LIVING ON A FOOTSTOOL:

God's Economy and Ours

Calvin B. DeWitt

All of us are living on a footstool! So we learn from Psalm 127. "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool," proclaims the Creator of all things through the psalmist's song. Admittedly, the footstool on which we live is beautifully upholstered -- with the living fabric of the biosphere. Yet, it is but part of God's greater house -- God's oikos. And so, God asks, "Where is the house (oikos) you will build for me?" "Has not my hand made all these things...?"

God's house is the whole Creation. So whatever houses we build are necessarily built within God's greater house. And whatever we do to make things work in our lives -- our economy -- necessarily operates within the workings of God's greater economy. God's house and God's economy is the context of our own. And so, unless we build in harmony with the Creator of all things, we build in vain. As the Scriptures put it, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." And, "except the Lord keep (shamar) the city, the watchman (shomer) waketh but in vain" (Psalm 127:1 KJV).

What does this mean? What is this bigger house, what is this divine economy? The answer "is blowing in the wind," shining in the stars, sounding in the thunder. So much so that without the benefit of the Bible and its affirmation of "heaven's declaration," (Psalm 19:1) and Creation's testimony (Romans 1:20), some pre-Socratic philosophers not only discovered the existence of this greater economy but that it necessarily is a divine economy -- a divine oikonomia. (Thus Webster's definition of economy as "God's plan or system for government of the world.")

Today we can understand that economy far better than back then, even though we might choose not to do so. Operating with remarkable integrity, it includes the reciprocal exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, photosynthesis and respiration and the distribution of these vital gases by global circulations. Working with wondrous consistency, it includes the production of thermonuclear solar energy from our star, the sun, that beams brightly in all directions, and, intercepted by the disc of Earth, energizes green plants, empowers circuits of air and water, and reflectively delivers the light of the moon. Functioning with awesome beauty, it involves the cleansing of Earth's universal solvent, water, by distillation and filtration in the hydrologic cycle and returning it time and again, renewed, to refresh the Earth in the dew and the rain. It is the economy by which God cares for the world. It is the oikonomia whereby God sustains the fabric of the biosphere -- God's footstool, and our Earthy home.

And so we worship God, gratefully singing the power and love of our Creator -- "pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise:"

"Thy bounteous care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light!
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain.
It sweetly distills in the dew and the rain!"

Inexpressible as it is by human voice and pen, the voice of God's oikos and God's oikonomia goes powerfully out through all the Earth. It is proclaimed by the heavens, by all God's creatures beneath the heavens, by the fabric of the footstool on which we live. So it is that we find ourselves in God's house and in God's economy, immersed in God's inexpressible love for the world.

Part and parcel of the fabric, we have the capacity to live properly interwoven within it, abiding by God's will for us in Creation. We also have the capacity to tear at that fabric, violating the integrity of the biosphere that envelops God's earth. For we are Earth's stewards, for good or ill. Living on God's footstool, we have been assigned by God the care of its fabric. Images of God, we are expected to image God's love for the world.

As mirrors of God's love, we are given guidance by the Image of God, Jesus Christ. His guidance has to do with how we should build within God's greater house. First off, our house should not be at odds with God or God's house, the reason being that "...a house (oikos) divided against a house (oikos) falleth" (Luke 11:17, KJV). Whatever we build or do in the world -- our little oikos, and our tiny oikonomia -- must not be at odds with God's grand oikos and God's grand oikonomia.

Second, we must make sure that what we build is built by the Lord, so that it does not fall. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." And third, we must give very careful attention to its foundation. We must be sure of our footings and the footings of what we build. "I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice," says Jesus. "He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and placed its footings on rock" (Luke 6:47-48).

Building our house on a rock means getting beyond mere talk about God and God's world, moving out from discussions of what is wrong and what needs to be done, and DOING what needs to be done. Our knowledge of God's economy -- the workings of God's house -- must be put into action. We must practice what we preach. All talk and no action is worthless to God's economy: "...the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without footing" (Luke 6:49), Jesus teaches.

Our DOING what needs to be done can be called stewardship. Interestingly, one translation of oikonomia as used in the New Testament is stewardship. We can define stewardship as our human oikonomia informed by and subservient to God's oikonomia. Stewardship is the work of making our human economy operate in harmony with God's economy.

What stewardship means in real terms -- the answer to the question, "Then what must we do?" -- is answered throughout the Scriptures. Among their teachings are the biblical principles of earthkeeping, fruitfulness, and sabbath. From these we learn that (1) as the Lord keeps and sustains us, so must we keep and sustain God's Creation (cf. Genesis 2:15); (2) we must provide for Creation's sabbath rests (Exodus 23, Leviticus 25,26); and (3) we should enjoy, but must not destroy, Creation's fruitfulness (Genesis 6-9; Ezekiel 34:18). When these principles are applied together, they give us enough to align much of our economy with God's economy. Study and application of these principles and gaining knowledge of God's economy from Creation and in the Scriptures, we gain the capacity for responsible stewardship. Responsible stewardship is building what we built in accord with God's Creation and God's economy for Creation. Responsible stewardship is living out the prayer, "This kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth... Responsible stewardship is so living on Earth that Heaven will not be a shock to us.

 

Source: http://cesc.montreat.edu/papers/action/Living_Footstool1.htm