A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — May 17, 2009
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Text:  Genesis 1:1 — Worship Outdoors

In the beginning… — Genesis 1:1

Three little words we know so well:  “In the beginning…”  It’s hard to keep the story from running away as pieces tumble through our minds—“formless and void…wind from God…let there be light…day…night…waters…dry land…and God saw that it was good…living creatures of every kind…humankind in God’s image…male and female…And it was all very good.”  As majestic and stirring as the poetry is, we know that story too well.  We've heard it all before... same old, same old...  So this morning I’m going to share with you three other tellings of the story of creation—two poems and a short children’s story.  These are not scripture, but may the Holy Spirit help us to hear in them a word from God to touch our minds and our hearts.

 

          The Creation — James Weldon Johnson
[in God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse,Viking Press, 1927, pp. 17-20]

And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.

And as far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said:  That’s good!

Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun:
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and the stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said:  That’s good!

Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet,
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas—
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed—
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled—
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out its arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.

Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said:  Bring forth!  Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said:  That’s good!

Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
And he looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said:  I’m lonely still.

Then God sat down—
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought:  I’ll make me a man!

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image;

Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen.  Amen.

What a story!  But what does it mean?  One way to understand any story is to have it explained.  I could stand here and preach, saying, “Listen to me.  This is what the story means.”  That’s one way to understand the Bible.  But it’s not the only way…often not even a very good way.  What I say might be wrong.  And besides, preaching isn’t so much about explaining facts as about proclaiming Good News.  In any event, explaining a story is dangerous, for people might go away thinking that’s the only way to understand it.  The story, then, is redundant.  It's no longer needed.  But Bible stories are so rich and deep and packed full of meaning that there’s no one right way to interpret them.  Often, the best way to understand a Bible story is to tell or hear another story (or poem) about it.  Here’s another poet’s view of creation.

          In the Beginning (Genesis 1) — David Steele
[in History, Herstory, Ourstory: From Adam to Abraham, Illuminations Press, 1984, pp. 13-23]

Note the title of the book... not his story, not her story, but OUR story.

When did it happen?
In a dream?  By an altar fire?
Keeping watch over a flock by night?
We shall never know.
But happen it did.
And in that moment, the man
(Or was it the woman)
Knew he bore a precious gift,
A  STORY!

It was long before stories
Had been relegated to children
To fill up space at bedtime.
Stories were for adults!
Human beings knew about stories, then.
They understood that each one of us
Creates a story, lives a story,
Is a storyteller.
They saw, more clearly than do we,
That each one of us who lives a story,
Yearns to find a greater story
That will link our tale with others.
We philosophize now,
We ponder concepts like IDENTITY and COMMUNITY!
They told stories.
And in the telling, and the hearing,
Discovered who they were
And who they might become together.

So when that person sensed
Herself entrusted with A Story,
She felt a kind of awe and mystery!
For she lived B.I.F.!
B.I.F.?  Before the Invention of the Fact!
The fact is a modern innovation.
People lived for eons without fussing about them.
They did not worry about
Burning bushes not consumed,
Floating ax heads,
Or people walking on water.
But, of course, if there were no facts
We would have to invent them.
And we did.
And now we know all about DNA
And right triangles.
Now we have the ability to
Make penicillin, and T.V. sets,
And heart machines, and megaweapons.

Oh, we have made mighty progress
With the invention of the fact.
We have gained the world!
But in the process we have lost that sense of awe
Which gave A STORY power.
For we know, now, that facts are true.
And stories?
Well, stories are…interesting.
We have gained the world with the fact.
But what is it that man once said?
“What profit is there in gaining the world
And losing your soul?”

This STORY was a mighty soul event
To the one first entrusted with it.
He told it to his friends
And they to theirs.
It soon became a story of a people.
They called it OUR STORY.
Notice that!
They did not call it her story,
Or history.
It was OUR STORY.

