| Genesis 1:1-5 "When Things Are Not So Good" |
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| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 07 January 2006 | |
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Today we start at the beginning. Our reading comes from Genesis, chapter one, verses 1-5. Perhaps the earliest of the Biblical writings, Genesis claims no authorship and is believed by many to be a compilation of oral traditions assembled around 500 BCE. In these opening verses of the Bible, the story of the first beginning is related: God dispenses with chaos by sending God's Spirit over the formless earth and by creating light and the division of days. I invite you to listen for the word of the Lord. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. An elderly woman walked into a country church and was greeted at the door by a friendly usher who helped her up the flight of steps. “Where would you like to sit?” he asked politely. “The front row, please,” she answered. “You really don’t,” the usher said. “The pastor is incredibly boring.” “Do you know who I am?” “No,” he said. “I’m the pastor’s mother,” she replied indignantly. He paused for a moment and then asked, “Do you know who I am?” “No,” she said. “Good!” he replied. Genesis 1 is about introductions. In it we meet God as if for the first time. Elohim speaks and acts and we have front row seats! “Bereshit bara Elohim et ha shama-yim ve'et ha'arets.” (transliterated from the Hebrew õøàä úàå íéîùä úà íéäìà àøá úéùàøá). “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” It’s a theological statement that claims: • God pre-existed • That apart from God, the creation existed in chaos • And that God’s spoken “let there be” loosens the Spirit to order the chaos. What I want to focus on this morning are the words in verse 4, “God saw that the light was “towb (in the Hebrew),” good or beautiful. God’s “it is good” reoccurs throughout the creation story. It is not until Genesis 2:18 that we hear their counterpoint. “It is not towb/good,” to be alone, God tells the human. God’s statement at this late date in the creative process suggests that God has been engaged in an ongoing process of evaluation with “Goodness” dependent upon the creation being as God would have it. God destroys chaos, not by obliterating it but by bringing creativity, order, and purpose. That has been God’s MO from the beginning. You can tell where God has been because chaos and darkness have become beauty, order and blessing. “When we think of “evil” we almost never think of anything within us,” writes one theologian. “Evil is always depicted by us as an impersonal source outside ourselves-tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and sickness….Evil arises with the advent of humanity, not with God’s creation of the world. Jesus said that evil arose, not from the way the world is set up, but from what comes up out of the human heart (Mk.7:25).” Sinning Like a Christian by William Willimon p.15 God’s “it is not good” should not only cause us to question the way things are but to work cooperatively with God to bring things back inline with the divine intent, God’s “it is good.” On a personal level: God is involved in our lives working to bring order to our chaos, healing to our brokenness, and forgiveness to our sin. Anne Lamott writes in her book Plan B, “I try to listen for God’s voice inside me, but my sense of discernment tends to be ever so slightly muddled. When God wants to get my attention, She clears Her throat a number of times, trying to get me to look up, or inward- and then if I don’t pay attention, She rolls Her eyes, makes a low growling sound, and starts kicking me under the table with Her foot. –p.21 Plan B When I read Lamott’s words suddenly I had a flash back to my earliest recollections of dinner with the in-laws. And how at meals my wife-to-be would hit and kick me under the table because I was saying things that could offend her parents. And I wonder how hard God is going to have to kick before I listen. One of the recommendations that came out of our Strategic Planning Task force is that we need to challenge our members to faith formation and spiritual growth. So, today I’m beginning a new Adult class at the Sunday School hour and if you haven’t found a Sunday School class I am asking you to participate. Some of us have made resolutions to grow spiritually this year, and if you haven’t, you ought to. You have to be intentional about faith formation. And this is one of those “afflict the comfortable” statements. It’s tempting for me to use charitable work as an excuse to keep from facing the real problems of my life and addressing my sin! I suspect that’s true for all of us! I mean look at all the good we do! We are a prideful, prideful people and our attitudes of entitlement and our critical spirits are “not good.” The Dallas Morning News recently ran a series of articles documenting that the poorest among us are statistically the most generous, giving a much higher percentage of their income to charities…positive proof that wealth and