The creation story. It’s a game changer for some people. They can’t reconcile the seven day story in Genesis with science. They believe it is all or nothing. Either you believe God literally created the entire world in seven days or you cannot believe in God.
Scholars who read Hebrew and study ancient texts believe this story was written in the 6th century BC. However, it probably was a story passed down orally many many years before that.
Now I am by no means an ancient history expert. But I know at that time people did not have a concept of science like we do today. They thought the world was flat if you went out too far out into the ocean you would drop off. They believed that above the sky was more water. Hence the part of the story about the dome. God put a dome so the water could not come down and there was space for life. In the 6th century BCE they had no knowledge of the earth spinning as it revolved around the sun. They believed the sun and the moon moved over the earth. God put them there so we could see.
The Israelites believed in a loving God. Unlike other civilization at that time who had violent and bloody stories of creation, the Israelites built their creation story on a loving God. A God that is happy with creation. A God that creates on the same time table as they live. Most of you know that Jewish Shabbet or Sabbath begins at evening. Hence we read, it was evening then it was morning the second day. Instead of the day beginning with sun coming up their day began at sundown. God’s day of rest begins at sundown on the 6th day.
This story tells us God created this wondrous world around us. The plants, the air, the insects, the water, the animals and even us were created with love.
When we were in Africa the other year. I didn’t tell the others in our group that I was a pastor. No one really talked about what they did for a living. So I never brought it up. I know some people get nervous when they are around a pastor. They think they have to be careful what they say or how they act.
The last day if the trip we visited a school. It was a Sunday, but they had some of the students come to the school to talk to us. The guide asked the children what they wanted to be when they grew up. One said a teacher and the guide asked if there were any teachers among us. The same with a Dr. Then one girl said a preacher. [she is in the photo with me] The guide didn’t ask and continued to the next child. I spoke up and said I am a pastor. There was almost a gasp. I could tell people were thinking what did I say.
This tour was very flexible, as far as scheduling. As we finished with the children, the school master, who was a Lutheran pastor, asked if we would like to go to the church, since they found out I was a pastor. Everyone said yes, so we got into the land rovers and drove a mile down the road to a Lutheran church that was already in session. As we were ready to walk into the door, the pastor called me over and said I found an English Bible for you could you give us a word?? (WHAT?!?)
Well, what word do you give when you are in a Tanzanian church and only 40% of the people sitting in the pews, or actually on benches, can understand English? I picked the creation story.
I preached on how God created the world and it is good. It is good right here in Africa with the wonderful animals we saw on the Serengeti Animals unlike anything we have in America. But God’s creation in America is also good. Even though it is unlike anything here. God’s creation is so vast, so wide, so diverse in so many different places, but it is still God’s creation and it is good. That whether I am standing in the middle of the Serengeti, or the middle of the rocky mountains, or looking out the window of this church, or my home - I can recognize God in all of it. That seeing God in creation is what brings people who live such different lives together. The knowledge that the same God created everything everywhere. Then I asked for an Amen.
I believe God created the world. I believe there were dinosaurs and I believe in evolution. I also believe in science and although I don’t understand all of it I keep reading about quantum physics and now about a God gene and who knows what else. Our knowledge as a people continues to grow.
When the creation story was written they never could have imagined what we know now. Just as we can’t imagine what people will know 1,000 years from now or even 100 years from today.
But the creation story reminds us that our God is a loving caring God because all creation is good.
Does it matter if it took seven days or 15 billion years for one of those quantum particles to develop into a being that can praise God?
I think we have much bigger things to worry about. One of which is beginning to take better care of the wonderful creation we were given. Can I get an Amen?
No comments:
Post a Comment