Preparing
with Joy for the Paschal Feast
I
The Charge to Moses
and Joshua
Part II of XV
Sunday 4 February
2018
Second Sunday before
Lent
The Story of
Creation
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
In the beginning when
God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and
darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the
face of the waters. Then God said,
"Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God
separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning,
the first day. And God said, "Let
there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from
the waters." So God made the dome
and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were
above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning,
the second day. And God said, "Let
the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry
land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters
that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth put forth
vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that
bear fruit with the seed in it." And
it was so. The earth brought forth
vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing
fruit with the seed in it. And God saw
that it was good. And there was evening
and there was morning, the third day. And
God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day
from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and
years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the
earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights – the greater
light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give
light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate
the light from the darkness. And God saw
that it was good. And there was evening
and there was morning, the fourth day. And
God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let
birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created 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." And there was evening and there was morning,
the fifth day. And God said, "Let
the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping
things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so.
God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of
every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make humankind in
our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all
the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
the earth." So God created
humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he
created them. 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." God said, "See, I have given you every
plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with
seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every
bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that
has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and
indeed, it was very good. And there was
evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work
that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he
had done. So God blessed the seventh day
and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in
creation. These are the generations of
the heavens and the earth when they were created.
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
I love the
Old Testament reading we have heard today.
This reading speaks of the wonder of creation and of the Creator. When I noticed that this reading was coming up
in the time in which we are pondering Old Testament Easter Vigil readings, I
could not help but think of the Story of Creation. The very first chapter of the Scriptures take
us through a week of creation and show God at work bringing all things into
being.
It's a
significant chapter of the Scriptures that has drawn a lot of attention by some
while being dismissed by others. Most of
the contention has to do with the week of creation, specifically the length of
that week. Some among Christians become greatly
disturbed by those who say that all of creation could not have come into being
in 6 literal 24-hour days. Some of them
absolutely insist that is did.
What these
ones fail to remember is that the Story of Creation is Scripture. And what does Scripture say about time? Recall the passage that reads:
"But do
not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
[2 Peter 3:8]
If we believe
that God's Time is so radically different from our own time, there is a freedom
to look at the Story of Creation and see 6 days not as we know them but as God
marks them. These days are chapters in the
unfolding of creation, the first gift of God.
And yet even here, we must realize that the time is rather
insignificant, even when we look at it as God's Time. What really matters in the Story of Creation
is not "When." In fact, from a
perspective of faith, the matters of "How" are also insignificant. What matters in this story of faith is simply
that when we look around this creation in which we live, we are drawn by God to
God who shares with us again and again that God has created us and all that is
around us, seen and unseen.
And how did
God bring all these things into being? The
Scriptures tell us that God the Father spoke the eternal Word of God and
breathed the everlasting breath of God. This
is a profession of faith. The first
chapter of John introduces us to the eternal Word of God; Jesus, God the Son,
who was, who is, and who ever shall be. The
Scriptures use this same word for breath to speak of the Holy Spirit, thereby
showing God the Holy Spirit to be present even before creation and in creation. God the Holy Trinity is the author of
creation. From the perspective of faith,
all that we need to know is that God has brought creation into being. When we press further than this to explore the
"How," we are no longer contemplating faith but science. And for the record, faith and science are not
at odds with one another. Science has no
interest in "Who." And since
God has given us the minds with which to ponder both, each can be embraced by
the Christian.
There are a
couple of things that I want to touch upon briefly. Note here that the Biblical Day looks
different than the day we keep in the world around us. We mark the beginning of the day with
midnight. What does Genesis say?
"And
there was evening, and there was morning, the ... day."
The Biblical
Day begins with the setting of the sun. It
is precisely this fact that causes the liturgical days of the Church to begin
on the evening prior. It is this fact that
explains why the Mass kept in Churches such as our own on Saturday night are a
Sunday Mass, a Mass of the Lord's Day.
It's also
interesting to note where we humans appear in the week of creation. It is the Sixth Day, better known to us as
Friday, on which God created man and woman.
We are literally the last piece of creation. That fact ought to put us
in our place and give us a spirit of humility. It ought to remind us that we are only
stewards of creation who are called to care for creation as the sacred gift of
God, of which we are only a portion of the imaginative work of God.
There is one
more aspect of the Story of Creation that I want to focus on. We shall read this in the midst of the evening
that marks the Resurrection of Our Lord from the tomb in which his lifeless
body was laid as Good Friday gave way to Great Sabbath, the day of Christ's
rest in the tomb and descent among the dead.
As we prepare to celebrate the Lord's Pascha, his Passover from death to
life, we need to remember that the Story of Creation is ongoing. The Law presents the Story of Creation within
seven days of this Creation. The Gospel
introduces us to the New Creation that is brought forth by the Resurrection of
Jesus, God from God, Light from Light, True and Very God from True and Very
God. Indeed, the original Greek of the
New Testament speaks of the Lord's Day of Resurrection as the Eighth Day, a new
day previously unknown.
In the
earliest days and years of the Church, the Great Vigil of Easter went from
sundown to sunrise. Remember that when
we keep the Great Vigil of Easter and the liturgy is a couple of hours in
length. If that feels long, remember
that it could be much longer.
By faith, we
believe the New Day of the New Creation is real, that God is not done with us
or creation. In this remembrance, we
find that we are even now in the evening of that New Day, longing for the light
to come when our faith will be confirmed by sight and no longer by faith. That moment will come when Jesus, risen from
the dead, stands before us at the hour of our death and on the last great day
of this creation to call us to life eternal where sin and death have been defeated
and are no more.
As we enter
into Lent in 10 days, and as we prepare to keep glad Easter, let us prepare
ourselves to greet the coming Son of God, praying passionately that when he appears,
we will be found worthy to enter into eternal life and live with God in the
company of the saints, surrounded by the angels who lead us in our praises of God
that shall never end.
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The Rev’d Timothy
Alleman
Rector
The Church of the
Holy Cross
Preparing
with Joy for the Paschal Feast
III
The Future
Glory of Zion
IV
The Conversion
of Nineveh
V
The Flood
VI
A New Heart
and a New Spirit
VII
Salvation
Offered Freely to All
VIII
Israel’s Deliverance
at the Red Sea
IX
The Valley
of Dry Bones
X
The
Gathering of God’s People
XI
In Praise
of Wisdom
XII
The Gifts
of Wisdom
XIII
The Three
Youths in the Fiery Furnace
XIV
The First
Passover
XV
Abraham’s
Sacrifice of Isaac
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