spiritual poverty often go hand in hand. Remember it was Jesus who said, “Where your treasure there your heart shall be also!” Henry Nouwen once wrote that the parable of the Prodigal son might well be called “the Parable of the Lost Sons,” the elder son having lost his way despite never having never left home. –The Return of the Prodigal Son God’s “it is not good” is no attempt to shame us into change. On the contrary, God simply knows we can do better. We owe it to ourselves to do better. Writes Marianne Williamson, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” p.14 Woman Prayers by Mary-Ford Grabowsky You were born to make manifest the glory of God within you! God’s “it is good,” 1st spoken through the church at your baptism, is waiting to be fulfilled in you by the way you live. On a relational level, wherever humanity preys upon itself, God is at work to bring reconciliation, healing, and peace. Taken as a whole, scripture tells us that God is not in the business of making war. You knew that, right? War is a human invention and endeavor. So where is God? Genesis 1 tells us that God is moving wherever there is chaos to bring peace. Thus Jesus claims in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are peacemakers…for what? They shall be called Children of God,” the implication being that our identification with God is dependent upon our efforts to make peace with others. For a country that claims to be “one nation under God…” what does that mean for us? God stands outside the chaos of humanity and calls us to something better. There is nothing unchristian or unpatriotic about questioning war or public and/or public policy. On the contrary, accountability is foundational to our sense of justice and vital to human reconciliation. Personally I have doubts that budgets can ever be truly moral, but at least they need not be immoral. In a true democracy, government exists for the people, but if it ignores the least of these among us (especially those who cannot help themselves) then it has failed. Eradication of poverty is not just a good thing, it is a God thing. Says James 2:14-17, “Faith that says, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet does not do anything to help them…” is dead faith.” We are the wealthiest nation in the world. We can do better! And if we (as a nation) cut funding to the poorest of the poor, then we’d better have another way to fill in the gap. We have to care. Our humanity is at stake. We cannot remain silent to God’s “it is not good.” God’s “it is not good” is spoken when a corporation places the bottom line above the well-being of its employees. You cannot put a value on human life…it is priceless whether it’s a coal miner in West Virginia, or a sweat shop worker in Shenzhen, China, or the uninsured child of a migrant worker in south Texas. Alex Awad was a toddler when his father was killed in crossfire between the Israeli and Jordanian armies. If someone I loved was killed for no other reason then they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would be angry. Awad writes, “One good thing to come from the tragedy was my mother’s revived commitment to the Christ she experienced as a student in a Christian school. As a result, I was practically raised in the church. As a child, I was proud to be a Christian and I became consumed with the desire to see my fellow Palestinians share the faith and hope that brought so much comfort to my family. I prayed God would send more missionaries to my country. God spoke to my heart and asked, “Why don’t you go? Why don’t you help your people?” I realized God wanted me to be in mission. I decided to give God a chance.” After graduating from a Bible college, he enrolled at Asbury Theological Seminary where he studied missions and evangelism. The Rev. Alex Awad now teaches at Bethlehem Bible College in Palestine! He has become God’s “it is good” and the answer to his own prayer. As we make resolutions and set goals for the new year, rather then focusing upon past failures, God challenges us to join in the divine creative process. We can overcome the poverty, hate, and chaos within our souls just as we can overcome the poverty, hate and injustice of our world! As my 8 year old recently put it, “Two rights do not make a wrong.” Think about it. It begins right here, right now, with the decision to give God a chance and to be the answer to our own prayers. Remember, you were born to make manifest the glory of God within you. God’s purposes may be frustrated but they cannot be defeated in the end and so we listen for God’s “it is good” as we work to make things right. Prayer: Lord Jesus, Rabbi, Teacher, thank you for reminding us that until we bring you our darkness we cannot know your light; that until we become servants of the truth, we cannot become wise leaders; that until we are good listeners we cannot speak with authority; that until we become willing, lifelong learners, we cannot teach with insight or enthusiasm; that until we are ready to be reborn, we cannot truly mature. |
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