Good morning on this fine Monday! It’s great to begin the week with you in the Pastor’s Workshop.
This week we continue in our series called “Begin with Basics”. Our premise (as you remember), “When we start right, things go better. And when things go better, we can finish well.” Our Scriptural starting point is Genesis 1.
In week one we stated that the right starting point for today, this week and all things before us is the beginning point proclaimed in the Scripture, “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). In our second week we discovered that every crisis holds a challenge to get creative. We rejoiced that our creative God has given us that capacity to create and called us to “Get Creative”. “In the beginning, God created …” (Genesis 1:1) and so can we. Last week we explored how in our creativity we are invited to “Shine a Light”. When God said, “Let there be Light” (Genesis 1:3) that was true for Creation, the Incarnation in Jesus, and for you and me.
Shining the Light was the beginning of creation. God continued creating for “six days”. There are many ways to interpret this phrase. Some folks think of it literally, some figuratively, and some metaphorically. These various interpretations often lead to endless (and fruitless) debates. In the midst of debates about what’s true, we don’t want to miss the great truth being proclaimed. God is our Creator. We are given responsibility to be good stewards of God’s created goodness.
Our message this week focuses in on that gift of responsibility. We call it “the stewardship of creation”. For our Scripture we’ll be jumping from the start of chapter 1 in Genesis to the end of chapter 1, Genesis 1:26-31.
As you can see from the text as we talk about “stewardship” this is not about money. This is about our “stewardship” of all God has made. Through this Scripture we understand that part of our privilege and responsibility as being “made in the image of God” is to care for all God’s creation. The title for our message this week is “Care for Creation”.
On Monday we saturate ourselves in the chosen Scripture for the week. We read and re-read, write and re-write. We paraphrase in our own words. I always encourage us to use several translations (Biblegateway.com – it’s free!).
Using different translations and paraphrases is always enlightening. As you see below the ways scholars handle the Hebrew for this text is varied .
The New Revised Standard Version translates the passage:
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.
28 God 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.” 29 God 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. 30 And 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. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
“The Message” paraphrases the same text:
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
29-30 Then God said, “I’ve given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth, And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.” And there it was.
31 God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.
As you can see, there are some similarities and some differences in the translations. It’s important to pay attention to both!
Well it’s Monday and a “new beginning”. I need to let you get to work. And even as you work may the Spirit be at work in you.
In that blessing, I’ll get to work too and look forward to being with you tomorrow in the Pastor’s Workshop.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank You for the blessing of this week. Thank You for how Your love is a creating love. Thank you for how you create goodness. Strengthen us as we work through this Scripture to understand how we can be better stewards of all You have made. In that privilege and responsibility we lift this prayer in the name of the One who is the good steward of our souls, even Jesus Christ our Lord.