Creation.
In the vocabulary of faith, we talk not so much about “nature” or “the environment;” rather we speak of “creation.” The very word reminds us: all that is is created by the creativity and will of the Creator.
The first two chapters of the first book of the Bible gives us two separate creation stories. The ancients purposely arranged these two quite different stories side by side. There is theological purpose in the ways they tell us stories of beginnings. Each story tells us something significant about both the Creator and creation.
But ancient Israel didn’t only tell the story of creation in these opening chapters of Genesis. Look at their hymnal: the Psalms. See how they sing the story again in yet other ways, in praise and poetry. See also how they speak of creation and Creator in powerful metaphor in the Wisdom literature, in the book of Proverbs.
Fast forward and leap across the centuries to the New Testament, especially the Gospel of John. Again it is no coincidence that John begins with the words: “In the beginning…” His pondering of the mystery of creation is profoundly theological and christological. John re-thinks the meaning of Creator and creation in light of the meaning of the Christ. Let John’s opening Prologue startle you as his original readers must have been startled: the Creator became for awhile a flesh and blood part of the creation.
The letter to the Colossians is soaring in its beautiful descriptions of the Cosmic Christ who is Source and Goal of all creation; the Christ who holds all things together.
This week’s readings are some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them too.
Here is this week’s “As You Read” blog…
https://livinginthestory.com/2016/01/as-you-read-week-two-creation/
Here is Charlotte’s LiTS blog for week 2: The Creating Christ
https://livinginthestory.com/2015/01/158/
