Why Should You Care?

Psalm 8

Psalm 8, being a work of sacred poetry, packs a lot of meaning into few words. It opens and closes with a celebration of God’s majesty—specifically the majesty of God’s “name.” Bible Scholar, James Mays, helps to unpack the meaning and content of God’s “name” for the psalmist, it has to do with the identity of God which is inseparable from the words and works of God.[1] The psalmist is clearly inspired by the sacred poetry of Genesis 1, in which God’s words and works are also inseparable. God says “Hey, light!” and, hey, light! Psalm 8 is a hymn of praise to the identity of God revealed through creation.

This is the context out of which the question of human identity arises. “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? In short: Wow God, given all the amazing and awe inspiring things that you have said and made, why should you care about me? In the context of praise for the words and works of God, it becomes easier to see this question as a question of our identity and responsibility in relation to creation.

The psalmist goes on to describe, in astonishment, the glory and honor given to humankind by God and the responsibility bestowed to us in relationship to God’s creation. God, by speaking, “established dominion over chaos and brought forth creation; humankind is given capacity and vocation to master other animals and bring forth civilization.”[2] What is interesting about the way the psalmist frames this vocation, however, is that it is not framed as the responsibility or the calling of a single individual, but as the responsibility and calling of all of us. We are “crowned with glory and honor,” the entire human race is given the status of royalty, and we are tasked with representing God’s reign to other creatures. James Mays makes clear that it is the entire human race receiving this status, not a particular individual or a specific group, and the task of representing God’s reign within creation can only be carried out by all of us working together according to the will of God.[3]

So why should you care about this? Because we often mix-up career and vocation. We derive our sense of purpose and identity and meaning and value form what we do, what we create, rather than from what God has done and created. Because of this oversight, we abuse our dominion; we behave in individualistic ways to serve our own purposes and pride; we build up groups and elevate individuals. “Dominion has become domination; rule has become ruin; subordination in the divine purpose has become subjection to human sinfulness.”[4]

The abuse of our dominion stems from what James Fowler calls “our most serious modern heresy”: a selfishness that separates us from the fulfillment of our vocation in relation to the whole.[5] In his book, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, James Fowler builds on the work of developmental psychologist Erik Erikson. Erikson’s work looked as the psychological and social development of human beings, famously deriving stages of development. James fowler used this work to also develop stages of human spiritual development. Understanding, respecting, and deriving joy from our vocation comes in higher stages of spiritual development. In his research, he makes a similar claim about vocation to that by the psalmist. He sees vocation as a “call to partnership with God on behalf of the neighbor”; it is a call to relationship with the whole of humankind that respects and resonates with the will of God.[6] “There is no personal fulfillment that is not part of communal fulfillment.”[7]

In his view, which also respects the Biblical view, selfishness leads us not to fulfilling our vocation, but rather a fulfilling a sense of destiny in which we strive to maximize our “accumulation of the qualities and goods that promise to guarantee [our] fullness and completion....This strategy of pursuit alienates us from the bonds of community and intimacy” because it assumes we are competing with one another for social status and recognition.[8] It’s not bad to be recognized for our skills, abilities, and accomplishments. But the earning of awards is not to be confused with our vocation and our value and purpose as representatives of God’s Kingdom on earth.

In vocation, says Fowler, “we are called to an excellence that is not based on competition with others. In vocation we are called to realize excellence as a result of God’s addressing us, but not with the motive of outstripping others….This understanding of vocation frees us from anxiety about whether someone else will fulfill our particular destiny before we get there or whether someone else will beat us to that singular achievement that would have justified our lives….To be in vocation frees us to rejoice in the gifts and graces of others. In vocation we are augmented by others’ talents rather than being diminished or threatened by them….Freed from jealousy and envy, able to celebrate the gifts of others, we are freed from the sense of having to be all things to all people….In vocation, we can experience our limits as gracious, even as we experience our gifts as gracious.”[9]

Having heard what James Fowler has to say about the value and importance of vocation to healthy human and spiritual development, let’s return to the words of the psalmist. “You have made human beings a little lower than divine, crowning them with glory and honor, and giving them dominion over the works of your hands.” This “endowment of royal dignity to all human beings” implies an expectation that all human beings carry themselves with proper royal conduct.[10] To think that we actually do this is laughable, or, more often, grieve-able. As I mentioned last week, we must grieve the great travesties conducted by human against human: loss of life, abuse of dignity, assault of character; and human against nature: justifying increased polluting and pillaging for the purpose of greater profit. This grief acknowledges the great divide between God’s vision for humanity and the reality of human culture. We’ve truly made a mess of things by allowing our careers and competitive nature to replace our vocational responsibility, by allowing our love of money to make the health of our economy more important than the health of God's ecology. Who are we, indeed, that God should care?

And therein lies the rub, or the grace. God still cares about and for us. This grace doesn’t release us from the responsibility of representing the reign of God’s love to all of creation, it reminds us of it. “The proper exercise of human dominion over creation is to enable all creation to give full, unfettered praise to God….In praise that is universally performed, universal peace is the end result.”[11] Why should God care? Because God loves us, and wants what is best for us: peace, love, compassion, joy. Why should you care about your neighbor, why should you care about your enemies, why should you care about the climate, why should you care about the planet? Because God cares. And so Jesus taught us to pray “God’s Kingdom come,” so that we remember our vocation to harbor God's peaceful Kingdom, and “God’s will be done” so that we remember our vocation, all of us together, to represent God’s love and care to the whole of creation. Why should we care? So that one day we can join with the psalmist and with ALL of creation in joyful songs of praise to our God. May it be so. Amen.

[1] Mays, James. “Psalms” from Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Preaching and Teaching. 1994, John Knox Press. Louisville, KY. P 65.

[2] Mays. 67.

[3] Mays. 69.

[4] Mays. 70.

[5] Fowler, James. Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult Development and Christian Faith. 2000, Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA. P 82.

[6] Fowler. 83.

[7] Fowler. 83.

[8] Fowler. 83.

[9] Fowler. 84.

[10] Brown, William. Psalms. 2010, Abingdon Press. Nashville, TN. P 151.

[11] Brown. 152.