A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Trinity Sunday
June 3, 2007
Scripture Lesson: Genesis 1:1-2:4a
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Early last week I was driving to the church and listening to the National Public Radio program “Fresh Air” with host Terri Gross. The program was originally recorded in the year 2000. The last name of the man being interviewed was DiMucci, a 67 year-old, Italian fellow from Brooklyn, New York. Ever heard of him? But if you were a teenager in the middle decades of the last century, you will know this guy by his first name, Dion. How many of you remember Dion?
Dion started out in 1957 with a rock and roll group named “Dion and the Belmonts.” His career (and his life) nearly came to an end prematurely when he was scheduled to fly (but didn’t) in a small plane which carried Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and a fellow known to his fans as “The Big Bopper.” Soon after take-off in a 1959 winter storm, the plane crashed into an Iowa cornfield killing all aboard.
A year later Dion became a solo artist, and in the early 1960’s produced a string of #1 hits which included “Runaround Sue,” “The Wanderer,” “Ruby Baby,” and “Donna the Prima Donna.” Dion would go on, not only to become a more contemplative songwriter and performer, producing hits such as “Abraham, Martin, and John” in 1968, but, more important, to become a Christian, after which his career focused primarily on writing and performing Gospel music.
Well, back to the radio interview with Terri Gross. Dion said something which grabbed my attention and even caused me to pull my car off the road so I could write down his statement for future reference. I can’t recall now what the subject matter was, but Dion said in answer to one of Terri’s questions, “If you ask the wrong questions, you get stuck.”
Now I know that doesn’t sound like a terribly profound statement, but when applied to the task of interpreting Scripture, it has enormous significance. Take, for instance, the story of creation which opens the book of Genesis. If you ask of this famous story, “How did God create the world?, you get an answer something like this: God spoke the world into being over a period of six days: first light; then a dome to separate the primeval waters; then land and vegetation; then sun, moon, and stars; then fish and birds; then animals; and finally, human beings in two varieties, male and female. Then, on the seventh day, God rested. Divine word spoken…instantaneous creation! The whole thing completed in just short of a week. When you ask the how question, this is essentially what you get for an answer.
Some Christians are satisfied with this answer. I’m not, and many other Christians are similarly not satisfied, because the overwhelming evidence presented by the physical world suggests a much more complex and a far lengthier process. Some will react to this and say, “But, preacher, that’s what the Bible says! The Bible says it; I believe it; and that’s it!” That reminds me of a tee-shirt I saw for sale at Cracker Barrel Gift Shop in Hickory last week. On the front of the shirt were printed these words, “Sorry! MIND CLOSED until further notice!”
But in this case, even the Bible itself warns us not to ask the how question of the story in Genesis, chapter 1. It does so by placing a second story of creation immediately following the first. Did you know that? In the very next verse there begins an even more ancient story of creation – the familiar one about Adam and Even in the garden of Eden. If you look carefully at the two, side-by-side stories, it doesn’t take an advanced degree in biblical interpretation to see that these two stories are very different from one another. No matter how hard you try, you can’t make these two stories line up as if they were telling us about the same event, the creation of the world.
For example, Genesis 1 tells us that human beings were the last creative act when God made the world. But the story in Genesis 2 tells us just the opposite, that creating human beings, Adam and Eve by name, was the first thing God did in making the world. So, which is it? Were humans created last, according to the first story, or first, according to the second story? It can’t have it both ways if you ask of these stories, “How did God create the world?”
I think the Holy Spirit has provided us with a clue for interpreting these opening stories in Genesis, and here’s the clue. We’re not supposed to ask of these two creation stories, “How was the world created?” Remember what Dion said – “If you ask the wrong questions, you get stuck.” The battles rage on and on, even in our own day, between those who claim Genesis and those who look to modern science for an explanation of how the world came to be. We’re stuck!
Let me suggest three better questions to bring to our text from Genesis: “Where am I?” “Who am I?” and “What am I here for?” These are questions which every human being must ask and find answer to, and I think these stories were meant to answer them. Let’s try them out on our text today.
Question #1 – “Where am I?”
This is a question about the context in which we live, about the place where the drama of our lives is lived out – the neighborhood, the world, the universe. It’s a very big and important question, and the story in Genesis 1 gives us an answer which matches the magnitude of the question. The story says: You live in God’s creation. Where we are is not merely “the natural world” as if it had some kind of independent existence. Rather, this is the creation, the God-created world. From mountains to amoebas, from pachyderms to protons, from black holes to bacteria, it’s all God-created.
