Lenten Reflection 2025: Third Sunday - Wisdom of the Fig Tree

This week's reflection is on the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13:1-). ALSO: It's time to drop the language of stewardship. For good.

Mar 22, 2025

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I have written a weekly series of reflections and prayers for the season of Lent. Scroll down to find this week’s offering!

A bird’s nest found on the ground of the Just Food Farm in Navan, Ontario. It is made of mud and straw. Photo by Jessica Hetherington.

The Earth Has Never Needed Our ‘Stewardship’; It’s Time to Drop That Language For Good

A discipleship responding to God’s call in light of the climate crisis requires reorienting the human in the Earth community so that we humans are not considered the sole source of value and meaning in the world.

Yet many Christians continue to foster an anthropocentric approach to relating to the Earth community. They continue to use the language of ‘stewardship’ as the way we should treat the rest of the natural world. This language is enthusiastically used in many Christian environmental circles, including within my denomination, the United Church of Canada. Yet it is being used uncritically, betraying our attempts to see ourselves in proper relationship with God’s creation.

The language of stewardship is an interpretation of the call to human dominion in the Book of Genesis (Gen 1:26-28). ‘Stewardship’ is meant to be a kinder, gentler way of being in relationship with the other-than-human world than ‘dominion’.

Yet, stewardship still means the same thing. Christian ethicist Larry Rasmussen notes that in the majority of Christian thinking, “Humans…are granted moral privilege of place in a ranking scheme that translates as dominion.”1 Although the roots of the climate and ecological crisis are not solely located within the human anthropocentrism that has emerged from this interpretation of the Bible, the language of dominion has proven devastating for the Earth community. While the language of ‘stewardship’ that is prevalent in Christian environmental circles has been an attempt to soften the dominion language of the biblical creation narrative, embedded in the idea of stewardship is an image of humans as separate from the rest of the natural world, and that the natural world exists for human use.

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Stewardship language, no matter how seemingly benign, is relentlessly utilitarian and anthropocentric. The idea of wise stewardship, no matter how reverently or carefully it is expressed, fails to shift human beings from a position of separation and moral superiority over the other-than-human world.

It’s perhaps important for us to realize that, despite the biblical narrative, the Earth has never “relied on or required human stewardship in order to function.” Ecotheologian Dennis O’Hara, drawing on what we learn from Earth systems science and cosmology, points out the obvious: “Earth does not require our stewardship; it requires our noninterference with its self-organizing abilities.”2 Perhaps it is helpful to remember that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old; life began 3.5 billion years ago, yet modern humans (Homo sapiens) have only been around for 300,000 years. Human stewardship has never been part of the equation for sustaining life in the Earth community.

The Christian call to climate action today isn’t about stewardship; it is about a radical realignment of the human within the wider natural world in which we belong and actions that mirror that realignment. It requires nothing less than transformation. The language of stewardship, no matter how well-intentioned, will never get us there. We need to stop using the word stewardship with respect to our relationship with the rest of the natural world. For good.

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LENTEN REFLECTION 2025:

Singing Resurrection When the Earth is Being Crucified

This is a series of weekly reflections as we move through the season of Lent and prepare for Easter. The name of this series, “Singing Resurrection When the Earth is Being Crucified,” is based on a haunting question by Anglican priest Stephen Blackmer: “What does resurrection look like when it is the Earth that is being crucified?”

Lent is a time of reflection and repentance, and so this year I invite us to a time to reflect and repent concerning the reality of the climate and ecological crisis. Each Friday I will offer a brief scriptural reflection, questions for you to consider, and a short prayer. I pray that these are meaningful for you and deepen your Lenten journey this year.

This Lenten series is available to paid subscribers of Faith. Climate Crisis. Action. Upgrade today to receive the full devotional offering (as well as access to the entire archive of this newsletter). Each week includes a reflection on the Gospel reading for that week, questions for you to ponder, and a prayer written by me that you are invited to pray at any time during the season of Lent. I hope these resources are meaningful to you on your journey to the cross and beyond.

Here is last week’s reflection: