The Church as Ecosystem, Part II Dawn in Eden

In my last blog, I used the concept of an ecosystem—such as a forest or a jungle--as a metaphor for the church.  An ecosystem is a collection of living creatures living together, each pursuing its own agenda but together creating a whole society that fulfills the greater purpose God intended for them. 

This metaphor is not specifically used in the Bible in regard to the church.  There is an example of it, however, which provides a glimpse into what it ought to be like.  It is the Garden of Eden.  Our culture began in the Garden, under the guidance God, and we existed in peace ther along with the other creatures until we sinned and the ecosystem of Eden was destroyed.

The Edenic ecosystem was unlike any that ever existed.  The Bible does not call it a forest or jungle, but as a garden—a managed community organized and directed by God.  Adam and Eve were caretakers there, but they did not plant the garden, or design it. It took someone much smarter and wiser than they to plan a zoological garden where lions and lambs could lay peaceably together.  All we were supposed to do was to manage it.  In time, Adam and Eve may have learned the secrets of the place, and may have achieved the capability of having true dominion over it, but at first, they were simply called to dress and keep it.  They were simply the servants, not true managers. God alone knew the secrets to make Eden work.

Eden was an amazing place! The most amazing thing about it was the lack of predation.  No ecosystem on earth can exist without a balance predators and prey.  Reindeer need wolves, lions need lambs, sharks need minnows, otherwise the predators would starve or the plant eaters would overpopulate. A lion was designed to be a hunter.  Its teeth and fangs were created for no other purpose.  Likewise, a deer was designed to run from other dangerous animals. There is no real purpose for the camouflage of a deer’s back or the swiftness of its hooves except to run and hide.  How can animal who are bred to kill and other animals who were born to be afraid live side by side? Our minds cannot conceive of a place where the lions and the lambs can lie down together in the same field.  In our world, such a place would soon be an ecological disaster.

Yet in Eden, God managed to pull it off. No one knows how.  God created an environment so perfectly balanced and harmonious that predation and self defense were not necessary, making it possible for peace to reign.

But the Fall destroyed Eden.  People ceased to be servants of the Manager, and started looking out for their own affairs.  Almost immediately, the rest of Eden followed, and creation suffered.  People became both predator and prey, just like the rest of the created order.  We went quickly back to a world where lions ate lambs and deer hide in the woods from wolves.  In this fallen order, a civilization developed where people preyed not only upon other animals, but on each other.  Aggression and fear became the driving forces behind human culture.

It was into this wild ecosystem, where the law of the jungle held dominance that Jesus came.   When He entered the world His first order of business was to begin a new kingdom of God, like the one that once existed in Eden, where there would be neither predators nor prey.  He did not do it with all creation, but He started rebuilding the world among people first. 

This new version of Eden, this ecosystem that existed without fear or dominance, was His church.

The church is a place where people do not have to dominate each other, because God dominates us all.  It a place where people do not have to be afraid, where there is mutual acceptance and cooperation.  No one has to be afraid to be in the company of Christ’s people. We do not compete for attention or respect, because God has already given it to every one of us.  We do not have to fight for love, because love is freely given by Christ. The Kingdom of God—the Church—is the new Eden.  We know we belong in this new Eden when we love those who are here, are willing to forget old wounds, and give preference to the weakest and powerless.

At least that is what the Church is supposed to be. But we should be under no illusions that that is what it is.  It is no more natural for us to love and trust each other and to live non-competitively than for a lion to lie down with a lamb. We still the retain the emotionally aggressive and fearful natures of our ancestors, glorying in our own supremacy and paranoid of everyone else.  In our hearts, human beings are as bloodthirsty as the lion or the jackal, and we carry that bloodlust with us into church.  No, we still hurting and fearing each other.

Everyone wants to be the leader.  People get offended over little things. We lie, cheat, and steal for honors that would seem pathetically small to others. We will fight for dominance over a Sunday school class or a prayer group as if we were tigers in the jungle fight over the carcass of an antelope.  We do this because we were bred to do it. We are by nature an aggressive species.

Even more dangerous than our aggression are our tendency to fear.  We react with hostility to those who look, think, or act differently from ourselves.  We just want them out of our church, out of God’s church, because we think we own the church, not God.   We feel justified in driving away anyone who feels the least bit threatening, because we think that fear comes with the outside, not from within our own fallen hearts.  If we really trusted God, we would not be afraid, but because we are afraid, we assume it must be the fault of others. 

Given our aggressive and fearful nature, it’s amazing that the church still exists at all—but it does. It doesn’t always fail—sometimes it works. That is for the same reason it worked in Eden, because God is there.  He is the only One wise enough and strong enough to make us get along. 

What has gone wrong with the Church is the same thing that went wrong with Eden--we leave God out.  In Genesis, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden. But were not the first to be banished—before God banished Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve banished God by their indifference to His leadership.  Without Him Eden became a jungle.

By our rejection of His ways, we banish God form he church, assuming instead that we can lead ourselves without Him. We think we understand what He wants, and that we have no need for His presence or direction.  We even resent it when people point out the need for prayer and divine guidance.

If it sometimes seems unnatural to have to stop and pray, or to seek His wisdom, there is a very simple reason for it.  It is unnatural to us. We grew up in a different world where all we have to depend upon is ourselves.  The garden would never be a garden without the Gardener.  It’s only His presence that makes a garden work. 

I have no idea how to get the church to behave like the Garden of Eden—but then, I’m not supposed to.  Managing the church is above my pay grade. But then God didn’t make me responsible.  Whether it succeeds or fails is not up to me, but to God’s overarching control.  I can only enjoy my part of Eden while I last.  It’s all I can do to banish aggression and fear from my own heart.