And the name they gave to the story was not
THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SPECIES or
THE  HANDBOOK  OF  PALEONTOLOGY or
GEOLOGIC  ERAS,
The story was named
IN  THE  BEGINNING, GOD…

“In the beginning, God
Created the heavens and the earth.”
That’s the way the story starts.
The curtain rises on a formless void,
Waters, and the wind of God.
And God says…

      But where did God come from, Daddy?
      Who made God?”

    “No one dear.  You see
    If we want to start a story
    At the very, very beginning,
    We just have to start with God.
    That’s where stories start.
    And if we want to tell a story
    To the very, very end,
    We end with God.
    ‘Cause that’s where stories end.”

    “Oh…”

So in the beginning
There is the void, and the waters,
And darkness…only darkness.
And while darkness is handy for sleeping,
Or movies, or romance,
It does have its limits.
So God says, “Let there be light.”
And light appears!
God says, “That’s good!
We’ll call the light, day,
And the darkness, night.”
And there is evening,
And there is morning.
Day one.

And God says…
“What this place needs is
A whole lot of firmament.
Let there be firmament!”
And he separates the waters
With all that firmament,
And calls it sky.
And there is evening,
And there is morning.
Day two.

Then God gathers the waters together,
And dry land appears.
God calls the land, earth,
And the waters, seas.
He likes the arrangement.
“It’s good,” God says.
God looks at all the earth
And says, “Start vegetating!
Let there be plants, and shrubs, and trees.
Let each be filled with seeds.”
And the earth bursts forth
With wildflowers that bloom on burnt-over hills,
Redwoods healing a lightning scar,
Grasses that will push their way
Through asphalt driveways,
Trees clinging to rocky ledges,
Surviving in smog-filled cities.
All that marvelous botanic energy
Is loosed upon this place called earth.
God sees it is good.
And there is evening,
And there is morning.
Day three.

And now come the lights.
That firmament is awfully empty
Until God makes the Great Light to rule the day,
And the lesser light to rule the night,
And all the little lights we call stars.
God likes these lights.
“That’s good!”

    “Wait a minute, sonny,
    What’s this about the sun and moon and all
    Created in day four?
    Why, didn’t the day appear in the very beginning
    And doesn’t the day require a sun?
    And isn’t this world we know and love
    A direct offspring of our sun?
    You just don’t have your facts straight.”

    “This is a Story, grandpa,
    A STORY!
    You’ve got to let go of all those ‘facts’.
    This is a B.I.F. story,
    Before the Invention of the Fact!
    And in this Story God makes it clear
    Just why those lights are important.
    God says, ‘The lights will separate
    The day from the night;
    Let them be for signs,
    And for seasons,
    For days and years.’
    You see, God is getting this earth ready
    For creatures that are going to want
    Sundials, and calendars, and digital watches;
    And God’s gotta create some time
    For them to keep track of.
    That’s what the Story says, grandpa.”

    “Oh…”

And God checks out those lights
And notices they mark things like
Twenty-four hours and vernal equinoxes
And yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
God says, “That’s good.”
And it is evening,
It is morning.
Day four.

And God says, “Seas, swarm with creatures;
Firmament, be filled with birds!”
And it is.
And God says, “Be fruitful and multiply
And fill the earth.”
That little bird that is building her nest
In the patio shrub,
That little bird who ignores our advice
That another place might be more private,
More fitting for a nativity;
That little bird is marching to the beat
Of a different drummer, who orders:
“Be fruitful and multiply,
Fill the earth.”
We pause in awe of her devotion
And tenacity,
And can but say with God,
“This is good.”
And there is evening…morning.
Day five.

And then God, noticing the empty land,
Makes wild beasts and friendly ones
And creeping things,
And orders them to fill the land.

    “Like Shep and Callie, Dad?”

    “And Swish, too.”

    “And a unicorn?”
   
    “Maybe…”

    “Oh…”

And God looks over everything.
It is just right.
“It is good,” God says.
And evening comes…then morning.
Day five.

And God says,
“For our final number, I present…
Human beings!
Male and female, of course.
But as a special added attraction,
These human beings are created
In our own image!”

    “What does that mean?”

    “After our likeness!”

