our political interests been affected by sin? How do they need to change? If Christ’s redemptive mission is creation-wide shouldn’t we concern ourselves with the ecological health of our rural areas? How does this need to change? Should Christians care about rural Iowa culture? Should we care about young people leaving? Should we care about elderly people living in despair?
It seems to me that it should be the church that puts these things together in rural Iowa. Surely it would take much courage, but shouldn’t it be the local believing church that preaches, disciples, and demonstrates that going to make disciples of all nations also means going out our front door into our rural Iowa communities as disciples of a God who has come to rescue and reshape all that is His?
The first section ran on the Prairie Whole Farm blog, 20 January 2016