Joe's Journal
May 16, 2008

Recent days have witnessed a number of catastrophes in our nation and our world.  Tornadoes claimed the lives of dozens from Arkansas to Georgia. In China, an earthquake this week has killed tens of thousands, and last week’s cyclone in Myanmar claimed perhaps as many as 100,000 lives. This Sunday our lectionary reading from the Old Testament is the account of creation in Genesis 1. The lectionary has a mystical way of offering a relevant word to contemporary issues. In a time when creation is causing quite a lot of suffering, we are offered the Bible’s account of this creation. 

(cont.) In the NRSV, Genesis begins with these words: “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.” However this passage could be translated in a number of ways.  In his book, Creation and the Persistence of Evil, Harvard Divinity School Professor Jon Levenson suggests a traditional rabbinical translation of verse 1 as: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth …”  Levenson suggests that the Spirit of God hovered over the watery chaos, the “formless void.”  Creation begins as God brings order to the chaos, separating light from dark, defining land, sky and water, etc. Levenson further argues that God’s creative work of bringing order to chaos continues, for God has not ceased creating. Orthodox Christians might refute his argument as our doctrine teaches that God created the world out of nothing—creatio ex nihilo. If God’s creative work was to bring order to chaos, then where did the chaos come from? This is a question for the ages.

Where does the chaos come from? Where do tornadoes that destroy lives come from?  Where do earthquakes and cyclones come from? I cannot answer these questions. Neither does Genesis 1. However, the text does suggest that the creative work of God is about bringing order to this chaos. In the midst of a chaotic world, this is truly good news.

The Church is called to be an instrument of this good news. Through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, our denomination sent over $100,000 in aid to Church World Service and other organizations now entering Myanmar. I’m confident there will be a similar response to the tragedy in China. PDA also has ongoing operations in American communities devastated by storms. We’re still in New Orleans, and we’ll be in Arkansas and anywhere else chaos destroys the lives of our neighbors, because that’s part of what the church is called to do. 

This Sunday we celebrate the work of the First Presbyterian Church Foundation. In many ways, they help bring order to chaos. We will welcome guests from Grace Presbyterian Village, Interfaith Housing, and our Saturday School ministry. These are some of the organizations that receive funding from our Foundation.  Each of these organizations bring order to the chaos of people’s lives, whether by providing a safe living environment for an aging parent with dementia, or providing an apartment for a homeless family, or providing a fun environment of care and compassion every Saturday morning for kids living in poverty. In these ways and many more, our Foundation is an instrument of God working in the world to bring order to chaos.  

Hope to see you Sunday as we celebrate God’s creative work in the world!
Joe