“The Godness
of Creation”
Gen 1, Gen 2, Psalm 8, 19,33, 104; Job 33,34; John 1:1-15
“What are human
beings, that God is mindful of them,
mortals that God cares for them” Psalm 8:4
or more simply “I wonder who made me and
my world? If there is a Creator, what is
this creator like? Why was I made?”
These are questions that ancient people asked and
frankly
They
are still questions we ask today.
We
want to know who made all this happen?
Why
do we exist?
How
do we respond to the one who created us?
These
are the questions that are addressed in the many
Creation stories that are part of the Christian heritage.
And there are more than one creation
story.
Genesis
One tells us one story of the creation of nature.
Genesis
Two focuses on the creation of humanity.
Psalm
8, 19, 33, 104 also tell the story of creation in
The context of praising and glorifying God.
“You stretch out the heavens like a tent…
you
set the earth on its foundations…
you
make the springs to gush forth in the valleys…
you
cause grass to grow for the cattle…
O Lord, how manifold are all your works.
In wisdom you have
made them all;
The earth is full
of you creatures…
When you send forth
your Spirit they are created.”
Job
38 and 39 tell the story of creation in the context
Of our questioning the sovereignty of God.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation
of the earth?
Did you give the horse its might…is it
by your wisdom that the hawk soars
…Look at the
Behemoth which I made just as I made you.”
And
the Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 1 through 5
Tell
us the story of creation in light of revelation
Of God’s son Jesus Christ, the living word.
The details of these stories are not
exactly the same.
The
order of creation in Genesis 1 has the animals created first
And
the order of Genesis 2 has humankind created
And then the plants and animals.
Are
these accounts in contradiction to each other?- NO!
Because
the purpose of these accounts and all the creation
Stories
in the Bible are to help us understand the who
Not
the how of creation.
God created all that is- plants,
animals, sun, moon, stars, water
And
even human beings, or more accurately called in Hebrew
Earthlings- The word Adamah literally means “man of the
earth”
That’s
why some translations say “Adam” and others
Say
‘humankind”
It
was one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
The
God of Moses who led the people out of
The
God of David, Isaiah and Jeremiah who was
The same God who created the heavens and the earth.
Creation
did not result from a battle of many Gods as
The
other ancient cultures asserted in that day
But
creation resulted from the Word of God
And
life came through the breath of God.
And
our response as the people of God, created earthlings,
Is
to worship and praise this God who made us and
To
care for this creation that God entrusted to us.
That’s
what creation story tells us-
All
the creation stories in the whole Bible
Tell
us the same thing.
God created everything, we are part of
God’s creation,
We
belong to God and our purpose is to worship and praise God
And
care for God’s creation.
But instead we argue about the “hows” of creation.
Could
evolution be the way in which God created human beings
After
the creation of light, water, vegetation, amphibians
And finally mammals and humans.
It could be if you look to Genesis 1 as
your primary creation account
But
if you believe that Genesis 2 is more accurate “how story”
Then
you would not be able to buy into evolution.
The
problem is that Gen 1 and 2 are different
If
the question is “how”, but they are
Consistent
if the question is “who”.
In fact if the question is how then we
would have to reconcile
the details of all eight
accounts of creation in scripture.
But the
question is not how.
The question is who and why and for
what.
The answers from all of
scripture is the same
We were created by
God, to glorify God
And to care for God’s creation.
And if we
read the whole Old Testament and still
Don’t quite get it then the Gospel of
John
Puts it as
succinctly as possible.
We were created by the Word of God.
And everything that exists
was created by God,
Including us and we, like John the Baptist,
are to bear
witness to that Word.
In other words, when we talk about
creation,
Its all about God.
After
each day of creation in Genesis 1 God looks at
What
God has made and says “It is good!”
and on the
sixth day God even said “It was very good!”
When
God created the heavens and the earth
It
was not the result of a battle between good and evil
The
way other ancient people told the story
But
it was a result of the good word of God,
The God who is in relationship eve today with us.
What
a lesson that is for us today.
So
often we think we have to tear down before we can
Create
something good.
We
have to fight before we can build up
But
Genesis and John tell us that it is the word of God
Not
the battles of man
that is the most
powerful creative force in the world.
So for us the issue in not the goodness
of creation,
For
us it is the Godness of creation.
Creation
bears the finger prints of God.
Everything that was created bears the
imprint of God.
If
there were a “CSI: World” and this cracker jack team
of experts
Were
dusting everything in creation to see who was to blame
For
everything that is; they would discover
The
finger prints of God on everything:
Light,
water, sun, stars, creepy things even leviathan and Behemoths,
Fish,
vegetation, birds, mammals, lions, lambs and us!
That’s
what the Bible says about creation-
The
whole Bible from Genesis to Job
To
the Psalms to the Gospel of John
Everything
has the finger prints of God.
And God has declared that it is not a
crime scene
But that
this creation is good, very good.
So
if we believe in the Godness of creation then
We
have to care for all of God’s creation
As
if it were special, and holy and good,
Because it is.
And
we have to care for each other because we are special,
And
holy and good even if we feel like we are dirt-
Adamah- we are created by the hand of God,
In
the image of God with the
Breath of God.
And our response to creation is not to
fight about the story
But
to speak creative words that reflect that story of God’s creation
In our own life.
That’s
the Godness of creation. Amen