Creation

"The Creation," by James Weldon Johnson

And God stepped out on space, And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely –  I'll make me a world."

And 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 finger 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 fowls
            And beasts and birds
                        Swam 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.

From “God’s Trombones; 7 Negro Sermons in Verse” published in 1928

This is s re-telling of Genesis Chapter 1…   It’s a story with a capital S!

Is the story true?   Is it a “true” story?    

It’s allegory       it’s metaphor          It’s poetry        it’s Art!

It tells a story; in words   in images    in word-pictures

            It tells a story

It doesn’t explain to the head, but to the heart   to the soul

            And these are just as important to our well-being as our intellects are!  

As we feed our minds, we must also feed our souls!     & in the world we live in, often our souls go undernourished or malnourished!

Is Johnson’s Creation Story “true”?    Oh yeah… it’s true!

And Today is Holy Trinity Sunday…   is the Trinity is the “true”?     Yeah.

Can I explain the Trinity to you?    Yep!

            But what good would it do?

I’d rather you tell your stories of God!      

Write them down

Put them to music      sing them!

Plant them    and watch them grow

    

I this poem, “The Creation”.     My father used to be able to recite this from memory!    This meant a lot to him – I could tell by the way he said it, by the fact that he had memorized it.  

I wish I could have asked him why it had such an impact on him.   

I wish I could have asked him how it came to be that this poem ended up meaning so much to him.  

Is there an explanation for what the Trinity is?   Oh, yeah, there is.

But it would be far better if we turned to each other

            Here or at home

            On a walk      or over dinner     or in the car

            With friends    and/or   family    or with a neighbor

… with someone who needed to hear…

           

            And tell them who God is to you!

Tell them  when and how you might have felt the power of this God.

Or God’s quiet and peaceful touch…   God’s calming presence

Or even tell them – maybe – that you’re not quite sure what to think about this God

Or that there are times you don’t feel God at all

Or about the times you didn’t understand!

Tell them about the times when you’re in bed

            Just before you drift off into unconsciousness

                        How sometimes you get a sense of Divine Peace

Like an Angel peeking around the corner saying

“Sleep well.   Rest your heart    rest your mind   rest your soul      Sleep well…

I’ll be guarding your sleep all night!”

Tell them about the times you got promptings to pray – the prayers that came a deep place – like they came from out of the blue

Unconscious, un planned… they just came on their own.

I can talk theology…         But I’d rather hear your faith stories!              

                                                I’d rather hear you sing the song that binds you to God!

                                                I’d rather read your poetry!

… moments of God’s presence with you.  

Tell me how your story    your song      your poem      your art   is true to you!

Tell me how it shows your soul!

This is what the bible is... it's stories, songs, poems

It's a record of a relationship between a people and their God over a 3 thousand year period.   

The point is              This God we talk about is more than our words

The point is              God is not "contained", "captured",  in buildings or institutions or pages in a book

The point is              This God is revealed in stories of life… in life experiences whether they are written or not

The point is            God is in the earth we walk on

                                    God is in the essence of our relationships

                                    God is in our dreams

                                    God is reflected in our past

                                    God calls us from our future

                                                And most of all…    God is alive in our present more than we know.  

Then into it   He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
            Amen.             Amen.