The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, January 10, 2010
Beginnings # 1: “The Creation” Genesis 1:1-2:4
Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we are your creatures made in your image; by your Spirit present at the beginning of creation, humble us before you now as we behold the wonder of your grace in creation and draw us to the One through whom you made all worlds, Jesus, that we may love and serve you as our Creator and live in harmony with the world and those around us. Amen.
Introduction
Some 41 years ago,[1] the first astronauts landed on the moon and all the world was watching and looking back at ourselves through their cameras some 240,000 miles away. It was at that point that, in the midst of the greatest adventure of science and technology ever made, the astronauts chose to read to the watching world the very passage we have just heard. And the wonder of it all was that, gazing at our lovely little planet, shimmering blue and white in space, we knew that these words were the most “marvellously appropriate” that could ever be used. The commentator, John Gibson, says “There in the face of one of science’s greatest achievements was an acknowledgement by the scientific community of a mystery at the heart of things which only religious words, not scientific ones, could adequately describe.”[2]
In these three sermons in Epiphany on the theme, “Beginnings,” I hope to show you that not only Genesis 1, but also Genesis 2 and 3, are the most wonderful and comprehensive descriptions of the meaning of life we could possibly find. It is in these chapters that we will find the right basis and perspective from which to begin all our investigations into the nature of God, the world around us, and ourselves. It is here than we can rediscover the majesty of God and His plan for us and the world, how we have strayed, and how we can be restored. Today, we begin with Genesis 1 – the Creation.
A Way of Looking at Reality
The word “Genesis” means “Beginnings.” It is the first of five books attributed to Moses and comprises stories and traditions that have been collected and handed down over centuries, which, under God’s inspiration, have been edited and amalgamated to convey his Word and Truth to us. We take the Bible as our authority because Jesus did and because it speaks God’s word to us, as I hope to show by looking at Genesis 1 today.
Now some of you may be thinking, “But surely, Pastor Brett, chapter one of Genesis was written for a pre-literate and pre-scientific society. We have to take it with a grain of salt!” Others of you may have been trying for years to hold together the Biblical account of Creation and scientific theories of evolution and see in the Bible an echo of these discoveries. I hope to show you that the Biblical account is not just a myth in the common sense of the word and is far more than a symbolic picture of what went on at the dawn of history. Genesis 1 opens-up to us a way of thinking and looking at reality that has a profound meaning and importance for us today.
You see, there are different ways of looking at reality. Our modern world is pre-occupied with the scientific approach to truth. We are interested in the “How” of things. Using our five senses we want to discover how things exist or work the way they do. Unfortunately, this does not tell us the “Why” of things. Science cannot tell us why we are here or the meaning of our existence. This was the pre-occupation of the ancients. They looked to the cosmic forces behind the world as they saw it and sought to explain the “Why” of existence using stories and myths. Unfortunately, these stories of gods rising in rebellion against one another and the heavens and the earth being created by the cutting in two of one god by another had no basis in fact and led to fear and superstition and a twisted view of reality.
Standing in the gap between these two approaches to life, the “How” and the “Why,” stands Genesis 1. It is remarkable that, while this chapter was written in an age when people in the surrounding cultures worshipped the sun and moon as deities, in Genesis 1, these stars and planetary bodies are placed firmly as part of creation, not outside it. The great creatures of the sea are not ferocious opposing deities of chaos but placed there by God as part of his living things of the waters. Humans are distinct from God, not the blood of a slain god mixed with the dust of the earth. Nor are they created to relieve the gods of their hard work and provide them with their food. They are created in the image of God with responsibility to govern the world.
But Genesis 1 is also in distinction to our present view of reality where all it can say is that we are composed of a few dollars’ worth of chemicals and are a product of chance forces in an impersonal universe. Our very beings cry out that we are more than that and we seek the “Why” and meaning of our existence.
In Genesis 1 we find the two questions of “How” and “Why” marvellously combined. On the one hand, we have the “Why” of our existence clearly stated. We know we are part of God’s creation, made with a purpose and destiny. On the other hand we see opened up the “How” of creation. The world around us is clearly set within a framework of order. The physical world is not some mystical existence to be feared but a reality that can be investigated and examined. In Genesis 1, we have opened up for us the possibilities of the scientific method and it is no mistake that cultures loyal to the Bible have been at the forefront of scientific discovery and advance. However, taken alone, the scientific method is barren and harmful, leaving out purpose and responsibility – the “Why” of life so carefully described in this chapter. No wonder the astronauts saw in this piece of ancient writing the inspired Word of God revealing the whole truth about his creation.
In the face of this, all our questions pale into insignificance. “Are the six days of creation literal or not?” becomes a non-question when we realize the writer was not trying to give a purely scientific account that would only be valid for a generation or two anyway, so fast do our scientific knowledge and theories change. What about evolution? This is to be decided by science as we are not told by what precise method God created living things. The “Big Bang?” Perhaps – but, again, Genesis 1 is not tied in to a particular theory current in our own thinking. What it does do is give us the underlying view of reality upon which to base our investigations. What is important is that we do not, in our scientific age, neglect the “Why’s” of the passage, but take them seriously because they need to govern the way we go about the “How’s.” Genesis 1 unites the “Why” and the “How” and presents a wholistic approach to reality. We now look at that reality and see that it reveals three great truths to us – truths about God, the world, and ourselves.
