"In the beginning..." (Pastor Dave's newsletter message, June, 2017)

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the 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. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day…..

…….Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

So God created humankind in his image,
   in the image of God he created them;
   male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 1:1-5, 26-31; 2:1-4)

Where did we come from?  In what kind of world do we live? Why are we here?  Where are we going?  From earliest times, these questions have haunted humankind.  Beyond the day-to-day requirements of survival – gathering food, creating shelter, parenting children – our ancestors in the faith asked themselves – and asked God – big questions about the purpose and direction of their lives and communities.  Their questions are answered in the opening chapters of Genesis, which is one of our readings for Trinity Sunday, June 11.

Other cultures and communities asked the same questions.   Many ancient cultures had creation stories.  Within these stories were embedded that culture’s assumptions about why they were there and the way the world worked.   The Babylonians, who would eventually conquer Jerusalem and drive the Jewish people into exile, had their own creation story, called the Enuma Elish, which was recited annually in April of each year.  While both the Genesis account and the Babylonian creation story begin with the universe as a formless void, they go from there in very different directions.  The Enuma Elish begins with a male god, Apsu, and a female god, Tiamat, who give birth to numerous younger gods.   The younger gods play too loudly and keep Apsu from sleeping.  Apsu decides to destroy these noisy children so he can once again have some peace and quiet, but as a good mother, Tiamat protects the children.  One of the Tiamat’s children, Ea, kills Apsu, his father.  Ea later marries another god and gives birth to Marduk, the chief god of the Babylonians.  The widowed Tiamat remarries, taking Kingu as her consort.  Marduk eventually kills Tiamat (his grandmother) and from her body creates the heavens and the earth.  Later Marduk kills Tiamat’s second husband, Kingu, and from his corpse create humankind.  (For those who may be curious, more details are at this link:  http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Enuma_Elish.html)

Consider the differences between the Babylonian creation story and our own.  From their creation story, the Babylonians were told that competition and violent conflict and bloodshed were a natural part of life, baked into creation from the very beginning - and they lived accordingly.  By contrast, Genesis describes creation as ordered, peaceful, with blessings at every step (“And God saw that it was good”) and humankind created in God’s likeness, with a mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.”  And after all of God’s labors, God rested on the seventh day – so life has a daily rhythm of evening and morning and a seven-day rhythm of work and rest baked in from the beginning as well.  By contrast with the Babylonian account, Genesis tells us that peace, order, blessing and rest are baked into creation from the very beginning.  Genesis also tells us that, as humans are created in God’s image and likeness, we are of infinite worth, precious to God.

Over the past century or two, with the increase of scientific knowledge, there have been controversies over how the earth and humankind came into being.  I believe the account in Genesis is intended to answer the different and more useful question of why the earth and humankind came into being.  The question of “how” is about the past, while the question of “why” gives us guidance for the present and the future. 

The creation accounts in Genesis (remember, there’s a second account in Genesis 2) still shape our outlook on life.  In the Genesis 1 creation account, humankind is mandated to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” – and humankind has certainly accomplished that mandate with a vengeance.  By contrast, in Genesis 2:15, the man is put into the Garden of Eden with a much more modest mandate simply “to till and tend” the garden.  In our day of climate change and environmental damage, in which wealthy nations overconsume and waste while poor nations go hungry, where some areas experience contaminated water and shortages of water while islands and low-lying coastal communities face eventual submersion, perhaps humans should do less filling and subduing, and more tilling and tending – that is to say, to live in ways that are more harmonious with the plants and animals with which we share the planet,  and to be careful stewards of the creation which God declared good from the beginning.