3 September 2023 Season of Creation 1

We don’t often look at the second creation story.  Most of us know the first one well, God created the world, the universe and all that it contains in 6 separate events, which we call ‘days’.  And then God rested.  And in that creation story, humankind was made last and God gave them responsibility for all of creation.  We often ‘incorrectly’ read that responsibility as God giving humankind ‘authority’ over all creation, as if it is there for humankind to use in any way that pleases us, but that is not the way the word should be read.  Humankind is given ‘responsibility’ not ‘authority’.  But in this second creation story, humankind is the first thing created.  Yes, we are told there is already the heavens and the earth and presumably day and night, but this story focuses on the creation of humankind, and then plants and animals.  We are told God formed ‘adam’, human, from ‘adama’, earth, and God breathed life into this human, and then God planted a garden and put the human in the garden to till it and keep it.  Animal life was then created ‘out of the ground’ just like the human, and the human named these birds and animals.  Like the first creation story, humankind is given responsibility for the rest of the created world – ‘adam’ was put in the garden to ‘till it and keep it’.  How well have we gone with that today.  How well do we ‘till and keep’ the created order.  Just look at climate change around us, just look at the rising sea levels, the dying out of species of plant as well as animal.

Now when Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be ‘born again’, born of water and the Spirit, he is reinforcing the theme we hear in this second creation story.  The second birth does not negate the first, both births are from God, and both are to be celebrated.  We are children of God by creation and by baptism, and as children of the Earth we all yearn to know God.

Now the thing about breathing life into someone is, when we are born, the first thing we do after being born is ‘breathe’.  It is the one thing all of us have done ever since leaving our mother’s womb and we are all doing it now.  Now the heart is already beating when we are born, it has been beating since the heart was formed as the cells of our being separated and became specialised, into unique organs and bones and skin and everything that goes into becoming a body; but breathing is uniquely something that we have done since entering the world and we will continue to do it until the time comes – when we won’t.  If we studied Hebrew, we would learn that the Hebrew written word is only consonants.  There are no vowels because, the educated Jew automatically fills the consonants with the appropriate vowels to make the words they speak.  But when they speak God’s name, there are no vowels needed.  There are four consonants in the sacred name Yahweh, but no vowels are needed.  Which, to the uninitiated makes the word unpronounceable.  Which is the point.  When you pronounce those consonants correctly, they do not allow you to close your lips or use your tongue.  And the reason the name cannot be spoken is it can only be breathed, the sacred name Yahweh is an attempt to replicate the sound of inhalation and exhalation.  God is as available as the breath, the air, the wind.  As I said, taking breath is the one thing we have all done since the time of our birth. And not only does breathing maintain our physical life, it can also help maintain our prayer life.  Because prayer is not something you ‘do’, it is something that is done ‘to you’.  You allow it.  You say yes to it, you bring it to consciousness, you bring it to awareness.  You awaken the mystery and miracle that is happening around you, within you and through you, all the time.

The forests are breathing, the land is breathing, the wilderness is breathing, the rivers are breathing, all living creatures are breathing and in doing so they are praying the name of their Creator.  Just like us.