Three Great Truths
- 1. About God: The first great truth is about God. When the Russian cosmonauts went up into space for the first time, having been in a culture that officially denied the “Why” and focussed exclusively on the “How,” it was reported that God didn’t exist, because they had looked out of the portholes of their space capsules and hadn’t seen him. Unaided, we can not see God. He must reveal himself to us. This is what he does in these magnificent verses, through their simple and evocative portrayal of the process of creation.
First, we see God’s existence is assumed. There is no statement of proof, just, “In the beginning, God created…” (verse 1). We start, not with a description of God’s being, but of his activity. We can speculate about what God is like and whether he exists, but we only discover him through his actions. This is basic to the whole Biblical story, from here in the beginning, through God’s reaching out through Israel to rescue humankind, most especially in his action in becoming a human in Jesus Christ, dying and rising again for us, and now in his continuing activity in us through his Holy Spirit. God is a God who acts and is discovered that way.
Secondly, God is sovereign. There is no duality here, with equal and opposing forces of good and evil as in the Near Eastern Myths of the time or the current “New Age” thinking of our own. Chaos is under God’s control. In verse 2, the earth is formless and empty, and God proceeds to “form” it in days one to three and then “fill” it in days four to six. Nothing is outside God’s creation and control – the stars and planetary bodies are his down to the smallest creeping things. But, neither is God a part of his creation (like in the movie, “Avatar”), submerged and confused with it, mixed in with the good and evil, powerless to effect change. He is outside of creation and he structures it.
But, thirdly, neither is God distant from creation. God creates by his Word. “And God said” or “God spoke” is repeated 10 times. The whole chapter focuses upon the Word of God. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,” says the psalmist, “He spoke, and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:6-9). God’s Word is the personal expression of himself. We and all creation are a response to his personal call to us. Plus, his calling forth into existence carries with it not only the ability to bring it about but also the provision for its continuance and maintenance (“be fruitful and multiply”). This is in contrast to the surrounding religions’ view of the word of the gods as some magic formula that had to be repeated annually or else everything would fall apart. Not so the true God – Hebrews tells us that God the Creator “sustains by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). Just as God’s word here led to its being enacted, God’s commands to us personally are never without provision for their fulfilment. God is continually with us to work out his will and purpose. He has not left us alone.
- 2. About the World: The second great truth we learn about is the truth of the world around us. Matter and creation are not evil or second best; they are good. “And God saw that it was good” occurs seven times. Each part of creation, the inanimate and the living has its own place and dignity requiring respect. There is no hint of superior or inferior forms of existence. Jim Houston comments, “Neither matter, nor plants, nor animals are less good, less removed from their creator…no other religion or philosophy has ever been able to ascribe such significance and power to matter as Christianity has.”[3]
We also note, that while inanimate objects are just “named,” humankind and animals are “blessed.” This blessing is related to the command “to be fruitful and multiply” (verses 22, 28). It carries with it something of the power of God to create new life. So, because the material world is good and the animal world is blessed, we see that we cannot treat it with contempt. We know from elsewhere in Scripture the decaying state of the world is a result of our own sin (e.g. Romans 8:19-22) which is certainly confirmed by our environmental crisis. We have a responsibility under God to care for the creation and to protect it.
- 3. About Humanity: This brings us to the third great truth which is about ourselves, humanity. First, we see that we are creatures, not some demi-gods. We are related to the creation around us. We share with the animal world. In fact, the Bible doesn’t elevate us as much as Darwin did when he said that we are descended from apes – it says we are made of dust! We need to remember our creatureliness and not to detach ourselves from the rest of creation.
But also, we see that we are made in the image of God. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over…all the earth’…in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (verses 26-27). This image is reflected in at least two ways. One is that we are given dominion – authority to act. We are to rule the earth as God’s deputies (verse 26). This was in great contrast to the religions of the time where only the king was God’s vice-regent. Here it is all humankind, male and female, which is granted the status of kingship. This involves us in responsibility to act as God acts. We are to ask ourselves “What does God require of me?” We are responsible under him.
The second way we are in the image of God is that we are created as relational beings. We are created male and female (verse 27) – we are not created to be solitary but to be in relationship – horizontally with one another and vertically with God.
When we neglect either of these dimensions of God’s image – responsibility and relationship – we deny our humanity. We will explore the dominion and relational aspects of our nature in more detail when we come to look at Genesis 2 and 3 in our next sermons.
Light and Rest
We conclude by looking at our relationship to God as revealed in the first day’s activity, light, and that of the seventh, rest. Light and rest unify the creation week. God creates light first so that we can see his grace to us in creation and creates rest last so that we can enjoy it and him. This last day has no morning or evening, it is not defined. It continues to this day.
The great question is “Are you experiencing God’s rest today?” The writer to the Hebrews, referring back to Psalm 95, where it challenges us not to harden our hearts like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, and so not enter into God’s rest, says, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11). That entrance into God’s rest has been provided by Jesus. It is through him that we gain access to the rest of God. Shun disobedience and enter fully into his rest; rejoice in the work of your creator as you live out his commission and grow in his love.
[1] July 20, 1969.
[2] John C. L. Gibson, Daily Study Bible, Genesis, Vol.1 (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1981), pg. 10.
[3]James Houston, I Believe in the Creator. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980), pg. 16.
