This
month at Christ United Methodist Church we have been focusing on “How God
Speaks to Us through the Scriptures.”
We began two weeks ago by looking at what it means to say that “all
Scripture is inspired by God.” Then,
last weekend, we looked at different approaches to understanding the
scriptures. Scripture is foundational to
Christian faith, life, and identity. As
we have seen, scripture is an important common denominator that unites all
Christians, regardless of our differences.
Yet, as we have also seen, Christians may interpret the scriptures quite
differently.
This
Sunday, September 22nd, we look at a concern and a challenge: For both Christians and non-Christians,
scientific discoveries appear to contradict the teachings of scripture and
their authority as “inspired by God.” Of
course, this topic is much larger than I can handle in a single sermon. But, this Sunday I will attempt to address an
important part of this topic by looking at the question, “Can I accept
evolution and believe in the Bible?” The challenge here is that evolution’s
account of how biological life emerged and developed on Earth appears to
directly contradict the story of Creation in Genesis 1 of the Bible.
Although almost all 19th century
Christians believed evolution could be reconciled with the Genesis 1 creation story,
in the early 20th century a radical “creationist” interpretation emerged among some American Christians during
the 20th century.[1] Basically, “creationism” is the attempt to ground
scientifically our belief that God created the universe, as literally described
in Genesis 1. Creationism proposes an
alternative theory that explains away or replaces the theory of evolution.
Essentially, creationism presents
itself as a superior form of science, which explains the origins of the
universe in Genesis 1. While popular
news reports tend to treat creationism as a single, unified theory, there are
actually several alternative proposals. Three
of these alternatives are (1) “day-age,”
(2) “gap,” and (3) “Flood” or “Creation Science.”
For some Christians, some form of
creationism offers a plausible way of reconciling conflicts between scientific
evolution and faith in the scriptures. I
think that I understand the attraction of creationism—it centers on trusting
the accuracy of the Bible. When we
question the descriptive accuracy of Genesis 1, then what does that imply for
other claims in the Bible, such as God’s promise of eternal life? Where—and, how—do we draw the line between
fact and fiction; truth and falsehood? If
the Creation story in Genesis 1 is untrue, then how can we trust that the
promise of eternal life is true? This is a real dilemma, which I cannot address
during this blog.
Yet, for many others the
creationist approach is not much helpful.
For example, some of the arguments appear to be nothing more than mere
semantic games, as when the “day-age” alternative proposes that the “days” in
Genesis 1 are not literally 24-hour days, but rather epochs lasting for thousands
of years. An even more serious concern
is that creationism is not real science because it provides no empirical evidence or
testable hypotheses. Instead of
accepting creationism, these Christians tend to see evolution as an explanation
of the origins and development of physical life on Earth. But, this raises the question of what we are
to make of Genesis 1, as well as other creation stories in the Bible.
In
my sermon, I will suggest that there are some Biblical interpretation tools
which may off help for those who cannot accept a literal interpretation of Genesis
1:
The first
interpretive tool is called the Form Approach. The Bible is not a single, solitary
book. Instead, it is a virtual library
of different genres of (prose or verse, letters, laws, court archives, war
hymns, poems of lament, etc.). The first
step in the form approach is to determine what kind of literature we are dealing
with, in terms of a particular passage.
So, in order to understand Genesis
1, our first step is to ask, “What kind of literature is this?” For the creationist, the answer is pretty
simple and straightforward, Genesis 1 must be a scientific textbook, explaining
how the universe began. The problem with
this interpretive approach is that the scientific method was not developed for many
millennia after Genesis 1 was written.
So, the problem with the creationist reading is that it is anachronistic. That is, it imposes a way of thinking
(scientific method), which was unknown at the time that Genesis was
written.
If the
Genesis 1 Creation story is not a science textbook, then what genre of
literature is it? I will suggest that
the creation story must actually be read as a narrative parable, which explains
three types of relationships:
1.
God’s relationship with Creation.
2.
God’s relationship with human persons.
3.
Humans’ relationship with Creation.
To explain my interpretation, I need
to introduce a second interpretive tool:
Source Approach. In
this approach, the interpreter tries to find the original sources which lie
behind a given biblical text. This type
of analysis must be reserved for experts:
scriptural scholars, who are also linguists because they must be able to
read and understand many ancient languages.
What these experts tell us is very surprising. They do not believe that the scriptures
were written down by spiritual leaders. Instead, they believe much of the early
Hebrew tradition was originally “oral tradition,” handed down
from generation to generation. (Think of
sitting around a campfire and telling stories.) The theory is that these
different sources about the events in these books were compiled together when
Judah was kicked out of their land in 586 BCE. The books of the Old Testament
from Genesis to Kings were composed by a series of editors out of four major
strands of literary traditions.
According to their analysis—and there is broad consensus
among Biblical scholars on this point—Genesis 1 belongs to the youngest of the
four strands of literary traditions.
Given that dating, we know that Genesis was formed at a time when Israel,
the Hebrew nation, was settled and well established. The Hebrew people occupied their homeland in
the midst of many other peoples, with their own religious beliefs and
practices.
Egypt and Mesopotamia were two of
Israel’s neighbors. Both of these
neighboring countries had strong religious theologies. The leaders of both countries—the Pharaoh in
Egypt and the King in Mesopotamia—were worshiped as divine. They were divine-rulers, sons of the gods. In this role, the ruler had two important
responsibilities bestowed upon them by the gods:
1.
They were responsible for insuring that the agricultural
fields were protected and well-cared-for, so that the fields remained very
fertile, capable of producing plenty of food for the people.
2.
They were to serve as a protector for the widow
and the orphan. That is, they were
responsible for insuring that the marginalized members of their society were
cared for.
In the Genesis 1 story, God affirms the goodness of
all Creation. Again and again and again
in Genesis 1, God judges creation good. Then,
at the end of this week of creation, God creates human persons:
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
One Biblical scholar has written that in the Genesis 1
creation story, God creates a democracy, rather than a kingdom. In opposition to the beliefs of the Egyptian
and Mesopotamian cultures, where the Pharaoh or King has the responsibility of
caring for creation, in Genesis 1, everyone is given this responsibility. Although I do not read Genesis 1 as a
scientific textbook, I do believe that it has something very important to tell
us—perhaps even more important than how the universe began:
1.
What is God’s relationship with Creation? God affirms again and again and again the
goodness of all Creation.
2.
What is God’s relationship with human persons? Humans are created in the image of God. All of us—every last one of us—are divine-rulers,
children of God.
3.
What is humans’ relationship with Creation? As children of God, we a given the
responsibility to care for Creation, as good stewards.
If you live in the Lincoln,
Nebraska area and do not have a place of worship, then I invite you to come and
join us at Christ United Methodist Church this Sunday, September 22nd. Christ UMC is located at 4530 “A”
Street. We have three worship services
on Sunday mornings at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00.
The 8:30 and 11:00 services feature a traditional worship format and the
services are held in our Sanctuary. “The
Gathering” at 9:45 is held in our Family Life Center (gym), and it is more
informal and interactive.
Come, join us. Everyone is welcome and accepted because God
loves us all.
[1]See
Ronald L. Numbers, The Creationists, The
Evolution of Scientific Creationism (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: The University of California Press, 1992).
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