Beginnings
May 22, 2005
Genesis 1:1-24
This is the day we question, in the UCC, what it is we’re creating and how it reflects our Trinitarian experience of God. On Trinity Sunday we delve into the world of repeated beginnings attempting to find how Pentecost meets Easter. How God is the Source, Word and Spirit of what it is we’re bringing into being every day. How it is we call things into life.
Our Scripture passage today reminds us that God created in the beginning. God creates and everything is good in the beginning. Everything is good and has a beginning and an ending: boundaries from the very start. From the beginning divine love is poured into every facet of creation. And we’re drawn into communion with this God who is as close to us as breath and as distant as the farthest star. And who names us good as part of God’s good creation. God is the source of good life and good living and we are wrapped up in it.
On Trinity Sunday we’re also pulled into the formula that God is not only Source but also Word and Spirit. God spoke a word and all that good creation came into being. And it is the breath, the wind, the Spirit that was hovering over the deep, present from the beginning. And it is unique news for us as Christians to celebrate this Sunday that our unique understanding of God requires all three of these Source, Word, Spirit as God.
And, just as it was in our Scripture story I don’t think that the first beginnings were difficult. All seemed to be good and well…until we began to think for ourselves. And, once we began to express our free will the beginnings seem to get harder and harder. There was the day that began with picking fruit of the forbidden tree…It was the beginning of beginnings turning hard. Our first beginnings seem so easy. We’re born into a certain time and place and we grow. This all happens without much effort. But as we grow we are time and again asked to begin again or to create something new. And, this is where we meet the slippery slope between Pentecost and Easter.
The Priest in the film is an excellent example of one whose creative spirit has died. He was faced in seminary with subversive ways of teaching in trying to do the play about Galileo. But, it’s too much the authorities cry out. So the creation of the play is stopped. It is extremely painful to have a dream die. To have the dream of a new creation taken, stolen, or ended for you. The Passion play was just this type of creation for the actors in the film. They had followed the rules and done everything as they were asked. And, each of them was transformed by their experience of creating this script, this play about the Source of Life, the Word’s in-breaking in Jesus and the Spirit that moves to this day. And, the conflict that emerges over the death of this creation is what we see taking place in the clip for today.
The Priest in the film refers to the church as the place we hit rock bottom. He sees his congregation as a pile of refugees that don’t want any more creation. He infers the church is a cheap elixir, a better drug, a more accessible way to get comfortable in this life. He infers the church is an opiate that leads to comfort. Comfort for the greatest number of days.
But we must ask on this Trinity Sunday. How does this definition reflect the God who calls life into being? How does this definition allow the Word to come and the Spirit to move? How is it that we become rooted in the Source of Life? And we’re forced to answer that it’s in the beginnings.
What would it take for this Priest to begin again? He was so afraid of the creative power the actors brought to the story of the life and death of Christ he had to call in backup. He was not willing to allow this thing that was bigger than himself to move among those seeking. To move among those gathering for the play. The moment he felt this new thing, this new life he shut it down. And the good news today is a question of what is it we’re willing to do today?
Are we only willing to seek comfort for ourselves? Or are we willing to begin again. Calling out to the Source of Life and remembering back that God created and all was good. How would it be if we could see the good of God’s creation within each one of us? How would it be if we could begin with the Source each time and bring the word along? How would that change our beginnings?
Our Scripture reminds us today that we were created in the image of God. And that we are to exercise dominion over the rest of creation in the image of God. And, as we do this work we are most reflective of what it means to be in the image of God. When we are called by God to begin, we’re called to begin with God as our Source. We are called to focus on the Word for guidance. We’re called to be open and propelled with the movement of the Spirit. That all we might do is reflective of the image of God.
So where is it we begin? How do our meetings and gatherings begin? How is it we go about beginning a project? When is the last time we began again? When we focus our lives on beginning from the Source and work towards meeting that source head on is when the beginning again becomes creative and we live in the image. Let’s make sure that as we work together in this community, we’re beginning again and again. And, let’s make sure we have the grace to remind one another we are made in the image of God.
For it’s true. Beginning again a year ago was easy. We had so many places we could begin. We began to pray regularly. We began to meet and talk about what it was we were doing here. We began to seek permanent space. But the beginnings now become more difficult. It seems the more we become established the harder it appears to begin again. People begin to have expectations about who and how we are. This seems to box us in and at times defeat us. The Priest in the film was an excellent example. He felt insignificant in the shadow of the institution. But, we are not rooted in this community. We are rooted in the Source, Word, and Spirit. And, it is in that image we are created. So, we must, in spite of the institutional organization continue to begin. We must pray for those things we want to begin that new people will be drawn into our community to meet those needs. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to announce, “I’m beginning again!” when we’re working on a new connection with God? When we’re trying to live more in the image? What a reminder and a witness it would be to that creative spirit nestled within each of us from the beginning.
So, this Pentecost, between now and November 20. Let’s make sure as we go about building up the community of faith. Let’s make sure we’re talking about the community of First to others. But let’s begin talking about how the relationship to the source is helping us to begin again in a different way. Let’s make sure we are working on beginning again with ourselves, in the image of God: Source, Word, Spirit. God will call us out of the deep and inspire us with a word filling us up with the Spirit. That force is capable of meeting us anywhere to begin again. So, let’s make sure as we talk about what it means to be community in the next 28 weeks, we begin that dialogue with the Source of All Life who called us into being in their image Source Word and Spirit and called us good. Let us pray.