To Say Elohim
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series II, Cycle A
Object:
Since we are gathered here in a church, I suspect that there are not many of you present who do not believe in God, at least to some degree. In fact, some of you may not be able to recall a time at all when you didn't believe in God. Others may remember a time -- or perhaps several different times -- when you questioned or even outright doubted the reality of this whole idea of God (and I'd have to put myself in that group).
But now, here we are, gathered in church for another service of worship. That may or may not signify that you have settled the matter of belief in God, but it probably indicates that you are at least open to thinking about it.
Would it surprise you if I said that as your pastor, I'm not terribly concerned about whether or not you have resolved your questions about the existence of God?
But there are two conclusions about God that do concern me. The first is if you say, "I've got God figured out. I know what God wants; I understand him. God is thus and so, and that settles it." I hope you see the problem with that position. If we have God all defined, if he is capable of being grasped in his entirety in the human mind, then he is less than the human mind and cannot be much of a god. That god is too small.
The other conclusion that concerns me is the one that says, "We cannot know anything about God" and therefore we shouldn't spend any time thinking about him. That god is meaningless.
It's this second position that I want to address today, and I want to do that by directing you to the very first verse in the Bible: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
I would suggest to you that there is more than enough faith expressed in that single verse to set you on the road to finding the meaning of your life.
But let me back up a bit. We don't have the advantage of being able to read this verse in its original language -- Hebrew -- but if we did, we'd discover that the word translated "God" in this verse is Elohim. That word appears over 2,550 times in the Old Testament, and the English translations of the Bible invariably render it simply as "God." (There are many other names for God in the Bible as well. No single name can contain all that God is.)
I call your attention to the word because it helps us to understand what the author of Genesis was saying. Elohim is not a personal name. In fact, it is a fairly impersonal description. If we were looking for an English equivalent other than "God," we would probably have to settle for a descriptive phrase, something like, "the Supreme Being to whom all power belongs."
Now in its own time, this verse was quite remarkable. Remember that was written in a time in history when almost nobody doubted that there were powers greater than themselves. In fact, most people believed in multiple gods: gods of the weather and gods of agriculture, gods of childbearing and gods of fire, gods of health and gods of love, and so on. In the midst of all that, without so much as a sidelong glance at the multiple gods, the author of Genesis, declared that THE Supreme Being (singular!) created the heavens and the earth.
As the curtain opened on the creation of the world there was only one Actor on stage: Elohim. He was center stage then and he is yet today, though in our view of things, we sometimes imagine him as backstage or in the wings or not there at all.
But to make the declaration that God was not only there when the curtain went up but actually is the whole show is a starting point of faith. To say, "Elohim created" sets you apart at once from those who say the world is simply the result of accident or coincident. To say Elohim is not to say anything very personal about God, but it is to say the foundational thing about the meaning of this life we share. This world exists -- and our lives in -- because God wants it to.
To say Elohim is to affirm that God is an objective reality apart from our ideas of God. We live in a society where we have been taught to put great stock in our own opinions -- too much so, perhaps. Take the case some years back in Massachusetts of the British au pair who was accused of killing the baby in her care. Radio and television talk shows had a field day with that case. Caller after caller phoned in to state his or her opinion about whether or not the young woman actually killed the child. And some of those callers were very adamant, very certain of their opinion. By the same token, both the prosecution and the defense put forth opinions of the event as well.
Regardless of any of these opinions, there is only one truth about the death of that child, and that is whatever actually happened. In other words, there is the reality of how the child died, and any opinion of the death that doesn't match that reality is wrong, regardless of how strongly held the opinion is or of how much circumstantial evidence there is to support it.
By the same logic, regardless of our personal opinions about what God is, to say Elohim reminds us that there is an objective reality of what God actually is.
But there is more: If you can say Elohim it doesn't matter much how you interpret the rest of the verses in the creation story we read. If you take it to mean that Elohim created the world in six actual days, fine. If you take the day reference to mean eons of time, fine. If you take this to be a faith-story, something like a parable, that wasn't intended to teach science at all, but to teach theology, that too is fine. For in each case, we are agreeing on the important point: "In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth."
Notice two things about God from the creation story: First, this God speaks the world into existence, and second, he calls it good.
The first point: He speaks the world into existence. "And Elohim said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." And so it continues through each day of creation. God says, "Let there be ..." right up to the sixth day, when God speaks human beings into existence.
