The Story of the People of God: Part III - The Nature of Creation

1. PRAYER
O God, through dreams and visions,
you broaden the horizon and hope
of your people, that they may discover
the meaning of your covenant,
even in the midst of trial and exile.
May all people come to know and believe
in your word that they may joyfully respond
to your call and share in your promises.
Amen.

2. the CHURCH calendar: SUNDAY, 6.25.23

3. The Story of the People of God: Part III
the NATURE of CREATION

7. An assumption presumed
to be true without any assessment
of the facts or without further proof;
a Latin term that refers to
a theoretical deduction made
on a subject without a precise
and detailed observation of
the objective elements at hand
A PRIORIASSUMPTION

8. The only reason to look for
evidence of a young earth,
a global flood, or dinosaurs
coexisting with humanity,
is an a priori assumption
that the Bible is meant
to be read literally, and a
belief that it must speak to
matters of history and science in
the way modern readers can grasp
MY PERSONALCONVICTION

10. The Bible’s message must not be
subjected to cultural imperialism.
Its message transcends the culture
in which it originated, but the form
in which the message was imbedded
was fully permeated by the ancient
culture. This was God’s design,
and we ignore it at our peril.

11. People in the ancient world believed
that something existed, not by virtue
of its material properties, but by…
naming, separating and assigning
functions and roles in an ordered
system…the actual creative act
(bara) is to assign something its
functional role in the ordered system.
This is what brings
it into existence.

12. 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.
GENESIS 1:1-5

13. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time

14. 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.
GENESIS 1:6-8

15. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time
Day 2: Basis for weather

16. 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…the earth
brought forth vegetation…the third day.
GENESIS 1:9-13

17. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time
Day 2: Basis for weather
Day 3: Basis for food

18. As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, FOOD
cold and heat, summer and winter, WEATHER
day and night TIME
will never cease.
GENESIS 8:22 (post-flood)

19. 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…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…And there was
evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
GENESIS 1:14-19

20. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time
Day 2: Basis for weather
Day 3: Basis for food
Day 4: Signs/religious calendar

21. 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…God blessed them,
saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters
in the seas, and let birds multiply
on the earth…the fifth day.
GENESIS 1:20-23

22. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time
Day 2: Basis for weather
Day 3: Basis for food
Day 4: Signs/religious calendar
Day 5: Filling cosmic space

23. 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…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 said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and
every living thing upon the earth.’
GENESIS 1:24-30

24. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time
Day 2: Basis for weather
Day 3: Basis for food
Day 4: Signs/religious calendar
Day 5: Filling cosmic space
Day 6: Filling terrestrial space

25. 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.
GENESIS 2:1-3

26. CREATION INGENESIS 1
Day 1: Basis for time
Day 2: Basis for weather
Day 3: Basis for food
Day 4: Signs/religious calendar
Day 5: Filling cosmic space
Day 6: Filling terrestrial space
Day 7: God taking residence

27. After creation, God takes up
God’s rest and rules from God’s
residence. Rest involves engagement
in the normal
activities that can be carried out when
stability has been achieved… When
God rests in the temple it means God
is taking command,
is mounting God’s throne to assume
God’s rightful place and proper role.

28. COSMOS/TEMPLE
Garden of Eden: sacred space
Cosmos: temple for God
Temple: microcosm(os)
Days 1-6: Inauguration of temple
Day 7: God indwells the temple
(it doesn’t exist w/out that!)

29. By naming the functions
and installing the functionaries,
and finally by God entering the
resting place, the temple comes
into existence – it is created in its
inauguration, through a seven
day dedication ceremony.
(NOTE: this is the best way
to understand “yom” or “day”)

30. - The New Testament is
more interested in Adam/Eve
as human archetypes vs.
biological progenitors

31. Archetypal Adam and Eve refers to
their representation of all humanity.
(In the New Testament) the Adam
of Paul is the archetypal (and not
biological) Adam. Paul’s gospel does
not require an “historical” Adam, but:
- Adam/Eve made in God’s image
- Who were commanded not to eat…
- Who chose to disobey
- Were thus heading towards death
- Passed that on to all human beings

32. - The New Testament is
more interested in Adam/Eve
as human archetypes vs.
biological progenitors
- The serpent would have been
viewed as a ”chaos creature”
from a non-ordered realm,
actively promoting disorder

33. - The New Testament is
more interested in Adam/Eve
as human archetypes vs.
biological progenitors
- The serpent would have been
viewed as a ”chaos creature”
from a non-ordered realm,
actively promoting disorder
- Jesus = the key to restoring order!

34. 1. Taking the Bible seriously
doesn’t mean reading it literally
REMINDERS

35. 1. Taking the Bible seriously
doesn’t mean reading it literally
2. Reading the creation story literally
is not a way of taking it seriously
REMINDERS

36. 1. Taking the Bible seriously
doesn’t mean reading it literally
2. Reading the creation story literally
is not a way of taking it seriously
3. Creation by evolution ≠ no God
REMINDERS

37. 1. Taking the Bible seriously
doesn’t mean reading it literally
2. Reading the creation story literally
is not a way of taking it seriously
3. Creation by evolution ≠ no God
4. Accepting the reality of evolution
doesn’t make you unfaithful
REMINDERS

38. QUESTIONS
ONANYTHING
GENESIS RELATED?
EITHER DIRECTLYOR
TANGENTIALLY?

39. A Prayer For The People of God
O God, we praise you
for your abiding guidance,
through the spirit of your son,
our teacher and deliverer, to model
the way of love for the whole universe.
Help us, Lord, to offer our lives and our prayers,
on behalf of our family, friends, neighbors,
and on behalf of your creation
and our fellow creatures. Amen.