September 10, 2017
Genesis 1-2:4 “Go – Create” September 10, 2017
In the beginning. That’s how our grand story begins today, of course. In the beginning.
It made me wonder about beginnings, about starting new things. School has just begun, another beginning to a new year for students, teachers, parents. It impacts our entire community. Or perhaps you’ve started a new job or are on the cusp of something new for work, or in your life. Maybe you are a new parent or have just moved into a new house. Maybe you’ve started a new routine for exercise or prayer or calling your mom. There are tough new beginnings; the beginning of life with cancer or life without your dad or your spouse. I myself am on the cusp of beginning a new life as a wife and a step mom. There are countless ways we can start at the beginning.
So as Christians, we look to this story as our origin story, as our beginning. It’s the story of where we come from, who we are. It’s the story of what God has done and is doing. This is the beginning. Creation.
I think sometimes this story gets stuck in the past. God created and was done and has been resting ever since. We treat this story like it had a beginning and an end all at the same time. When in reality, this creation story never ends. Because God didn’t create inanimate objects. God created and re-creates the universe which continues to expand beyond our wildest imaginations. Hear this language from our reading today. It’s subtle – you may have missed it.
The earth brought forth vegetation… Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind:
The earth brought forth. The earth brings forth. The earth is a living, breathing, powerful thing, designed to create and re-create. Even as it heaves and whirls seemingly out of control or in response to our actions with hurricanes and wildfires, flooding and earthquakes. Is this part of the design? Is this part of the rhythm of creation?
These questions beg us to look at our role given to us in this epic creation story. 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.
Yet our role is not one of control. We hear “dominate” in dominion, don’t we? Instead of care taking, stewarding, tending which is at the core of its meaning. We are given an important and primary role in this creation, but it’s not the only role. And I think we often act that way, treating the created world around us as secondary only to our wants and whims, not considering reactions or consequences. What we do matters and impacts the living, breathing creation around us. I think we are living in a time of that reaction from God’s created world that still brings forth new life.
No, God is not pounding the coasts of Mexico and Florida and beyond as a way to humble us or to punish us or to bring about a stronger, better us. We are invited in to this co-creating work, this partnership with God. And God is with those in the path of the storm just as God is with those of us a thousand miles away. And, because God is who God is, God still calls creation good. It was good.
This origin story, this “in the beginning” story is the story of God’s on-going work through all of creation, including us. And we are called into this life of re-creation. We are called to Go Create. To bring forth love. To bring forth friendship. To bring forth the abundance already given to us. God is the bringer, the instigator of new beginnings. This is your invitation! How will you partner with God to Go Create? You’ve been called into bringing about new life that is then transformed by Jesus. What a gift we’ve been given to share.