This story must have been a revolutionary concept to those who first heard it. Those who believed in other gods had creation stories, too, but in theirs, the world only came into being after a huge struggle on the part of the gods involved. Marduk, the god of Babylon, for example, only succeeded in bringing the world into being after a mighty battle with the goddess, Tiamat, the primal sea. After Marduk finally defeated her, he split her carcass in two to form the earth and sky out of her body. These other gods, you see, didn't really control the environment, but had to labor against it.
Against that kind of an idea, the author of Genesis 1 points out that Elohim spoke and the elements immediately obeyed. In this account, instead of having to do battle with sea monsters, the creatures of the sea are simply God's creation. Elohim gives them life and blesses them. That's a God with true godly power.
And the second point: Elohim declared his creation good. Again and again throughout the story, God looks at what he has created to that point and says it is good. After the creative work is done, he declares the whole matter "Very good."
That's an affirmation we sometimes forget. When we get mired down in daily problems, it is easy to forget that the world God placed us in is not a sinister place in itself. The creation, Elohim's world, is good, and that is a reflection of Elohim's character, goodness.
John Greenleaf Whittier stated it this way:
Yet in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!
Elohim is a God of true godly goodness.
It may have struck you by now that this is a somewhat odd sermon for Trinity, because the whole emphasis of this day is one -- the triune nature of the one God. But think about where people were in their understanding of God throughout the Old Testament and during the centuries before Jesus came, and before he spoke of the Holy Spirit. They were operating under the image of God as presented by the old stories like this one from Genesis and by God as explained by the prophets. They did not have the New Testament picture of God that Jesus later gave.
We, too, may be at this pre-Christ juncture in our personal lives. Perhaps you've never really embraced the way of Christ for your own. But if you have been able to say, "In the beginning, God created ..." you are at least where many of the Old Testament people were. There is more understanding to come, and perhaps this is the year that you will open your heart to Christ.
This is also an odd time of year to quote a Christmas carol, but I'd like to do so anyway:
Angels from the realms of glory
wing your flight o'er all the earth;
ye who sang creation's story
now proclaim Messiah's birth.
Did you catch the journey these angels made? They were present at the beginning to sing the creation story -- the handiwork of Elohim. And then they are present to rejoice at Jesus' birth.
That's the same journey today's text from the creation story invites us to make. We are invited to move from that basic faith-starting point -- that God created our world -- to the faith-redeeming point -- an embracing of the way of Jesus Christ and an acceptance of empowerment by God's Holy Spirit.
The recognition that we live and move and have our being at the pleasure of Elohim gives us a foundation for life.
The acceptance of the way of Christ gives meaning to our lives and provides a way to live in joyous appreciation and service to Elohim who made us. Amen.
But now, here we are, gathered in church for another service of worship. That may or may not signify that you have settled the matter of belief in God, but it probably indicates that you are at least open to thinking about it.
Would it surprise you if I said that as your pastor, I'm not terribly concerned about whether or not you have resolved your questions about the existence of God?
But there are two conclusions about God that do concern me. The first is if you say, "I've got God figured out. I know what God wants; I understand him. God is thus and so, and that settles it." I hope you see the problem with that position. If we have God all defined, if he is capable of being grasped in his entirety in the human mind, then he is less than the human mind and cannot be much of a god. That god is too small.
The other conclusion that concerns me is the one that says, "We cannot know anything about God" and therefore we shouldn't spend any time thinking about him. That god is meaningless.
It's this second position that I want to address today, and I want to do that by directing you to the very first verse in the Bible: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
I would suggest to you that there is more than enough faith expressed in that single verse to set you on the road to finding the meaning of your life.
But let me back up a bit. We don't have the advantage of being able to read this verse in its original language -- Hebrew -- but if we did, we'd discover that the word translated "God" in this verse is Elohim. That word appears over 2,550 times in the Old Testament, and the English translations of the Bible invariably render it simply as "God." (There are many other names for God in the Bible as well. No single name can contain all that God is.)
I call your attention to the word because it helps us to understand what the author of Genesis was saying. Elohim is not a personal name. In fact, it is a fairly impersonal description. If we were looking for an English equivalent other than "God," we would probably have to settle for a descriptive phrase, something like, "the Supreme Being to whom all power belongs."
Now in its own time, this verse was quite remarkable. Remember that was written in a time in history when almost nobody doubted that there were powers greater than themselves. In fact, most people believed in multiple gods: gods of the weather and gods of agriculture, gods of childbearing and gods of fire, gods of health and gods of love, and so on. In the midst of all that, without so much as a sidelong glance at the multiple gods, the author of Genesis, declared that THE Supreme Being (singular!) created the heavens and the earth.
As the curtain opened on the creation of the world there was only one Actor on stage: Elohim. He was center stage then and he is yet today, though in our view of things, we sometimes imagine him as backstage or in the wings or not there at all.
