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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}david-warners(1).jpg" style="width: 125px; height: 125px; float: right;" /><em>On January 31st, Au Sable will host a &#39;Missionary Earthkeeping&#39; conference to explore the connections with creation care and missions and development work. In connection with the conference, we are publishing the first of four posts by Dr. David Warners, Professor of Biology at Calvin College, on a framework for thinking about Christian environmental stewardship and its relationship to development. In Part 1, Warners explored&nbsp;<a href="http://ausable.org/news_and_resources/blog/the_five_themes_of_stewardship_by_david_warners#.UQbX2yf7KuI">five themes of Christian environmental stewardship</a>. In Part 2, Warners explores&nbsp;<a href="">five principles that should guide our role as stewards</a>&nbsp;of God&#39;s creation. In Part 3, he discusses how creation fits within the biblical vision of shalom.</em></p>
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	The Old Testament concept of &lsquo;shalom&rsquo; is a rich and expansive notion. &nbsp;In most English translations this term is typically and somewhat regretfully translated as &lsquo;peace&rsquo;. &nbsp;All translations, by their very nature, are limited interpretations. &nbsp;Yet, some words have rich meanings that are particularly difficult to justly render in a different language. &nbsp;Swahili speakers have a wonderful phrase, &lsquo;pole sana&rsquo;, whose best English equivalent is probably, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sorry&rsquo;. &nbsp;Yet &lsquo;pole sana&rsquo; carries with it not only a sense of regret, but also of empathy, of desire that things could be different, of association &ndash; so much more than the words, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sorry&rsquo; can convey. &nbsp;It is similarly difficult to find an English word that encompasses the full meaning of shalom. &nbsp;Instead, many words are needed, as in this description by David Wise (in The Environment and the Christian):</p>
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	<em>Shalom is God&rsquo;s dream and promise for the fulfillment of his creation . . . the knitting together of all the brokenness in the cosmos, in the relations between man and man, a man and himself, man and nature, within nature, and between man-nature and God.</em></p>
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	We might summarize this concept by saying that shalom is the condition when all the elements of creation are interacting in the way God intends them to interact. &nbsp;Shalom happens when we human beings treat each other with the proper dignity we all deserve, it happens when we think neither too highly nor too lowly of ourselves; it happens when we exhibit a balanced stewardship of the creation; when creation is allowed to exist as it was created to exist; and it happens when all of creation (humans included) is thriving and in that thriving, is praising God. &nbsp;</p>
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	I chose these last phrases very carefully by saying &lsquo;it happens when&rsquo; because while we do profess that shalom is coming, we also can rejoice that it has already begun. &nbsp;In Revelation 21:5 God says, &ldquo;Behold I am making all things new!&rdquo; &nbsp;The significance of these words runs deep. &nbsp;For example, God does not say, &ldquo;Behold I will make all things new!&rdquo; &nbsp;This indicates that the &lsquo;making all things new&rsquo; is a process that has already begun. &nbsp;Also, the passage does not proclaim, &ldquo;Behold I am making all new things!&rdquo;, which would suggest the things of today will be discarded and replaced by new things that are to come. &nbsp;No, God is making all things new; his work of bringing about shalom has begun now and will be continuing until Christ returns.&nbsp;</p>
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	When we read the Old Testament, then, I think it would serve us well to do so with &lsquo;shalom glasses&rsquo; on. &nbsp;Whenever we see the word peace, we should insert this much richer term, shalom. &nbsp;When we do this, some old questions take on new meaning (it is the same trail, but it looks very different). &nbsp;One of these questions is, Who is Jesus? &nbsp;In the context of shalom, Isaiah (9:6,7) describes Jesus as the Prince of Shalom:</p>
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	<em>For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,</em></p>
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	<em>And the government will be on his shoulders.</em></p>
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	<em>And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,</em></p>
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	<em>Everlasting Father, Prince of Shalom.</em></p>
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	<em>Of the increase of his government and shalom</em></p>
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	<em>There will be no end.</em></p>
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	So Jesus is the Prince of all the new-ness that God is bringing about. &nbsp;And of the increase of this government, this new government of shalom, there will be no end. &nbsp;It will keep on increasing and increasing. &nbsp;What a beautiful and exciting vision for our future!</p>
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	A second question to consider is, Why did Jesus come? &nbsp;Since shalom is as expansive as the whole of creation, the implication is that Jesus, the Prince of Shalom, has come for more that just people. &nbsp;This teaching is perhaps nowhere more clearly expressed than in Paul&rsquo;s description of Jesus in Col. 1:15-20.</p>
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	He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. &nbsp;For by him all things were created: &nbsp;things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. &nbsp;He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. &nbsp;And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the first-born from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. &nbsp;For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.</p>
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	This portrayal of a &lsquo;cosmic Christ&rsquo; is similarly described in Hebrews 1:2,3. &nbsp;What we see in these passages is a very big Jesus, the one who has come to win back, to knit together all the brokenness experienced by the whole of creation, a creation that he himself brought into existence. &nbsp;Christ came and gave up his life so that all of creation could be redeemed, humans included, to be sure, but not exclusively included. &nbsp;Please notice that this &lsquo;all things&rsquo; for which Christ died is the same phrase used in the &lsquo;making all things new&rsquo; passage of Revelation 21:5. &nbsp;Christ came so that all things could be reconciled to God and now God is making all things new &ndash; reconciliation for the cosmos has begun!</p>
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	The last question I would like to reconsider in the context of shalom is, Who are Christians? &nbsp;Well, for those who profess belief in this Prince of Shalom, for those who bear his name as &lsquo;Christ-ians&rsquo;, we are called to the very large task of being Christ-like. &nbsp;Since Christ took on the very nature of a servant (Phil. 2:7), and gave up his own interests for the sake of the whole of creation - for the sake of reestablishing shalom &ndash; we are called to do the same. &nbsp;This leaves us with the challenge to develop a similar servant approach in our daily lives; to live our lives in ways that serve other people and that promote the flourishing of the entire creation.</p>
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	So I hope you can see from these comments how the concepts of stewardship and shalom are directly related. &nbsp;We are given the responsibility to care for the creation, to interact with it in ways that preserve its fruitfulness and protect its integrity. &nbsp;And in so doing, we are living lives of hope, carefully cultivating and celebrating the shalomic moments that are already here, and looking forward with eager expectation for the coming culmination of shalom, the new creation. &nbsp;Our model is the servant Christ, who gave up everything so that creation could be won back to once again exist in its God-intended way. &nbsp;Stewarding the creation is a means by which God uses us to bring about his coming shalom.</p>
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<p>
	Read <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/stewardship_and_development#.UYAjL7U3uSo">Part 4</a> where Warners discusses the relationship between stewardship and development.</p>
