BOOK ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER TWO
In Which God Likes His Stuff
(with illustrations drawn on a napkin)
GENESIS 1 & 2, again
It’s good- all of it.
That’s the place to start. Stuff is God’s idea.
Trees, water and sparkling stone, beautiful eyes, round bottoms and muscular thighs all began in the imagination of a god- the God; but also dirt, wiggling worms and the wasp’s sting.
These things- and all others- are here because he wanted them to be. Stuff was God’s idea, and he was immensely pleased with it. In our story, he says so.
This might seem too simple a point to make. Surely, everyone understands it. I wish that were true.
Thousands of years from the beginning, our God came down and put on the creation he had made. His people would summarize this surprising twist with the concise phrase- “He was born of the Virgin Mary.” They still tell it that way.
Today, many object at the word “Virgin,” but at the time of his Incarnation it was another word which gave them difficulty. Miracles they believed in. True divinity having anything to do with matter, they did not. “Virgin” they accepted. “Born” they could not.
Gnosticism was one of the earliest subversions of the Christian story. Like our story, it had room for a great deal of diversity in its telling. And there were many key elements in its plotline- too many to mention here. But chief among them was an abhorrence for all things material. In fact, evil was said to be located in matter. In their narrative, the creator god couldn’t be the true God for the simple reason that he was creator. He had the stench of stuff on his hands.
In the Gnostic version the true god emanated a lesser god, who emanated a lesser god, who emanated….down, down, down until we finally reach a god with a mind dirty enough to think up matter.
Like all deviant ways of telling “the true story of the world,” Gnosticism was cruel and dehumanizing. The body was either treated with contempt or total indifference. It either needed to be destroyed or totally ignored- what you did with it didn’t matter. One approach encouraged harm to oneself, the other- the use and harm of others.
Many who sincerely desire to live out the Christian story are inadvertently adding scenes from this incompatible tale. This is a radical departure, because it comes at the very beginning, and is sure to skew the end. In fact, it is in the telling of the end that the deviation is most clearly seen.
How does “The True Story of the World” conclude?
The Christian can only answer, “It concludes well.”
That’s certain enough, but what do we mean by “well.” Is the destiny of this creation- the trees and worms and muscular thighs we mentioned above- is it their destiny to be finally erased? Does the salvation of mankind involve the destruction of his humanity- for human beings are nothing if not flesh and bone?
We’re jumping ahead, but surely you can see that it must end in a different way. Stuff is God’s idea- perhaps his favorite one. What must that mean for the end? Maybe more importantly, what must that mean for how our lives write the middle chapters?
It is very tempting to take the Gnostic perspective on spirituality. Cars, sisters, clogged pipes, bosses, weeds and burnt roasts are surely beneath our spiritual goals- distractions, every one. But, no; Genesis roots our calling as human beings and our walk with God (one and the same, really) firmly in the stuff of this world. Others have pointed out that while many of the men and women we look to as spiritual leaders fill their minds and speech with otherworldly phrases and concerns, a few minutes spent with a Concordance will demonstrate the sorts of things that occupy our God’s thoughts.
Look up “Infralapsarian.” Bet it’s not in the Bible- anywhere.
Find “Immediate Imputation.” No luck.
Now, try “Semen.” Got it.
“Excrement?” It’s there.
“Blood, taxes…menstrual period, roof railings and baby birds” All there.
This world matters. All of it, because in the beginning God- the one true God- created the heavens and the earth.
God crafted with the precision of an engineer, but he also dreamed with the extravagance of an artist. There is much that spun from his imagination and will that is extra and unnecessary from a “just get it done” point of view. Apparently, “it” could not be accomplished with the bare necessities.
Creation was meant to do more than simply run and function. It was meant to speak. It was meant to sing. “The earth is full of the glory of God,” an ancient brother wrote. Yes, “The World is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; it gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil. Crushed.” a contemporary brother answers from across the centuries.
We’ve tasted this glory in the sights, sounds, and sensations of our world. It is his glory reflected that we are sampling. They can break our hearts with their power and sublime pleasure. Like a gentle tug on the sleeve, creation pulls at our attention and then points us towards the source of all Life.
Creation was made to reflect the glory of God. It’s the road sign that points beyond itself; a finger pointing at the moon. But that is how it can go terribly wrong.
The glory is so dazzling that we can mistake the sign for the destination. Men and women grasp the gift while rejecting the Giver. But sadness lies along that path. Not only do we loose the greater when we ignore it outright, but we eventually forfeit the lesser, as well. Creation glows because it’s lit from behind. Try to sneak it away so that you can really enjoy it and you’ll pull a dull rock from you pocket when your crouching alone.
There are two truths to maintain at once: Creation is God reflected, but Creation is God reflected. A denial of the first is the rejection of God’s gift and our own humanity. The rejection of the second is idolatry pure and simple.
Untold centuries from our story’s beginning a bush would burn in a wilderness without being consumed. A man of God would bow before it, because God was there- in it. This is the end for which every creature was made.
Perhaps it will help to remember these lessons, if we flip our Creator/Creation Distinction symbol around.
The large and
small circles can remind us that God created Heavens and Earth. They were his idea and joy. Maybe you can see a stylized Earth with a circling moon in the diagram now. He made them to reflect his own glory- to be a lesser image. Do you see Original and lesser image in the two circles? 
2 comments:
I think Death has always confused people, even after the Incarnation, with the idea of stuff being good. The fact that stuff is always deteriorating and it is hard to hold onto it for long. It is sometimes assumed that becuase we can exist for a time without our bodies that they are not "necessary" after this life. But I think if people would really work this out they would find that it is impossible to conveive of there being any future joy without bodies. And if this is the case then everything that interacts with bodies would be there as well; that is, in the kingdom and a part of the reality. I can not concieve of meeting my Lord and not experiencing physical touch from him.
in the first sentence I accidentally said good when I meant bad.
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