Meeting God for the First Time

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

 When I went to Seminary they had the new students come to the school a few days early for an orientation period, while this in itself was a introduction of sorts, where we all made judgments about the Seminary and what we expected from our educational time there. It was also a time period full of introductions. We met the faculty and the staff. We became acquainted with the building, with the atmosphere. We learned for the first time about what was expected of us and what we might expect in return. We also had our first introductions to the other students on campus.

After lunch the first day of orientation, I came up from downstairs and came into the area of the school that was known as the “formal lounge.” When I came into the lounge I found a young man sitting on one of the couches reading a book on worship theology written by Saliers. I noticed this, because the book had been instrumental in my undergrad thesis on Christian worship. So I stopped to talk to this young man. Although I had seen this man earlier that day from across the room, I had not yet spoken to him. It was there in the formal lounge over a book on worship theology that I met Mike for the first time and decided that this young man was definitely worth my time. I have not always been as successful in my first impressions I have made, when I have first met someone, but it seems that the ones I made that afternoon were correct. Much of our early friendship was built that day. We became friends because we both had read and like Saliers, we continued to be friends because we found out over time that there was much we in common.

Introductions are important. When we first meet someone we make evaluations about who they are and what they are like and we weigh those evaluations against who we are, what we believe to be important and what we like. In other words when we meet someone for the first time, we usually decide whether we like them and whether they are worth our time in the first few minutes after meeting them. Our first impressions, the first thing we learn about a person, sticks with us. We decide whether or not to pursue continued encounters based on the things we learn at our first meeting.

Our passage this morning is our first encounter with God. This is our first glimpse of “who this God person is anyway.” Who is this God? The one who the ancient Hebrews worshiped? Who is this God? Who sends his son into the world? Who is this God? Who we as Christians praise? This God speaks into the chaos of pre-creation and the whole world comes to order; the lights come on, the waters still, the land rises, the lights separate one from another, the plants grow, fish begin to swim, birds take flight, and creatures begin to creep along the ground. And then in one final act of creation, reaches down in the newly made dust of creation and forms humans.

The first thing this God does, though, is speak, and creation becomes. God speaks and things happen. The waters calm, the lights shine, the seas part and everything that swims in sea, flies through the air, moves along the ground fills the world.  God speaks and the world is. The God we meet in this first encounter is a God who speaks creation into existence. God speaks it and makes it so; speaks and it is so. God speaks, creation happens.  All that God says, is, and becomes. This speaking God we encounter in this passage is a creating God. God creates in God's speaking. 

The creating God of the Hebrews and Christians is a God who speaks. But creation is not the only language God speaks. Not only does God speak creation, but God also speaks and names creation; the basic building blocks of our world. God names the day and the night. God names the sky, the land and the sea. God speaks and creates. God speaks and meaning is given. The Word of God brings light and brings order to that light by separating it from the darkness. God names the darkness night and the light is named day. There was nothing but the chaotic nothing of pre-creation and then there was something and it was ordered, but not only was it ordered, but it had meaning. It had identity, it was day, it was night, it was something, and that something meant something, it had a name. They were not meaningless, nameless somethings that simply existed; they were something; day, night; land, sea. There was chaos and darkness and into the the chaos and darkness the Word of God brings order, meaning, identity. The basic building blocks the natural world not only become, but immediately God gives that something value. God names.

So here we are, we have wandered into the party that is pre-creation and we meet “this guy.” But we find out pretty quickly that is not just “some guy, you know,” this is God and who God is matters and what God says is important. God speaks, and when God speaks things happen. God says something, and it is, it becomes. But this God person does not just speak meaningless things. This One's words have meaning and value. With the very things this One says, not only are things brought into existence, but they become something. The very Word of God gives order, meaning and identity to the world, to which God speaks.

But God does not stop speaking there. Creation, order; meaning and identity are not the only words God knows. God speaks to creation. God sees the light; the land, the sky, the sea; the plants that grow; the Sun, Moon and stars, the creatures of the sea, the air and the land; God sees everything and then declares them one by one “good” and then in the end, sees it all together and stands back like an artist just finishing a painting and says, “This is good, all of it, is good.” It's all good. Each time God looks, all God sees is goodness. God sees it all and it is all good.

This seems like such a small thing to us, of course it is good. Why would God create something that was not good? God created it, of course it is good. But this was something important for the ancient Hebrews to hear. They were surrounded by the voices of the cultures around them, whose gods did not declare creation good. For them the world, and everything upon it, were a were a byproduct of divine conflict. On one hand the world was the mud and yuck that was flung about when two of their gods fought with one another. Or on the other, it was the aftermath of a battle between the god of war and the evil god of chaos, which the god of war won and then split open the carcass of his enemy and laid her out forming the earth and everything up on it from her broken body. Needless to say when creation is a rotting corpse or the muddy battlefield that remains after an epic battle, their gods did not think much of the earth and the creature who walked upon it. What we see here, is that the world, all of creation, is not a byproduct, or a corpse. It was carefully created by God, on purpose, and God did not look upon creation with disdain or dissatisfaction. God declares each part of creation good, and then declares creation as a whole, good.

