Reflections 23 May 2025 St Anne's Church , Glenholt - Creation

Welcome, and opening prayer 
Dear God, thank you for the world and universe you created. The outstanding beauty, the intricate complexities that allow life. A universe lovingly made by you – and made for us to love too. Please help us show our love by caring for our world – to be the stewards you intended us to be. And let us love each other as you love us. Please help us bring peace to your world. Amen
 
Readings
The day before Christmas, 1968. The astronauts of Apollo 8 read from Genesis as they orbited the moon for the first time, crossing the dark side and into the brilliant light of the sun. The reading, broadcast to the world, not only expressed the wonder experienced by the astronauts and marked the historic moment: the first time humans had flown to the moon and looked back at Earth.

Reading Genesis 1:1-10 Audio of Apollo 8 reading Genesis 
https://youtu.be/ToHhQUhdyBY?si=RddjUTx-RBMH3h-L

The Beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
 
The inspired words of God as told in the story of Creation. Genesis 1 has so much meaning and tries to answer the questions we carry in our hearts such as - ‘where are we?’, ‘who are we?’ and ‘why are we here? The Words contain such beauty and whilst I personally believe there is no conflict between science and Christianity, God wrote these words to be understood as they are. If we try to incorporate our scientific knowledge into Genesis, then we lose the beauty and understanding of these verses – and of God’s word. 
 
And there is a succinct difference between God and science. God does not seek to provide an explanation of how our world works – that is what science does – and that is the difference. Science shows the how, God and Scriptures show us the Who and the why. Distinctness which enhances the beauty within both spheres of knowledge.
 
Theologian William Lane Craig looks at the fine tuning of the Universe and states ‘this could only be done by a transcendent unembodied mind beyond space and time.’ In other words God!
 
And I love this quote from the poet Rumi ‘Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love. Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.’
 
NORTH Origins -  WHERE DO I COME FROM? THE QUESTION IS AS old as humanity and as new as every inquiring child. The longing to discover our deepest roots stirs in every human heart. We want to know who gave us birth. We want to know the name of the soil in which we were first planted. To know where we come from is another way of exploring who we really are. It is also a way of saying that we know we are not islands in this great ocean of being we call life. We know that we are all interconnected, part of a continuum, single strands in a mighty tapestry.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (p. 1). Loyola Press. Kindle Edition.

Introduction to Silence
Meditation YouTube Video - Creation Calls -- are you listening? Music by Brian Doerksen  https://youtu.be/LwGvfdtI2c0

Blessing the Animals
You who created them
and called them good:
bless again these creatures
who come to us
as a blessing
fashioned of fur
or feather
or fin,
formed of flesh
that breathes with
your own breath,
that you have made
from sheer delight,
that you have given
in dazzling variety.
Bless them
who curl themselves
around our hearts,
who twine themselves
through our days,
who companion us
in our labor,
who call us
to come and play.
 
Bless them
who will never be
entirely tamed
and so remind us
that you love
what is wild,
that you rejoice
in what lives close
to the earth,
that your heart beats
in the heart of these creatures
you have entrusted
to our care.
Copyright Jan Richardson https://paintedprayerbook.com/2013/09/23/blessing-the-animals/

Thoughts To Ponder
John 1:1-5 The Word Became Flesh  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Psalm 104:18-20 The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyrax. He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.
You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
Colossians 1:16
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him
 
Rock Talk
DO ROCKS HAVE FEELINGS? IS THAT A SILLY question? In one sense how could they not have feelings? If they could look up to the stars, they would be gazing at their grandmothers, the source of their being. If they could look at the myriad life forms teeming around them and upon them they would be gazing at their grandchildren, the countless life forms that have evolved from their primeval solidity. But rocks cannot gaze as we do. They lack reflective awareness, which is God’s gift to Homo sapiens. Yet surely that gift, and we ourselves, were bound up inside those rocks, those stars, from the beginning of space-time, until we were released by the midwife of evolution. Truly we are part of one another—the stars, the rocks, you and I. Yet we alone, upon this planet, are gifted with eyes, hearts, and minds to see the miracle, and to respond.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (p. 17). Loyola Press. Kindle Edition.
 
In praise of earth
Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.
 
And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.
 
When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.
 
Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.
 
Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.
 
The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
 
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed’s self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.
 
The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.
 
The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.
 
Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.
 
Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
 
That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (p. 92). Transworld. Kindle Edition.

A Blessing with Roots
Tug at this blessing
and you will find
it is a thing
with roots.
 
This is a blessing
that has gone deep
into good soil,
into the sacred dark,
into the luminous hidden.
 
It has been months
since the ground
gathered the seed
of this blessing
into itself,
years since the earth
enfolded it.
 
Sometimes
that’s how long
a blessing takes.
 
And the fact
that this blessing
should finally show
its first fruits
on the day
you happened by--
well, perhaps we shall
simply call the timing
of this ripening
a mystery
and a sweet grace.
 
Take all you want
of this blessing.
Take every morsel
that you need for
the path ahead.
Let its fruits fall
into your hands;
gather them into
the basket of
your arms.
 
Let this blessing
be one place
where you are willing
to receive
in unmeasured portions,
to lay aside
for a moment
the way you ration
your delights.
 
Let yourself accept
its inexplicable plenitude;
allow it to give itself
to sustain you
 
not simply for yourself--
though on this bright day
I might be persuaded
to think that would
be enough--
 
but that you may
gather its seeds
into yourself
like the ground
where this blessing began
 
and wait
with the patience
of seasons
and of years
 
to bear forth
in the fullness of time
a stunning harvest,
a plenteous feast.
Copyright Jan Richardson, https://paintedprayerbook.com/2011/07/05/a-blessing-with-roots/
 
The Creation
And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely--
I'll make me a world.
 
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
 
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!
 
Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That's good!
 
Then God himself stepped down--
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
 
Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas--
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed--
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled--
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
 
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.
 
Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That's good!
 
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I'm lonely still.
 
Then God sat down--
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I'll make me a man!
 
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
 
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul. Amen.
James Weldon Johnson 1871 –1938 God's Trombones. Copyright © 1927 The Viking Press, Inc., renewed 1955 by Grace Nail Johnson.
 
ON TRAVELING TO BEAUTIFUL PLACES
Every day I’m still looking for God
and I’m still finding him everywhere,
in the dust, in the flowerbeds.
Certainly in the oceans,
in the islands that lay in the distance
continents of ice, countries of sand
each with its own set of creatures
and God, by whatever name.
How perfect to be aboard a ship with
maybe a hundred years still in my pocket.
But it’s late, for all of us,
and in truth the only ship there is
is the ship we are all on
burning the world as we go.
Oliver, Mary. A Thousand Mornings (p. 40). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.

Hiding is the hidden purpose of creation:
bury your seed and wait.
Winter blocks the road.
Flowers  are taken prisoner underground,
but then green justice tenders a spear.
Rumi

I am the dust in the sunlight,
I am the ball of the sun . . .
I am the mist of morning,
the breath of evening . . . .
I am the spark in the stone,
the gleam of gold in the metal . . . .
The rose and the nightingale
drunk with its fragrance.
I am the chain of being,
the circle of the spheres,
The scale of creation,
the rise and the fall.
I am what is and is not . . .
I am the soul in all.
Rumi