a pearl downunder: Creation, Responsibility and Promise

Something I read this week: “This is the big lie that the world tells us: The world is connected by trade agreements, electronic banking, computer networks, shipping lanes, and the seeking of profit - nothing else. This is the truth of God: Creation is a holy web of relationship, a gift meant for all; it vibrates with the pain of all its parts; its destiny is joy."[i]

Others would tell us we are consumers, clients and customers; our only contribution and identity is in our financial fingerprint.

When we watch the news, we see war and greed.

We hear of death and division.

The story we tell of creation, of the earth or an organisation, or a congregation, says something of the values of the entity. In 2 weeks we celebrate the anniversary of the Uniting Church, I wonder what story we tell about the formation and identity of the UCA?

Is it one of joy and trust, unease at change?

For me one of the great things about the formation of the UCA is “... that its primary concern was not simply with the mechanical problem of how to achieve a merger of three institutions, but with the existential question of what it means to be the church in Australia in the second half of the twentieth century.”[1]

If we look at Genesis 1, looking for truth not science or history, we just might find out who we belong to, and our role in life.[ii]

There are many creation stories, and one commentator ‘describes the shaping of the creation narrative of Genesis as a counter-cultural protest of the people of Israel against the creation story of their Babylonian captors. While their oppressors saw the origins of the universe as violent and bloody, the Israelites told their children a different story, a story rooted in goodness and blessing’.[iii]

We are connected to each other and the whole of creation.

In Genesis, we read of God making people in the image of God.

In psalm 8, people are a little lower than God.

And both the Psalm and Genesis give humanity ‘dominion’ over the creation. We have animals and birds and fish and plants to eat.

With dominion comes responsibility, for each other and all of creation. We are given this responsibility by God. We may be ‘over’ the rest of creation, but only at the pleasure of God, as an ambassador.[iv]

Our role is the care for the earth and creation, as God does. We are told in Genesis that God saw the creation as good, do we treat creation as good and beautiful, or something to be used with regard for the future?

It is easy to act out of a sense of entitlement rather than one of responsibility. [v]

As people created in the “image of God,” Christians are summoned to reflect God’s care for the world of creation and for human community. In that calling, we have an example and a model in Jesus, the quintessential image of God.[vi]

We are created in the image of God, we have been given responsibility for the care of creation, but we are not God.

Matthew’s gospel ends with what is generally known as the Great Commission, Go and make disciples of all nations …, how do we do this?

By baptising and teaching. The baptism formula is Trinitarian – today, we still baptise in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

There is also a promise in this passage: ‘And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ One person calls this passage the Great Promise. [vii]

The promise that we are not on our own.

The creation story reminds us who we belong to – God

That creation came out of goodness, love and blessing

And that shows us how to take on our responsibility for the earth – with goodness, love and blessing

And in all this we are not on our own, we are:

Created in the image of God

Accompanied by Jesus

Filled with the Holy Spirit

What would you dream, dare, and do if you believed that Jesus is with you, no matter what.”

what would you do if you knew that God was for you and with you no matter what and forever.[viii]

[1] Dutney, thesis, p53; see also second report of Joint Commission, p8