“A Theology of Creation”
Preached Sunday, June 4, 2023
Wow! That was a long Scripture reading! When it came up in the lectionary, which are the assigned Scriptures texts for a given Sunday, often used among churches, and knowing that it was my last lectionary sermon at Grace (two more! Just not lectionary based) - I didn’t want to pass up another opportunity to preach on creation here in this setting, in God’s beautiful creation on the shores of Lake Erie. One of the best venues to preach on the beauty and wonder inherent in God’s creation. And so today, we read the entirety of the first creation story.
Notice I said the first creation story. Because there are two creation stories in the book of Genesis. The first Genesis 1:1-2:4a and the second picking up at Genesis 2:4b through 2:25. The first creation story is the one we just heard where God speaks creation into being. The second is what I consider the more hands-on version of creation, where God is molding in clay and breathing life into nostrils.
Now, my very first day of Hebrew Bible class in Divinity School, we read these two narratives of creation side by side and we were asked to list out the similarities and the differences between them - and there are differences, in the way and order things are done…and after that we were asked by the professor, “Which one is True?”
Let’s dig into that question a little this morning, “Which is True?” And what does it mean to be True?
First, a disclaimer, by our theology, United Methodists are not Biblical literalists, that is, those who claim that the Bible is the literal and infallible Word of God that is without human error or bias. There are United Methodists who are Biblical literalists, we have been a big tent church that covers Christians holding lots of different theologies. However, the official stance of The United Methodist Church on Scripture is that it is our primary source and criteria for Christian doctrine. AND, reason, tradition, and experience are lenses through which we read, understand, and interpret Scripture and means through which God reveals Godself to us. We hold that the Bible is inspired by The Holy Spirit, and written by humans who are not without error and bias, and yet it still contains all this is “sufficient” and “necessary” for salvation and is the “true rule and guide to faith and practice.”
If you want to read our full official view on Scripture, google “UMC theological guidelines Scripture” and read the excerpt from the 2016 Book of Discipline on the UMC website.
All that being said, when asked “Which one is True?” Biblical literalists say “yes.” And they say things like “Well, these two creation stories don’t really contradict each other” and gloss over that or combine Scriptures in different chapters and make it so they can say yes, this is true - true as in a literal 7 day creation.
Now, when asked which story is true, I also answer that with a one word answer - “yes.” Even though I am not a Biblical literalist and I don’t hold to a literal 7 24-hour days creation narrative. And yet I say, yes, both creation stories are True. True with a capital T.
Now, when asked which story is true, I also answer that with a one word answer - “yes.” Even though I am not a Biblical literalist and I don’t hold to a literal 7 24-hour days creation narrative. And yet I say, yes, both creation stories are True. True with a capital T.
We can talk about truth, lowercase t, and Truth, capital T. Truth with a capital T is about the deeper sense of what is True and right, True with our souls. While truth, lowercase t, deals with the facts - who, what, where, when, why, how. And in our age of misinformation, truth with a lowercase t, the facts, are important. I am not denying or diminishing that at all. AND, as a minister, I often deal more with Truth with a capital T.
That’s how I can be a person of faith, a Christian minister, who believes that the world was not created in a literal 7 days but most likely through a process that science calls the Big Bang and evolution - and I can still say that the creation stories in Genesis are True (capital T). Because those stories impart Truths to us - Truths about God, Truths about us as humans, and Truths about all creation. In fact, there are so many Truths present in this first creation story, let alone both of them - more Truths that can be fit into a single (short) sermon at Worship by the Water. More Truths than most humans can spend a lifetime uncovering. And so, with that said, let’s look at just two of those many Truths today:
One Truth: The Triune God was present in and responsible for the creation of everything. Everything! From the light and dark, night and day. The waters and land and sky. Plants and flowers and seeds and fruit and everything that grows. The sun and moon and all the planets and all the galaxies, the entire universe. All creatures, swimming and flying, cattle, creeping, and wild. And us, humans, made in the image of the Triune God.
God’s fingerprints, God’s presence is all over ALL of creation. In whatever way the actual creating was done - it was done by God. God was in it, with it, shaping it - creating all that is. And God saw it and called it good. And that’s why, when we see it, we can’t help but wonder at the Divinity and Beauty of God in all creation because all creation reflects the One who created it. All creation is covered with traces of their Divine creator.
Now, a second Truth: Creation is a gift to us, humankind, created in the image of God - a very good gift. A very good gift with which we, who have been made in the image of God, need to care for. To care for that which has God’s fingerprints all over it - to care for it as God would have us care for it. With respect, reverence, gratitude, and humility. To recognize that what we have been given, the whole world and all within it, is a gift - and as it was gifted to humans many, many generations ago, we are called to pass on this gift for many, many generations to come - to continue to pass on God’s gifts of creation to all of God’s beloved children. And when we pass on the gift of creation, we also pass on the gift of the Creator, the Divine written into every aspect of Creation, passing on that ability for future generations to see and wonder and know God through creation.
There is so much more Truth in this passage - Truth about community, about love, about rest and sabbath and wonder…
For today, given our summer worship setting and the pressing issues of our use and misuse of Creation in our world...I would ask us to sit with these Truths: To see God’s fingerprints and presence all around us and to treat all of creation as a holy and treasured very good gift.
Amen.
One Truth: The Triune God was present in and responsible for the creation of everything. Everything! From the light and dark, night and day. The waters and land and sky. Plants and flowers and seeds and fruit and everything that grows. The sun and moon and all the planets and all the galaxies, the entire universe. All creatures, swimming and flying, cattle, creeping, and wild. And us, humans, made in the image of the Triune God.
God’s fingerprints, God’s presence is all over ALL of creation. In whatever way the actual creating was done - it was done by God. God was in it, with it, shaping it - creating all that is. And God saw it and called it good. And that’s why, when we see it, we can’t help but wonder at the Divinity and Beauty of God in all creation because all creation reflects the One who created it. All creation is covered with traces of their Divine creator.
Now, a second Truth: Creation is a gift to us, humankind, created in the image of God - a very good gift. A very good gift with which we, who have been made in the image of God, need to care for. To care for that which has God’s fingerprints all over it - to care for it as God would have us care for it. With respect, reverence, gratitude, and humility. To recognize that what we have been given, the whole world and all within it, is a gift - and as it was gifted to humans many, many generations ago, we are called to pass on this gift for many, many generations to come - to continue to pass on God’s gifts of creation to all of God’s beloved children. And when we pass on the gift of creation, we also pass on the gift of the Creator, the Divine written into every aspect of Creation, passing on that ability for future generations to see and wonder and know God through creation.
There is so much more Truth in this passage - Truth about community, about love, about rest and sabbath and wonder…
For today, given our summer worship setting and the pressing issues of our use and misuse of Creation in our world...I would ask us to sit with these Truths: To see God’s fingerprints and presence all around us and to treat all of creation as a holy and treasured very good gift.
Amen.
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