Introduction
Our reading today is the first part of the Bible and is a parable - a story containing truth - about how the world was created.
For many years the creation account in Genesis was the centre of much debate between Christians themselves and between non-believers and Christians. How, we were asked, can you believe in a literal creation story where God made the world in just seven days. Such questions, I believe, miss the point about the story. Just as Jesus told parables, so do the writers of Genesis. A parable is a story which contains truth - though it may not be literally true.
So what are the truths we can learn from this account of the creation of the universe? I think we can learn three important truths from this story. First God is there - we can see God in creation. Second, God is there - we can see God in ourselves and in each other and third, God is there - we can know this creating God for ourselves.
God is there - We can see God in creation
The story in Genesis is unique in the ancient world as it sees God create something out of nothing. Other creation myths have a creator fashioning something out of matter which already exists - the writers of Genesis, instead, have God making the universe out of nothing - something which only God can do.
But as we look both at the story and the beauty of the world in which we live we see that the creation tells stories about its creator. One of the things I am starting to realise with some wry amusement is how much I am like my parents - who created me. I am, thankfully, not a perfect replica, or clone of them, but there are lots of details of my creators within me. My expressions, my temperament, something about my likes and dislikes have come from my creators. My brother, who is younger than me and who hasn't see our father since he was 7 years old, has exactly the same mannerisms as my father - the mark of his creator is deep within him. Of course it is more fun to point out to Ian how much alike he is to his mother than it is for him to point out to me how much like my mother I am! But within us all are the marks of our creators - sometimes those marks are good, sometimes they are bad.
We see the same in the world around us. I love going to North Wales and seeing the mountains of Snowdonia. I can't help but see God in the construction of those mountains, in the beauty of the sunlight dancing on them, and in the clouds that engulf them.
The writer of Psalm 8 sums all this up when he writes:
O lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the Heavens….When I consider your Heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars, which you have set in place, what is humanity that you are mindful of us, mortal humans that you care for us?
The writer of this part of Genesis sees creation, before sin entered the world, as giving worship to God. All created things are ceaselessly fulfilling their appointed purpose - and through it giving worship to the creator. He has an almost liturgical refrain in the text "and there was evening and there was morning". The purpose of creation is to give praise to the Creator. Mountains do this by being majestic, animals do this by fulfilling their purpose, plants do this by fulfilling their purpose and humanity does it by fulfilling its purpose to. To worship God is to fulfil our created purpose.
We look at creation and see beauty and order, and we realise that this order and beauty came from God the creator. God is there - we see God in Creation.
God is there - We can see God in ourselves and in each other!
The writer of this part of Genesis asserts that God said: "Let us make humanity in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." This means that there is something about humanity which is made in God's own image - and this image is good.
We don't really know why God uses the plural here. It may be that, as many Christians think, this is proof of the Trinity. God is a person and a person cannot exist and be alone, so maybe the "us" here is referring to the Trinity of Maker, Son and Holy Spirit. Others have suggested it is the Royal "we" that Queens and Kings and Popes used to use to differentiate themselves from normal people. Others think that it is an image of the heavenly court and God is taking counsel amongst the angels and archangels and getting them to assist as God creates humanity. However, the important aspect here is that we are created in God's own image and likeness.
People wonder what this means. Some have thought it means we are, like God, immortal. And it is a truth of our faith that we shall live forever. Others, in more modern times, think that it means we, like God but unlike the animals, have the gift of self-conscious reason. However, whilst both these things might be true, it seems clear from the passage that we are, made to be sovereigns, like God.
God has created the world, and all that dwells therein. And then God creates humanity and gives us charge over the world telling us, "Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth but also subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, etc." The writer of Psalm 8 reflects this again when he says:
You have made humanity a little less than a God,
With glory and honour you have crowned us.
You make us master over all your creatures,
You have put everything at our feet.
But our sovereignty is different from God's. Ours is a delegated sovereignty. We are stewards of the King. In Tolkein's Lord of the Rings which many of us have been watching unfold at the cinema, the final book, the Return of the King, sees the action move to the city of Gondor. In this city there is a throne in the High Citadel for the King of Gondor to rule from. However, in the story, the Kings have, for some reason, died out, and in their place a Steward rules. The steward has the power of the King, but is not the king. He sits on a chair below the throne, he has to answer for his actions to the King - should the king one day return. Tolkien used the image of stewardship to describe the politics of the city of Gondor. The writer of this part of Genesis uses the image of stewardship to show that we are in charge of the earth - as God is in charge of the heavens and the universe, but we have delegated authority. We have to answer to God for how we look after, how we steward the earth.
As stewards, however, we have dignity. God does not delegate stewardship to the animals or the plants, but has made humans to be "little less than a god". We are the summit of God's creation - we came at the end of the created order. This means we are made with a royal image in us and about us. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucifer cannot cope with the dignity and authority given to humanity and so revolts and is cast into the Pit.
We see God in each other, as we are made in God's royal image. Wherever, that royal image is marred by oppression, poverty, disease or cruelty we are marring the image of God. Wherever that royal image is polished and lifted up through freedom, dignity and through the sharing of our resources, we see the image of God burn more brightly.
Sometimes we have trouble seeing the image of God in ourselves or in others. Sometimes we have trouble realising that we are made in the image of God and that image is good. If we do, we need to change our prayer-lives. If we have a problem realising that we are made in the image of God that image is a royal one, not a doormat where people can wipe their feet then I want you to do something for me. Every morning, look in the mirror and say to yourself "I am made in God's image, and that image is good". The more you say it the more you will believe it. God is there - We can see God in ourselves and in each other!
We Can know this creating God for ourselves.
The God who made the heavens and the earth desires to be known by us and to know us as fully as we can be known. This God has, time and time again, made agreements with humanity and, in the person of Jesus, has come to us, become one of us. Today the Church celebrates the festival of the Epiphany when the Wise Men came to worship Jesus. This festival celebrates the first moves God made to reach the Gentiles - reaching beyond the Chosen people of the Jews. God seeks us out, and we can know the God who made the universe for ourselves.
According to the Bible we do not come to know God by constructing rational hypotheses about God; we come to God, as a person, whom we have encountered and whom to trust is to know. If we will not trust God and obey God's will we cannot know God. It is the refusal to trust God's word and to obey the commandments which causes people to be ignorant of God, to doubt God's existence, and to embrace false philosophies and pseudo-scientific theories about the world and our purpose within it. It is so hard to believe said Kierkegaard, because it is so hard to obey.
Prayer
Will you pray with me?
Loving God,
You made the stars in the heavens
and the planets which orbit them.
You made our beautiful world,
the mountains, the trees and the rivers.
You made and continue to energise all the life which teems over our planet.
You made us, Loving God,
as the summit of your creation,
and made us stewards over all creation, over this earth, our fragile home.
Help us to look at your creation and worship you.
Help us to see you in our own creation,
help us to believe that we are truly made in your image,
and that image is good.
Help us to be faithful stewards of our planet.
And help us, Loving God, to know you for ourselves,
To follow your will, to obey your commandments
And to make you real in our lives and in the lives of those we love.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.