Sunday Worship 13 April | Let The Land Produce Living Creatures

Genesis 1:24-31 (NLT)

Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened. Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

Ephesians 4:32-32 (NLT)

Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbours the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

And so we have come to the sixth day of creation, on which God creates the creatures of the land, including humans. As I said last week, the Genesis account does not need to stand in opposition to or tension with what we now understand of evolution, because it is not trying to answer the scientific question of how life on earth came to be, but rather the philosophical question of why life on earth came to be. They are different questions and it is right that they are answered by different disciplines, although that doesn't mean we should keep them in separate boxes. We can marvel that God created life, and we can marvel further that God created life that can recreate itself. Having said that, I will now talk about this passage as if I am taking it at face value, so that we can reflect together on what it is trying to teach us about our place in the created order.

I do find it interesting that animals and humans are created on the same day. There is a distinction between the two acts of creation, and we'll think some more about that in a little while, but we humans are not so distinct as to be disconnected from the other creatures with whom we share the planet. As we heard last week, all living beings are united by having or being a nephesh, which we might understand as the breath or soul with which they are animated by God. Ruth Valerio says this: “There is no true humanity without other humans: a human on their own is not fully who he or she is meant to be. But humanity does not only exist within the human community: without the wider community of creatures that God has created we cannot be what we have been created to be and we are the poorer for it.” 

I know people tease the English about their affinity for pets, but honestly I think it's one of our healthier national attributes. In choosing to share our lives and our homes with all manner of furred and finned and feathered beings, we come to understand something of what it means to be a part of that wider community of creatures. There is a particular blessing to be had in loving and being loved by an animal, and it creates an emotional connection to something outside of our human experience. I'm not saying it's impossible to have a pet and care little for creation, but I do think it's harder.

Let's look a little more closely at the two acts of creation on the sixth day. We are told that “God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds”. We came across that phrase “according to their kinds” last week, and we see it again here as another celebration of variety. Over one and a half million species of animal have so far been described, although it is estimated that there are another five and half million still waiting to be discovered. And they come in every size and shape and colour imaginable. The duck billed platypus is an exercise in variety all on its own! We are also told that God looked at this menagerie and “saw that it was good”, which should remind us that God values each part of creation, and we must too - from the tiny ant to the elephant, as the primary school song has it.

If we needed further proof that God cares for all of creation, the Noahic covenant of Genesis 9 is with every living creature, in Psalm 104 the psalmist declares “all creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time”, the book of Jonah ends with God expressing concern for “the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals”, and in Revelation 5 John writes “I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea” praising God. We're back again with that idea of the wider community of creatures, and the impossibility of being fully human without it.

We need to remember that as we come to reflect on the creation of our own kind. We are made in the image of God, and this does set us apart to some degree, but I want to suggest that humans were created not as the pinnacle of creation but as the final piece. There can be an arrogance about how we see ourselves in relation to the natural world, and that can lead us to use it carelessly, to the detriment of all creation. Yes we are given authority over the other living beings and the seed bearing plants, but I think we need to accept that authority as stewards and caretakers, not as masters or dictators. We are also part of the ecosystems we are responsible for, and we must hold ourselves in balance, or we risk destroying everything. That's where the more practical ideas we have considered in this series come in.

Let's come back now to the idea that we are made in the image of God. We are never really told what that means. Do we look like God? Do we have the same characteristics as God? Do we contain some essence of God? I have come to understand it to mean that we all possess the potential for the connection and compassion and creativity we see in God, and that we as individuals and as society function best when we lean into those attributes, which we might see as divine but which also make us most fully human. I also think it affirms that we are all created with the same intention and care. There is a radical equality here which weighs against the hierarchies and binaries we create for ourselves, and which should drive our justice work. 

Perhaps most of all it tells us that we were made to be very good. What Paul calls our new nature is really our intended nature. I have spoken before about the way the doctrine of original sin has worn down our sense of self, but we were made for original blessing and we need to live into all that means for all we can be. You were made in love to carry the image of the divine, and so was the first person you said hello to this morning, and so was the one you crossed the street to avoid, and so was the politician you shouted at on the television. If we could all recognise the image of God in ourselves and in one another, well that would not just be a revolution but a recreation, and I think that would be very good indeed.

I end with a prayer by French Catholic Prisca Liotard: Lord be praised for the immensity and the beauty of your creation. We pray with humility to be every single day more aware of the variety of species on earth and to seek for their protection. We thank you for this calling to take care of our planet that you put in many hearts, and we pray many others will follow. We ask you the grace of being able to see the world with your eyes and to always be amazed by the places we're blessed to go. In this time of Lent, Lord help us to discern what specific choice we can make to reduce our ecological imprint on the Earth and how we can be an encouragement to people around us to think and act about it. At times when we can be discouraged by the amount of ecological issues, help us to remember we stand before holy ground when we encounter another person and to believe that you can make everything possible.