I have to admit that preaching on Genesis 1:1-2:4 was difficult for me. It was difficult because, in choosing to speak about the genesis, the beginning, I was entering into very dangerous waters. As I mentioned in my sermon, the story of creation and the first pages of the Bible are the source of much animosity and debate. The story of creation is used as a weapon, instead of a story of proclamation. Given this “environment,” you could say, to preach anything about the story of creation could label me as one of the others, simply using the story to propagate my own way. This is not my intention. But I also know that I cannot avoid telling the story due to the current hostile environment. We cannot wait for things to cool down.
In the story of 1 Kings 3:16-28, two prostitutes are fighting over a baby. Both women had babies around the same time. One of the babies dies, and so the mother of the now deceased baby switches the babies in the night. Obviously, the other mother knows what happened when she wakes up to see an unknown, dead baby where her baby ought to be. They fight about it. It probably looked like a Jerry Springer TV show. They fight so much it is brought to the King’s attention. King Solomon ultimately says to cut the baby in half so the mothers can share it. This is point of the story where we need to pause.
In no way would I consider myself to be King Solomon, I haven’t been that lucky with the ladies, nor am I as wise as he is claimed to have been. But he put himself in the position of seeming like a ruthless leader. Cut the baby in half? King Solomon could have been blamed for not caring about the baby, but such an argument would not have held water better than my off-brand paper towels. He was never going to have that baby killed. But he was not merely interested in the truth of facts. He was interested in the well-being of the baby and wanted the baby to be with a mother who would share in his interest.
Fortunately, the mother with the correct information also possessed a love for the baby greater than her hate for the other woman. She was okay to let the other mother raise her child, even after the woman lied to her and the king, because she refused to lose sight of her main concern, her baby.
The debate surrounding the origins of the universe too often ignores the reality that one cannot go back in time. All of us are living after the fact. Yet, as Christians, we believe God has spoken. And the story of creation is about that God who has something to say. This is our baby. This is what we cannot forget.
We cannot fight with those who we believe (or know) have lied to us and the king, to the point that our participation in the fight becomes more about us and not about the baby. Simply possessing the right beliefs is not sufficient for God. Having right beliefs about the beginning of the earth in full detail is for God to know. As Christians, we must admit that He has not told us everything.
Christians suggest not knowing is, in fact, a hopeful thing. It reminds us that we have more to rely on than ourselves in this dangerous world; that we don’t need to know all the answers. It reminds us that the earth, the birds, the air, and the stars are the result of God’s creativity and playfulness. It also reminds us of the mystery of God. There are things about God which we will never know, and anytime we talk about God, we always fail to hit the mark. We can never fully describe or grasp God.
Yet, having insufficient knowledge about God does not seem to bother God. It bothers us far more. Some think God teases us, but I suggest that God is not teasing; God is telling us where to focus. If we keep focused on the things that we’ll never know and fight with each other about it, we will have the same outcome as the mothers in 1 Kings. We will get nowhere. And getting somewhere is the goal. Getting to the place where we can see the creation, from all the lands, the oceans, the heavenly lights, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, and each and every single human person, as God’s creative handiwork is a great place to be.
This is the trouble I had in preaching this text. I wanted to avoid the debate about God and his world and the creative way God put it all together, because I don’t believe that is the main purpose of the creation story. I didn’t mean to simply propose the right way to interpret the creation story, for this is much of the same thing, only slightly changing the subject.
I wanted that we all would see the story of creation and see hope. And that in seeing hope we would fall before God in awe, that we would fear God, that we would surrender our very lives to him. When we read the story of creation we ought to see that we don’t know much, that we don’t know how to respond but to say, Damn! That’s awesome.
We are to be in awe, but are not given the details. When we try to grasp the details, we may cease to be in awe. There is mystery, and to us humans this is not easy. We cannot grasp everything. The hope of the creation story, however, is that God has more than a grasp on us and the world.
What hope do you find in the Creation story? How hard is it to remove ourselves from the Creation debate and see the story as a message of hope?
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Comments (21)
The most important part in the story of creation is the who not the how or when. I have seen people tear each other apart at my old Christian college because of the latter two when it is not the aspect people should be focusing on for faith.
Granted, I love discusing the how or when because I am a curious person but it is not a reason to get upset, start fights, or get kicked out of church because of it.
I would be glad to share my simple understanding of origins. It will be too simple for most, but that is ok, this is what works for me. I understand that when matter is broken down as far as we can, we end up with energy. When our Creator spoke the universe into existence, matter appeared. The Bible says that He upholds all things by His power. My dear friend, the only stable thing in this old universe is God, pure and simple. The Lord who could have created this old earth in a nanosecond, chose to do it in 6 days according to His written record. Do you believe the Word is trustworthy? How much of it have you changed to agree with your fancy?
It's hard to find hope in the creation story when too many people make that the ultimatum between being a Christian vs. being a non-Christian, when all it takes to become a Christian is repenting one's sins through Jesus.
It's difficult to remove myself emotionally from the debate surrounding Creation vs. Evolution.
However, if I ever stopped to think about it, I see beautiful hope in the Creation Story. Because even if you're a Christian evolutionist, then God "put into motion" or was the "spark" for a lot of random events that put you together. However, if the Creation story happened as the Bible says it does, then God had a plan from the very beginning. In no way am I random, but rather God is in control and I have purpose.
There are profound consequences that find their way into culture because of the way we think and believe. If our belief system forsakes reason that is informed by faith, then that faith becomes an untethered kite flailing uselessly in the wind. And so the Gospel message is lost and our society loses its mooring in truth.
Reason is what keeps our faith tethered to the reality of world we live in and so makes Gospel teachings powerful and relevant.
But if reason is not informed by faith it becomes incoherent. Faith is founded on absolute truths. Without absolute truth informing reason, reason becomes subject to personal whim. As a result what one person believes is as valid as what any other person believes.
So what is absolutely true is lost as people create their own truths.
What is absolutely true is that the Bible is not a science manual. It is a book about God's revelation about himself to man. Science concerns the physical finite world. God is infinite.
So it is an absolute requirement that the disciple be humble concerning his understanding of God as a result of reading the Bible. This is because the Bible is only a book, a finite, created object which resulted from the writings of many people in many languages over many centuries.
How, then can the mind of the infinite God be contained in a finite, created book that was written by many men, over many centuries, in many languages?
This conundrum is a classic Mystery. Mysteries are actions taken by God that are beyond human comprehension. So though using a couple of whores and their dispute over a bastard baby may seem an odd analogy, the OP's conclusion to stay focused on the Gospel message is a great and truthful teaching.
It's definitely best to focus on the implications of being made in God's image. You rarely see anything productive come from the creation/evolution debate. Nothing drives me nuts more than both creationists and evolutionists pretending to be scientists, quoting facts and findings that they really don't understand.
The first five verses of St. John's Gospel provide a succinct and Christian interpretation of Genesis.
And what the Church has historically found most important in the Creation account is God's repeated declaration of his attitude towards his Creation: that it is good.
And the other really, really, really important bit of the Creation account is this:
So God made man; in the image of God He made him; male and female He made them. Then God blessed them.
These two sentences, I daresay, are the underpinning of all Christian theology. Everything we believe about who God is and who we are comes out of this. This is what is essential in the account of Creation.
Hmmmm....too bad the Bible disagrees with you (Jeremiah 23.29; Ephesians 6.17; Hebrews 4.12)...
@JandJinJapan@xanga - How are those verses in contrast to what I've written?
what is most important to me in the story is that God is all-powerful and he is personally involved in his creation. i'm not just a creature he made and left, he wants to be personally involved in my life, but i have to choose to pursue that relationship.