The story doesn’t tell us how all this came to be, only that it came to be as the wondrous and mysterious work of the one and only creator God. So, all this we see around us is not an accident, not a product of blind chance, but the awesome product of God’s Word, calling the world into being by whatever means, by whatever processes, and by whatever mechanisms God chose to work.
We live in God’s creation. It is beautiful and wonderful and awesome, but it is not divine in itself. It’s not even semi-divine. The world is not to be confused with God. We must not worship the creation or any creature within it. We must worship only the Creator who stands apart from his creation as a potter does the clay, who transcends his creation as a poet does the poem.
And what’s more, says Genesis, that which God creates is good. In fact, by time we get to the end of this first story in the Bible, we hear this amazing word, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” In spite of the cruelties which have entered the creation by sin, God still declares his handiwork “very good.” And it must not be abused in our haste and waste. It must not be rejected as irrelevant to our search for God. And, God promises again and again in the Scriptures, when all is said and done, his creation will not be discarded, thrown away in the trash heap, left behind, but God’s creation will be renewed by God, the new heaven and earth. The Scriptures assure us: God’s creation project will be completed as God first intended.
Question #2 – “Who am I?”
Make no mistake, this question is not limited to the experience of teenagers and young adults pondering their identity under the influence of raging hormones! No, this question – “Who am I?” - accompanies each one of us throughout our lives. It pushes into our awareness especially at times of change and challenge in our lives. Just when we think we have the question answered, just when we think we have a clear view of our identity, things happen which make us re-visit the question and search for answers adequate for the next part of life’s journey.
When we ask this question of our story in Genesis, here’s the answer we get: you are God’s. You belong to God. God created you. You are not your own. You are not a little god unto yourself. You are not the master of your fate, nor the captain of your soul. You are God’s, and if you are to discover who you are and how best to live your life, you will not find the answer by gazing at your belly-button; rather, you must look beyond your feelings, beyond yourself, beyond your friends, beyond the society in which you live. You are a creature made by God – precious, loved, finite, vulnerable, utterly dependent on your Creator for every breath you take, and every beat of your heart. That’s who you are!
Question #3 – “What am I here for?”
This is the question which gets asked again and again, by the young adult entering the world of work, by the middle-aged person assessing the past and charting the future, by the empty-nesters, by the suddenly un-employed, by the newly retired, by the frail elderly living out the last days of life. It’s the most human of questions, the most frequently asked, and arguably the most pressing of the questions we ask.
And here’s the answer from the opening chapter of Genesis – you are here for relationship with your Creator. So the Westminster Shorter Catechism begins: Question – “What is the chief end (purpose) of man?” Answer – “The chief end of man is to love God and enjoy him forever.” In short, you are created for relationship with God.
But there’s even more – you are here to be in relationship with others. You’re not made for a solitary life, but for community, life together. “Male and female he created them,” says the story. That doesn’t mean everyone must be married to be fully human, but it points to the fact that we human beings are made for each other, to love one another as God commands.
But there’s even more to this answer to our question, “What am I here for?” The story says that you are made in the image of God. Now this doesn’t mean when you get out of bed in the morning, stumble into the bathroom, and look bleary-eyed into the mirror, what you see resembles God. No, thank God! To be created in the image of God means, at the very least, that in this marvelously made, intricate, complex, and beautiful creation, you were made to represent God. You have been put in a position of authority, of responsibility. In other words, God made you in his image, that is, to be a loving, responsible manager of his creation.
That means you have a job to do – taking care of the creation which God made and is still busy making. You are a care-taker, a steward of this awesomely complex, intricately wrought, stunningly beautiful, and astoundingly diverse creation of God.
On Wednesday evening last week, some of us got together for supper and Bible study. Genesis 1:1-2:4a was the text we studied. What I had planned to do was have the three table-groups ask these same three questions of the text from Genesis: “Where am I?”, “Who am I?”, and “What am I here for?” But we ran out of time, as we often do. So, as we were about to end the session, I challenged the group to ask these questions of the text and come up with the answers before this morning’s service.
Danny Owens then raised his hand, and said something like this, “I know what the answers are?”
“Well, go ahead, tell us,” I said.
And this is what I recall Danny saying, “Where am I? On God’s earth.” “Who am I? I am God’s creation.” “What am I here for?” To praise and serve God.” His answers were right on target. You see, Danny asked the right questions, and the Scripture gave him the right answers.
If we ask of the Genesis story “How did the world begin?” we will get stuck. But instead, if we ask the right questions, the Spirit will lead us into truth, just as Jesus promised He would. Thanks be to God!
