And God Said it was Good. First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/19/2011

And God Said it was Good!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 6/19/2011
Based on Genesis 1:1-2:3


When my son, Steven was in the Third grade, he was having a crisis in faith. I was pastor in a small community church in Washington State and the Sunday school teacher that he had was a well meaning individual who just happened to read scripture literally. Steven was deeply interested in dinosaurs and his learning in the public school system told him that dinosaurs lived millions of years before human kind. This conflicted with what his Sunday school teacher was trying to teach him. She believed in a literal version of creation, while Steven was being taught in the public school system about life evolving.
Moving back just a few years before living in Washington State, while in seminary my wife and I were foster care parents for several sixteen year olds. One of these boys named Hia, as very much into evolution as a process for the development of life and informed me one day that based on his studies in evolution, “There was no God.” I then proceeded to ask him a number of questions to determine why he came to such a conclusion, and we eventually got to the “Big Bang” theory. He was in utter shock when I told him that I could buy into that theory. Then I asked him the question of, “where did the mass come from that exploded?” After a few seconds of him stuttering and stammering around, he replied with, “quite messing with my head”, and our conversation ended.
I bring up these two examples because these issues came about because of a particular way the reading of scripture was employed. When my son came to me seeking a reasonable answer do to a conflict in teaching between the public school system and his Sunday school teacher, I asked him, “if it seemed logical for the Bible, to start out with a couple of chapters that deals with ‘hard science’ and then devote the rest of its books to theology, meaning the relationship between God and humanity?” After he answered, “no it didn’t make sense”, I then explained how when we read scripture through the lens of humanity trying to understand its relationship with God, we could open up a multitude of ways to understand all the stories that we read within the bible.
Relating a story is an ever changing reality in our culture. Currently, we hear stories in what we call “sound bites”, a few years ago, it was by “headlines and maybe the first paragraph” of a story. Even the way that we structure sentences has changed a good deal. I find that I most enjoy reading stories that were written between the mid-nineteenth and very early twentieth century, mostly because there is an elegant flow to those stories that no longer exists in modern writing.
We have the same issue of how the early Hebrews spoke and wrote their stories compared to later writings of Hebrew story telling. And if we in the modern world do not recognize these differences, we then stumble on what was meant in that telling and will most likely come up with a poor interpretation at the very least.
With a great number of writers over the past hundred or so years, the book of Genesis, especially these first couple of chapters has lead to much misunderstanding and creating what we now label as “creationism” doctrine. There are even some Christians who are scientists, who try to reconcile the age of our world and the development of life, as occurring only within a few thousand years, based on a literal reading of these first two chapters in Genesis. This is achieved by the use of counting backward the various generations listed in Genesis, again using only those names listed. What the originating professor of this genealogy, didn’t understand is that those names listed in the “who begat who”, listed only key persons and left out many generations of names.
How we read and interpret scripture in today’s society can mean the difference in being able to engage into heart filled conversations about God or being dismissed as people who live in a dream world, refusing to recognize what “hard science” is telling us. People are spiritually hungry, but if we as the church universal, present a message that is based from a literal understanding of scripture, then we will be perceived as non-thinking people who live in a world filled with superstition.
I would like to present another option to how we can read the creation story that allows for the opportunity to enter into meaningful dialog with people who are not familiar with the Christian story or experience. (Discuss the re-reading of the 7 days of creation into three segments, i.e.: day one and day four, day two and day five, and day three and day six. This will show three stages of creation, which then allows for evolution type of movement.) This is how I approached discussing my son’s questions about creation and the scriptures.
A part of the confirmation process that our eight confirmand’s dealt with, was about expanding their concepts of God, as we asked questions like: What does God look like? If God is the creator of this world and the universe, what does this mean to us? What does it mean when we are told in Genesis to subdue the world?
The language is very subtle in scripture especially, among varying translations. Most of the translations read: In the beginning God created. But in some translations it reads: In the beginning when God was creating. The difference here talks about when “time” began. Did time begin at the same time as God? Or did time begin when God created the heavens and the earth?
This is something that can be argued through eternity and has been for eons, but when we spend our energies on questions like this, we are missing the most obvious point that the story teller wants us to understand. When we read about this very first day, we learn what the story teller deems most important. It may seem obvious to most of us, but the implications are most profound. Scripture begins not with the choosing of Abraham or the election of Israel, but rather it begins with creation.
This means that we have to get rid of any idea’s that lead to any ethnic superiority, that one culture is more favored than another, meaning Israel of any of its surrounding cultures. Scripture says, “In the beginning God created the world”, it doesn’t read, “In the beginning God created Israel.” In creating the heavens and the worlds, God is inclusive. Who are we, to then tell God, that we are better than someone else? Who are we to believe that we alone have the truth over another religion? The subtle difference comes in the difference between “entitlement” verses “grace.”
As we read this creation story we can come to new understanding as to the reason for God creating. Quoting from Rev Dave Bland, Professor of Homiletics at Harding University Graduate School of Religion, in Memphis, Tennessee: God’s specialty is loving and caring for creation. God demonstrates this love in the collaborative way in which the world operates. In recounting the six days of creation, nothing is made for itself alone. Everything contributes to the whole of creation. God provides for the needs of all God’s creatures because God’s specialty is love. Humans are given dominion, not domination; we are caregivers, not exploiters. We are called to do unto creation as God has done unto us; we express love and care toward the world. Feasting on the Word commentary.
This afternoon, at 1 p.m., there is going to be a gathering at three point picnic areas, south of town as a conclusion to the Red Desert Preservation awareness. I hope some of you will attend, as this weekend’s rendezvous, which has been focusing on the environmental concerns of this piece of God’s creation. As people of God, we are called to look after the well being of what God has put us in charge of. We are not independent of the world that we live in and we must relearn how each part of God’s creation works with one another in order to continue to bless what God has said is “Good.” Amen