Well, Is it RE-Creation, or Recreation?

 

Well, Is it RE-Creation, or Recreation?

 

Genesis 1:1-5
1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,

1:2 the 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.

1:3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

1:4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

1:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

 

In the hymn, “Morning Has Broken,” we sing this line:

 

“Praise with elation, praise every morning, God's recreation of the new day…”

 

Cat Stevens sang his version as “God’s recreation,” while most congregations seem to sing “God’s RE-CREATION, of the new day,” like God is doing something NEW with something very, very old. What do you think?

 

Today’s narrative from the lectionary is the opening lines of the great “myth symphony” in Genesis of the creation of the universe. Anyone who mistakes it for a factual, journalistic account of how things came to be must think the Mona Lisa is a photograph of a peasant woman, taken for her passport. We revisit it at the beginning of the New Year because it is something beautiful that reminds us that the stirrings of new life began with the very beginning of all things, and that our faith asserts it was not a great cosmic accident, but the stroke of the celestial artist. We could argue that all that we know, see, and experience in this magnificent universe (or “multiverse?”) was and IS, God’s RECREATION. God creates and sustains the creation like I might play tennis, wield my camera, bang on a computer keyboard, or drive my convertible. I like this concept, as it is a marvelous statement of God as not just love, but also JOY. Believe me, as one who is now retired from the responsibilities of EARNING a living, I am now ENJOYING just living. “…praise every morning, MY recreation, of the new day!” I like getting up to see what opportunities the day will produce, for newness, “re-creation,” and joy! If this is what God is up to in the daily care of the universe, I get it.

 

The hymn is melodic and inspirational. “Praise with elation” is an amazing phrase. Oh, that all could experience praise with elation! It sounds so spontaneous and invigorating, and life-giving! But just look at the simple words from Genesis—even less of them than in the hymn, and they paint the picture of the origin of light, day, and night. From “formless voids” and forbidding darkness came FIRST the light, and then the heavenly bodies that now make it and reflect. Interesting. God must have had a blast doing that! The compact narrative makes the point that the “chicken came before the egg.” Light before what we now understand as its sources in the cosmos. Part of God’s “recreating” during the creation is casting FIRST the vision—in this case, light—and only later, that which will sustain it. The church could learn a lesson from this, couldn’t we? Our processes of goal-setting, funding, and managing our missions and ministry seems a bit more drab than “Let there be light.” Think of it this way: when God says it, becomes a reality-producing logos, or WORD. When we say it, we make it a prayer, but is it not calling forth something we want to have happen? Ministries and mission that grow out of the fervent prayers of the people of God have a much longer shelf-life, and like the Genesis story, could very well lead to “praise with elation,” both from the congregation engaging in ministry and the benefactors. Wouldn’t THAT be exciting?

 

Friends, the New Year IS upon us, and being reminded by the Genesis myth that we believe in a Creator God who lovingly and “playfully” created all that we know as existence, including our fragile selves. It began with a recognition of darkness and the need for light, both things that still stump our greatest scientists and theorists! “Dark Matter,” what it IS and ISN’T, WHERE it is (or isn’t?), and what power it has over the universe is one of the hottest (or coldest?) topics in cosmology. And light? We’ve NEVER figured THAT out! Is it a particle? Is it a wave? OH, it’s BOTH…maybe. It’s fast (186,272 miles per second, give or take), and according to Dr. Einstein’s best work, nothing can travel faster than it, as it is a kind of universal constant known as “C.” So, the Genesis narrative tells us that God started with two mysterious factors, called forth light to push away the darkness (or at least send it into hiding), and creation began. And this was a wonderful form of RECREATION—like a kind of divine Pickleball match—for God and the two other whatevers of the Trinity. God grooved on creating all we see, and US, who can see, although we are often flummoxed by the darkness. In the New Year, we have the privilege of praying for God to RE-create—to make “all things new” once again. 

 

That “dark matter” seems to have settled like a pall on the earth. The light is having trouble getting through the mass shootings, partisan hating, wars and rumors of wars, and the various “isms,” along with the human bankruptcy and poverty they create. We NEED new! We pray for God to get out her Pickleball racquet once again and hit the courts. We’ll serve. 

 

Am I having some entertaining word games with our misery? Maybe. But the meaning I’m trying to paint with my rhetoric is that only the one who CREATED us has the power to RE-create us, and this loving, grace-giving, and visionary God has passed that power on to Jesus Christ the Son, and to the Mother Holy Spirit to both stir us to action and to become the novel canvasses for what they may paint for 2024. 

 

We must always remember that the light was GOOD, and it separated us from the darkness. Darkness--as Barbara Brown Taylor suggests in her book, “Learning to Walk in the Dark”—is not necessarily BAD. It’s just very hard to navigate. In a time when the world, the church—and particularly the United Methodist Church—needs God’s “recreating” Spirit to RE-CREATE us all, we would be wise to embrace the darkness, as it points us toward the light. And it will be the light that finds us and redeems us. Remember that Jesus first declared HIMSELF the “Light of the world,” and then pronounced US the light of the world. Light is apparently transferrable! 

 

So, Beloved, let us follow the divine example to take time to RECREATE in this New Year; have some fun; find healing, where needed; create something. And may our prayers be heard that God in Christ and through the Holy Spirit will invest anew in US, RE-creating a “right spirit” in us that may provoke us to change and to MAKE change in the world around us. May THIS be the year of God’s favor! Praise with ELATION! Amen, and Amen!