Happy Lutheran

Any day is a good day to lift up and celebrate God’s deep relationship with and providential care for the animal kingdom, which is valuable and precious to God in and of itself, not just through God’s relationship with humanity. At the same time, Earth Day is a particularly good day to do this, and be reminded of the scriptural witness about the importance and role of animals in God’s larger salvific plan for the cosmos.

One of the reasons why this is a valuable exercise is because, too often, Christians think about and share the story of God and God’s relationship with the world exclusively through a human lens. We make the categorical mistake of thinking that only humans matter to God, and we read Scripture focused exclusively on the human characters in the story, and what we can learn from human interactions with God, and with each other.

Of course, humans do have an important part in God’s story, but Scripture isn’t a “one man show,” so to speak. The human story is not the whole story. God also has a vibrant, dynamic, loving relationship with [non-human] animals that is interdependent with humanity, but still has its own integrity and intrinsic value. I want to stress that point because it is important to guard against the tendency to view animals as having only instrumental value; this is the belief that animals are valuable only in so far as they support or serve humanity, and humanity’s relationship with God. Animals are not a pawn or a means to a larger end that doesn’t include them. They are agents in this story, and God has a direct relationship with animals as well: animals are active partners in the multifaceted relationship that includes God/humanity/animals/creation itself.

So, let’s look at some specific examples of what I am talking about.

First, the Bible tells us that animals are actively and explicitly included in God’s plan of salvation.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains;
    your judgments are like the great deep;
    you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. Psalm 36:6 [NRSVU]

I love this verse, because humans and animals are set on the same plain here, equal recipients of God’s mercy and righteousness. Animals are not saved through humans; animals are saved in their own right, in their own integrity.

Second, in many places in Scripture we see how animals play an active role in the dynamic of repentance and forgiveness. As just one example, we can mention the repentance of Ninevah in Jonah.

Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Jonah 3:8 [NRSVU]

Here, too, animals are playing an active role in Ninevah’s repentance, even included in the outcry for God’s grace and forgiveness. Along with humans, they matter in the city’s disposition to God, and their agency seems to carry weight with God as well.

Third, lest we imagine too idyllic a relationship, we should also remember that animals are included in God’s judgment, and, similarly to what we see with humans, God also acts with judgment in ways that negatively impact animals. Here, I am reminded particularly about the story of the Exodus, in which animals play a variety of significant roles.

We can, of course, think of the plagues themselves; of the ten plagues seven of them directly involve animals. Animals are used as God’s agents of punishment in the plagues of frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts. In the fifth plague, where all of the Egyptians’ livestock die, God uses animals to punish the people. Then, interestingly enough, after the ninth plague, the plague of darkness, Pharoah agrees to let the Israelites go, but he insists that they leave their animals behind, and Moses refuses:

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord. Only your flocks and your herds shall remain behind. Even your little ones may go with you.” But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must choose some of them to serve the Lord our God, and we will not know what to use to serve the Lord until we arrive there.” Exodus 10:24-26 [NRSVU]

Then, of course, finally, in the last plague, the deliberate destruction of the “firstborn” will fall not only upon the people, but on the animals as well:

 I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. Exodus 12:12 [NRSVU]

Regardless of how these verses are interpreted or understood, it is clear that God’s relationship with humanity is bound up with, and includes in deep and meaningful ways, a relationship with animals as well; additionally, we are reminded that our relationship with God also includes a relationship with animals, too.

Finally, and this is the point I want to end with, the Bible witnesses repeatedly that animals celebrate and praise God in their own way, and with their own integrity—and that humans can and should learn from them. There are really too many examples to share, so I will offer just a few of my favorites:

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”  Revelation 5:13 [NRSVU]

Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
    stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
    creeping things and flying birds! Psalm 148:7-10 [NRSVU]

The wild animals will honor me,
    the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people  Isaiah 43:20 [NRSVU]

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
    the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you,
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this? Job 12:7-9 [NRSVU]

So today, as you celebrate Earth Day, giving thanks to God for the beauty and wonder of creation, in all its rich diversity and splendor [and, I hope, recommitting yourself to practices of earth care and protection], take some time to regard and rejoice in our animal neighbors, whose home we share, and whose lives are bound up with ours in God’s one expansive family of love.