This morning, I would like to spend most of my time on the creation stories. But my point, which I am telling you right now, is rather simple. And this is something I would love for you take away from this time. That is, God’s will for all of God’s creatures is all about how to be together, how to live together in order to flourish together as God’s image bearers. And Jesus for us Christians is the one who is the way to live that very life of love.
There are two similar but different creation stories In the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. Very simply put, the first creation story tells us the six days of God’s creating work and the seventh day of God’s rest. There’s a recurring phrase each time God creates something on each day. Seven times total in the first chapter. Can you guess what it is? It is, “God saw that it was good.” (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31) It’s almost like God sees what is created by God’s own hands and reflects on them with the ‘long loving look.’ Whatever God creates is good in God’s very own eyes. And of course, we humans are included in these creatures God felt and considered ‘good.’ There’s another interesting thing about God’s creating work. There are three times that God actually blesses some of the creatures. This time, the author of this first chapter in the Book of Genesis doesn’t say that God blesses what is created each time. God only does it three times for certain creatures. The first ones are “the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind.” And “God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’” (Gen 1:21-22) The second one is humankind in God’s very own image, male and female. Just like all the other animals, God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Gen 1:28). The last time God blesses is the seventh day. “God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” (Gen 2:3) Everything God creates and sustains its existence is good in its very nature. And out of all these good things, animals and humans are blessed in the eyes of the Book of Genesis. So I want all of us to look around. Look at others as well as your companion animals. Tell them, “You are good. You are blessed.” Also tell yourselves, “I am good. I am blessed.” This is not some kind of trick to make us feel good about ourselves or to produce more dopamine in our brain. This is a biblical view on God’s creatures. “God saw that it was good.” Today, as you can see, we are celebrating the Feast of St Francis by having our companion animals blessed. So we do this blessing of the animals in remembering St Francis who is the patron saint of animals. But this practice of blessing them does have a biblical ground. God blessed them before we bless them. And St Francis has been a great example of blessing God’s creation. In a way, we’re not only imitating St Francis but really God’s work of blessing God’s creation. We’re participating in God’s mission of blessing all that God creates and sustains. The other creation story from the second chapter of Genesis says something different about God’s creation of a human being. It’s more about how God created a person. It says, “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” There’s no mention of a man being good in God’s eyes. But as we heard from the first lesson this morning, there’s something not good about it. Let’s hear this again. “The Lord God said, ‘It is no good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’” Here, God sees loneliness that every person feels. That aloneness is not good. Which means that yes, all creatures are good. But when they’re left alone, it is not good. This is not solitude, but isolation and aloneness where one feels lonely, if not abandoned. And to make this not-good condition good, God decides to make him a helper as his partner. This translation, ‘a helper as his partner’ is to be understood more as “someone who is matching or corresponding to him,” not merely a helper or an assistant. (Gordon Wenham, Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, p. 40) What’s quite interesting about God’s next move to solve this issue of human loneliness is that God creates animals first and completes God’s project of humanity with creating a woman. I perceive this as that the man first has to learn to live together with other animals as he names every single one of them. This naming act is his commitment to have a relationship with each creature of God. As we name our companion animals, that dog or cat or fish is not just another dog or cat or fish, but someone dear to our hearts who is so loving and compassionate to us. It’s like the man has to be trained first in taking care of things by naming all the animals before God gifts him with the woman who would fulfill that void of loneliness and complete him as the image of God. And now, looking at the current events of our country, particularly what’s happening with the recent nomination and confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice, we face our human sinfulness once again. Rather than working hard to live together, respect one another, and take care of one another from harm, we somehow un-name our neighbors, especially those who have been suffered and harmed. Our country, particularly those in power mute the voices of those who have been assaulted sexually, verbally, and spiritually. This sinful action creates something that is not good in God’s eyes. Loneliness. Isolation. Aloneness. Abandonment. This may be what those in power are creating and those who are suffering from the abuse of that power are going through. But as Christians, we have work to do. Jesus shows us the way by becoming the way himself. In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus forbids divorce, not to set a marriage policy for all Christians but to protect the vulnerable who were women in this context of the gospel account. In his time, women were just like nowadays abused and abandoned by their husbands, if not worse. Wives were considered as men’s property. What Jesus teaches is that men shouldn’t abuse their wives by abandoning and divorcing their wives. Don’t abuse her. Don’t hit her. Don’t cheat on her. Don’t abandon her. Instead, be faithful to the one who you’re responsible for. Treat her with respect. Thank her. Love her wholeheartedly as your own. Jesus’s compassionate focus on those who are socially most vulnerable extends to children. Children’s social status wasn't great either. Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” What Jesus shows is that we can only enter the kingdom of God here and now when we are in solidarity with the most vulnerable, weak, poor, and oppressed. You want to belong to the kingdom of God? Receive the most vulnerable. Listen to their crying voices. Join their suffering. As you do that, it is not just for the sake of joining but also for their flourishing, doing your best to become authentically who they are by becoming authentic who you are yourself. Our Christian duty is then to remind the world what God said. God saw that it was good. And God blessed all the living creatures, particularly animals in which humans are included. Wherever loneliness, aloneness is being created by the sinful hands of this world, we are to go proclaim what God said about the world that it was good, the good news! We are to bless them. And in doing so, we are to be together with them, to live together in love, and to flourish together. May the Holy Spirit remind us once again what we prayed together this morning: “As you take care of us, so also we ask your help that we might take care of those who trust us to look after them. By doing this, we share in your own love for all creation.” (Collect for St Francis) In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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