Genesis 2:4b-9 [Contemporary English Version]
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, no grass or plants were growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land. But streams came up from the ground and watered the earth.
The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man. God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing. The Lord made a garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, and he put the man there.
The Lord God placed all kinds of beautiful trees and fruit trees in the garden. Two other trees were in the middle of the garden. One of the trees gave life—the other gave the power to know the difference between right and wrong.
I have, for the past several years, taken the summer months to preach on specific subjects, rather than just following the lectionary. We’ve taken this time to go in-depth on subjects such as Paul’s letters, or the “not-Paul” letters, or the four Gospels. One year, as I recall, we spent the summer looking at prayers of the church down through the centuries.
Back on Earth Day Sunday this year I suggested that we might take the summer months this year to look into the Creation stories and any readings having to do with our assigned role as care-givers for the earth and the creatures. With loss of the northern and southern ice fields, with increasingly severe wildfires and floods, and increasing temperatures all around the earth, our relationship with the created world may well be the most important issue we face as a people. Perhaps, by looking into that relationship as it’s depicted in scripture, we may learn some needful things about ourselves.
If we have time we might also include looking into a couple of particular ecological ministries with which the Disciples are connected. When we meet in person again, starting July 4th, I’ll want to hear what you might be interested in studying in-depth, but for this month, at least, until we meet together, I’m going to focus on the environmental readings.
There are two distinct creation stories in Genesis — the first in Chapter One is the one most of us are primarily familiar with—the six-day story—On the first day God spoke and created light; on the second day God spoke and created the sky...and so on. It’s a poetic and lovely description of how the world came to be.
But this one also depicts a Creator-God who appears to be somewhat separate from the earth. Everything is called into being by God’s word alone—with a Creator who watches it all happen from a distance. This is not a “hands-on” God—there are only spoken commands from the vast, dark void.
Today’s reading is from the Second Creation story, found in Genesis, chapter 2. This version gives us a much more “hands-on” Creator—one who is particularly connected to the soil of the earth. No words are spent on the heavens—the stars and the sun. Very few words depict the arrival of animals of any kind. All of God’s attention is on the soil and what grows from it.
All the beautiful descriptive words here are for the earth itself. Even humankind appears to have been created because someone was needed to care for the earth. In the chapter one version, humans are created, like everything else, by God’s word alone. In this 2nd version, God actually reaches out and takes up a handful of soil to create the man, Adam. Adam’s name is a play on words meaning “taken from the soil.”
After creating the man, God creates a beautiful garden, called Eden, and places man there to live. Later, creatures—animals and birds--are created from that same soil to be companions to Man. When the Man is still lonely, God finally takes a rib from him and creates Woman to be his companion.
It is in this second version that we run into the story of the snake and the tempting fruit and the knowledge of good and evil, and when Adam and Eve offend against God’s rules, their punishment comes from being tied to the soil of the earth in heavy labor for their whole lives.
Both of these two versions show us a God who loves this beautiful world -- first, in a Creator who delights in and is proud of their creation and second, in a hands-on God who actually enjoys touching and shaping the soil of this created world.
The first, poetic, Creation story is one of blessing after blessing, but in the second version, the blessing is brief and soon devolves into blame and punishment. These two markedly different versions have shaped our relationship with the earth ever since, in ways both good, and — unfortunately — not-so-good. I hope to spend some time in the coming weeks exploring that relationship.
Back on Earth Day Sunday this year I suggested that we might take the summer months this year to look into the Creation stories and any readings having to do with our assigned role as care-givers for the earth and the creatures. With loss of the northern and southern ice fields, with increasingly severe wildfires and floods, and increasing temperatures all around the earth, our relationship with the created world may well be the most important issue we face as a people. Perhaps, by looking into that relationship as it’s depicted in scripture, we may learn some needful things about ourselves.
If we have time we might also include looking into a couple of particular ecological ministries with which the Disciples are connected. When we meet in person again, starting July 4th, I’ll want to hear what you might be interested in studying in-depth, but for this month, at least, until we meet together, I’m going to focus on the environmental readings.
There are two distinct creation stories in Genesis — the first in Chapter One is the one most of us are primarily familiar with—the six-day story—On the first day God spoke and created light; on the second day God spoke and created the sky...and so on. It’s a poetic and lovely description of how the world came to be.
But this one also depicts a Creator-God who appears to be somewhat separate from the earth. Everything is called into being by God’s word alone—with a Creator who watches it all happen from a distance. This is not a “hands-on” God—there are only spoken commands from the vast, dark void.
Today’s reading is from the Second Creation story, found in Genesis, chapter 2. This version gives us a much more “hands-on” Creator—one who is particularly connected to the soil of the earth. No words are spent on the heavens—the stars and the sun. Very few words depict the arrival of animals of any kind. All of God’s attention is on the soil and what grows from it.
All the beautiful descriptive words here are for the earth itself. Even humankind appears to have been created because someone was needed to care for the earth. In the chapter one version, humans are created, like everything else, by God’s word alone. In this 2nd version, God actually reaches out and takes up a handful of soil to create the man, Adam. Adam’s name is a play on words meaning “taken from the soil.”
After creating the man, God creates a beautiful garden, called Eden, and places man there to live. Later, creatures—animals and birds--are created from that same soil to be companions to Man. When the Man is still lonely, God finally takes a rib from him and creates Woman to be his companion.
It is in this second version that we run into the story of the snake and the tempting fruit and the knowledge of good and evil, and when Adam and Eve offend against God’s rules, their punishment comes from being tied to the soil of the earth in heavy labor for their whole lives.
Both of these two versions show us a God who loves this beautiful world -- first, in a Creator who delights in and is proud of their creation and second, in a hands-on God who actually enjoys touching and shaping the soil of this created world.
The first, poetic, Creation story is one of blessing after blessing, but in the second version, the blessing is brief and soon devolves into blame and punishment. These two markedly different versions have shaped our relationship with the earth ever since, in ways both good, and — unfortunately — not-so-good. I hope to spend some time in the coming weeks exploring that relationship.
RSS Feed