The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15
“Mature materiality will invite our growth toward our personal reidentification so that we no longer understand ourselves as consumers who are authorized (and required!) to consume in uncurbed ways. Mature materiality may offer two alternative identities to us.
First, we may grow into an identity as citizens and members of the community. That identity, on the one hand, means that our consumption of food is always with and in the company of other members of the community. Eating in companionship
with the economically isolated may cause us to think differently about extravagance and indulgence that is in stark contrast to the eating prospects of our economically isolated neighbors.
(The term isolated is used to indicate that the problem we readily label as “poverty” is the result of being cut off from economic resources that are necessary to live a viable life in our society. The phrase economically isolated is preferable to poor because it points to the systemic causes of such a condition.)
As citizens we never eat alone, in isolation, but always with our neighbors who are present at the table with us or who await an invitation to the table with us. On the other hand, identity as citizens specifies that we have an obligation to participate in the formation of food policy and practice that impinges on local possibilities. Such an obligation may lead to engagement with lobbying efforts for policy, such as Bread for the World, an enterprise that aims to redefine policy and practice toward a more equitable distribution of food.
A second identity toward which we may grow through mature materiality is to accept ourselves as creatures of God along with other creatures of God. This will cause us to be aware that we are a part of not only a food chain but also a food network in which all creatures are entitled to adequate food.
Our role as creatures, according to the Bible, is to “till” and “keep” the earth (Gen. 2:15), that is, to cultivate and preserve the earth as the giver of food in abundance. When we eat alongside other creatures and when we take responsibility for the entire network of eating creatures, we may consider our consuming habits very differently.”
Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 36-37.