Listening to the opening chapter of Genesis what sort of God might we think created the universe?
This is a God who brings order out of chaos- the earth was a formless void, darkness covered the face of the deep. We are not privy to God’s motivations for creating the universe, we are simply told Then God said, Let there be light’ and there was light.’ He separates the darkness from the light, the waters above from the waters beneath. On each day he brings into being another new aspect of creation. Having created a world that is fertile and fit for humankind he, last of all, creates humankind in our image, according to our likeness’. He gives humankind dominion over the rest of creation.
The result of his creative act is the existence of a highly ordered universe, a world which is organised hierarchically. Humanity is given authority from God- the source of all authority -to rule over the rest of creation.
The writer of Genesis 1 belonged to a dominant group within Israelite society who had a focus on holiness and ritual. Order was essential in categorising a world which could spill over into disorder and unholiness. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that this group of people represented the Priestly class within Israel. One of my OT tutors at college always used to remark that from reading passages written by the Priestly writer you can tell that Israelite priests were the sort people who liked to create rotas.
For the priestly writer there is an important theological teaching in this creation account; through demonstrating the existence of a chaos which preceded the cosmos we are reminded that the cosmos always requires the support of the Creator if it is not to lapse once more in to formless chaos.
There is something profoundly comforting about the image of God that emerges from this creation account. We are presented with a God who is methodical and whose intentions are one of constructive orderliness. Every creature is in their proper divinely ordained place. God is absolutely in charge. This is the God we want running the Home Office, our public transport system and all our public services which seem to be on the brink of chaos.
But whilst we might want this sort of God to manage our administrative systems is this really the kind of God with whom we seek relationship? And can we submit to such an orderly existence?
A lot of OT wisdom, the advice given about leading a righteous and godly life, relies on such an image of an orderly God. in our relationship with this God of order our role as human beings is to respect this order and to cultivate our understanding of it. This idea has a moral dimension to it as well. Our behaviour is governed by our allegiance to God’s order. Wisdom is largely about respecting God’s order; if we are able to live in a way which honours God we will, of course, be rewarded by God. We will receive material benefit in this life; we will be blessed with many children and bountiful resources.
Of course this approach to life works well until you find yourself trying to live a good life but suffering nonetheless. In the aftermath of the exile the Israelites found themselves trying to make a sense of a world where the enemy triumphed over them even though they were God’s chosen people. How could their wisdom tradition and beliefs hold any water in such a context?
The book of Job questions the received wisdom.
Job -a good, righteous man – has lived a godly life but is visited by disaster, grief and huge loss. The old order as he knew it has given way to a kind of destructive chaos. Interestingly within this book we find another account of creation and one which is very different to the accounts we find in Genesis. Here God is actually the creator of chaos.
In God’s dramatic response to Job’s questions of him God speaks out of the whirlwind and responds to Job not with answers but with further questions. God provides his own account of his creation and at one point says to Job:
Look at Behemoth which I made just as I made you’ (40.15-41.34) 19 “It is the first of the great acts of God
only its Maker can approach it with the sword.
and
41.1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook,
11 Who can confront it and be safe?
under the whole heaven, who?
12 “I will not keep silence concerning its limbs,
or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.
Behemoth and Leviathan were symbols of chaotic power; monstrous and incomprehensible but here they feature as part of God’s creation. He takes pleasure in them just as he takes pleasure in humankind.
So how do we relate these two aspects of God’s creative power; one speaking of creation through order and the other of creative chaos?
Clearly a universe which was simply one of chaos would be destructive and unworkable. Similarly in our own lives and in our faith the prospect of living in chaos is likely to incur anxiety within us. We need order, stability and certainty in order to survive and to flourish as human beings.
But at the same time if our life is so ordered as to remove choice, or chance, or the joy which arises from an entirely unexpected occurrence, we would find our lives very much diminished. Works of human creation often come about when someone has taken a chance and deviated from the prescribed order. Laughter is another good example of our delight in the unexpected.
A good joke will lead you down a certain path so you see the ending as completely predictable only to have the utterly unexpected occur within the final sentence.
If seeking relationship with God and discerning his will was simply about following a particular method we might not find anything attractive in this way of being. If we felt that God had abandoned the world to chaotic chance then our lives would seem to lack purpose and meaning.
In fact, order and chaos exist in dynamic tension. It is this place of tension where we might be led by God to make choices which lead to greater maturity and responsibility in our Christian lives.
Interestingly tonight’s NT reading might seem to avoid any notion of creative tension. Perhaps it might have more in common with the Wisdom tradition of the OT which Job challenges. For we are told strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.’ But there is nothing here about following a predefined moral code- instead it is the language of striving and seeking which Luke uses. Striving for the Kingdom of God involves engaging with the changes and chances of this life and seeking God in all situations and in all people.
If we can be strengthened to engage with the chaos and chance of this life- not only our own but other people’s, we might hear again Christ’s words:
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Amen