Rose City Park United Methodist Church
Located Near NE 58th and Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR
Pastor, Tom Tate
Portions of Psalm 104; Genesis 1:20-26a; 31
"The Lord God Made Them All" (New Beginnings)
The morning light streaks across the horizon: It's a new beginning.
A tiny stem breaks through the ground: a new beginning;
A new bud opens on a tree, a tomato appears on the bush; A baby is born: All these are creation's witness to God's design: New Beginnings.
I think we human beings want, need, hope for new beginnings: The exhaustion of a day's labor finds relief by night's rest. Muscle and mind recuperate. The next day is a new beginning. A broken bone finds healing, a new hip or knee - we are able to function again; a friendship begun or a relationship repaired. A new job, a new house, a new marriage... a new faith - all speak of new beginnings for people. And, I think, this hope of newness is common to all faiths.
Ed Edmo is a Native American story teller. He was here this past winter and recently, some of us went to The Dalles to see the Native American pictographs. Ed tells a creation story:
The Great Spirit stood by the water. Otter, muskrat and beaver happened by. The Great Spirit told otter to go down into the water and find what he could find. So otter dove in and went down. Otter found the water people, swimming and enjoying themselves so otter played with them and swam on his back and ate at the same time, and had a great time. He came back and told the Great Spirit that he found water people, enjoying themselves and he swam with them.
Next, muskrat came by: Good looking, slender, handsome, muskrat, and the Great Spirit said, go down and take a look and see what you can find, and muskrat dove in. Muskrat went past the water people. He went deeper and found there were girl-fish and he winked and giggled at them. (Giggle like Ed.) Muskrat came back and told the Great Spirit that he found girl-fish that he winked and giggled at. And then came beaver that was not as playful as otter or handsome as muskrat. Beaver was fat and had a big flat nose. But the Great Spirit told beaver to go find what he could find.
So, Beaver dove down and went past the water people, and went past the girl-fish, all the way to the bottom where he found mud. He gathered a bunch of mud with is big flat nose and brought it up and gave it to the Great Spirit. Great Spirit took the mud and blew into it and shaped it, and it grew. (Everybody Blow). And Great Spirit blew on it again and he shaped it and it grew; Great Spirit blew on it and shaped it and it grew, and it became the world. It is a story of beginnings.
You who know your bible will immediately notice the similarity between this story and the second Genesis story of creation where God takes dirt and blew the breath of life into it and it became a living being. Bible stories of creation are there not to answer how, but why; not to tell about history, but to remind us that God is always about new beginnings.
When we look at the Genesis stories we discover some interesting things. Genesis I and Genesis 2 are quite different. One reason is that they were written at very different times, under different circumstances. They have different styles: Genesis one was written by the Priests: You know those pastors who want order - first day, second day, third day - declaring each part of creation "Good!" And of course their week culminated with what? Sabbath - the day of worship and rest. You might say they had a vested interested in that theology - it was their day. Genesis II, instead of listing days uses a wonderful gift of an ancient folk tale of a talking serpent, a magic tree and God walking among the bushes.
The stories begin differently, Genesis one begins with darkness and watery chaos and moves to the dry land. Genesis two begins on dry land and moves toward water. In Genesis One God makes all the plants, creatures and then human beings. In Genesis two God makes "Ha adam," the earth creature, not a man named Adam, but "Earth Creature," first, then all the other creatures and finally splits "Earth Creature" to make male and female.
But why were they written? Genesis One came out of a time of utter chaos. (Remember how Genesis One begins: In dark watery chaos) The year was 586 BCE, before the Common Era, and Babylon conquered Israel, taking the leadership into Babylon and slavery. While in captivity, these Ancient Hebrews heard the Babylonian story of creation with Marduk, the Babylonian god. The Hebrews were told Marduk had defeated their God, the God of the Hebrews. But the Hebrews wrote their own story because they needed hope; they needed something more than despair; they needed a new beginning.
So, first they said, our God does not create out of war as did Marduk who tore other gods apart to form creation. The Hebrews said, "Our God creates by a simple word: 'Let there be light,' 'Let there be a world,' 'Let there by life'," and it was done. The Hebrews said our God made your gods. Ancient people thought of the sun, moon, and stars as gods. The Hebrews said, our God made your gods. It was a theological one-upmanship that was going on: Like kids who stick out their tongues saying, "My dad can beat up your dad." The stories of Genesis, are stories of hope and new beginnings: God isn't defeated and will not forget us.
