Sermon for May 31, 2026: My Goodness based upon Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Genesis 1:1-2:4 Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
 
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
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And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.  God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make humans 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.”

So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
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.” 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. 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. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

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    You might know James Weldon Johnson from singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Aside from his work as a composer, he was also a journalist, a lawyer, a diplomat, and a poet. While serving as executive secretary for the NAACP, he wrote and edited several volumes of poetry. One of them, God’s Trombones, contains within it a remarkable poem called “The Creation.” In it, Johnson imagines creation from the perspective of the God who is creating. I learned of this poem from my seminary roommate, Alphaeus Green, Jr. He performed it during a worship service at school, and I always think of him and this poem when I read Genesis 1.

     It begins with, “And God stepped out on space, /And he looked around and said: /I'm lonely—/ I'll make me a world.” When so many of us have been invited to imagine God angry or jealous, isn’t lovely to imagine God having a whole range of emotions, especially one that drives so many of us to build relationships and create beauty? If humanity bears the Image of God, might the drivers of our own creativity be connected to God’s? Johnson, who was from Florida, imagined the fertile darkness of the beginning like the fertile darkness of his homeplace,

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!

     As we slowly make our way into spring, in this time when warm and sunny days still feel like a revelation, who among us can’t imagine warmth and light being a direct gift of God, through a simple expression of expression and delight. It’s like how I respond to one of the kittens rolling up on their side to show me their belly. “That’s good!” is a response I can’t help but muster!

     In the poem, as in its inspiration, our Scripture for the day, God keeps making things and being delighted by them. Then, the imagery shifts a little to the second version of creation starting just after our reading for the day. In that one, God makes a human from the dust of the ground. Johnson’s version goes like this. After making so many things, God realizes that God is still lonely. God decides to make something called “a man.” Here’s the final portion of the poem:
Up from the bed of the river

God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen.  Amen.

     In a commentary on today’s text, my Hebrew Bible professor, Neal Walls invites us to “be humble” by the questions we might have about Genesis 1, questions that Johnson beautifully riffed on in his poem. Walls brings up some examples: What was God doing before God decided to create the heavens and earth? Some Christians understand God to be infinite and unmovable. Why would that kind of God need to create, especially create something like all of this with our capacity for independence? Did God, as Johnson imagine, desire a relationship with someone else? Walls even thinks it’s fair to wonder “who exactly is this ‘God’ character, so abruptly introduced in [chapter 1, verse 1].” Genesis doesn’t answer these questions. We often make attempts, and our interpretations hinge on our attempts. But, the answers aren’t straight forward in the text.

     Historically, some important theological points have rested on what you think existed for God to make creation out of. Verse two in the New Revised Standard version reads, “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.” The King James Version is “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Dr. Wil Gafney, in her Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, translates this verse, “the earth was shapeless and formless, and bleakness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God, she, fluttered over the face of the waters.” At various times, people have translated these verses in different ways and have developed varying theologies based on those translations.

     Some strongly believe that God created something out of nothing. Some people believe creation is more like God bringing order to chaos. I kind of like the idea that God sees potential and gives it shape, like the potter at the wheel, another biblical metaphor for creation. God’s word and Spirit do most of the work in chapter 1. Walls describes the action in Genesis one as “transcendent deity, ‘above the fray,’ who creates by simply commanding distinction, order, and structure.” I prefer to think of transcendent as more being like “distinct and capable” rather than unaffected. Because God does make things and distinguishes among that which has been made and calls it good. I don’t think you call something good if you’re not affected by it.
If someone calls something good, they are satisfied with it, at the very least. More likely, though, they are happy with how it has turned out. They feel a measure of pleasure in what they are seeing. This is a sign of delight, and recognition of relationship between the creator and created. And, it is very good.

     In his commentary, Walls brings up another question: “When God proposes, “Let us create humans in our image, according to our likeness” (verse 26), to whom is he speaking?” Ancient Israelite readers and our Jewish neighbors read this verse as God talking to an angelic court. Later Christian interpretations suggest that this conversion is among the figures of the Trinity talking amongst themselves. Whomever the divine “us” is, the text makes it clear that all genders and all people are created in God’s image. There are some interpreters who’ve found affirmation of not just male and female gender identities, but also nonbinary ones. “So, God created humankind in God’s own image, in God’s own image, God created them; female and male, God created them.” What an extraordinary reading this is that invites us to remember that God’s nature will always be beyond the scope of human language.

     As Justin Michael Reed notes in his commentary on this text, this text about all people of all genders carrying the image of God can become a foundation for safeguarding the rights and value of people who are marginalized. It can inspire us to take action to make sure that everyone with the image of God is treated as a good and beloved part of creation. Even if God is mysterious and today’s reading might not answer every question we have, it does clearly affirm humanity’s status as beloved. Any religious or political system that does less falls short of the relationship described in this story of creation.

     In her commentary on this text, Cheryl Lindsay says, “Creation brings order, diversity, and relationship.” Remember, the act of creating was often the act of noticing difference and creating distinction within the chaos. Difference is not inherently threatening in this story and does not have to be threatening in our daily lives. Dr. Lindsay also points out that with creation also comes rest. The God who desires to create must also rest from the act of creation. She describes rest as a pause in activity, not a completion of the activity. Because there were the first seven days, but there is also now, and God keeps on creating. Rest is a vital part of creation.

     Lindsay even goes so far as to say that rest is “the one aspect of creation that God immediately enjoys for themselves.” Rest is instituted and made holy by God. All of creation rests, and any system that does not allow for rest runs counter to God’s actions in creation. Recently, the United Church of Christ released something called the Marks for Faithful and Vital Churches. This is a tool to help congregations understand what healthy, active, and faithful congregations can look like. One of the marks of a vital church is that they “encourage opportunities for all to practice sabbath and spiritual renewal.” I hope that our time together in worship feels set apart from the demands of work and productivity that are in the world surrounding us. I hope, even as we labor together, that the labor and worship are renewing.

     I also hope though that our work is shared and rotated and evaluated to make sure that we are getting the rest God invited us into. God did not declare our goodness be contingent on how much stuff we make or on how worn out we are. May we find a sanctified rest that reminds us of our goodness and belovedness. When is time to create again with the Spirit, may we be blessed with the clarity that what we have co-created with God is good.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Neal Walls: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/the-holy-trinity/commentary-on-genesis-11-24a-9
Justin Michael Reed: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/creation-by-the-word/commentary-on-genesis-11-24a-8
"The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson: https://poets.org/poem/creation
About James Weldon Johnson: https://poets.org/poet/james-weldon-johnson
Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-rest-made-holy/