What are human beings?

I often turn to the common lectionary to find the subjects on which millions of Christian worshipers will be thinking. I enjoy the comradery. This coming Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost and opens a long period of pondering about the living of the Christian life. The color for the season is understandably green. It is the time of year when the Northern Hemisphere suddenly turns green. I love the green setting of the summer months. Days are longer and the sun seems a bit brighter. The Psalm for the day is Psalm 8. It is my second most favorite Psalm, just behind Psalm 23.

There are key questions that confront the serious Bible reader. Psalm 8 is one of those passages that asks a key, unavoidable question. “What are human beings that God is mindful of them, mortals that God should care for them?”

The Psalmist demands time for all of us” to ponder. He is my kind of guy. His pondering has a context…..the moon, the stars and the heavens. He has no scientific grasp of that at which he is looking. They are huge and far away. I have the same sense when I ponder the immensity of the universe in the 21^st century. The context of we modern human beings is so vast that our scientific understanding always falls short and leaves us in wonder and awe. My own wonder is captivated by the natural environment much closer. Pioneer Peak to the right, Byers Peak to the east, Hatcher pass to the north, The Matanuska Glacier gorge to the left and the Knick Glacier gorge to the right, the two coming together to form the wonder of a braided river that flows wherever it pleases. If the moon and the stars do not get to you, the close up mountains, glaciers and the braided river certainly will.

Thoughtful people will ponder. Are we human beings the only creatures, who have the ability to ponder their own existence?

Perspective takes over. From a scientific perspective, human beings are an interesting mass of flesh and blood, a random product of an evolutionary process. In intrinsic value, we humans are of no more value than a horse, a pig, a fly or a birch tree.

From a social perspective a different understanding emerges. What begins as an adventure of random evolution develops abilities to organize and form groups, clans, tribes and nations. Such organizations require rules and ultimately rulers. Values are generated by those who rule. The problem of values that are generated from a secular social process and setting is that neighbors have become competitors with neighbors. Lives in neighboring clans are less valued than their own. Cain killing Abel is the Bible classic. Herder and farmer could not get along. Is this inevitable? “America First” sends the message of inevitability.

The Israelite clan is the roots of the Bible tradition. In their tradition they fought with neighbors. At one time they were world’s greatest killers of neighbors. They lost wars and become slaves. They destroyed and built. They had it all and at times had nothing. Throughout their ugly and beautiful history they maintained an absurd devotion to their God. Without their God devotion, they would have disappeared from the earth. They survived and I am a great benefactor.

I am much aware of evolutionary processes that are marching through billions of years of history. I am aware of the social dynamics that shape the lives of every human being. However, I am also aware of the Israelite tradition of looking at our lives and our environment and, seemingly ignoring science, exclaims “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Out of that exclamation, the Psalmist gives us a value statement that cannot be produced by scientist or social custom.

“You have made human beings little less than God and have crowned them with glory and honor. You have given human beings dominion over the works of your hands.” This is a faith statement that cannot be verified or affirmed by scientific examination. This faith statement defines the believer’s identity and lays out in simple terms our responsibilities toward one another and to God’s world.

This next Sunday I will again go to a service of worship of the God of creation. I will acknowledge God and claim my place as someone special, but not God. On my drive to worship I will look at the mountains and the heavens. They keep me humble. On my drive home and to another week of living, I will know that every human being is a brother or sister and that I have a responsibility to take care of what God has graciously placed in my charge.

The green season has arrived.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.