again and again and again...

again and again and again….,

Trinity Sunday – June 14/2014      Genesis1

I love the story of creation – I love the poetry of it, I love the rhythm of it – “and there was evening and there was morning, the first day”  I love the order of it – from nothing to form – from form to understanding and mostly I love the fact that God is creation, at the helm in the midst –beginning and ending - within and without,  imminent/eminent – God is creation and then God takes this incomprehensible unknown and gradually moulds it and shapes it

·       until meaning emerges

·       until understanding happens

·       until human beings emerge deeply connected to their creator.

I also love how this ancient piece of poetry comes from a world view so completely different than the world view of 2014 with a entirely different understanding of 

Ø  science

Ø  cosmology

Ø  astronomy

Ø  biology

Ø  physics and even

Ø  theology

Yet, in spite of that -  the order is correct about how the world was formed The order of the formation of the earth according to the best scientist of this day, was correct in Genesis 1

o   from void to water

o   from water to earth

o   from earth to seed and fish

o   from fish to fowl and fowl to mammals from

o   mammals to finally humans  - the last of the species to come to earth

Let’s listen again to creation – this time in the words of the great African American poet James Weldon Johnson  – it is called:  The Creation

THE CREATION

by: James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

ND God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely --
I'll make me a world."

 

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

 

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, "That's good!"

 

Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, "That's good!"

 

Then God himself stepped down --
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

 

Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

 

Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder.

 

Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said, "Bring forth! Bring forth!"
And quicker than God could drop His hand.
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, "That's good!"

 

Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked at His sun,
And He looked at His moon,
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all its living things,
And God said, "I'm lonely still."

 

Then God sat down
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought, "I'll make me a man!"

 

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;

 

Then into it He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.[1]

I hope this won’t surprise you when you hear it but both this poem from James Weldon Johnson and the poetry from Genesis 1, are myths – they are myths about creation. 

One wise child once said that a myth is something that is not true on the outside but is true on the inside.  And this myth is exactly that – true on the inside…

Our scientific minds can no longer believe in the facts of creation that in six of our days – 144 hours and all powerful being sat or stood somewhere in outer space with a magic finger going 

v zap – shape

v zap – light

v zap – sun and moon

v zap – plants and pets and people

v zap –zap –zap

Scholars believe that this beautiful poem was written not in fact in the beginning but in the midst of the Babylonian exile – which was only about 2500 years ago.  This was when the world was turned upside down for the Hebrew people – when chaos reigned – when confusion was the order of the day.  A scribe sat down and re-membered how the world came to be.

§  Re-membered it in poetry

§  Re-membered it in story

§  Re-membered it in song

§  Re-membered and re-connected himself and his people to their Creator.

This story, this song, this re-membering re-established the relationship that God had to God’s people from the beginning – in the midst of Creation.

The word re-member means what it says – it takes the members and puts them back together again.  To remember means to bring into your mind an awareness of what it was in the past, to recall an event, but also a reconnection to what was.

This story put the people back together again – it re-membered the Divine Being that made heaven and earth and the people for a reason, for a purpose for connection.

Creation story is a song about power for the powerless / life for the lifeless and hope for those who have been living in hopelessness.  Creation story is a song of love from God to God’s people.

For what is more hopeless than your world being torn apart  - all the things you know no longer working – when you believe yourself to be the chosen people and you are being conquered by a culture that does not respect you or your God –what do you do?  Actually this is our question too!  When a culture is overtaking us, here in this church, that does not respect what we do, who we are, what we stand for nor does our culture seem to have any use for our God – what do we do?

We re-member!  We re-member just like the Hebrews did in the midst of their turmoil.

We re-member how we came into being in the ancient story, for in the midst of the cadence of the poetry – in the core of the rhythm of the words – there you hear it – there beats the heart of God – “and it was evening – papom – and it was morning – papoom – the first day – papoom.  The heartbeat of God beating in love for all it’s creation.

God created the world – God created the light – God created the animals – God created you!  You are God’s creation….and that’s not all.

Cause you know what – the words that the scribe used to describe the beginning of all things – “In the Beginning”  well in fact the translators from Hebrew to English added the word “the” which means that the ‘the’ is not really there the first sentence should be read:  in beginning or in a beginning

And that changes things for without the ‘the’ – creation is longer reads as a one time thing…no longer does God only act for six days.

The first Creation is only a beginning – one of many, one of thousands, one of millions.

God – creator God, Creating God – God of this Hebrew scribe, our God creates again and again and again… and our bible proves it.

God created and things fell apart and Eden was over, and God created again

A tower was built, to try and get closer to God, and it fell apart, and the people began to babel, and God created again

An arch was built for animals 2 x 2 and a giant flood that destroyed the earth and doves and rainbows, and God created again.

And with a childless couple – descendants as many as the grains of sand,  

To a boy in a colourful coat, when brothers turned against him – God created an opportunity to save not only his family but also his people.

and God comes to create again in the voice in a burning bush, and through the waters of the red sea

and God creates new opportunities and new life with judges and kings and prophets and continues to create new covenants and new promises and new hope for the people…

God created in so many ways and then into the midst of it all – God sends godself – God comes as a baby – Emmanuel – God with us

And the child is called Jesus and the world is re-created once more – and still it ended – on a cross with death – and still God creates – and life begins again – resurrection!   God is not done – creation is not over!

And Jesus ascends and the spirit descends and a new life is created in the disciples and God’s word is shared in a new ways and church is born

Over and over and over again – God creates and recreates and re-re creates

And God is about to do it again – and all it is going to take is these simple foods on this table here – for in a moment we are going to share this bread and this juice and re-member.  We are going to re-member – put ourselves back together again, to be reformed into God’s people sharing a meal at the table.  We are going to re-member that this meal was shared by Jesus with his disciples, and this meal comes from a longer tradition that connects us to Moses and the Exodus people and we are going to remember that the elements of this meal, these simple foods of bread and juice are part of the earth, grains from the fields and fruit from the vine, vine from the earth, watered by the rains and grown from seeds – and God creates again and again and again..

And we are re-created

I believe that God created and is re-creating this world again and again.

And that by creating humanity God gave us that spark of faith and love that reflects Godself... this is what it means to be created in God image.  We all have within us the ability to create - to bring life from death, to re-vision the world, to work with God in the resurrection business.

God gave us choice: to choose to follow, to seek God out,to share the good news, to heal the sick and feed the hungry, to love and care for each other.  To be the church, this place that has the opportunity each and every day to be as Christ in the world.

To choose to honour and respect each other

To choose to do good - to choose to forgive.

To choose to love God, to love others and most of all to love ourselves – for if we do not value our own lives, how can we value anyone else’s?

God created all this and all of us.

God doesn’t expect us to do it alone: for we are never alone, for God

Creator, Redeemer, Breath  -   

Designer, Liberator, Life-force

Parent, Brother, Helper   -  

 source of love, love incarnate, loves power

Maker, Saviour, Friend

Father, Son and Holy Spirit    

 Creator God is with us always.  Amen.

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[1] James Weldon Johnson:  "The Creation" is reprinted from The Book of American Negro Poetry. Ed. James Weldon Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922.