Loving God, you created us and all living things for life-giving relationships with you and with one another.  Continue to forgive us and restore us and re-create us in your image and in the image of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

We have heard today about the very beginning:  In the beginning, God…  In the beginning was the Word… (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1).  The readings that we have heard today are both simple and complex, all at the same time. Most people who hear just these verses from the gospel of John (1:1-5) will ask, what is this Word that is being talked about?  But then, upon hearing John 1:14, most people begin to understand: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  Ah… “The Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1).  Jesus – the pre-existent Word.

         And then we have Genesis, which means beginning. Martin Luther says this by way of introduction:

The first chapter is written in the simplest language; yet it contains matters of the utmost importance and very difficult to understand.  It was for this reason, as St. Jerome asserts, that among the Hebrews it was forbidden for anyone under thirty to read the chapter or to expound it for others (Luther’s Works, Vol. 1, Lectures on Genesis).

In other words, if you’re under thirty, you’re not mature enough yet to read it or teach it!  How do those of you under 30 feel about that?...  Interestingly enough, this account of creation does lead to many possible questions and conversations.

         One of the first and most important things for us to know about today’s reading is that this is poetry.  It is not written as a scientific description.  It is not even written as a history with documented times and places.  Rather, it is a poetic description of creation that introduces us to the Creator – the maker of heaven and earth.  It could also be a song with some recurring refrains (like there was evening and there was morning…).

         Those of you who are in school, how many of you have heard about the big bang theory, and the theory of evolution?... Some people will tell you that you either accept the Bible or you accept these other theories and scientific discoveries.  However, it doesn’t have to be either, or.  Why couldn’t God have used a big bang in order to begin the creation of the universe?  Why couldn’t God have used some evolutionary processes along the way?  Why couldn’t God’s days have been really, really long? (since to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day – 2 Pet. 3:8).  We don’t have to check our brains at the door in order to read Genesis.  And so, I invite you to enter into the questions with me as to what we learn about God and ourselves and creation from today’s reading.

         One of the things that comes to light in this passage from Genesis is that God likes to take time to create and involves others in the process – including the earth and the waters and the creatures and the humans.  God could have just gone “poof!” and it’s all done – creation finished.  However, instead God starts by speaking the light into being and the heavens and the earth, but then the creation itself gets involved.  “Let the earth bring forth vegetation…” “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures…” “Let the earth bring forth living creatures…”  And then, several times, “Be fruitful and multiply…” (Gen. 1).  In fact, the creative process continues even while God rests!

         However, with human beings, it is clear that God did the creating.  “Let us make humankind in our image…” (Gen. 1:26).  Some understand the “royal we.”  Some understand the Trinity.  And some understand God including the heavenly council in this creation of “ADAM”.  The Hebrew word for humankind is ADAM – made from the ADAMAH – the ground.  And so we learn that human beings are created in the image of God, and “God saw everything that [God] had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

         The problem with human beings, however, is that they tend to want to be God rather than created beings.  Some read “fill the earth and subdue it” and “have dominion over…every living thing” (Gen. 1:28) and figure that means to do anything we want with the earth and all its creatures.  However, in reading it this way, we forget that all of creation belongs to God.  We are called to care for the earth and for all the creatures in it and for all of its peoples, and even for ourselves, as treasures that belong to somebody else.  God is creator and owner, and we are the stewards, and we are called to cultivate right relationships with God, and with the earth and all its creatures, and with other human beings.

         Whereas we tend to think that we are in charge and that we can figure everything out, there is nothing like a few powerful storms to remind us that really, we are not the ones in control.  There are many forces in this world that are far more powerful than we are, but none that are more powerful than God.

         As you probably know, it was this desire to be God that got everybody into trouble in the first place, and that ruined our relationships with God and with other people, and even with all of creation.  That is why Jesus – the pre-existent Word – became flesh and lived among us, bringing with him light and life, grace and truth.  It is only through Jesus that those relationships are restored – with God, with other people and with all of creation.

         Our God continues to be the one who creates, who is creating even now, and who re-creates.  In fact, in Christ we are a new creation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17), set aside for good works, “which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph. 2:10).  Having been thus set apart for God, let us live by the power of the Holy Spirit in relationships that have been restored – with God, and with others, and with all of creation – through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Pentecost 14 (NL 4)                                                                                                Genesis 1:1-2:4a

September 10, 2017                                                                                   John 1:1-5

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2017 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved