Central United Methodist Church (Concord, NC)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The Creation (Genesis 1:1-2:3)
Preached by Rev. Reta Steck
The creation story in Genesis 1 may be the most well known and hotly debated text in the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But beyond the first line of the passage, we agree on few other details. We fight over how the creation story should be interpreted—literally, figuratively, allegorically, mythologically. We struggle with how the theory of evolution fits into the biblical story—or whether evolution fits. The creation story, this basic attempt to describe the relation between God and the world, continues to be a rabid point of contention among believers and non-believers alike. For some the stakes are high. Where a person stands in relation to the creation story determines where one will spend eternity. Some even argue that one cannot even be a Christian unless she believes the creation story to be completely true and 100% factual.
Several years ago I experienced how thorny the issue of creation had become first hand. I started seminary and decided that I needed a small Bible to carry in my book bag. My husband, Todd, and I went to a Christian bookstore to browse. A clerk, a young woman, asked if she could help me. Then the clerk saw Todd. Her face froze and her mouth dropped open. The young woman obviously recognized Todd—and not in a good way! The young woman turned to Todd and said, “What are you doing in a Christian bookstore?” Todd smiled and explained why we were there. I realized she must be one of Todd’s students; Todd teaches biology at UNC Charlotte. Then the young woman said, “How can you be a Christian and teach all that stuff about evolution?”
While many of us here today may not feel comfortable going to the extent of Todd’s student, many of us may struggle with what we think the biblical story of creation really means. The fact that many of us are familiar with the passage may even be a detriment. Often it is difficult to listen to familiar scripture with curiosity and fresh insight. But today I invite you to go on a journey with me into the story of creation. I pray for God’s help in the laying aside of our assumptions. May God’s Word disclose new possibilities for our life together.
To facilitate your hearing the creation story afresh I will be reading from a new biblical translation called The Transparent English Bible. This new translation has not yet been published. But Dr. James Tabor, chair of the Religious Studies Department at UNC Charlotte, was kind enough to send me a copy of our scripture for this morning via email. Dr. Tabor has been working on this translation, called The Original Bible Project, for 15 years. The new translation strives to be as transparent and consistent as possible to the original languages of the Bible.
One thing you will notice immediately is that this new translation uses the title for God used in the original Hebrew, Elohim. Hear now the Word of God:
[Genesis 1:1-2:3]
This is the Word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Later this month we will be hosting here at Central the renowned and distinguished archeologist, Dr. Jim Fleming, for a weekend. Dr. Fleming was here last year. In one of his presentations, someone asked, “How can you know what the Bible means?” Dr. Fleming replied, “The Bible means what it means!”
Now that might sound like a glib answer. But Dr. Fleming makes a point: Often we twist the words of the Bible to fit our context, our culture, our situation, instead of allowing the Bible to speak for itself in its own time and place. We distort the words of scripture to answer the questions we want answered instead of allowing the text to speak to us. In other words, we ask questions of the scriptures that the scriptures never intended to answer. We ask the wrong questions and as a result never see what the scripture is really trying to tell us.
Case in point: the creation story of Genesis 1. Our culture demands answers to questions for which the biblical creation story never intended to address. The biblical creation story is not a science textbook. The biblical creation story is not a scientific explanation of the origin of the universe.
Listen again to the opening lines I read earlier: “At the first of Elohim creating the skies and the land…” Listen now to another translation that follows the Hebrew closely by Everett Fox: “At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth…” Here Genesis is not claiming to be telling events from the beginning of time.
Back in December, some of you might have heard Mike Collins interview Dr. Tabor on his radio show, Charlotte Talks (on NPR). Dr. Tabor said that the original meaning of Genesis 1:1 “is not that we’re talking about the beginning of time.” Genesis 1:1 is “telling you what things were like when God began to create the heavens and the earth (like describing the moon with craters). When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void. This is the way it was when things got started—not a description of the origin of the universe. “The Bible means what it means.”
But if the creation story is not a scientific account of how the universe began, what is it? To answer that question, we need to revisit just a bit of history.
Most agree that the biblical creation story, like much of the Bible, began as oral tradition. The Hebrews told their faith stories over and over and handed them down from generation to generation. The biblical creation story was probably used as a liturgical text—kind of like our Doxology (“Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below…”). Oral tradition works well as long as the community remains constant and stable. But in 587 BC the biggest disaster in ancient Israel, the Babylonian exile, changed everything! Jerusalem and the Temple lay in ruins. The people were hauled off to a foreign land and put in concentration camps. The exile lasted some 50 years. As the exile drew longer and longer, the Hebrews focused more and more on recording the oral traditions of their faith as a means of survival.
The creation story repeated and handed down by Israel was not uncommon. Many of the cultures surrounding ancient Israel told elaborate creation stories. For example, the city of Babylon, where the Israelites were held captive, claimed Marduk as their chief city god. The Babylonians told the story each year of how Marduk defeated all the other gods and created the universe. “All the other gods” included the God of Israel. Thus, the Israelites, according to the Babylonian creation tales, were in captivity because they simply chose the wrong god—a god defeated by Marduk.
The creation story handed down by the Hebrews countered Babylonian beliefs on every front. The Hebrews’ creation story said: We did not choose the wrong God. There is only one God: the God of Israel. And the God of Israel, not your puny god called Marduk, created the heavens and the earth. And do not be lulled into the false sense of security of what looks like our defeat. The God of Israel is Elohim—“god of all gods.” It ain’t over til it’s over!
[Before we leave the Babylonian creation stories, I want you to look with me at v. 14. The “lights in the expanse of the skies” that “separate between the day and between the night” are never named. No mention of “sun” or “moon.” Israel would not call the “greater and lesser lights” by their common names because the Babylonians worshipped these heavenly bodies as major deities. Israel avoided giving any significance to these bodies—not even a name. (Notice that “light” appears on the first day—before the creation of the “greater and lesser lights” on the 4th day.) The message here: The sun and the moon are not deities to be worshiped but only creations of the God of Israel—mechanisms created by God for light—much like a light fixture. You would have to be a fool to worship a light fixture as a god!]
So—if the biblical creation story is not a scientific textbook, what is it? First and foremost, it is a story about God and the kind of God God decided to be. God created everything. No one and no thing is worthy of our praise. God is cosmic and limitless. God reaches down into the chaos and creates. God reaches down into the exile and pulls his people out.
Do we need to hear this today? Do we need to hear that God is cosmic and limitless—that the great cosmic God of the universe loves his creation, that the great cosmic God of the universe loves us so much that he is willing to reach down into the chaos of our lives and love us still?
Secondly, the creation story is a story about hope. God creates and declares the creation “good” seven times—the number that represents wholeness. The facts on the ground were bleak for Israel during the exile. The facts on the ground are bleak for us today. Americans and Iraqis and Afghans continue losing their lives every day. The hatred and fury wages on in Pakistan and Israel. Reckless gossip persists right here in our own community pitting neighbor against neighbor. Injustice runs rampant as some worry about whether to buy a bigger home while others worry about even having a home. The facts on the ground are bleak. But the creation story challenges us to see the world as God sees the world, to lift our sights above any immediate circumstances, to see the fundamental goodness in the world God created. The creation story reminds us that who we are and how things came into being begins with goodness, fellowship with God and HOPE.
Finally, the creation story is a story about love. The story ends with the creation of humans on the 6th day and a final wrap-up on the 7th day. God enters a time of rest and blesses the day calling it holy. In the other Mesopotamian creation stories, humans are created to be slaves for the gods. But in the biblical creation story, humans are created for intimacy with God, in God’s own image. God decides to be a God of love and not a God of manipulation and control. The great God of Israel who could have created us with strings on our hands and feet instead creates us with free will. We are given the same opportunity as God—we can decide what kind of people we will be. We can decide if we will love. The creation story is the greatest love story ever told! A love story in which the creator of the universe decided to risk loving us, to risk a broken heart, to have a relationship with us.
Dr. Fleming said, “The Bible means what it means.” [Perhaps we fail to allow the Bible to mean what it means because we, quite frankly, don’t want to hear what the Bible means. Instead we had rather argue and debate about whether the days in the Genesis creation story are truly 24-hour periods or whether creation really happened in seven consecutive days—one right after the other?]
Are we willing to stop arguing about what we think the creation story means and allow the creation story to mean what it means? If so, we will hear a story about God. The cry of ancient Israel in exile reciting the creation story, assuring us in 2007 that no matter how dire our circumstances, no matter how chaotic our lives, that we serve the God of the universe who reaches down into the chaos to walk alongside us?
If we are willing to let the creation story mean what it means we will hear a story about hope. We will hear the echo of God’s voice declaring all of creation “exceedingly good.” Stop the excuses of “only being human” and embrace this world that began not in human failure but in goodness.
And finally, if we allow the story of creation to mean what it means, we will hear the greatest love story ever told. We will meet the God of the cosmos who “once upon a time” decided to be a God of love. A God who decided that the possibility of intimacy with us (with you and with me), that the possibility of loving you and me, would be more refreshing even than ETERNAL DIVINE SOLITUDE.
Amen.
Genesis 1:1-2:3
The Transparent English Bible
At the first of Elohim creating the skies and the land—
and the land was desolation and emptiness;
and darkness was over the face of the deep,
and the spirit of Elohim was hovering over the face of the waters—
and Elohim saw the light, that it was good;
and Elohim separated between the light and between the darkness.
And Elohim called the light “day,”
and to the darkness he called “night.”
And it was evening and it was morning—day one.
And Elohim said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the
waters,
And let there be a separating between waters to waters.”
And Elohim made the expanse,
and he separated between the waters that were from under the
expanse,
and between the waters that were from upon the expanse.
And it was thus.
And Elohim called the expanse “skies.”
And it was evening and it was morning, a second day.
And Elohim said, “Let the waters under the skies be gathered to one
place,
and let the dry land be seen.”
And it was thus.
And Elohim called to the dry land “land,”
and to the gathering of the waters he called “seas.”
And Elohim saw that it was good.
And Elohim said, “Let the land sprout the sprout, a plant seeding seed,
a fruit tree making fruit,
according to its type, its seed, within it, according to its type.
And Elohim saws that it was good.
And it was evening and it was morning, a third day.
And Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the skies,
to separate between the day and between the night;
and they will be for signs,
and for set times,
and for days and years,
and they will be for lights in the expanse of the skies,
to give light upon the land.”
And it was thus.
And Elohim made the two large lights—
the large light for rule of the day,
and the small light for rule of the night—
and the stars.
And Elohim gave them in the expanse of the skies,
to give light upon the land,
and to rule in the day and in the night,
and to separate between the light and between the darkness.
And Elohim saw that it was good.
And it was evening and it was morning, a fourth day.
And Elohim said, “Let the waters swarm a swarm of living life-
breathers,
and let the flyer fly upon the land,
upon the face of the expanse of the skies.”
And Elohim created the great sea creatures,
and every living life-breather that moves about,
with which the waters swarm,
according to their type,
and every winged flyer,
according to its type.
And Elohim saw that it was good.
And Elohim blessed them saying,
“Bear fruit and be many and fill the waters in the seas,
and let the flyer be many in the land.”
And it was evening and it was morning, a fifth day.
And Elohim said, “Let the land cause to go out a living life-breather
according to its type: animal, and moving thing, and living thing of
land according to its type.”
And it was thus.
And Elohim made the living thing of the land,
according to its type,
And the animal according to its type,
and every moving thing of the soil according to its type.
And Elohim saw that it was good.
And Elohim said, “Let us make soil-man in our image,
according to our likeness,
and let them govern in the fish of the sea,
and with the flyer of the skies,
and in the animals,
and in all the land,
and in every moving thing that moves about upon the land.”
And Elohim created the soil-man in his image:
In the image of Elohim he created him,
a male and a female he created them.
And Elohim blessed them and Elohim said to them,
“Bear fruit and be many and fill the land;
and subdue, and govern in the fish of the sea,
and in the flyer of the skies,
and in every living thing that moves about upon the land.”
And Elohim said, “Look!—I have given to you every plant seeding
seed that is upon the face of all the land,
And every tree, in which there is fruit of a tree, seeding seed;
to you it will be for eating.
and to every living thing of the land,
and to every flyer of the skies,
and to every moving about thing on the land,
that in it is living life-breath—
every green plant is for eating.”
And it was thus.
And Elohim saw all that he had made, and look!—
it was exceedingly good.
And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.
And the skies and the land and all their company were finished.
And Elohim finished on the seventh day his work that he did,
and he ceased on the seventh day from all his work that he did.
And Elohim blessed the seventh day,
and he separated it,
because on it he ceased from all his work that Elohim created to do.