First of all, Esteban, you totally take any kind of usefulness out of the creation story by adding your opinion that we aren't told everything, when in fact, we are given very specific details of what happened, even down to the changing of the days. Yet, your assertion is that God held back information. What information did he with hold? When I read the Creation Story as told in Genesis, I'm told everything that happened, when it happened, and how long. When I futher read Hebrews 11, I'm further told that what was created came expressly from God's mouth. Yet, you, claiming to be a preacher, state that God didn't tell us the whole story. Praytell, do explain yourself, because what you are stating is in direct opposition to what the Creation Story states very precisely in Genesis, and elsewhere in the Bible (including John, Ephesians, and Revelation).
Secondly, the debate between Evolution and Creation has less to do with personal gain as debating the point of The First Story in the Bible and the truth of the Bible itself. Let's say, Esteban, that we give ground on this one, and let the Evolutionists have the field. Where, then, do we draw the line? At Noah's Ark? But wait, there are Evolutionists and others who question the validity of Noah, his Ark, and whether or not the flood was global - even Christians are questioning the validity of Noah's Ark, denying even the fact that Jesus Christ Himself spoke directly to Noah's Ark and the story fo the Flood. Do we give ground here too? Even though Jesus spoke directly towards Noah, do we give in? Where, then, do we draw the line? At Abraham, despite the numerous promises gfiven to him and his descendants? Do we stop at the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt? Where do we draw the line with those who question the validity and truth of the Bible?
Thirdly, while your assertion is correct to a degree - the Creation Story does offer hope - the verses I posted are in direct contrast to your assertion that the Creation Story isn't a weapon. Hebrews 4.12 states that the Bible is sharper than a two-edged sword, and is a divider of the soul and spirit. Jeremiah 26 relates that the Bible is like a hammer that breaks in pieces and a fire that cleanses and destroys. Paul even goes so far as to call the word of the LORD the sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 6. All of these verses include the Creation Story...as well as every other true story of the Bible.
Finally, this statement is cause for great questioning:
"Damn! That’s awesome."
As one who claims to preach, are you, thus, encouraging Christians to use foul language and cursing as a part of regular, every day life, where Paul writes, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy mouth..."? I used that word once when I was five....and my Mother used Ivory Soap to clean my mouth out with. Was my mother wrong? Should we, as Christians, use such communication and such words? Are we to, then, disregard Jesus teachings, where he says, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12.36)? Please, do answer these questions, if you will??
if the Genesis story shouldn't be used as a weapon, the responsibility to uphold that lies with Christians. i've heard them say plenty of times that you can't be Christian if you believe in evolution. i can't say i've ever heard a biologist tell me i can't believe in God and evolution at the same time.
Not a weapon? Agreed.
How difficult to communicate that to others. Very difficult. Too many people have too much emotional energy invested it it.
Genesis is not a literal account of creation. It is the compilation of oral traditions.
This is not to say the account is without spiritual truth. There is much in it. However, I do believe people need to understand how the people in that day understood the construct of the universe. When you see it as they did, all the creation verses in Genesis, Psalms and Job make much more sense. A good picture of their concept can be found here:
http://skepticblog.org/wp-content/uploads/heaven_of_heavens.jpg
Now, when we see this, we can toss out the "literal account" and begin looking at the much more rich spiritual truths found within these verses.
To see where this goes, allow me to give a secular perspective.
Looking into a religion from the outside, religious people have gradually changed what parts of their texts should and shouldn't be taken literally. Upon the writing of each of the stories of the bible, they were meant to be taken more literally, than they are today.
As science has advanced, often with strong dissonance to what the bible says about the universe we live in, religious people have either had to suddenly take certain parts of the bible more poetically/liberally, or deny science all together as many do. Both are incredulous to degrees, but the latter makes the religious position look much worse.
To a person of a secular position, if religious truths were as true as claimed, people would have known what to take literally and what to take poetically from day one, rather than the positions changing so much over time. Instead, interpretations of the bible tend to slide along with both the intellectual AND moral zeitgeist of the given society.
My point is: If you are a preacher/proselytizer, and you come across a fork where you can teach something as absolute truth OR just a story with a message...take the latter when you can, for it's more likely to have greater longevity and accuracy than the former.