But to make the declaration that God was not only there when the curtain went up but actually is the whole show is a starting point of faith. To say, "Elohim created" sets you apart at once from those who say the world is simply the result of accident or coincident. To say Elohim is not to say anything very personal about God, but it is to say the foundational thing about the meaning of this life we share. This world exists -- and our lives in -- because God wants it to.
To say Elohim is to affirm that God is an objective reality apart from our ideas of God. We live in a society where we have been taught to put great stock in our own opinions -- too much so, perhaps. Take the case some years back in Massachusetts of the British au pair who was accused of killing the baby in her care. Radio and television talk shows had a field day with that case. Caller after caller phoned in to state his or her opinion about whether or not the young woman actually killed the child. And some of those callers were very adamant, very certain of their opinion. By the same token, both the prosecution and the defense put forth opinions of the event as well.
Regardless of any of these opinions, there is only one truth about the death of that child, and that is whatever actually happened. In other words, there is the reality of how the child died, and any opinion of the death that doesn't match that reality is wrong, regardless of how strongly held the opinion is or of how much circumstantial evidence there is to support it.
By the same logic, regardless of our personal opinions about what God is, to say Elohim reminds us that there is an objective reality of what God actually is.
But there is more: If you can say Elohim it doesn't matter much how you interpret the rest of the verses in the creation story we read. If you take it to mean that Elohim created the world in six actual days, fine. If you take the day reference to mean eons of time, fine. If you take this to be a faith-story, something like a parable, that wasn't intended to teach science at all, but to teach theology, that too is fine. For in each case, we are agreeing on the important point: "In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth."
Notice two things about God from the creation story: First, this God speaks the world into existence, and second, he calls it good.
The first point: He speaks the world into existence. "And Elohim said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." And so it continues through each day of creation. God says, "Let there be ..." right up to the sixth day, when God speaks human beings into existence.
This story must have been a revolutionary concept to those who first heard it. Those who believed in other gods had creation stories, too, but in theirs, the world only came into being after a huge struggle on the part of the gods involved. Marduk, the god of Babylon, for example, only succeeded in bringing the world into being after a mighty battle with the goddess, Tiamat, the primal sea. After Marduk finally defeated her, he split her carcass in two to form the earth and sky out of her body. These other gods, you see, didn't really control the environment, but had to labor against it.
Against that kind of an idea, the author of Genesis 1 points out that Elohim spoke and the elements immediately obeyed. In this account, instead of having to do battle with sea monsters, the creatures of the sea are simply God's creation. Elohim gives them life and blesses them. That's a God with true godly power.
And the second point: Elohim declared his creation good. Again and again throughout the story, God looks at what he has created to that point and says it is good. After the creative work is done, he declares the whole matter "Very good."
That's an affirmation we sometimes forget. When we get mired down in daily problems, it is easy to forget that the world God placed us in is not a sinister place in itself. The creation, Elohim's world, is good, and that is a reflection of Elohim's character, goodness.
John Greenleaf Whittier stated it this way:
Yet in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!
Elohim is a God of true godly goodness.
It may have struck you by now that this is a somewhat odd sermon for Trinity, because the whole emphasis of this day is one -- the triune nature of the one God. But think about where people were in their understanding of God throughout the Old Testament and during the centuries before Jesus came, and before he spoke of the Holy Spirit. They were operating under the image of God as presented by the old stories like this one from Genesis and by God as explained by the prophets. They did not have the New Testament picture of God that Jesus later gave.
We, too, may be at this pre-Christ juncture in our personal lives. Perhaps you've never really embraced the way of Christ for your own. But if you have been able to say, "In the beginning, God created ..." you are at least where many of the Old Testament people were. There is more understanding to come, and perhaps this is the year that you will open your heart to Christ.
This is also an odd time of year to quote a Christmas carol, but I'd like to do so anyway:
Angels from the realms of glory
wing your flight o'er all the earth;
ye who sang creation's story
now proclaim Messiah's birth.
Did you catch the journey these angels made? They were present at the beginning to sing the creation story -- the handiwork of Elohim. And then they are present to rejoice at Jesus' birth.
That's the same journey today's text from the creation story invites us to make. We are invited to move from that basic faith-starting point -- that God created our world -- to the faith-redeeming point -- an embracing of the way of Jesus Christ and an acceptance of empowerment by God's Holy Spirit.
The recognition that we live and move and have our being at the pleasure of Elohim gives us a foundation for life.
The acceptance of the way of Christ gives meaning to our lives and provides a way to live in joyous appreciation and service to Elohim who made us. Amen.
