Let me back up…cultural mandate…God’s call to his people before the fall to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. But isn’t that about making babies? Well, sure it is, but God’s call to Adam and Eve was not the equivalent of “I’ve got this world covered, you two-- just get it on!”
It was much closer to this, I think: “I’ve made you humans unique in my world. I made you LIKE me! I gave you abilities to do things and the responsibility to use those abilities to take care of this world I made. Yes, yes, kids, don’t worry some of those abilities include procreation, and you are responsible for that, of course, of course. But also, I limited those abilities so you’d also do OTHER things, too, ok? (This was pre-viagra) Anyway, the initial creation of the universe is complete, but it isn’t finished. I have PACKED this world with potential for development and growth and designed you to cultivate that potential. You’ll make babies AND civilizations. You’ll make a lean-to shelter AND build skyscrapers. You’ll develop basic communication AND write poetry. You’ll wear fig leaves AND eventually there will be Lady GaGa’s 2010 Grammy gown. (ok, that last one may have been an encouragement after the fall and the introduction to clothing, but you get my point—I’m paraphrasing.)
So people were made not to be mindless, nude, vegetarians, but to be the stewards of the world God made and put them in. And not to just conserve the status quo of their piece of creation—“everything is exactly how you left it, God, I promise”—but to develop it to make it better. To discover and cultivate the potential within everything, not just for their own benefit and enjoyment, but to the GLORY OF GOD who put the potential there in the first place!
Part of that job is to cultivate potential in other people, too, not just external institutions and structures. All the good potential that God put into his creation, he also built into people in unique ways. But we can’t actually cultivate our own potential as individual people. Believe me, I don’t like asking for help, so I would MUCH prefer that I could grow my own gifts to make me more the woman God created me to be, to do more the things I was created to do, but God didn’t design us to work like that. We need each other.
And in the meantime, God’s initial mandate of stewardship happened before sin and brokenness entered the world. When Eve & Adam disobeyed God and sin entered the world, it affected everything, but it did not destroy the mandate to be stewards NOR the potential in the whole creation which needs to be developed. Sin does twist things up so that the good potential can be developed in the wrong direction. We still have babies, but families can go really wrong. We have homes, but the desire to have bigger, better homes than we need or can afford can wreck the financial future of millions of people. We have highly developed communication but can lose touch with those closest to us, or use language to demean and destroy. We wear clothes, but high fashion can alienate young girls in really damaging ways.
In Jesus Christ, we have grace. As Christ’s work of restoring all things to the Father is happening—a work made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection—he invites us in. He is using people to do his work. He allows us to continue our efforts to cultivate potential, and gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us so that we, his broken workforce, can move things and people in the right direction—toward restoration rather than separation. This is what the Jubilee conference is about—using who God made us in the places he puts us to develop things toward restoration.
So what does that have to do with Sports Night?
Sports Night is one of my favorite shows ever. I have seen the entire series multiple times, but only this morning when I woke up to the line in my head did I recognize a jubilee moment in there.
Casey McCall is a famous sports anchor on Sports Night, the show-within-the-show which I am told is like Sports Center. In one episode, Casey has to go to his son’s 4th grade class to do a demonstration and he has no idea what to do. Casey’s friends have many suggestions for him including accelerating the aging process of a pumpkin and screwing up his romantic life, but he ultimately lands on making bread. Casey does not know how to make bread, but he is going to throw some ingredients in a bowl, use some misdirection, and pull out a loaf of bread. He does not feel good about this, but doesn’t know what he’d do instead so he goes to Charlie’s school, disheartened.
When he comes back, he is triumphant. He didn’t “make” the bread.
Instead he watched the kids playing games at recess, and when they came back into the classroom, he did what he does—he called the highlights. He did play by play on a kickball game and did an injury report. Finally, Casey tells his friends, “I did an interview with a little girl about jacks. This girl barely speaks above a whisper in class, she’s so afraid she’ll say something stupid, but get her talking about foursies, and she turns into Muhammad Ali.”
This is a jubilee moment to me, if a silly example of one. Casey did what he does, used his gifts and talents to bring out the potential in the little jacks player. He helped her to see what she can do, and freed her to be more the person she was made to be—apparently a heavyweight boxing champion? Seriously, though, Casey gave her a chance to speak confidently and forget fears for a moment to shine. I think that is a small glimpse of restoration.
This is what we are called to do—use the gifts and opportunities given to us to bring out the potential in other people and structures. I can’t wait to be at Jubilee in two weeks to hear Christian scholars in various fields talk about how they are doing this, and to see college students imagine for themselves a life that is all about being part of Christ’s kingdom building.
It was when I was a student attending Jubilee that I decided this for my life: I want to live a life of developing the potential within people, places, things, and ideas so that they move toward restoration to their creator. At the end of my day until the end of my life, I want to look back and proudly say: “I did what I do. I did what I was made to do.”
