Taylor Swift wrote a song called happiness. In it she
says, “There will be happiness after you. There was happiness because of you.
Both of these things can be true.”
So, I am thinking about the sentence, “Both of these
things can be true.” Because as confounding as it can be sometimes, it is so
often the case in life. Two things that seem to contradict each other can both
be true, at the same time.
We say that God is three – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And we also say that God is one. There is one God – God alone. Both these
things are true.
We say that Jesus is fully human, just like us. And we
also say that Jesus is fully divine. Both these things are true.
And in the scriptures, we read that we are made in the
image of God – Genesis chapter 1. And that we are made from the dirt of the
earth – chapter 2, when God formed man, Adam, from the dust of the ground and
then breathed life into him. We know that we are fallen, broken, earth-bound
creatures and that we are little less than divine. Both these things are true.
It is true that we find a lot of things to be
contradictory in the scriptures and in the language of our faith. It is not
because the scriptures are sloppy, or carelessly written. It is because of the
deep complexity of all of it.
But complexity and uncertainty are uncomfortable, so
humans have a strong urge to simplify things as much as possible as quickly as
possible. As that old gospel song has it, God
said it, I believe it, that settles it for me; we sure do want things to be
settled.
And so in the literal reading of Genesis 1, we hear that
God created everything in six days, followed by a day of rest. And, if we are
not inclined to embrace the poetic beauty of it, we can get bogged down in the
details of this spare description of creation.
And worry over explanations for how there could be day and
night before the sun was created. And whether the length of a day was the same
then, in the beginning, as it is now. And if it is possible to mesh this first
creation story with the one that follows in Chapter 2, the story of Adam and
Eve in the garden.
And if we are seeking simplicity and certainty, then
settling these questions is of the utmost importance. To understand this
opening passage as poetry – an ode to the breathtaking beauty of creation – is
not an option.
God created the world, and all that is in it, and called
it good. To me, this is sacred truth of the highest level. But some find it too
worrisome because we also know that we are broken by sin, and this is the
problem that our faith is meant to solve, we think. Not by making us good but
simply forgiven.
It is quite a bit more complex than that.
I remember participating in an intergenerational Sunday
school class in which we asserted that God made us good. And there was a man in
the class who was deeply disturbed by that assertion. He called it bad
theology.
The class leader said, but
that’s what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 1. And he said, I know, but we shouldn’t say it; it just
confuses people.
Above all, we don’t want to be confused. We would much
prefer to have certainty.
And so we dig into the “what” questions. What did God
create first? Light. See verse 3.
And if we are really feeling adventurous, we will dip a
toe into the “how” questions. Such as, how was there any light before God
created the sun. The answer we might find is, God is light. See 1 John 1:5.
But the “why” questions – the richest, most meaningful and
edifying questions – we might fail to ask at all.
Very young children have a habit of asking “why.” Again
and again and again. Each response leads to a repetition of the same question:
Why? Until eventually even the most patient adult will answer, “Because I said
so.”
But today I will lean on the words of Jesus when he said
we should become like children, and I will ask the question “why.”
Why did God create this good world? Why did God separate
the light from the dark, the day from the night, the earth from the sky, the
waters from the solid ground? Why did God create so many different species of
animals and fish and birds and plants?
Why are we, in the words of the Psalm, so fearfully and
wonderfully made?
There is an overwhelming amount of diversity in this world
God created. Why?
The problem with the “why” questions is there is often not
one certain answer. But when we start asking the questions, we start seeing many
things that are true. And we can see that all this beautiful difference in the
world is made to work together. Day is in relationship with night, water is in
relationship with earth, humans are in relationship with animals and with other
humans. When we say that God created order out of primordial chaos, we are
saying that God created the potential for fruitful and blessed relationships.
So,
Why did God create the world? Maybe for the intention of
being in relationship with us – all of us.
Why did God create so much diversity? Maybe because this
allows for so much more creativity in the world.
And why did God send the Son, Jesus, into the world to
live and die and defy death? Why did the resurrected Jesus give his disciples a
mission – to go out to all the nations of the earth, bringing the goodness of
Christ to them? Why have we been called to reach beyond borders, to reach
across aisles, across race and creed and even political preferences?
Why have we, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, been
sent, by Jesus, to care for the others whose needs are such that we can hardly
comprehend, whose choices baffle us, and appearance alienate us?
Because, though we are distinct and different in so many
ways, we are the same – beloved children of the Lord, made in God’s very own
image.
Both things can be true. Praise be to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment