Gathering Activity: As you prepare for worship this Sunday, turn to Genesis 1, be it with your own Bible, a Pew Bible or even looking it up on your phone (try www.biblegateway.com for various translations).
Read through the text and visualize the unfolding of Creation. Imagine the colors, the beauty, the sights, the smells, the sounds. As the canvas takes shape, remind yourself of the words from Genesis 1:31 (The Message): “God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!”

MESSAGE by the Rev. Tomi Jacobs-Ziobro
It is interesting that the Bible starts with poetry. Hebrew poetry.
The first words written there and the first words that offer meaning for our faith are poetic.
Perhaps that is because when it comes to describing faith beginning with poetry is best— as it expresses what is hard to describe by pushing the very boundaries of our understanding.
The Hebrews seemed to know that and wrote this long poem about creation full of theology and meaning and purpose with an ingrained truth that this is not the end: it is the beginning. After six days, the work is not finished. These first days were just the foundation stones. The real work of creation is everything that happens thereafter.
There is a pattern at the heart of things. A word pattern too that speaks of rhythm and morality: “God said ‘Let there be…’”; “There was evening and morning…”; “God saw that it was good”.
There is a daily pattern written into the very essence of creation which is a lesson for us all in a modern age that forgets patterns too easily: seasonal patterns, daily patterns, prayer patterns.
Within the pattern that we can find the beauty of God’s creation as we make room for the variety that brings different aspects to our lives rather than focusing only on one thing. The interplay of patterns and variety speak of God’s handiwork.
Within the poem of creation there is a moral aspect too: “God saw it was good”. Right there before even turning a page of the bible we see, through what has been created, and everything that is going to happen thereafter, that creation is morally good. God did not throw a few bits and pieces together to shape star fields and fjords but chose and designed and loved it into being with purpose and intent. This is the moral heart of creation.
But what is also intriguing is that because this first passage
in the Bible is about beginnings, not endings, there is an unknown in it too.
God did not know how it would all turn out. God has set life on the loose, and moves with creation into the unknown, into relying on the faith of the people that will be born through this creation.
It is a beginning without an ending and a story that embraces freedom and choice.

the Genesis creation poem was written by people who were not in Jerusalem living comfortable lives but rather in exile in Babylon for three generations during which much of what we now have as Old Testament Scripture was written down.
Those who came back were not those who were first taken there and even the global power that took them that distance was no longer dominant but had themselves been overtaken by another power: Babylon fell and the Persians replaced them. The Hebrews were caught up in the midst of all of this and in amongst all of that, Genesis 1 was written.
It is not ever meant to be an explanation of creation but an answer to a question asking the faithful remnant: do you still believe your God is powerful enough to protect you? When in exile you can let God go or let God grow, rethinking who God is in a strange and foreign land. This poem, written when they had to rethink what they believed about God now that God’s indestructible house, Jerusalem and the temple, had been destroyed. This poem is a loud shout and faithful response to that question with the answer: “Yes! We do!”

more than 18 years ago, while in seminary— I took a class entitled Quilting: Womanist-Feminist Preaching. This class was lead by Rev Dr Barbara Lundblad and Rev Annie Ruth Powell and made up of women of a variety of ages racial and ethnic backgrounds and denominational affiliations.
We were freed to think outside the box in preaching—to encourage our creativity while affirming our life experience as women.
In the previous semester I had taken a Hebrew intensive course and we had used the the story of creation found in the book of Genesis as our learning text—- so we were reading it over and over for 6+ hours a day, 6 days a week for 4 weeks.
I was steeped in this story
I was also inspired to write poetry
So I offer you this morning, my poem— Artistic source, that I first preached to a gathering of women, in my bare feet
After I read it I will pause for a full minute to allow you, if you have not already, create something on the cover of your bulletin…

Artistic Source                by Tomi Jacobs-Ziobro 1999

Artistic source
Cosmic being
daring to create
wonder from wonder
all that is and will be
and beyond

colors and contrasts
textures and depths
light and deep hues
varying tones and shades

all being
all essence
all

soft and delicate
elegant and precise
bold and vibrant
loudly, with energy
intentionally splashing
blessing and lifting
forming and pouring
molding and shaping
releasing and filling
building and sculpting
defining and smoothing

pushing air under wings
and breath into lungs
lifting eyelids
moving tendons and joints
giving rhythm to hearts
and ocean waves
setting rivers to flow
circle upon circle of movement
pulsing blood through veins
raining water from the sky
for drink and to cool
reflecting light off of dust
for dazzling sights in the skies

never stopping
continuously creating
vibrations and melodies
symphonies and songs
of crickets and flies
whales forlorn cries
moans and sighs
birds chirping
leaves rustling
waves pounding
thunder rolling
voices humming
roaring
barking
screaming
calling
chaos and order
all spilled out together
daring and magnificent
skillfully made
birthed from within
dressed from without
colored and painted
with freedom and peace
as you would wish it, God
however you please, Creator

skin here, fur there
scales on that one
rich browns
straight hair and curly
a continual finale
deep and pale tones
tails and fins
beaks and horns
tusks and teeth
four legs or two
two hands and two thumbs
eight legs or none
deep valleys and high mountains
wings and petals
claws and hooves
thorns and flesh
bees and honey
breasts bringing milk
trees bearing fruit
vines yielding harvest
fields reaping crops
cycle after cycle
unending

variety and harmony
diversity and serenity
an ongoing knitting
of each thought into being
just pausing to rest
and revel in all that is

eternal
forever persisting
continually creating
Amen

(silence for thinking)

Reflection
Go create…. Be creative…
The wonders of creation surround us. Every detail worked out.
The tiniest of details
worked through.
The purpose set out
and implemented.
How could we possibly match the creativity of God?
And yet God gave us the gifts of imagination, the power of thought,
insight, skills, talents.
All to be used not wasted.
Go create… Be creative…
Can we create a fair and just society?
Can we create loving, caring communities? Can we create a better world?
Yes, why yes we can.
And we start today—here in this place.
Day one of a new creation. Day one as God’s apprentices. Day one as God’s hands.
Go create… Be creative… Amen