I feel bad for Christians because of the existence of creationists. It would be like if I were part of a club and suddenly a strong part of the club held a flat-earth position.
Are origins about science?
We are told evolution is science and creation is religion, but this is false. Neither are science, since both views can't be observed, tested, repeated or falsified as as required for proof by the scientific method. Since both views require faith to believe, they are both philosophies or religions, but do not meet the qualifications for true science. See the real story here.
@Rory Roybal - ooooooh two things:
(1) We don't have to observe something in order to scientifically determine it. For instance, the orbit of pluto takes 280 years, but we've known of it for less than a hundred years. Does that mean we can't know how long its orbit takes? Absolutely not. We know Pluto's orbital period to quite a few decimal places. Likewise, there are many geological and astronomical phenomenon that take very long times, yet we have proven the details of the phenomenon very conclusively.
(2) Regardless, evolution HAS been observed many, many times, in both natural and artificial selection, in both nature and the lab. Go to your local library and read about observed speciation and reproductive incompatibility.
I'm sorry but your link isn't convincing or correct.
:)
@JandJinJapan@xanga -
1) God didn't tell us the whole story. He told us enough to lead us to Him. That's in line with the idea of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as well. The first humans didn't know everything and God didn't want them to know everything. Consider the introduction to the Gospel of John, for example. It was not until Jesus came that we even knew who the "our" was in Genesis. Further, why wasn't it until later that we concluded that the earth circles the sun? Where did the other people Cain referred to in Gen 4:14 come from? These details are not in the creation story. Any attempt to answer it is adding to Scripture. I believe these details are not necessary to understand that God has a solid grip on the world He created.
2) I am not interested in the reading the Bible as if it were a product of the Enlightenment. It is not. Jesus came and preached truth very often through stories, not direct propositional statements. Though the man Lazarus in Luke 16 is not a real person, the truth of the parable rings clearly. It is not an attack on the Bible to read the story as a parable pregnant with truth. Likewise, it is not an attack on the Bible (or God) to read the creation narrative as a poem pregnant with truth, yet not fully accurate in history. This doesn't make God a liar; it makes him a storyteller who knows how to speak to his creation. Our character is best formed by stories.
3) You are right. I was using the metaphor differently, and didn't clarify. I should be more clear to say the creation story is not written with purpose of being used to condemn others, but to give those who are hopeless a reason to hope--that this world was not made in vain. When we read the creation story we ought to proclaim that God still has firm grip on His world and that He has called us to walk humbly with Him, to love Him and our neighbor. This will pierce many hearts as you rightly point out.
4) I have plenty of faults, but I stand by this one. I do not believe that the way I used the word "damn" was unwholesome or corrupt. In fact, my words were intended to build up where I've seen too many other Christians tear down, specifically regarding the creation story. The colloquial expression of awe is common and does not reveal corruption. Corruption is to read the story of creation and say, "God is a liar." No "curse" words were used, but corruption was spoken. I hope it is not too revealing that you are the only one to focus on this word. No one else seems scandalized by it. I am not convinced to base my ethics on a new legalism that misses the point about corrupt words and cursing. I did not speak ill of God or anyone else. In fact, I did the opposite.
I thank you for your passion in defending truth. I'm sure you go to great lengths to build others up in your personal life and community. I consider your thoughts as attempt at that, and very much appreciate it. Though I disagree with some of your assumptions and outcomes, do not think I have not heard them. Take what you will from what I've presented. May God guide us both. Blessings to you and yours in Christ.It seems this issue highlights the original one. Too many Christians have missed the point.
I find hope in that a scientist wrote a book about Genesis once highlighting and explaining the uncanny parallels of how the Earth came to be according to Genesis and how science seems to be prove Genesis is accurate!
I think people often get too caught up on the literal sense of looking at all of the stories in the Bible, and in doing so lose sight of the messages those stories contain. Its pretty common for people to get tunnel vision, though, that's more human nature. :p
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