Destructive dominion

For many years I’ve run a lunchtime weekly Bible study in my workplace. Even though at times it’s felt a challenge to squeeze it in between all the other work meetings, it has been a blessing to meet regularly (at least by videocall) with other Christians who also work in my organisation.

We’ve been working our way through Luke’s Gospel and we recently came to Luke 12: 6-7: ‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’ Jesus makes a similar point a few verses later about ravens.

How much is creation worth?

Working for a well-known nature conservation charity with more than a passing interest in birds, this naturally provoked a discussion about their value. Someone remarked that this statement (especially the beginning and the end) might be used to justify not caring for sparrows since people are much more important.

In his book The Birds Our Teachers, John Stott comments that in some ways sparrows are the most insignificant of all birds. The main point Jesus is making is to encourage the disciples by telling them that they are greatly valued by God. But he is making an argument from the lesser (every sparrow is remembered by God) to the greater (how much more are you remembered and valued by God).

The argument depends on the truth of a secondary point: God still values the insignificant members of creation – and so, therefore, should we.

House sparrows (for this is the species that Jesus would have been familiar with) are ubiquitous across the world. Where there are people, there are house sparrows. They are gregarious, noisy, pugnacious and sometimes annoying. Yet house sparrows in the UK are on the Red List of conservation concern due to severe breeding population decline, the causes of which are still uncertain. Once thriving in central London, as Stott observed in his book published little more than 20 years ago, the chirpy Cockney sparrer is now hardly to be found.

Stewardship of creation

The next day I was in a different meeting, discussing our work on saving species. Another colleague wondered aloud what could be done to counter the religious view of dominion over nature which drives its destruction, which led to a brief discussion about the Biblical concept of stewardship of creation. It was somewhat challenging to unpack the ideas of dominion, stewardship, being made in the image of God and what that means for nature in about 30 seconds on a business videocall, but I trust I made my views clear.

My observation is that in the teaching of UK churches at least, the dominant view is of stewardship rather than destructive dominion. For example, I saw recently that every Church of England diocese has signed up to the Eco-Church programme which encourages creation care. But I wonder how deeply the idea of destructive dominion – that we have the right to simply plunder the earth’s resources for human benefit – has become embedded in wider society, especially among business interests.

Which brings me back to my question, how much is creation worth? Should we try to put a monetary value on everything? Some people will react with horror: creation has intrinsic worth and should be protected for its own sake, and for God’s sake. I agree, but pointing out its monetary value has its uses when dealing with a developer who sees only shareholder profits, or parsimonious governments which are trying to balance the books. Think of the value of an urban park in health benefits and the avoided cost to the NHS as just one example.

As Jesus said, though, we need to consider the birds. God values even things we can’t value in pounds. As for the sparrows, why not put up some nest boxes for them this Spring?