on the walk

I got to preach on Genesis this last Sunday. This prompted the following question.Think about your own answer before you read my reflections.

If you only got one opportunity to talk to someone about Genesis, how would you use it?

Now of course no book of the Bible comes up a lot in casual conversation but this one seems to come up more than most. The debate about how the universe came into being is not only broad and complicated it is also popular. There are enough court cases every year to keep the conversation going. Similarly, questions about why there is such evil and suffering in the world often return to the story of Adam and Eve’s rebellion and the flood.

In college, it seemed that every person who discovered my faith would soon ask my views on the process of creation. Many of them knew almost nothing about the content of scripture. Almost all of them had never read a single word of the Bible. But everyone one of them thought they knew what Genesis was about and they knew it something to do with six days and ribs.

I often wished they had asked me about a different book. Why couldn’t they have asked about Hosea: “Do you really think that God feels like a betrayed husband when we base our lives on things other than God? Or maybe Amos: “Does God really hate it when the rich keep getting richer by exploiting the poor?” Or maybe Mark: “What is this kingdom that Jesus keeps talking about?” Or maybe Acts: “I am confused, tell me again, what must I do to be saved?”

But they don’t. They always ask about Dinosaurs. Or Ribs. Or apples.

So I began to realize that I needed to figure out what I would say when I got a chance to talk about Genesis. In most cases I won’t get two chances. So I wanted to be ready to use my one chance to talk about Genesis to talk about the most important thing there. In particular I began to ask myself, “What is true about the Genesis account?”

Here are some realities that we must face. Very few modern Christians accepted the cosmology that is assumed in the pages of the Old Testament. Lots of modern Christians accept parts of it, but very few accept all of it. For instance most Christians accept that the earth moves around the sun (which the OT does not assume). Most Christians don’t believe that up in the sky there is water that is separated from us by a great solid firmament (which the OT does assume).

Even Christian who insist on six days, six thousands years ago are willing to compromise on other aspects of the cosmology of scripture. So the question is not, “Do you trust the Bible or not?” as many creationists put it, but rather the question is, “How do we discern God’s truth in the midst of a document that is bound to its culture?”

My choice is this. If I think that I will have 10 or 20 conversations about Genesis, then I will talk about Evolution and creation, and God as a gentle creator, etc. But if I only have one, then I want to talk about the gospel of Genesis. The gospel (good news) of Genesis is not that God can do a lot in a week. The good news is that God loves the creation, God can work in and through chaos. God never gives up even on a broken creation and on broken people. (Look at God’s faithfulness to the three stooges, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and as a stooge myself I know one when I see one.)

I am convinced that the scripture cares a lot more about who created and why, then what was created and how. Part of the proof of this is that we get two very different how stories. Gen 1 - 2:3 and Gen 2:4ff are distinct stories about how things got created. They don’t follow the same order and the focus on different things. I know that they can be reconciled, but the question is, “If the main point were to give us a lesson in cosmology and paleo-biology why would the stories be told in a way that needed reconciliation.” In fact I think that what is clear is that these stories aren’t focused on the how but rather on the who and the why.

I respect the right of those who want to uphold the evidence for evolution and want to argue that critical acceptance of the theory of evolution is not a disqualifier for a faithful Christian life. I respect them and recognize them as brothers and sisters in Christ. I also respect those who have examined the evidence and feel convinced by the arguments in favor of OT cosmology. But in every case, if we let those points become the main points, we will do two terrible things. 1. We will divide the body of Christ over a non-essential. 2. We will miss an opportunity to tell people that God made them and loves them and that God can work in their chaos.

on the walk

-Ethan

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