The Creative (or Process, Not Production)

I was thinking about the Creation story today.

I think this particular text has been the bugger-bear of countless people who liked the idea of God but had trouble resolving this with reality. Likewise, it has been a major rallying point for fundamentalist Christians with nothing better to do than get angry at the big bad culture. If you are at all interested in the Evolution vs. Creation "debate" (I use this this term very loosely) then this will not be the blog post for you.(If you are interested in this, Francis Collins is doing some very creative work on the subject: http://www.biologos.org/)

What I am interested in is what the Creation story has to offer us regardless of personal preference in religious conviction. What can it teach us about the way we go about the business of living and dying?

Before looking at the story itself, I want to look at the definition of the word Creation. According to the freeonlinedictionary.com, four definitions of creation are

1. the act or process of creating
2. the fact of being created or produced
3. something that has been brought into existence or created, esp. a product of human intelligence or imagination

4. the whole universe, including the world and all the things in it

Two words stand out to me here, conveniently printed in bold as if I planned on discussing them. I found it interesting that creation can be thought of both as a process (something we are engaged in doing) and as a product(an object that has already been made). It is present and past. So, if we want to talk about a Creation Story, it might be useful to think of it as still going on.

On to the story. I'm just going to summarize what happened on each of the first seven "days"

Day One: God spoke and created the Heavens and the Earth, Darkness and Light, Morning and Night

Day Two: God created Water and the Sky

Day Three: God created Land and Seas, Vegetation

Day Four: God created the Sun and the Moon

Day Five: God created Fish and Birds (also sea monsters apparently)

Day Six: God created Land Animals, Humankind (in God's own image, so the story goes)

Day Seven: God rested

There are so many things I could discuss about this story (such as the impressive ability of even ancient people to understand that there is a progression from the advent of the universe to the formation of the earth to the rise of life, but once again, not my topic). What I want to discuss, however, is something I only recently noticed; Creation takes time, and requires a pause for rest, even if you are an omnipotent being. However, if we look not much further down the road in this story, it doesn't take much to destroy it. One act, one choice, one diversion from the flow of things, and things go into disarray. The "first humans" of the story perform one act of disobedience, and all that has been created is wrecked. What took time and rest for God to do, humanity managed to subvert without even putting much thought into it.

I take this simple message from the Judeo-Christian Creation narrative: creation is difficult, tiring, and time consuming (and beautiful), but destruction is easy(and painful in the end).

Regardless of where you come from or believe, I think there is a lot of wisdom to be found in this.

Unfortunately, what often happens in our culture is that we lose perspective of and respect for everything that goes into the process of creation, and acknowledge only the product. In short, we have not the patience to look for the story behind things, and we are too quick to define something solely in terms of its utility to ourselves. (For a great example of the consequences of consumer oriented thinking, check out http://www.storyofstuff.com/).

As a society, we forget the process part of creation, and focus mostly on the product itself. As the Creation story points out however, the process is vital. God's act of creating the heavens and the earth, life, and humanity establishes the idea that we are part of what has been made, part of a bigger process, and not simply the consumers of creation. When we forget that, we abuse creation and damage it.

Fortunately, this is not all there is to the story. We have alternatives. The Creation Story makes a serious point of humankind being made in God's image. This has implications even within the context of the Creation story itself. God is established in the story as having a creative nature. The very first thing described about God's character in the Bible is that it creates. It engages in process, and it is pleased in doing so. After all, when each day was over, "It is good."

If the assertion of the story is that we are made in God's image, then it would seem that we would be fulfilled by engaging in the process of creation. We are creative beings, not just consumers of the creativity of others.

I got to listen to one of my classmates give a great presentation of Zygmunt Bauman's "The Art of Life" this week. Bauman discusses happiness as being the product of our engaging in an artistic life, by making choices and taking actions that have meaning for us. A vital part of this process is the choice. We decide to move, and what direction we want to move in. We do not determine the consequences. If our our "art" is not appreciated by others the way we want it to be, there is nothing we can do about it. Our joy comes from the decision to be creative itself, to pursue a meaningful life that in the process of being and becoming.

We do not pursue our lives alone. In the creation story, humans are in community with one another and God. After things get busted, God continues to bring people into community over and over again to pursue a different life from that of others.

Abraham has Sarah

David has Jonathan

Elijah has Elisha

Jesus has the Disciples

Paul has the early Church

We are not supposed to do this by ourselves. We are individuals, but we are individuals together. There is no individualism vs. collectivism. The creative life can and is both.

We can choose to live our stories together, to share them, respond to them, and then continue to grow and move.

One of my favorite church songs says it this way: "We will guard each one's dignity." In other words, we should respect and love one another such that we protect and support one another's unique journeys, and do not allow one another to be robbed of the lives we are creating. We should help one another paint without stealing away the brush, and fend off anyone who does.

We have an opportunity to turn away from the empty life of consumerism, false normality, and "us vs. them." We get to make a different choice. And when we do, we join a larger community. We are each painting our masterpiece, but are part of a bigger masterpiece, more beautiful than any of our own lives by itself. May we create with humility in awe of this.

Creation is good.