    “Oh…”

“And I order these human beings
To be fruitful and multiply
And fill the earth.”

    “We followed your orders, boss,
    Now what?”

“And to have dominion over all the fish of the sea
And the birds of the air,
And over cattle,
And over creeping things.”

    “We’ve done that too, boss.
    We’ve wiped out the passenger pigeon
    And zapped the whales,
    Paved over the forests,
    Filled the rivers with gunk…
    Boy, we’ve done a lot with ‘dominion’.”

Wait…the story is not finished.
“All is for you…” God tells the human beings.
“This world is set up to be a nurturing environment
For you, for everyone.”
Listen to the story…
“The world is your home,
It has the resources to feed,
To nourish all my creatures.”
That is what the story says.

Now maybe facts say something different.
Maybe when people start thinking facts are all that matters,
Something different happens.
But in the story
Yahweh looks at human beings
Created in God’s image,
In a world that’s built to nurture them,
And says,
“It is good.”
And evening is followed by the morning.
Day six.

Now comes the part where we know
This story was not made up.
No person would dare to end the story
This way.

Now the story says:
On the seventh day God looked at everything.
God blessed it.
AND  RESTED!

Can you imagine anyone daring to envision this?
The Lord God Almighty,
The Creator and Sustainer of the universe,
Sitting around in an undershirt,
In bedroom slippers,
Reading a mystery?
Watching T.V.?
Puttering in the garden?
Riding a bike?
Doing nothing?  Just resting?
Who would dare to picture a God
With feet on the desk?
But there it is…
God rests…

And the story adds,
Anyone who has not learned the magic
In goofing off,
Does not appreciate God’s image.

Creation ends, as well it should,
In affirmation…All is Good!

Actually it’s only this telling of the Story that ends, not creation itself—at least that’s how Marc Gellman views things in a story for children.  But before we get to that, I want to share an illustration about facts and stories.  I have two post cards I got in New Mexico years ago.  They both show the very same thing—the lovely, old adobe church in Ranchos de Taos.  One card is the epitome of fact.  It’s a photograph…the literal truth.  The colors are muted because it's snowing in the picture.  You can see the snowflakes in the air.  The other postcard is of an oil painting of the church.  Was the sky ever really so deep a blue?  Did the church really seem afire with an inner light?  Yet I submit that the painting—the story—is every bit as true as the photograph…maybe more so.  Here’s a third telling of creation, this one a story written for children.

          Partners — Marc Gellman
[in Does God Have a Big Toe?, Harper & Row, 1989, pp. 1-3]

Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels, and a huge swirling glob of rocks and water with no place to go.  The angels asked God, “Why don’t you clean up this mess?”

So God collected rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in clumps and said, “Some of these clumps of rocks will be planets, and some will be stars, and some of these rocks will be…just rocks.”

Then God collected water from the huge swirling glob and put it together in pools of water and said, “Some of these pools of water will be oceans, and some will be clouds, and some of this water will be…just water.”

Then the angels said, “Well God, it’s neater now, but is it finished?”  And God answered… “NOPE!”

On some of the rocks God placed growing things, and creeping things, and things that only God knows what they are, and when God had done all this, the angels asked God, “Is the world finished now?” And God answered:  “NOPE!”

God made a man and a woman from some of the water and dust and said to them, “I am tired now.  Please finish up the world for me…really it’s almost done.”  But the man and woman said, “We can’t finish the world alone!  You have the plans and we are too little.”

“You are big enough,” God answered them.  “But I agree to this.  If you keep trying to finish the world, I will be your partner.”
The man and the woman asked, “What’s a partner?” and God answered, “A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone.  If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you.  On the days you think I am not doing enough and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days we are still partners and we must not stop trying to finish the world.  That’s the deal.”  And they all agreed to that deal.

Then the angels asked God, “Is the world finished yet?” and God answered, “I don’t know.  Go ask my partners.”

    •    •    •    •    •    •    •

Is creation finished yet?  Not as long as we keep telling and living new Stories, OUR STORIES—stories of partnership with God.  That’s how I see it.  Amen and amen.