On Friday,
January 25th, I will post a blog previewing my sermon this Sunday, January 27th,
exploring the doubt: “How Can I Believe
When the Church Lets Me Down?” Before
moving to that topic, however, I have a few final comments concerning my sermon
on evolution last Sunday.
In that sermon,
I tried to present the opposing positions of creationism and theistic
evolution. I defined creationism as “the
attempt to scientifically ground our belief that God created the universe with
an alternative explanation to evolution that agrees more literally with the
Creation account in Genesis 1.”
Basically, creationists reject any aspect of evolution that cannot be
brought into harmony with a literal reading of Genesis 1. By theistic evolution, I mean a theological
perspective that accepts evolution as the scientific explanation of how biological
life emerged and developed, but it understands God’s creative action as working
through the evolutionary process. This
perspective does not read and interpret Genesis 1 as a literal, scientific
explanation.
As I noted last Sunday, there are a
wide variety of differing interpretations of evolution within the broad
categories of creationism and theistic evolution. And, I tried to describe some of the varied
interpretations on both sides of the question as fairly and objectively as
possible. In the interest of
transparency—and, without claiming that everyone has to agree with me on this
issue—I also concluded by sharing that in my own faith journey I have adopted the
theistic evolution perspective.
I know that announcing my position
thrilled some people and horrified others.
Evolution is a very deep controversial topic and there are many members
from my congregation on both sides. As I’ve
said before, disagreement, as long as it’s civil, can be good for
Christians. When we only talk with
people who agree with us, then we just confirm our own beliefs. We stop thinking and growing in that
area. But, when we have authentic
conversations with others who disagree with us, then we think more deeply and
we grow in our faith as a result.
Still, sometimes I think that evolution is too controversial for
Christians. It’s too controversial
because it distracts us from the true meaning of Genesis 1.
The true meaning of Genesis 1
centers on two relationships: (1) God’s
relationship with Creation and (2) humans’ relationship with Creation. In Genesis 1, God affirms again and again the
goodness of creation. When at last God’s
creative work is done at the end of the sixth day, Genesis 1:31 records: “God saw everything that he had made, and
indeed, it was very
good. And there was evening and there
was morning, the sixth day.” God’s
relationship with Creation is that of an affirming Creator, who sees the value of
what has been created; who values and loves nature.
As for the second relationship
between humans and nature, the key verse is Genesis 1:27. “So God created humankind in his image, in
the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” We humans tend to see and interpret things
from within our particular socio-cultural context. Biblical research suggests that the early Hebrews
would have heard this verse within their socio-cultural context, in which they
were neighbors with the Babylonians and Egyptians. Both of these cultures idolized their King—or,
Pharaoh—seeing them as created in the divine image of their gods. The Babylonian and Egyptian rulers were
charged with insuring the safety and security of their land, or ecology, and ruling
with justice. In Genesis 1, what God
says to the Hebrews is that taking care of nature and working for justice is
not just the responsibility of a single person--even a King-- but rather of all humans. So, humans’ relationship with nature should
be one of care-taking of this Creation that God loves and sees as “very good.”
At the end of the discussion, when
everything has been said, it does not really matter whether God created in six
24-hour days, or in six “day-ages,” or through the process of evolution. What really matters is whether we humans
respond faithfully to God by becoming good stewards of God’s Creation—and, that
should be something we can all agree on.
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