June 1, 2020

The Authority of Love

Roberta Bondi | Read Genesis 1:1-31 , Read Genesis 2:1-4

(Image: Pixabay)

Genesis 1:1-31

¹ When God began to create the heavens and the earth ² the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters ³ God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. ⁴ God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God named the light Day and the darkness Night. There was evening and there was morning: the first day. ⁶ God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” ⁷ God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. ⁸ God named the dome Sky. There was evening and there was morning: the second day. ⁹ God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁰ God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. ¹¹ God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹² The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning: the third day. ¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁶ God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. ¹⁷ God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day. ²⁰ God said, “Let the waters swarm with living things, and let birds fly above the earth up in the dome of the sky.” ²¹ God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. ²² Then God blessed them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day. ²⁴ God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. ²⁵ God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was. ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.” ²⁷ God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” ²⁹ Then God said, “I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food. ³⁰ To all wildlife, to all the birds in the sky, and to everything crawling on the ground—to everything that breathes—I give all the green grasses for food.” And that’s what happened. ³¹ God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good. There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.

My early childhood experience of today’s reading was not a happy one. I remember sitting in a circle in Sunday school while we each took a turn stumbling through the words, verse by verse, until the end of class. I don’t recall finishing the chapter, but I do recall being bored to death by the slowness of early readers and the interminable repetition as God created everything night by night and day by day, “and God saw that it was good”!

The next time I really encountered the text was the summer after I graduated college. I intended to do graduate work in English literature, and given the importance of the Bible in what I was studying, I decided to learn Hebrew. I made arrangements with a teacher at the seminary on campus and bought what I needed to get started, including a Hebrew Bible.

What a time of it I had that summer! I was given a grammar and the assignment to learn the Hebrew of this first Creation story as best I could. I was astonished and shaken to the core as I read in Hebrew this simple, marvelous description of the world emerging, bright and quivering, as God calls it out of chaos into sun, moon, and stars; out of nothing but darkness, wind, and water into dry land and oceans, fish, birds, every kind of plant, fruit tree, insects, animals and every sort of living thing—including human beings. All came bright and alive on the page before me.

I experienced the primordial wonder of the deep goodness of all God’s creation. It was the first I had ever known the world in this way, and my heart filled with a joy for everything that was and is and will be. It was a glimpse of God’s love. The miracle of this fact has never left me even nearly sixty years later.

God, you have made all things beautiful in your love. Help us to experience the beauty of your creation. Amen.

Pray the Scriptures Using Audio Lectio
Read Matthew 28:16-20

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Lectionary Week

June 1–7, 2020

Scripture Overview

Our first reading is arguably one of the most controversial passages in the Bible. Even among those who believe that God created the world, there is controversy. For example, should the days be understood as literal or symbolic? Much time and trouble have been spent in arguing about these things. A different approach is found in Psalm 8, where the author simply praises God for the majestic work of creation without needing to work out all the details. Perhaps this approach would lead to more love and peace among the people of God, as Paul hopes for in Second Corinthians. Matthew describes the ascension, where Jesus tells his followers to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, an appropriate passage in preparation for Trinity Sunday.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Genesis 1:1–2:4a. When has reading the Bible in a new way or with new knowledge changed your experience of the text?
Read Psalm 8. How do you feel called to care for the earth God has given us?
Read 2 Corinthians 13:11-13. How does your faith community heed Paul’s advice to the Corinthians? How does it fall short?
Read Matthew 28:16-20. Recall a time of doubt. How has that experience made your faith stronger?

Respond by posting a prayer.

I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”

View a growing list of resources for the spiritual work of overcoming racism.

—Rev. Sidwell Mokgothu, Limpopo Synod Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and board member for Africa Upper Room Ministries

The Authority of Love

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The Authority of Love

Genesis 1:1-31

Genesis 2:1-4

Matthew 28:16-20

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