Our God start speaking and keeps on speaking. When God comes down to God’s final creation, humans, God does not merely speak and we become so. God says to God’s-self, “let us.” Let’s do this. Let’s create something different. Something that stands out against all the rest of what I have created. Let’s make a creature in our own image, let it in some way be like us, let it reflect who we are.  God did not speak us into existence as the light and the land was created. God did not call for the land or the sea to bring us forth, God stops and says to God’s-self, let’s do this. Our creation is different. We are a product of careful consideration about what God wanted to be the climax and the pinnacle of creation. We are the beings that hold God’s image and likeness; we are a reflection of this speaking, creating God. And we like all the rest of creation are declared good. At creation, in the heart of our being, we, like everything else God created are good.

The Word of God speaks creation into existence, gives it meaning and identity and declares it good. The God we meet in creation is a loquacious God, because God is not done speaking. God begins creation by simply speaking. God's word is what brings forth creation and gives it meaning. Once God creates, God stops merely just speaking. As soon as there is something with which to communicate, God begins speaking to. God does not just talk, God communicates with creation. God is a God of relationship, as soon as there is something with which to have a relationship, God is reaching out in the foundational building block of all relationships, communication. God speaks to the land and the sea and the sky. God speaks to the light and the dark. God speaks to the fish of sea, the birds of the air and the creatures of the land. And ultimately God speaks to us, as the beings, who bear God’s image; God reaches to us in relationship from the very beginning. Our God speaks, but God does not just talk to hear God's-self speak. God talks to, and in doing so, is seeking to be in relationship. The God we are meeting here in passages is not only a speaking God, a God of communication, but is also a God of relationship, a God who is continually reaching out beyond God's-self, ultimately reaching out to us. From the beginning God has always wanted relationship, relationship with creation, relationship with the creature of the land, the air and the sea, and finally relationship with us.

Our communicating God has so much to communicate. There is so much God has to say to us. God tells creation and climatically us, that we are good. But God also gives permission, invites creation to be a part of the creating process. God tells the waters to bring forth creatures, calls for the land to bring forth first vegetation and then to bring for animals. God's creation is invited to join God in the very act of creating, “bring forth” God says to the land and to the sea, and together they bring forth fish and birds, all the plants of the earth and all the animals that walk upon it. God tells the land to bring forth animals, to bring forth many different kinds and for them the different kinds to become more numerous, and to multiply and to fill the earth. They are to grow and change and continually become.

Then, when the animals have been created, God speaks directly to the animals and God blesses them and tells them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the sea, and the air and the land. God first says this to all the animals, of the land, of the air, and of the sea, and then blesses humans and says the same thing to humanity. God invites all of creation to continue in the act of creation; to bring forth, to make all the creatures of land and air and sea, and for those creature more and different kinds and for the kinds to multiply, to become and keep on becoming, to fill the land, the sea and the sky.

I think God found joy in creating and joy in the creation, standing back and looking at it all made God happy. “God saw everything he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Creating brought joy to God, it made God smile, and being a god of relationship, wanted others to join in this joy. So God invites the world itself to participate in creation, to join in on the joy, to participate in the happiness, smile. God wants Us to share in what is bringing God joy, God wants us to know what it is to bring something forth, to make something.

God invites us to be creating beings. Be fruitful and multiply, create. Make things; make more of your selves. Whenever we do something and stand back and find joy in what we have done, every time we make something and see that it is beautiful that it is good, we are participating in the joy God is inviting us to participate in. Every time we hold a newborn baby and find joy in her hands, her feet, her eyes, we are joining in the joy of creation, we are catching a glimpse of God in ourselves in what we have done, in what we have created. “I made this!” Are the words of a proud creator. When we find joy, happiness, pride in the good things we make, we are answering the call of God in creation, when God calls for us to “bring forth,” “to be fruitful,” to multiply.” All of it is heeding the words God first spoke to us in creation. 

God want us to be a part of it all, to find joy in what God finds joy, to be made happy by all that makes God happy, to be made to smile in the same way God was made to smile. So our so very communicative relational God invites the land, the sea, the animals and US to bring forth to participate in creation. To be a apart of the continuing becoming that is the ongoing, growing and changing, multiplying world all around us, to participate in the ongoing-ness, to grow, to nurture growth, to change and produce change to multiply and fill the world with the joy of every growing, changing producing creation.

So here we have our introduction to God and we find that we have a speaking God. The very Word of God is what brings all creation into being. Our God speaks and things happen, they are, they become. The Word of God is powerful, but not only is it powerful but it is meaningful. It brings meaning to all of which and to whom it speaks. The Word of God names creation, names the land, the sea and the sky, gives order, meaning and identity to our world. And our God invites us, and the world around us to join God in the creative process, to bring forth, to be fruitful, to fill, to multiply, and to add to this growing, changing, and productive world. God invites us to join in the joy of creation. Our God is relational, continually reaching out to us, communicating with us desiring to be in relationship with us. The God we meet here at the beginning is a talkative God, who begins speaking and does not seem to stop, but unlike that guy at the party who we just can’t seem to get away from, because he just keeps talking and talking, everything God has to say is worth hearing, it has meaning and brings meaning to the world around. The words God say invite us to join God in what brings God joy and are words that affirm out goodness and continue show us that we have value and meaning in this world. They tell who we are, they tell to whom we belong and they tell us who we look like. Every word that comes out of the mouth of God is worth listen to and should be heard.