Luke 24:44-53
Genesis 1
As many of you know, my first career was in publishing. So to go back to my roots, we are starting today with a writing lesson. Let’s talk about verbs.
A good verb goes a long way. If you have a good verb, the perfect verb for its context, you don’t need modifiers. Let’s use the word “walk” as an example. He walked out of the office. Doesn’t tell us much, does it? Did he walk slowly, quickly, dejectedly, boldly, shamefully? In terms of storytelling, “walk” is not a strong verb. We needs adverbs to describe how he walked.
Consider, instead, these verbs: He stormed out of the office. He sauntered out of the office. He strutted out of the office. You don’t need adverbs with words like that. It would be redundant to say, “He stormed out of the office angrily.” How else would one storm? Nouns may be the building block of the sentence, but we wouldn’t build much without a good verb. Some of the biblical writers exhibit a great use of verbs—especially the psalmist. Devour my enemies, Confound their plans, Rebuke the nations.
Even more important is the issue of verb tense—past, present, future, etc. Take, for example, Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. Moses argued with God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God replied, “I am who I am.” If you were to look this up in a study Bible, you would see a little letter and a footnote below. The footnote will most likely read something like “Or I will be what I will be.” The scholars who translated the Bible use the little footnote to tell us that the Hebrew word doesn’t translate clearly and completely. It’s not simple present tense—“I am, right now, who I am.” It also speaks to the future: “I will be who I will be.” We must be certain that we don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s all in the past. God will be who God will be. And we can’t stop that.
A similar thing happens in Genesis 1. The New Revised Standard Version reads: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void . . .” etc. But again, there is a footnote, and it says: “Or when God began to create.” It may sound subtle, but there is a huge difference here. Did God create—past tense, over and done—or is God creating—still, now, today?
I believe it is the latter. Artists can’t just stop creating art. That’s part of what it means to be an artist—you create whether you get paid for it or not; you create because you have to create. I believe that the power who brought forth dinosaurs and daffodils, ravens and rhinoceroses, could not be content without continuing the work.
A few months ago I used in our communion liturgy a piece called “A New Creed” from the United Church of Canada. It proclaims, “We are not alone; we live in God’s world. We believe in God: who has created and is creating.” Our own United Church of Christ Statement of Faith says, “You call the worlds into being, create persons in your own image.” These are present-tense verbs. God’s work of creation is not over and done. In fact, what we think of as the Creation, the creation of the world, may only be God’s warm-up act.
God is still trying to create . . . in spite of our interference.
God is still trying to create a beautiful, life-sustaining planet. But we gobble up land, guzzle our natural resources, gorge on disposables, and ignore the warnings while the ice melts and the storms rage and the planet weeps.
God is trying to create a world of ecological justice. But the rich make the rules and the poor get the landfills; the politicians spout the platitudes and the powerless have no voice.
God is trying to create a world of economic justice. But kids go hungry and senior citizens can’t afford their medicines and immigrants are denied assistance because they didn’t wait years for a visa before pursuing a better life.
God is trying to create a world of peaceful coexistence. But we beat out plowshares into swords
and jump at war as the easiest solution rather than admitting that there is no easy solution so we better get to work.
God is trying to create a world of mercy, but we demand a world of judgment. God is trying to create a world of forgiveness, but we demand the right of vengeance. God is trying to create a world of acceptance and inclusivity, but we still don’t trust anyone who doesn’t look like us.
God is trying to create. And will you help, or will you stand in the way?
In the book Does God Have a Big Toe? author Marc Gellman tells the story of creation:
Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels, and a huge swirling blob of rocks and water with no place to go. The angels asked God, “Why don’t you clean up this mess?”
So God collected rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in clumps and said, “Some of these clumps of rocks will be planets, and some will be stars . . . and some of these rocks will be just rocks.” Then God collected water from the huge swirling glob and put it together in pools of water and said, “Some of these pools of water will be oceans and some will become clouds . . . and some of this water will be just water.” Then the angels said, “Well, God, it’s neater now. But is it finished?” And God answered, “Nope.”
On some of the rocks God placed growing things and creeping things and things that only God knows what they are. And when God had done all this, the angels asked God, “Is the world finished now?” And God answered, “Nope.”
God made a man and a woman from some of the water and dust and said to them, “I am tired now. Please finish up the world for me. Really, it’s almost done.”
But the man and woman said, “We can’t finish the world alone. You have the plans, and we are too little.”
“You are big enough,” God answered them. “But I agree to this. If you keep trying to finish the world, I will be your partner.”
The man and the woman asked, “What’s a partner?”
And God answered, “A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone. If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up because your partner is depending on you. On the days you think I am not doing anything and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days, we are still partners, and we must not stop trying to finish the world. That’s the deal.” And they all agreed to that deal.
Then the angels asked God, “Is the world finished yet?” And God answered, “I don’t know. Go ask my partners.”
We are partners in the creation. To be created in the image of God means to be a creator . . . not to look like God or to act like God, but to create like God: to create worlds of mercy and compassion, to create visions of a peaceable kingdom and a bold tomorrow, to create the children who will live freely in the tomorrow we create, to create art and music but also to craft solutions to the problems we have created.
Just as the personal is political, so the global is individual . . . meaning that the world God is trying to create is not just around us, but also within us.
For decades now, God has been trying to create a world in me: a world where I believe in my own calling, my own power to choose, without looking to others for validation. Oh, I’m much better than I used to be! But the past few days I’ve been on pins and needles waiting for my parents’ approval on a decision I recently made . . . approval I may never get. This is a problem because, first of all: I prayed a long time about this, and I know it’s the right decision. And second: I’m fifty years old! I’m pretty sure that being the child of Vernon and Jan should be trumped by the fact that I am a child of God . . . a God who wants to build a world of faith within me.
We are partners with God, co-creators with God. Is the world finished yet? No, it most certainly is not. Are we finished yet? No, we most certainly are not. On both counts, we have work to do. But remember: “We are not alone; we live in God’s world. We believe in God: who has created and is creating.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.