I once heard it said that if you take sin out of the Bible you would be left with a pamphlet. And that pamphlet would contain four chapters: Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22.
So in the first chapter of Genesis we see this beautiful poetic tale of Elohim (God) forming, weaving and creating a new world. And it feels more like a song than a narrative. Elohim creates things, endows them with Elohim's presence and blesses them and calls them tov (good). Then the Creator looks at all of this beautiful, dynamic, living creation and calls it tov me'od (very good).
In the second chapter we are given a different account of the Elohim's creation. This account deals specifically with the creation of humankind. In this story Elohim forms both a man and a woman human in Elohim's likeness. Elohim also creates a beautiful garden with rivers and trees with fruits and places the two humans in it. And there they live, and love and eat from the vegetation and live in harmony with their creator who loves them and their creator dwells among them. There is a Hebrew word for this: Shalom.
So it would seem that Elohim's original plan was to hang out with a bunch of naked vegetarians in and organic garden all day!
Fast forward now to the end of the story: Revelation 21. And what is the scene there -
"'I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'
He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'”
So it would appear that in the end things are once again right in the world and Elohim is once again dwelling among Elohim's people. A beautiful city is coming down from heaven and it sounds amazing. No death! No mourning! No more pain!
Everything is made new! Shalom is restored!
And if you read on it gets even better. Apparently this city has a river running down from the very throne of Elohim, and there are trees and fruits and all kinds of people from all different places. In fact if you pay attention it starts to remind you a little bit of the garden from Genesis 1.
Except it's no longer just a garden - Now its a big, beautiful organic garden-city!
Creation is progressing, changing, living and growing. It's dynamic not static. So even without sin in the story creation is going somewhere rather than staying still! Apparently all along it has been pregnant with possibilities!
And so there we have it- two stories that literally frame the rest of the Bible. Everything else that unfolds in this massive work of literature fits in between these two book-ends.
This is how the whole story begins: in Elohim's good garden.
And
This is how the whole story ends: in Elohim's good garden-city.
This is ultimately not a story of Elohim abandoning, forsaking and destroying the good creation; Rather this is a story of Elohim fixing what has been broken. In this story Elohim is renewing, restoring and reconciling all of creation and doing so through Jesus. The writer of Romans says this:
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."
Oh, by the way - this has profound implications.
As followers of Jesus this means that what we are called to is participation. Elohim is alive and active and in the business of reconciliation and restoration. Elohim is doing something - and as followers of Jesus we get to be a part of it. We get to participate. We get to work, alongside Elohim, towards a new kind of creation (which in a way is actually a very ancient kind of creation) that is all about harmony, and goodness, and love.
In other words what we do matters.
Here!
Now!
It really does matter!
As NT Wright says:
"Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one's fellow human beings and for that matter one's fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world - all of this will find it's way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make."
No comments:
Post a Comment