Scripture: Genesis 1: 1 – 2:3
Sermon: Sighing for Eden
Topics: Creation, Eden
Preached: September 26, 2004 am Woodlawn CRC
Rev. Mike Abma
Genesis 1:1 – 2:3
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the 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. 3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ 7So 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. 8God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 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. 10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11Then 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 it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 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, 15and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. 16God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth,18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 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.’ 21So 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. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 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.’ And it was so. 25God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ 29God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. 31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.2And 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. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
INTRODCTION
During the second World War, C.S. Lewis wrote a series of articles for the Guardian newspaper. These articles were in the form of letters of advice from one senior demon to his nephew, a junior demon. The senior demon was named Screwtape, the junior demon, Wormwood. The junior demon had a job. He was assigned to keep a certain young man from falling into the Enemy’s hands – the Enemy being God. In letter number 13, Uncle Screwtape is quite upset. His nephew has blundered badly and has let his subject slip through his fingers. His nephew has made two big mistakes: first, he allowed his subject to read a book that he really enjoyed; second, he allowed his subject to take a walk through the countryside to an old mill all by himself. Again, the problem was that this young man really liked the countryside and really enjoyed the walk.
Uncle Screwtape literally blasts his nephew for allowing this young man to experience these two real and positive Pleasures.[1] It was always better keeping your subjects thinking everything was dull, dumb, and boring, because real Pleasures were the way the Enemy gets people to look in his direction.
And isn’t that true.
We wake up in the early morning and take a walk as the sun just begins to climb into the eastern sky. We see a squirrel struggling with a walnut the size of small apple in its mouth. We hear the rustle of wind in the trees. We look up and see the tops of the trees changing color. We breathe deep and suck in the cool, crisp morning air. We are intoxicated by the beauty of the world that we are taking in with wide-open-eyes, wide-open-ears, and wide-open nostrils.
We are awake, alert, and in awe.
Gratitude is the spontaneous response to all of this — to all of this life.
Something wells up inside of us that simply wants to say Thank You.
More often than not, the thank you is directed at God, even by those who aren’t sure they believe in Him.
Eugene Peterson tells of one of his parishioners, a young man named John Bergman. Johnny and his young wife began as active members of their church. But then the weeds of this world began to choke their young faith. They became too busy to worship. They came less and less frequently, until they stopped coming altogether. Two years went by.
Then suddenly Johnny was in church and Peterson was surprised to see him.
“Hey Johnny, What brings you to worship today.”
“I woke this morning feeling so good, so blessed, so created, I just had to say thank you. And this was the only place I could think to say it rightly, adequately.”[2]
GENESIS 1 – the CREATION CREED
Throughout history, people have been trying to find the right place and the right person to say thank you.
The Persians and Egyptians thought the Sun should receive our thanks.
The Babylonians thought the moon and stars should.
The Canaanites thought it should be rain and fertility.
Some even thought thanks should go to the sea monsters of the deep.
Most of the civilizations aimed their thank you’s at something they could see, or hear, or touch.
Genesis 1 was written to directly challenge all these misplaced devotions.
It was written to proclaim that there are only two realities: the Creator and the Creation.
It was written to proclaim that the one true God is the Creator and that all other gods
are simply over-glorified parts of Creation.
That is where we start – with simply believing in God, the Creator, maker of heaven and earth. That is something we need to be reminded of even today.
That God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible is not something we figure out.
It is not a mystery that we solve.
It is not an argument we win by deductive or inductive reasoning.
No, the only way we come to understand that the universe was formed by God is by faith. A faith which accepts that what is seen was made from that which is unseen (Hebrews 11:3).
Creation, then, is a creed not a conclusion.
And that is how we must read and accept Genesis 1.
It is not an argument, not even a chronological description, but rather a Creed, a Confession of Faith.
Like all good creeds, it has a solid structure.
It begins with a preamble, a before and after.
Before there was only watery darkness, a formless chaos.
And chaos is always threatening to swallow Creation, even now.
But then God’s breath, his word, brings forth Creation.
The Creation Creed then has a very clear 7-fold structure:
It is set within 7 days;
7 times its says, “And God made”
7 times it says, “And it was so”
7 times it says, “And God saw that it was good.”
But I also want to mention that within this Creation Creed there is also key place where 10 is used instead of 7.
There are 10 utterances of God.
There are 10 times where we read, “And God said…”
The number 10 is important in these first 11 chapters of Genesis.
There are 10 utterances of God that bring forth Creation.
There are 10 generations from Adam that bring forth Noah.
There are 10 generations from Noah that bring forth Abraham.
Genesis is about bringing into being the universe.
But even more so, it is about bringing into being God’s people.
The HOW of Creation is also amazingly portrayed in the Creed.
I’m one of these people who always gets what was created when mixed up.
But now, I think I’ve got it:
you simply have to remember there are two sets of three:
The first three days proclaim how God made space for his Creation.
Day 1 has God separating light from darkness.
Day 2 has God separate the waters above from the waters below, making a space in the
middle.
Day 3 has God separating the sea from the dry ground.
The next three days proclaim how he fills that space with Light and Life.
Day 4 The spaces of day and night are filled with lights –
the sun for the day and the
moon and stars for the night;
the words are actually greater and lesser lights
because the actual words for sun, moon and stars would have been
confused with deities.
Day 5 The spaces of the air and the water are filled with birds and fish.
Day 6 is God’s busiest day.
Day 6 is filled with 4 utterances of God.
Four times we read, And God said.
The dry land is filled with every kind of creature.
And then comes the crescendo of Creation.
God creates humankind in his image, male and female.
Verse 27 literally reads:
So God created Man in his image,
In the image of God he created him;
Male and female he created them.
The wording of Verse 27 is so repetitive, so measured, so metered,
it reads like a love poem.
And that is the point. There is an intimacy here.
God is clearly pouring his delight and desire into these creatures made
in his own image.
But delight and desire aren’t only aimed at humankind.
At the end of Day 6 God looks at all that he had made,
and it was all very good.
By day 7, God simply takes the day off to enjoy everything he had accomplished, to delight in everything he had made.
THEATRE OF GOD’S GLORY
John Calvin describes creation as a theatre of God’s glory.
The heavens, the earth, the sea, the dry land, the sun and moon and stars,
The fish and the birds,
The cattle in the fields and the trees in the forests,
They all are part of this theatre of glory.
They are all part of the chorus that praises God day and night.
And, God the Creator, is the central figure upon this stage,
arrayed in robes of light and canopies of space.
But God’s delight in Creation is only exceeded by his desire for it.
He desires a relationship, an intimacy, a closeness, a partnership —
he desires to be as close to us, the crown of his creation,
as a husband is to his wife,
Each week the Religion Section of the Grand Rapids Press highlights someone’s spiritual journey. One of the things mentioned is their place of worship. Usually a church is mentioned, but if it isn’t a church what is it? Well, for most people it is a walk in the woods or along the beach or beside a mountain. Why these places? Because these are places where desire is stirred up in us. Whether we realize it or not, Creation is literally praising God and inviting us to join in. No wonder the Belgic Confession calls this Creation a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God — his eternal power, his divinity, and, if I might add, his love.
Even the staid John Calvin could be swept away by this yearning:
We see, indeed, the world with our eyes,
We touch innumerable kinds of God’s work with our hands,
We inhale the sweet and pleasant fragrance of herbs and flowers,
We enjoy boundless benefits;
But in those very things of which we attain some knowledge,
There dwells such an immensity of divine power, goodness, and wisdom,
As absorbs all our senses. (Commentary Genesis, 23:5,6)
We respond to God’s yearning for us with a yearning of our own.
We sigh for Eden.
We see glimmers of the beauty and glory of God, and we yearn for more.
This is the deepest impulse that drives a Christian.
This yearning, this sighing.
We see glimmers of the beauty and glory of God in this theatre of Creation.
It is a grand display of God’s glory.
But it is not God’s grandest display.
Later, the Creator-made-Creature, walks onto the stage himself:
he has taken off his robe of light and his canopy of space,
and put on the brokenness and pain of the world;
he is hoisted upon a cross – the world goes dark,
and it seems as if chaos is making its comeback.
But here, in this moment,
in this utter act of humility to save what he has made,
the Creator’s love is made plain,
his desire for us is make naked.
Until we see God’s glory in the cross,
we will never fully see it in his Creation.
For the cross leaves us
in speechless awe, smitten by the depths of God’s love.
The cross leaves us
with hearts beating hard with hope
for the day when all heaven and earth,
and every tribe, nation and tongue,
are bathed in God’s glory
and sing with one voice his praise.
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