In my opinion, one of our problems theologically is many read these stories as scientific journals stating how God created all things, when their intent was to give hope for a new beginning for a people who had lost all hope: They were saying, "Look at the creation and understand God is still with us, now in a foreign land - look around and know God is not defeated, but God has won the battle and is with us here and now." These stories provided a new start for an enslaved people.
But now, what lessons can we learn from merely observing Creation? Creation is about growth. I am so excited about my new rhubarb this year. It has struggled over the past couple of years and just died. I finally took the cubic yard of dirt it was in, in a raised box, and replaced with good dirt with all kinds of good stuff in the dirt. Boy, is it taking off. Jesus used this kind of story about the seed and his creation parable and asks the question, "What kind of soil are you planted in?" What nutrients of spirit are you feeding on? Creation is about growth and provides a metaphor for growth: growth of our individual spirits and growth of our fellowship. Growth is natural to the fellowship of Christ.
Creation reminds us of the grace of God. As I considered what I was going to say today, a familiar image came into my mind. It is a picture I remember of my mother, the cook. One picture I remember is of a bucket of old, gnarled, bruised, wormy apples. She would come upon apples that no one else wanted - certainly not ones you would pick up to eat. But she would take them, cut out the bad spots, throw out the worms, and out of that came a great pie. For me it is a wonderful picture of grace. I hope you aren't offended, but like the Garden of Eden, we are all, at times, bad apples. I don't mean that in a negative way, but we are all bruised and cut. There are a few worms in us of pain, negativity, disappointment, anger and frustration: That's being human - and God removes the bruises, puts us together and sugars us with the Holy Spirit, adds spices of grace and we become his family of faith - a holy pie of love: Look around. Creation provides all kinds of pictures of God's grace and new beginnings.
Creation is a great spiritual healer. Good friends recently gave me the book, "Three Cups of Tea." In the first chapter, one of the authors, Greg Mortenson, tells of his experience mountain climbing in Pakistan. Some of the world's highest peaks are there. Because of some extenuating circumstances, Mortenson did not have all his gear. He had to spend the night on the mountain where it was very cold. He feared sleeping - he might die. But the next morning, "despite his weakened state, his lack of food and warm clothing, his poor odds of surviving if he didn't find some soon, he awoke to see the amazing sight of the majestic mountains. He "felt a strange contentment." (P. 19)
Most folks know of the book of Job and of his loss of everything. What many don't know is the answer Job gets to the loss his family, home, and possessions. After Job shakes his fist at God for 35 chapters, blaming God for what has happened, God finally answers: What does he give Job. He gives Job picture after picture of wondrous, mysterious, glorious creation - three chapters worth. To his suffering and loss, Job receives visions of the glory of God's creation; the majesty, the wonder, the beauty of God's handiwork- for three chapters you hear of God's amazing creation. In the losses we experience, in the pain we know, there is a healing that comes from casting our eye and entering the moment and wonder of God's creation. In that experience, we find healing and New Beginnings.
Creation teaches us about tenacity and a never give up attitude. I asked Ed Edmo, the Native American Story teller why so many of their stories are about animals. He said, "Because animals are smarter than humans."
Larry McDowell is our trustee chairperson - the trustees take care of the building. "Larry, we have a problem you may not be aware of. See this wrapper. It covered some snack food I had in my desk bottom drawer. I got this out last week and noticed that there was a chewed corner - and I wasn't the one to chew it." Now, I wonder what path this little fellow had to take to get in the church, go up stairs, find a way into my office and into my lower drawer to find this food: I marvel at that tenacity.
It is a parable of the tenacity of God. It reminds me of the a loving spirit who would not stop with Jesus' death; who will never stop reaching to us, search us out for love's sake to bring us new beginnings; new birth, new hope. This is the Spirit of God that raised Christ to life providing us a vision for life.
I heard something recently that is impossible for me to fathom. We can see for light years into the universe. We can see with great telescopes distances beyond most of our understandings. And yet, I heard this last week that there is still 97% of the universe yet to be seen. (I have no idea how anyone knows that!) Nevertheless, it would seem that the possibilities for life and creation are endless. That's a picture for our lives as well. God's possibilities for us are endless. I suppose that means that there are endless possibilities for new beginnings of love as well.
Creation is good! The Genesis story proclaims that. And John's gospel reminds us that the Agent of God, Wisdom, Reason, Purpose, the Divine Word through all things were made came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth for a purpose: to give new beginnings. For as St. Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Receive God's gift of new beginnings of all sorts - look for them, and by all means, help others see their new beginnings as well.
Amen