In the Church Year we are now in an in-between time. Christmas and Epiphany have passed and Lent is yet to begin. Going way, way back in the Church of England’s history this Sunday, the 2nd before Lent has been the time to read the great Genesis account of creation. And that is what we have heard this morning.
‘In the beginning when God created….’ the passage begins. And it finishes with ‘So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.’ This great passage presents us with a vision of what all reality is, what it is like, where it originates and what it is for.
It is not just a picture of planet earth. The stars and the sun and the moon are there as well created on the fourth day. So it invites us to ask the really big questions. Where does everything that exists come from? Through the wonders of scientific enquiry and discovery the world around us has expanded in size telling us that planet earth is an infinitesimally small speck in an almost unimaginably huge universe. The picture, the vision of Genesis chapter 1, invites us to understand all this in a particular way. It is what we in the Church call ‘The Doctrine of Creation’. It’s there at the beginning of the Creed: We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
This Christian doctrine, I prefer actually Christian vision, tells us three things about ‘all that is, seen and unseen.’ It provides us with the answer to three question we might ask as perhaps we gaze up at clear night sky. The three questions are these:
- Where does all this come from?
- Is there any meaning behind all this?
- Is all this telling or showing me anything?
The answer to the first question, Where does all this come from? is that everything has it origin in God. God is not part of creation. God has no beginning or end. God is spirit. Absolutely everything depends on God for its existence. It is held in being moment by moment by God. The days of creation given in Genesis Chapter 1 are an attempt to picture everything made by God, the light, the stars, the earth sea and sky and all that fills them on planet earth. And, the human race.
Genesis 1 uses a special word to describe what God does to make the world. It is translated ‘create’. In the Hebrew God is only ever the subject of this verb. Only God does this. Only God creates. And he creates everything. God doesn’t make the universe out of something else, like a potter makes a vase from clay. God creates everything from nothing. This of course is beyond our powers of imagination. God is the creator of all and there is no other.
The second question we might ask is ‘Is there any meaning behind all this?’ Is the world meant to be or is it some sort of accident? Christianity is clear that ‘all things, seen and unseen’ are no accident. There is a creator and the creator creates things for a purpose. The first chapter of Genesis captures this with the repeated use of the word ‘good’. And God saw that it was good. And God saw that it was good. And near the end of the creation account we have ‘God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.’
Everything fits together and has a good and useful purpose. There is a beauty to everything, a goodness to everything from the farthest star, the tiniest microbe and every child, woman and man. Everything is good, is meant to be, and has purpose. In summary everything is a gift from a good giver, God.
We can begin to see that to have and hold this vision is also an invitation to live it. And this is what Christians are called to do. Gifts are to be treasured not abused. Creation is given as a gift to be treasured not abused. Gifts also tell us about the giver. This brings us to the third big question we can ask, ‘Is all this telling or showing me anything?’ Because there is a creator and all things are good they have significance and value.
We can see how this is going to ask us some searching questions. Do I value the world around? Do I value and treat with respect the animal world? Do I respect all human beings? Do I see the hand of God in all things? Do I respect the gift of time, seeing each day as a gift? Do I value myself as made by God? Do I understand that climate change is a sign of humanity’s corporate abuse of the gift of planet earth? That we have treated it as something we can just do what we like with? We have seen it as a given but not as it truly is, a gift?
At each Eucharist, bread and wine are taken to the altar. They are the supreme Christian symbols of the gift of creation. We give them back to the creator, placing them on God’s altar. The priest prays for the Holy Spirit to come down upon them – the same Holy Spirit of God, who swept over the waters at the moment of creation – At every Eucharist the Holy Spirit breathes on these gifts and they are given back to us as signs of the new creation in all its beauty. That same Holy Spirit inspires us to live as what we are, children of God, gifted with a wonderful vision of all that is seen and seen.
Service: Canon Bill Croft, 12th February 2023. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Genesis 1.1 – 2.3; Romans 8.18-25; Matthew 6.25 – end