Creation

Where are you from?

A number of African-American women spoke to the public at the end of the Black Lives Matter Solidarity March on Sunday evening. Madison Alder Barbara Harrington-McKinney spoke about how quick we are to judge one another when we don’t even know each other’s stories. She then described points in her life experience as a black woman – starting with the fact that she was born in Mississippi. As a Black woman who is now well over the age of 60, a hush came over the audience acknowledging that Mississippi at the time of Barbara’s childhood was no easy place to come from.

Where are you from? That’s often a question during first-time introductions. Where are you from? Where we are from describes not only our starting point in life but it helps to explain a bit about who we are and maybe even why we are the way we are.

Our reading from Genesis is our origin story as people of faith. The creation story is the story of where we all really come from. This passage from Genesis gives us some splendid reasons to realize our origins are remarkable.

I recently read a wonderful essay by Debbie Thomas about this reading from Genesis. (“The Best of All Beginnings”, Debbie Thomas, Journey with Jesus Essay for June 15, 2014) She made a list about our origins. I’m going to use her list and simply reflect for a moment on each statement with my own words. I hope Debbie’s outline brings as much delight to your reflection on Genesis 1 as it did to mine.

Here’s what we can discover about ourselves when we remember, according to Genesis, where we come from:

• I come from a God who sees.
• I come from a world that is good.
• I come from a God who makes new things.
• I come from the likeness of God.
• I come from a God who rests.

I come from a God who sees.

In our Genesis story, God stops seven times to re-examine what God has made. The phrase “and God saw” is repeated with each part of God’s handiwork. It’s like a painter in the middle of her painting, stepping back for a good look at each brush stroke added. God the painter, steps back for perspective on what has been made. The light, the land, the water, the animals, the plants, the sea monsters, the people. God notices. God still notices – every hair on our heads, the lilies of the field, the sparrows of the sky. God notices the one who is lost, the one who is found. God is interested. God is attentive to all God has made. God sees. You and I are never out of God’s sight. We are held in God’s gaze.

I come from a world that is good.

Hold that thought. I come from a world that is good. Typically, when we read the book of Genesis, we quickly jump beyond the creation story, right into the story of Adam and Eve. We forget that their story of humanity’s sin and our fall from grace isn’t the first story. Before temptation and sin, there was goodness. There is still goodness.

The creation story we’ve read tonight is full of goodness and blessing. When we consider the words repeated in the creation story, the word “good” is in God’s every act of creation. And when God makes humans in God’s image, we shift from the single word “good” to the phrase “very good”. What would it mean if I started each day remembering that as a child of God, God looks at me and is pleased to see that I am very good – just as I am, just as I am created to be — I am very good. What if we looked at each person we encountered on any given day, remembering that they too are looked at by God and considered very good. By the virtue of their mere existence, by the virtue of my mere existence, we are each very good. All that God has made in this world is blessed. You and I are blessed too. It is part of our origin. We are “very good.”

I come from a God who makes new things.

Every day, in the beginning of creation, God made something completely new. God called things into existence that weren’t there before. Remarkable things! Beautiful things! But if we sit back and think that God finished making new things after day seven, then we’re sorely mistaken. God’s creative work continues. There’s a great quote from Christian writer Fredrick Buechner that says, “using the same old materials of earth, air, fire, and water, every twenty-four hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you’re seeing the same show all over again seven times a week you’re crazy. Every morning, you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up, was never the same before, and will never be the same again either.”

I come from the likeness of God.

That statement alone is worthy of our reflection and meditation far beyond tonight. You and I bear the likeness of God. What does that mean? Think of all the character traits that are ascribed to God throughout the Bible. Somewhere within us, we carry those traits. I reflect God in who I am and in what I do. It’s the latter part that can give us pause. I reflect God in what I do. What traits of God are most visible through me? Mercy? Justice? Compassion? Forgiveness? Love? Creativity? Relationship-building? What of God’s image can others see when they look at me?

I come from a God who rests.

Because God rests, it means I’m called to rest too. But that’s easier said than done, isn’t it? You’d think the coronavirus that’s moved us to work from our homes and limit our errands and activities would also have granted us a greater time for rest. If my own activity at home is any indication, I haven’t found our home-bound circumstances automatically creating more rest time for me. That’s because our American culture doesn’t instill in us that value of rest. We’re a 24-7 society — with or without a virus in our midst. We feel guilty or uncomfortable if we take time to rest. But to remember that God rested — there is the reason alone for you and I to listen less to our culture and more to our God. If God himself took a break, how dare I claim that I don’t need one too. God’s rest time became holy. We need rest, certainly for our own well-being. But we also need rest because if it is holy for God, it is holy for us as well. I come from a God who rests from God’s labors. Therefore, I am called to practice taking some time to rest from my labors as well.

In conclusion, I invite you to continue to spend a little more time in Genesis 1 this week, as you are able. We need to be reminded, now more than ever, that each and every one of us comes from a glorious Creator. We share a beautiful start with all our fellow human beings. We come from the words and vision of the One who invented all things. And because of this common origin, we are not only connected deeply to God and each other, we are connected to all life and life-sustaining things that God has made.

May you remember that this is where you come from, today and in the days ahead.

Amen.