The Doctrine of Creation (is there any meaning behind what we see?) - Rev Allister Lane
READINGS: PSALM 24:1-2 AND HEBREWS 1:1-4, 10
Last week we began this series on Creation. We acknowledged that humanity has forever attempted to express an understanding of the universe in a way that gives life coherence and meaning.
This series on Creation reminds us that the Christian tradition offers unique claims that help us address BIG questions…
Why does the universe exist?
How do we describe what is here?
Why is there beauty?
Why is there pain?
Science is very, very good at describing the material universe around us. But human scientific inquiry takes us so far…
“The experts don’t know for sure how old or how big the universe is. They don’t know what most of it is made of. They don’t know in any detail how it began or how it will end.” (TIME Magazine, 6th March 19950)
And the scientific method will never be able to tell us WHY the universe exists.
People sometimes mistake the Bible for a scientific textbook, and therefore can’t make sense of the opening story in Genesis.
What we reminded ourselves last week is that the Bible is much less interested in the mechanics of the created order, than in the meaning. The creation stories in the Bible, like in Genesis and many other places, express joy. It is revealed to us that God chooses to create the universe – out of an overflowing generosity.
And today, I want us to look more into the meaning of creation. To do this we will look at how Christians have discerned a deep (and coherent) understanding of the meaning of the world we are in, expressed in the Doctrine of Creation.
So in this time together, let’s address this question: ‘Is there any meaning behind what we see?’ Here is what I want us to explore today…
Major features of the doctrine of creation…
What meaning these have for us…
We see how a doctrine of Creation is inseparable from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when we understand the role Christ has in creation.
When I was in my twenties I went on an ‘OE’ (maybe a thing of the past….?) In my travels around Europe, the UK and US, there was one city that stood out as my clear favourite… London. Wandering around that city, I was fascinated. There was so much to see and discover.
I clearly remember one day sitting in front of the Royal Exchange. As I gazed at the façade, I noticed the words carved into the stone – right in the top centre. They are the words we heard this morning, from Psalm 24:
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it / the world, and those who live in it
“The earth is the Lord’s” is a claim of sovereignty. It is one of the most sweeping assertions of creation theology in the Bible. It is about God’s ordering and governance of the whole of creation.
This claim rules out rivals claims by any other god, and (similarly) any claims by us of ‘private property’.
The earth is the Lord’s
To help us summarise the most meaningful assertions of the doctrine of Creation, I have drawn from an essay by Colin Gunton, that has seven features.
1. The first feature is that God, The Trinity, created and remains in relationship to creation.
The historic Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) is one of the subordinate standards of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. And Chapter IV: Of Creation, says:
I. It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world.
God did not NEED to create anything else. God already enjoyed a community of loving relationship: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But, as we’ve noted, God creates from an overflowing generosity.
Creation is an act of divine freedom. And God remains in close relationship with creation, but in such a way that creation is free to be itself.
2. The second feature is also explicitly mentioned in this chapter of the Westminster Confession:
make of nothing
Creation was out of nothing… Why is it important for a doctrine of Creation to say that creation was ‘out of nothing’?
Unlike other creation stories, where pre-existing matter is formed into the world we know – like a potter shaping clay – God has no need to rely on anything outside of God’s own being.
A moment ago I said: ‘God did not NEED to create anything else.’ It is also true that: ‘God did not NEED anything else to create.’
One significant implication of this, is that creation had a beginning in time. Believe it or not, this is unique to just about every other story about the nature of the universe. And science has, just in the last hundred years or so, realised the same: time had a beginning.
3. The third feature is Creation has a purpose.
It has been made to be something special, derived from God’s love. Not just ‘more God’, but in relationship with God.
That means God has established the world with a purpose, a destiny;in the words of Genesis
‘very good’. (Gen 1:31)
4. The fourth feature in the doctrine of Creation is that of conservation, preservation – providence.
This is about God’s continuing work in and towards creation. God’s love is expressed as continuing care for creation through the Son and the Spirit.
I’ll say more about this in a moment, but this feature deliberately rejects any suggestion of a ‘machine-maker deity’, who makes something, winds it up and goes away.
No, God actively maintains it, providing for the needs of creation and enabling it towards its purpose.
5. The fifth feature is that humankind is made in God’s image.
You and I have a special place within God’s project of creation. We have special response-ability, to offer praise to God on behalf of the whole of creation.
The full and perfect human response was shown by Christ (again we’ll come to this in a moment).
6. The sixth feature is related to human response-ability: there is an ethical dimension to creation.
The relationships between created people, and between them and the rest of creation, matter.
This is highlighted in our actions toward the environment, but also in other ways our actions affect our relationships:
sexuality,
race relations,
politics,
euthanasia,
war.
7. The seventh (and final feature I want to highlight) is the one that helps us best understand the revealed role of Christ in creation:
creation is redeemed.
The doctrine of Creation recognises the problem of evil, which prevents creation from fulfilling its proper purpose. Evil is not a fault in God’s creating ability, or located within the created order itself – evil is something which subverts creation and must be overcome.
This is where we come to the role of Christ in creation. To explain this, let me show you three quotes:
1. Colin Gunton:
Given the all-polluting power of evil and its centre in human sin, redemption can be achieved only by the action of the one through whom the world was created. His becoming incarnate, dying and being raised by the Creator Spirit is the way through which the creation is redeemed (bought back) from its bondage to destruction… (p144)
2. Soren Kierkegaard:
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful, you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.
3. The passage we heard from the opening of the letter of Hebrews:
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
These quotes express Christ’s role in creation:
bringing all things into being
bringing all things back into harmony with God.
I want to conclude this sermon on the doctrine of creation on the climax of the Gospel!
The One through whom the world was created comes in person.
In Jesus Christ, the extent of God’s love is revealed (through his life, death and resurrection).
For this, we are able to respond in joyful praise – we have found love, life and meaning.
This commitment to creation – to us – is what we sang about this morning:
“You're the Word of God the Father
From before the world began.
“You left the gaze of angels,
Came to seek and save the lost,
And exchanged the joy of heaven
For the anguish of a cross.
“With a shout You rose victorious,
Wresting vict'ry from the grave,
And ascended into heaven,
Leading captives in Your way.
“You're the Author of creation;
You're the Lord of ev'ry man;
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands.
(The song ‘Across the Lands, Author of Creation, Word of God the Father’)