Weekly Sermon Illustration: Creation

In our blog post every Monday we select a reading from the”¯Revised Common Lectionary”¯for the upcoming Sunday, and pair it with a Frederick”¯Buechner”¯reading on the same topic.

Next Sunday we will celebrate Trinity Sunday.”¯ Here is this week’s reading from the book of Genesis:

Genesis 1:1-12

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,”¯the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”¯Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”¯And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”¯God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”¯And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."”¯So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.”¯God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”¯And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.”¯God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”¯Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so.”¯The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.

The following excerpt was originally published in”¯ Wishful Thinking ”¯and later in”¯ Beyond Words :

To make suggests making something out of something else the way a carpenter makes wooden boxes out of wood. To create suggests making something out of nothing the way an artist makes paintings or poems. It is true that artists, like carpenters, have to use something else—paint, words—but the beauty or meaning they make is different from the material they make it out of. To create is to make something essentially new.

When God created the creation, God made something where before there had been nothing, and as the author of the book of Job puts it, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (38:7) at the sheer and shimmering novelty of the thing. "New every morning is the love / Our wakening and uprising prove" says the hymn. Using the same old materials of earth, air, fire, and water, every twenty-four hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you're seeing the same show all over again seven times a week, you're crazy. Every morning you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again either.