What Will You Create?

Genesis 1:1-5, John 1:1-5

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

January 2. 2011

Today is the day we look at creation and at how God created the heavens and the earth by the power of God’s word.  We are also going to look at what Jesus has created for us, and at what we might be able to create out of the circumstances and the materials we have in our lives today. 

First let’s look at the opening verses of Genesis.  At the start of everything, God created, God made, God carved form out of formlessness.  God made something where nothing had been.  Whenever we think about God, we need to remember that the first thing we know about God is that God is creative.  God is a creative force.  We also know from observation that creation continually recreates itself.  Everything around us is caused by something else.  Creation creates more creation.  Everything in the world makes more of everything else.  This means that God is in the business of continually creating and recreating what has been made.  (See Ecclesiastes 3:15) 

The scriptures tell us that God made a physical universe filled with all the stuff, all the objects and materials we can see and touch and feel.  God also made a spiritual world, called “the heavens,” which we can’t perceive with our eyes or ears, but which is the foundation of eternity.  The physical world, the world of earth is only a temporary set of conditions.  It is constantly changing into something else.  The spiritual world exists in a different relationship to time, and so it is eternal.  The spiritual world, “heaven”, or “hell”, lasts eternally.  So God made a temporary physical world called earth, and God made an eternal spiritual world called “heavens.” 

God spoke, and light happened.  God saw the light and God saw the good, and God divided between light and darkness, making day and night. 

If we just break this text down into the actions described, we find five sacred actions God took on the first day of creation.  

1. God made.  “God created the heavens and the earth.” 
2. God spoke.  God said; “Let there be light.” 
3. God saw.  “God saw the light, that it was good.”
4. God divided.  “God divided between the light and the darkness.” 
5. God named.  “God called the light day, and the darkness God called night.” 

The Spirit of God took only one sacred action.  The Spirit of God hovered.  The Spirit of God moved, like a bird with open wings, over the deep waters. 

We need to take these actions ourselves as we seek to create something out of the circumstances life has brought us today. 

1. What will we create? 
2. What will we speak? 
3. What will we see? 
4. How will we divide things up within our lives? 
5. What will we name things?  What will we call the conditions of our lives? 

To be creative is not the same thing as being productive.  To be creative is to make something out of nothing, to make something where nothing exists.  Today, our lives are like a blank page.  What will we write on that page? 

We create by speaking a word.  Will we speak a good word?  Will we speak a word of blessing?  Will we speak words that bring light into darkness? 

The problem with our vision is that it is often selective.  We choose to see and we choose not to see.  We can decide to see darkness or we can decide to see light.  In any situation we might face, choosing to see the light makes all the difference.  Whenever we choose to see the light we choose to see the light which is the light of humanity.  Will we see that light?  Will we see that the light is good? 

How will we draw the lines of division within our lives?  God divided the darkness from the light, and so created day and night.  We also need to divide the darkness from the light.  Even though this is an arbitrary process, it is essential for us to make these divisions.  This is where contrast and definition come from.  The amazing truth is that God has given us this task by virtue of our own free will.  We get to do the work of choosing how to divide the subtle hues of darkness and light from one another in order to give ourselves the opportunity to choose the light and to turn away from the darkness.  Will we divide the light from the darkness, to see the day and the night?  Will we choose to live within the daylight?  (See I Thessalonians 5:1) 

Will we name it with a good name?  Remember that God brought Adam all created things to see what Adam would name them.  So also today we have names for everything.  Our ability to name creation is the symbol of God’s gift of co-creativity.  God makes it and we name it.  In the ancient world to name something was to have mastery over it.  If we claim this co-creative right for ourselves, we have the ability to name the circumstances of our lives.  We can call it what we will.  This gives us a degree of mastery over the conditions of our lives.  We get to decide what is a blessing and what is a curse.  We get to decide what will strengthen us and what will weaken us.  We get to decide what it all means. 

At the first day of creation, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.  As the Spirit of God moved over the deep, we also need to abide, to gently over all the mysteries of heaven and earth.  Creation holds many deep waters.  God has given us the power to glide over them all.  As Jesus walked on the water, we can hover in the Spirit over all the unexplained circumstances of our lives.  We are the children of God and all this creation is our inheritance.  Thus, we can glide above all the mysteries we do not understand.    Will can wait patiently for God’s will to be done and God’s purpose to work itself out.    

As we seek to be co-creators with God, Jesus offers us the best possible example of a person making something out of nothing. 

What did Jesus create out of death?  LIFE. 

What did Jesus create out of grief?  COMFORT. 

What did Jesus create out of sickness?  HEALING. 

What did Jesus create out of humiliation? TRIUMPH. 

What did Jesus create out of defeat?  VICTORY. 

Our task today should be to create these things out of whatever circumstances this day offers.  If we have grief, make comfort.  If we witness death, we should be open to the blessings of resurrection.  Whatever life brings our way, we need to constantly be in the business of making the best out of the worst. 

All of creation is our inheritance within the kingdom of God.  In Jesus Christ God has made it possible for us to reach out and to claim what is ours.  May God bless us all this New Year.  Amen.