Creative Power

This is the theme for last weeks readings. I was away electing a new Bishop for the diocese of Waiapu. Bonnie preached and this is here intro to the theme. Sorry it is so late.

In both Genesis and the Psalm we have beautiful poetry that affirms that God is the Creator.  God’s power is ultimately defined as creative.  And it is good power. It gives life. It transforms chaos into order.  It is the power of novelty.  God’s power is the source of entirely new possibilities.

Genesis was meant to be read as a theological affirmation of the creative love of God.  It was never meant to be read as the how of creation - it was not science in the way we understand science - it was about the why.  It is a creation myth that affirms the dynamic power of creativity as part of how things become. God is creating the world.  To get a scientific view - the how - then evolution may be the best theory about how things become. But science does not tell us why.  Evolution gives us information of how things evolve, but it does not give us meaning. The poetry of Genesis provides the meaning.

The poem takes us through the daily activity of God as a creative force of love.  And at the end of each action God declares what has happened to be good. God says "let us create in our image," which reveals that all life forms have some creativity. All life adds new possibilities to what will become; all life has influence in the ongoing process of creation.

If we turn then to the great commission in Matthew’s Gospel, we need to bring with us this view of ourselves as creative people and this view of God as a creative power. Along with the disciples we are commanded to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” All of our creativity can be brought to this imperative. We can continually add new possibilities to the way the great commission can be lived out.