Genesis 1 in the Message Bible

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning— Day One.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature.

He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!

Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.” God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.

When I get complemented, it is usually for one of two things. The first thing that I get complimented for, obviously, is my fashion sense. Check out these shoes.

The other thing for which I get complemented more than anything else is my perceived open mindedness and non-judgmental attitude. I don’t know that it holds true, but it is a compliment that I have been getting since I was very young in the ministry. And it is fair to say that It is not only said to me as a compliment, but as a criticism as well.

My projection of open mindedness grows out of my understanding of grace and acceptance that is at the heart of my understanding of God. If I am loved by God, in my ridiculousness, then surely everybody is loved and accepted and graced by the Creator and therefore I should give folks around me a break.

I think the other piece at work in my perceived open mindedness and non-judgementalism was taught to me in the very early days of faith, actually even before faith took root.

My grandpa Polly was as Baptist as Baptist could be, a Deacon, a leader at the church, there every time the doors were open.

When I was a teenager, he and I would ride around Frankfort in his car and - have conversations about life.

I had some pretty bizarre ideas that I would throw out to him, (Maybe hoping to put him on the spot), I might spout the most recent philosophical pondering of Marc Bolan of T Rex or new theological concepts I was getting from reading the back cover of Jethro Tull‘s aqualung album, or whatever.

These ideas would’ve been ridiculous to Polly. But when I would talk to him he would never scold me or tell me I was stupid or tell me I was wrong, he would nod his head as I spoke, and then ask questions. I didn’t realize it at the time, but invariably I would talk myself out of the very philosophical arguments I was making. But it all happened as he smiled and nodded and never once got all Judgy.

The other major influence in my development came on the Sunday I went forward in church as a 15-year-old. I’d become a Christian on Friday night, and went to church with my mom on Sunday morning.

When the pastor, my pastor, Darryl Paris, gave the invitation, I stepped out of the pew and walked to the front of the sanctuary to profess my faith.

After the service Darryl and I went down to his office, and there he did the typical pastoral stuff as he led me through campus crusade’s four spiritual laws and talked about what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

He asked me if I had any questions. I found myself saying, “You know. I think evolution is a real thing and I know a lot of church folks condemn the idea of it. Can I be Christian and believe in evolution?

I honestly don’t even know where that question came from, Evolution was not a make-it or break-it core value to me, but still, I found myself asking whether my acceptance of evolution would violate my new found faith. Maybe I was just testing him?

Darryl looked at me, smiled, and asked “why would believing in evolution keep you from being a Christian?” Which led to a deeper discussion about faith and the ability to think for oneself.

And that conversation, 47 years ago, at the very beginning of my walk of faith, freed me to think for myself, and also allowed me to see that other people should be able to think, to explore, to question without judgement or condemnation.

And beyond that, maybe because of that conversation with Darrell, I am one of those people who believe that there is not a built in adversarial relationship between science and faith. I don’t believe that science proclaims alternative truths that I must reject so that I can hold onto my Christianity, but rather I believe that science and Faith are two ways of looking at the same realities, with different eyes, that compliment and challenge each other.

As a person of faith, I believe in the connectedness of human beings one to another and in a shared ancestry. And in science, through process of evolution, it is confirmed that the connectivity is a reality. Which then, as a person of faith leads me to reject notions of racism, and bigotry of all sorts because we are in this together.

When science says that our planet is undergoing climate change and that human beings play a significant role in that change, as a person of faith I recognize that I have a responsibility to this planet as one who believes Paul’s words that creation itself is groaning for redemption.

Further, if I take seriously Jesus’ words about treating others the way I want to be treated, I realize that how my generation leaves the created world to those who follow us is just as important as how I treat others who are around me right now As our good friend, the poet Wendell Berry has said, “Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”

When science tells me that the best way to deal with a contagious virus that has in five months seen the Infection of 6 1/2 million people worldwide with 300,000 deaths, with almost a third of those infections and deaths in the United States is to practice social distancing and to wear a face covering and to wash my stinking hands, then as a person of faith who believes that I am called to love my neighbor as myself, do that- as an act of love.

Forgive my rant, but the popular anti-science rhetoric of the contemporary church drives me a bit batty.

As a person of faith, I understand that God is creator of all and that his creation is complex and beautiful. And then science affirms the depths of that complexity and the height of that beauty.

And when I read that the universe began 13.8 billion years ago as a speck and came into being through a rapid expansion (like a balloon) known as big bang, as a person of faith I have no problem accepting this scientific explanation knowing that at the beginning of that expansion (and permeating throughout that expansion) is God.

And so I don’t read the first few chapters of the book of Genesis as a refutation of the scientific, rather I read these verses as a beautifully majestic piece of storytelling, told in the simplest way to allow people to know that God is creator and that God is creating. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And it was good!”

The biblical account affirms the connectedness of all humanity and all creation.

So what does all this have to do with living in a COVID-19 saturated world that just now seems to be on the brink of a breakthrough in facing the inherent racism that is so ingrained not only in our country but around the world?

For people of faith,

and for people of science,

and for people who think,

and for people who care,

there is an understanding that we are all connected and so, when I treat my brother or sister,

regardless of

their skin color,

their nationality,

the language they speak,

the the gender with which they identify,

the person they love,

or how they pray

with respect and kindness and look out for their well-being, and strive for fairness and justice for them as well as myself, I am in fact being faithful- to God, to science, to common sense.

If religion and science and common sense teach us anything, it is that it makes sense for us to be interested in how others are doing, because we are all in this together, bound by the reality that we are all God’s children!

Amen.

Prayer and Response

How Long O Lord?

How long must those we love suffer through health problems without healing?

How long must the lonely be lonely, the hurting hurt, and the broken struggle?

How long before there is relief for those most vulnerable to poverty, disease and violence?

How long O Lord?

Listen to our prayer.

How long before justice comes to those who are downtrodden and left behind?

How long before the disgrace of racism is revealed to be an evil that cannot stand?

How long O Lord?

Listen to our prayer.

How long until all our brothers and sisters can breathe the fresh air of equality and fairness?

How long until our mothers and fathers can breathe without fear of catching a virus?

How long until face coverings can be hidden in the drawer, and our hands are no longer chapped from hand sanitizer?

How long O Lord?

Listen to our prayer.

How long until the dream is fulfilled that people are judged, not by the color of their skin, or by who they love, or by the amount in their check book, or by how they pray, but by the content of their character and by their status as beloved children of God?

How long O Lord?

Listen to our prayer.

How long before your Kingdom breaks in fully,

where grace and acceptance rule,

where love is currency,

where kindness is vocation?

How Long O Lord?

Listen to our prayer.

Forgive us for impatience, for yearning, for wanting it to be all alright in this moment, and give us courage stand tall, stay masked, speak truth, wash our hands, strive forward and give ourselves in the service of others.

Amen.