Clergy from left, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired; Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan and Pastor Deb Church. Courtesy photo
By Reverend Lynn Finnegan
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith
Santa Fe
When I was in eighth grade, my “reading” teacher began each class with a list of ten words. We then had to use our (paper) thesauruses and produce a list of synonyms for each word. I found the task incredibly tedious.
Today, I am grateful for the tedium! The exercise impressed upon me the power and nuances of words and language. Take the word “dominion”. In a majority of English translations of the Bible, the creation story in the book of Genesis reads something like this: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’”
Now I don’t know about you, but when I see the word “dominion”, I think of “dominate” and when I think of “dominate” I don’t get a good feeling in my stomach. Dominion, dominate, domination all conjures up images of power and control, and not in a good way. The dictionary in fact suggests similar words such as “intimidate”, “walk over” and “bully” when it defines dominion. Is this really what our biblical authors meant?
Well, it turns out, no. The words, “have dominion” are from the Hebrew verb radah, which is related to other words having the meanings of descend, go down, wander, and spread. This verb radah, as used in the creation myth, literally means to rule by going down and walking among the subjects as an equal.
Our Biblical creation story beautifully depicts God as reflecting at each stage of creation: It is good! It also identifies humans as being made in God’s image. How mind-blowing is that! If we profess that God is love (which we do), then his image bearers (us) have been created to walk among God’s subjects (the good creation) with LOVE. In other words, we have a responsibility for creation care not dominion. Words matter. The mindset of dominion leads to near extinction of buffalo, strip mining, and unconscious and unfettered consumption. The mindset of creation care leads to finding ways to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Happy Earth Day weekend! Let’s celebrate it with care, savoring the words of the poet Mary Oliver in her poem “Messenger”: “My work is loving the world … Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”
Editor’s note: ‘All Shall Be Well’ is a semi-monthly column written by local women clergy (pastors and deacons) including, ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com); Nicolé Ferry, Pastor, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (pastornicole@bethluth.com); Lynn Finnegan, Assistant Rector, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe (rev.lynn@holyfaithchurchsf.org) and Deb Church, Pastor, White Rock Presbyterian Church (pastor@wrpchurch.com).
