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And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I’m lonely –
I’ll make me a worldAnd 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!Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That’s good!Then God himself stepped down –
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas –
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed –
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled –
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his fingers to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowlsAnd beasts and birdsSwam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That’s good!Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I’m lonely still.Then God sat down –
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!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 his own image;Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.“The Creation” by James Weldon Johnson
This poem, titled “The Creation” was composed by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) and published in The Book of American Negro Poetry in 1922. Johnson used a poetic style called “pulpit oratory” to retell the creation story from the Book of Genesis. This style, which incorporates vivid description and grandiose expression, is common in African American rhetoric. It’s a form of literary art that brings a story to life.
With one caveat, I love Johnson’s poem! I take theological exception to his affirmation that God created the world because he was lonely. To the contrary, God was not lonely at all. In the eternal self-existent triune Godhead, the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have supreme relational fulfillment among themselves. God does not need the universe or even angels or human beings to satisfy some emotional deficiency or longing. He did not create the world because he was lonely; rather, he created the world to display his glory! (Psalm 19:1)
Apart from this, I think Johnson’s poem is brilliant! It utilizes creative imagery and artistic expression to exhibit God’s masterpiece. He uses a form of human art (poetry) to showcase the divine artist! This creative interpretation of Genesis 1 certainly incites our imagination as we reconsider the creation story.
What Genesis 1 Does Not Teach Us
Before we take a closer look at what this text teaches us, let me begin by mentioning a couple of things that this text does not teach us, and hopefully avoid some mistakes that well-intentioned people have made in the past. First, Genesis 1 does not tell us everything about creation. Even the iconic opening line of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” does not tell us when God created the universe. When you read this verse, have you ever asked yourself the question, “In the beginning of what?” It is obviously not referring to the beginning of God and therefore not the beginning of everything. Does the author mean the something abstract like the beginning of time or history? Is it perhaps a more scientific beginning—like the beginning of matter or the universe? Or is it possible that this is a simple literary summary that means “in the beginning of the story?” (Walton 67)
Notice, in verse 2, the actual creation story does not begin with the creation of matter; it begins with the cosmos already in existence, albeit in in a chaotic state—“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” This verse raises many questions about creation: How did the earth become formless and void? Where did the darkness and the deep come from? The text does not answer these questions. We know from other places in Scripture that God created the universe out of nothing, but the author of Genesis begins the creation story with God bringing order out of chaos! The purpose of Genesis 1 is not to answer all of our questions about how the world came to be; rather it is to affirm God as the original artist who transformed a chaotic cosmos into a picturesque planet where life could flourish.
Second, Genesis 1 is neither a scientific treatise nor does it address our scientific questions about cosmic origins. When the ancients wanted to describe or discuss creation, they had little interest in the material structure or formational history of the cosmos. Rather, their concerns focused on the functional cosmos. Genesis 1 was never meant to answer scientific questions like the Big Bang, the age of the earth, or even evolutionary process. When we reduce Genesis 1 to an apology for creation against evolution, we miss the whole point of the passage. Genesis 1 is not even primarily about creation; it is about the creator!
Therefore, lets shift our focus to what Genesis 1 actually teaches us about the creator. Since I don’t have enough time to address every aspect of Genesis 1 in a single sermon, let me highlight two things we learn about this creator God.
What Genesis 1 Does Teach Us
1.) God is the original artist.
The Bible begins, in the very first verse, by telling us that God is the original artist. He conceived the universe in his creative mind and then spoke it into existence with incomparable craftsmanship. He created the heavens and the earth and everything that is within them. The story really begins in verse 2, when God brought order out of chaos. He brought form to the formless void—his breath was hovering over the surface of the deep and he spoke into the darkness and filled the empty and uninhabitable earth! Like a master painter who begins with a blank canvas and a palate of many colors, God took the formless earth and fashioned it into a marvelous masterpiece.
Throughout Genesis 1, we witness God’s creative qualities and artistic abilities. His creation was not randomly or haphazardly thrown together; it was formed with intricate order and structure. There is a clear plan and a consistent pattern in the six days of creation. Do you see rhythm of creation? Each day begins with an announcement (“And God said”), and then a command (“Let there be…”), separation (“and he separated”), a report (“and it was so), a naming (“and God called”), an evaluation (And God saw that it was good”), and finally a chronological marker (and there was evening and morning…”).
The six days of creation are also divided into two triads, which contrast with the unformed and unfilled state of the earth when the story begins. On days 1, 2, and 3, God creates light, sky and sea, and land and vegetation. Then on days 4, 5, and 6, God creates the sun, moon, and stars to bear the light, fish to swim the seas and fowl to soar the skies, and livestock and wild animals to inhabit the land and eat the vegetation.
Like a Bach concerto or a great work of Jazz, the original artist displays a brilliant blend of unity and diversity in his creation. God brought order to the uninhabitable chaos and created this picturesque planet as a place for life to flourish. Therefore, every time we gaze upon the mountains and meadows, rocks and rivers, forests and flowers, we should pause and appreciate the intricacies of the original artist! Whether it’s the glimmer of a glorious sunrise or the glow of a harvest moon hanging in the southern sky, the scent of pine while walking through the woods, the sweet taste of sap dripping from the maple trees, or the sparrow singing in the bloomed dogwood, we should praise the original artist for his beauty and creativity! Every time we stroll through God’s multi-dimensional art gallery, we should pause and thank him for his handiwork. And as we enjoy and subdue God’s glorious creation, we should do our part to preserve his marvelous masterpiece!
2.) God created human beings to be cocreators with him.
As we consider God’s artistic creativity through the first five days of creation, we must zoom in on the second part of the sixth day, the crescendo of creation, when God, the Holy Trinity, spoke and said , “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26) He created humans, male and female, with anatomical and reproductive diversity, so that they might perpetuate the human race. Then God commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion…” He created human beings to be creative—to take the raw materials he made and use them to create more human life and subdue the earth.
Since God created us to be cocreators with him, we uniquely reflect God’s image and glory when we apply our creative abilities. God gave us the unique ability to create other human beings! He gave us the ability to subdue and have dominion over the earth by painting pictures, composing melodies, crafting quilts, penning poems, telling stories, forming sculptures, baking cakes, building buildings, shooting photographs, planting gardens, brewing beer, designing clothing, drawing blueprints, roasting coffee, choreographing a dance, and making maple syrup.
Consider two powerful quotes. The Nobel Prize winning Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said, “It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as an apprentice under God’s heaven.” Likewise, the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn once said, “Never was I so devout as when I composed The Creation. I knelt down each day to pray to God to give me strength for my work….When I was working on The Creation I felt so impregnated with Divine certainty, that before sitting down to the piano, I would quietly and confidently pray to God to grant me the talent that was needed to praise Him worthily.”
Let us live out Genesis 1 by joining Solzhenitsyn, Haydn, and the great cloud of artists who have glorified God by using their creative abilities to cocreating with him! What creative abilities has God given you? How are you using them glorify God and bless other people around you? You never know how God might use even a modest work of art to inspire the masses! I recently heard the story of a lowly Catholic priest collaborated with an elementary school teacher to compose the famous Christmas Carol “Silent Night!” It’s amazing how God can use a forgotten poem and a simple guitar tune to teach the world about the birth of his son, our Savior, Jesus Christ!
As we contemplate everything that we have learned from Genesis 1 today, let me bring this sermon to a climactic conclusion with a quote from comedian Demitri Martin who said, “The earth without art is just eh.” Let us pray!