Scripture Gen. 1:1-5 "…And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

The biblical description of day one is obviously the story of a great beginning. Only God was in the very beginning when nothing else existed. God precedes time and space, light and darkness. The earth, as it was on this first day, was a dark and formless void - tohu wabohu in the Hebrew which means formless and normless. Nothing normal about this time or place! It is from this primordial soup that God will begin to forge something new. God's actions in this opening scene are both physical and verbal. God's spirit sweeps across the darkness like a wind over water, and then out of nowhere, God says, "Let there be light," and -- there's light.

This imagery is both threatening and reassuring. These few verses are packed with the power of God, which is tremendous and absolute. Only God can create like this. Only God has the authority to command Day and Night. It will be much later that human beings discover the rotation of the planets and factor in the sun's directional rays - but for now, it is reassuring to know that God has this one covered. Light and darkness play a significant role in the lives of human beings. Knowing that God has fashioned the light helps make us more secure when we find ourselves sleepless in the dark.

Scripture Gen. 1:6-8 "…And there was evening and there was morning, the second day."

What gets only second billing to the creation of light? The taming of the waters. The sky is separated out from the rest of this creation soup. God separates the waters from the waters, as scripture tells it. Again, we know now that this description of creation is structured on the framework of an earth-centered worldview. The sky is pictured as a dome of water, held back by God's voice that says, "Make it so." But little did the ancients know how truly they spoke of the importance of the atmosphere, our literal dome around the earth that makes it possible for life on this planet. It is because of this separation that we have air to breathe. It is because of this separation that we have a temperature range that supports life rather than burning us to a crisp or freezing us into popsicles. The sky is unusually important to creation's sustenance.

Scripture Gen. 1:9-13 "…And there was evening and there was morning, the third day."

Day three continues on this theme of water. God does another trick of separating one thing from another. This time God separates dry land from water, Earth from Sea. This is also the day of the first community garden project. Plants are called forth to multiply on the earth, plants with seeds of like kind inside them. Why do you think that might be important to an agrarian culture?

Through the rather recent historical development of industrialized farming, seeds are now a patented commodity, and very often the produce that you find in a grocery store is unlikely to be able to produce fruit from its seed. The seed manufacturers don't want to give away anything for free. But imagine that at one time, the ability to plant and then harvest what you had planted was revolutionary. I find it incredibly fascinating that food is created before anything is roaming around to eat it. Earth is created as a wonder in and of itself - with both dry land and seas. Our planet holds this incredible potential for life before any life is found upon it.

Scripture Gen. 1: 14-19 "And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day."

If you look at the structure of this whole passage, you will notice that the fourth through sixth days have parallels in the first three. Day four returns to the theme of day one, light and darkness. Only this time, creation gets more refined and specific. Stars, and sun, and moon are given as lights in the sky - and for what purpose? To delineate signs and seasons, days and years.

God also continues to pronounce things good. Time is good. Though there are days I curse what's on my calendar, there's something to the rhythms of the calendar that are sustaining for life in a different kind of way than light, or air, or nutrients. Cycles of wakefulness and sleep, seasons of the year, and life itself follow patterns that enhance meaning, particularly for humankind. We treasure a good night's sleep at the end of a long day. We survive the harshness of the winter knowing that spring will offer renewal. We celebrate births. We mourn deaths. We seek meaning and sometimes find it in the common attributes shared at different stages of our lives. The stars, and moon, and sun still guide the patterns of our lives even when we think we have control by turning on an artificial lamp in the office or by not telling our real age.

Scripture Gen. 1:20-23 "…And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day."

Days five and six God spends making creatures - the first creatures being sea creatures and air creatures, things that either swim or fly. Not to plead the biblical case for evolution, but God's first creatures are primarily what we would call lower species, and to keep the integral order of the text, make note that the "water" creatures come before the land creatures just as separation of the waters into above and below the dome comes before separation of the dry land. Birds and fish aren't classified as the same kind of creatures as the wild animals that appear a day later. Sadly, dinosaurs don't really get a nod in scripture - but apparently great sea monsters are a known threat in the times of this biblical composition. That certainly adds interest!

Scripture Gen. 1:24-31 "And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day."

The sixth day, God really gets down to business. All the living creatures of the earth are brought forth, and again, with a word from God it was so. We read about living creatures of every kind, cattle and creeping things, and wild animals. Did I mention cattle, cattle of every kind? Like the plants with seeds of like plants in them, cattle get more mention than one might think in this day of God making every earth animal imaginable. Cows are not the most interesting creature I can think of , but this story is about survival, so really it's all about the food. Herd animals that could be domesticated and eaten for food were of primary interest to biblical people. This isn't about the hunt, this is about God being thanked and appreciated for the novelty of food, readily available for human beings. Not having to hunt and gather gave people opportunities to reflect not only on how they would survive the afternoon, but how they could live their lives in a better, more holy way.

And lastly, on this last busy day, God creates human beings. This verse has an interesting use of pronouns that doesn't get nearly enough billing in my opinion. Scripture says in verse 26, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion…" Who is this "us?" Some have offered that it is God and the angels. Some have disregarded the plural as meaning anything. Some have noticed that God's image in humankind's creation is responsible for both male and female people. No "Adam and Eve" story here. People are made, male and female, in God's image. Then God gives them some instructions about the rest of creation, their divine directive to speak. God says: "Be fruitful and multiply."

The human beings are the final piece in this starter set, the grand experiment. They are the pinnacle of this creation story. All that has been done before this moment is given as a gift to those who are created in the image of God. This time, God pronounces it "very good," very good indeed.

Scripture Gen. 2:1-4 "These are the generations of the heavens and earth when they were created."

The seventh day is the day of God's rest. Later God will give the command to Moses for human beings to rest on the seventh day as a Sabbath, a reminder that even God rested after six days of creating all of creation. Too many of us fail to see the need for such rest. We are a sleep deprived, workaholic culture that despises the pause to rest. Those of us who are prone to rest well and trust that God will have things at times we take a break have grown reluctant to share our views with the rest of the 60 to 70 hour work week folk. It's almost embarrassing to say to a colleague that we take time for prayer, or observe a day of rest. It's time to reclaim this rhythm and promise of creation. Sabbath-keeping can be a pleasure, a time for enjoying and resting in our trust of God.

This is only kind of scratching the surface of this story. In this succinct account, one can come up with many more thoughts on environmental justice, divine wonder, and awe at the planet that is our home. One could talk more about human capacity as created in the image of God, or look at the understanding of darkness and light as a condition for life as we know it. But the power of this story has become lost in debate. It has been used as a "you believe the Bible or you don't" proof text. I would suggest that we release this story from its captivity. Get to know it. It connects us to God, it reacquaints us with the amazing durability of our planet to sustain life, and it gives us permission to rest in the goodness of our world. If we really do bear God's image in the world, that gives us both surprising power and awesome responsibility. Let us pray: Creator God, we thank you for this planet entrusted to our care. We thank you for life that is sustained by the air we breathe, the water we drink, and is made meaningful by the passage of time. Help us to live into your image, to be the creatures you designed us to be.

Amen.