|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Genesis 1:1–2:4a |
Psalm 8 |
2 Corinthians 13:11–13 |
Matthew 28:16–20 |
The word genesis means “first things”. The first book of the Bible was meant to be a prologue to the Biblical writings. People are sometimes surprised to learn that Genesis is not the earliest book of the Bible. That honor belongs to the book of Exodus that recounts the deliverance of the tribes of Israel out of slavery and certain death in Egypt, and the formation of a people of faith with a universal mission. It was after the tribes of Israel saw themselves as a people with a purpose that they began to look backward and recount how they came to be formed. Genesis tells how things were, not necessarily how things are or always must be. Many of the creation sagas of the ancient world held that everything was determined. Things cannot change and what has been will always be. Not so with the Bible!
The Biblical saga of creation involves change. Right from the first, people of faith are told that creation itself is never static. Creation develops, and never stays the same. The ancient saga, based on observation, describes a progression from sea to land, from the world of the womb containing the ocean of umbilical fluid, to the opening of new birth in the air of a new day. To be alive means that growth must ensue. The Bible applies that not only to our physical life, but our spiritual life as well. Right from the very beginning the Bible is an evolutionary history
The Bible also conveys to us a sense that the whole creative order is to be treated with respect, and even to some extent, awe. God had a hand in it all. It notes a comprehensive relationship between simple plants and smaller animals and complex plants and large and complex animals; it perceives a connection between the tiny sand flea and the elephant. The plants, the animals, even the sea and land itself, need each other to flourish.
God also gives humanity the overall responsibility for the care and stewardship of the earth. Moreover, because we have been given this responsibility, we are made in the image of God. God abrogates the power and authority ascribed to the gods of the ancient world and hands that authority over to us. We, in effect, fulfill the role that most of the ancient world originally thought belonged to lesser gods. We are the curators of the earth. At the same time, however, we are responsible to God the ultimate creator. To forget that God is behind the meaning and power of life is to fall into sin. In other words, that which separates us from God and our other fellow creatures.
The selection from Genesis might seem at first to be an incongruous part of the Easter season. It begins to fit as we recall that the risen Lord is sending us to all nations as witnesses, and that there are no earthly limits to where the Gospel might stop. There are no cultures that the Gospel writes off. Moreover, there are no parts of creation that we can write off as being unworthy of stewardship. For example, no native human culture had been discovered in Antarctica, yet the health of Antarctica, be it the birds, mammals or fish that live there, does affect all of us. The total ecology of Antarctica, even the health of the giant ice caps and surrounding icebergs does matter. We are accountable if, by our actions, the climate and basic topography of that frozen continent is harmed or destroyed.
Genesis was written and compiled by some pretty wise people, far ahead of their time. To be sure none of the writers had any knowledge of Antarctica or many other continents. They were not trained in modern science, but they got the sense of a comprehensive worldview precisely right. They knew that responsibility for creation extends beyond one’s own generation and their society’s particular desires.
. Last Sunday at Pentecost, the psalm reminded us of the vastness of the sea, and the huge, circus like quality of a whale. The lesson in Acts reminded us that God is able to communicate in many languages, including some we do not comprehend.
We call this Sunday Trinity Sunday, in recognition that God is not revealed to us in only one dimension or in a monochrome manner. There is a great danger in having a myopic vision of God. An important part of the theological concept of the Trinity is the affirmation of a continuing dynamism of a living faith. Fifty years ago a popular book entitled Your God is Too Small reminded us that our popular conception of God was indeed too small. We are now coming to realize that our conception of our world may be too small and too limited too. The world God sends us out into is big and complex. However, people of faith are able to evolve in their thinking, to grow, and see both God and the world with different lenses and wider perspectives all at the same time.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
