Epiphany 1 Year B Sermon
‘In the beginning… God’…in the beginning…
there wasn’t even space……………..Just God. [pause]
Where?…irrelevant…since space didn’t exist yet…
Just God………. Existing…being…and then?
‘In the beginning God… created’
God created something…what?
In the beginning God created the heavens
God creates space…when all there was… was God …
God… creates space for something … makes room…
for something other than God…
Space isn’t God…even space is creation…
space in which stars could exist… and planets and galaxies and nebula…
but not yet…because…that comes later…more is needed…more is needed…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…
…dark upon dark…and then God moves…
or at least a part of God moves… into the space God’s created…
a part of God moves… into creation ‘and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’
The Spirit of God entered into creation and drifted over the black watery depths… where the earth would be.
And suddenly God spoke …and the only thing listening…
was the darkness.
‘And God said…
"Let there be light,"…. and there was… light’
In the beginning just God… creating space… moving into this space…and calling forth light in all that darkness …And
‘God saw… that the light was good’
Good.
Then God separates the light from the darkness…
This energy…this light… is separated out… from the formless black watery void…and each is named by God …day and night
and time is created…[pause]
Space… energy… time
That's’ enough work for one day…don’t you think.
Many biblical scholars… believe these verses were written during Israel's exile in Babylon…a time of darkness…
a time of hopelessness and despair…
their country trashed by a powerful agressor that destroys Solomon’s Temple…kills thousands…and carries off
all their leaders…into exile.
The powerful poetry of Genesis one…is sorely needed …to contrast the horrors of their captors creation story.
The Babylonian Enuma elish… was an official… ritual text …recited every April… on the fourth day…
of the Festival of the New Year.
The Babylonian poem celebrates the god Marduk…
raised to the status of chief god…when Babylon conquers Mesopotamia. And the official god must be exalted…by everyone even foreigners.
Marduk's name means "'son-child'… or 'son-of-the-sun'"… or perhaps "bull calf of the sun." Marduk is more powerful than his father…and his physical appearance is impressive: he’s very large, with four huge eyes and four big ears…
the better to see and hear everything.
Fire blazes from his mouth when he speaks. His proud and doting grandfather Anu creates the four winds for Marduk to play with, and soon a group of unnamed gods goes to "their mother" Tiamat to complain about the resulting noise and commotion.
In the minds of the Babylonians…there are a lot of competing gods …a lot of dis- order in the god dimension.
In the Babylonian story… Marduk makes bits of creation out of the bodily parts of enemy gods…even human beings created specifically to serve the gods. [its complicated and you can read all about it on the net.] But the point I want to make here…is that in the Babylonian story there’s huge disorder.
So the exiles in Babylon are grieving for what they’ve lost …their world had become chaotic…and their culture is under threat…from a conquerer more powerful than they.
What the Hebrew people need most at this time of disorder is reassurance comfort and consolation…
they need reminding… that their God brings order out of chaos…and creates light… out of darkness… [pause]
Today as we watch with horror the unfolding of yet more darkness and chaos in the world…its every bit as good… to hear these words as it was for the exiles in Babylon.
And providentially they are in fact the reading set down for today.
When we hear the words "Formless void" we can almost see our own world in peril.[i] And we can declare in full throated joy…against all those who claim that everything is chaos and hopelessness.
"In the beginning, when there was nothing but formless void, then God said,
‘Let there be light!' And there was."’
In a time of darkness we can’t say it for ourselves. These words have to be overheard by us… as we listen to God's conversation with the formless void.
No human utterance…not mine or some politician’s or some commentator…can help us when the mountains tremble and the earth shakes…no word can help…except one spoken from the outside of the chaos we create.
And just when the night is at its darkest…
we hear that word…and it is a sovereign command…
a promise, a creative act…"Light!"
Just like the quivering exiles in Babylon…we fear the void…we fear the emptiness…
and when fear gives way to despair…we forget all about the creating ordering God of ours who brings light out of darkness…we forget
that the perfect love of our God.. can cast out our fear…
We forget that our God…‘The creative lover…
[who] had the first word… shall also have the last. We forget that all evidence to the contrary, God's love is stronger…’ than what we fear.[ii]
One of the world’s greatest preachers… William Willemon… reminds us that ‘In life and death, in life beyond death, there is only one word. At the end, it's the same word as at the beginning, God’s Word: ‘A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’
Last Sunday we immersed ourselves in the event of the Word made flesh in the coming of the Christ. We remembered that not only do we have a creating and loving God… who brings light out of darkness…but we have the fullness of our God in time and space in the person of Jesus at another time of great darkness when their the Temple is destroyed again but this time by the Romans...
Matthew’s gospel calls the people to faith in Jesus…
with these words:
‘the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death… light has dawned.’
My prayer is that when you are tempted to lose heart…when you despair at your own darkness or the darkness caused by others you will remember God’s sovereign command…let there be light…and remember that this is the day that the Lord has made and rejoice.
