A Theology of Creation

The other day on 30 Rock, Kenneth (the backwater Christian) who is my favorite character on the show, was asked what his favorite subject was in school. He said “Science…Because I love the Old Testament.”

Now the show is known for taking light hearted jabs like that to all different kinds of tribes, but behind every joke….

When I was growing up in Homeschool/Highschool one of my assignments was to do a lot of reading, and then give a speech on Creation Science. I read apologetics, and Genesis, and plenty of obscure references in the Bible that probably meant something else, but if pressed and taken out of context could prove exactly what I wanted. (Sons of God, and daughters of men anybody?)

At the end of my speech I had the feeling that I had definitively proven that God created the Earth (in the particular way that I laid out). Since then I’ve learned that Genesis is not really addressing a post-enlightenment worldview. It’s actually teaching something that is much bigger. But I was right about this, the main point of Genesis is that God Created.

It’s the first words of the Bible…God Created, and then the way that Genesis tells us about this majestic event is, well, Creative. It’s a poem. Than the next chapter is the same story, told from a different angle and with a different beat or rhythm.

This weekend before church a woman came up to me and told me that her mom was coming to church with her for the first time in 37 years. Which is quite a streak to break. The woman’s mom was the Cal Ripken Jr. of not coming to church. But what I found impressive was the reason this mom had decided to come to church.

She said that she was coming because she had seen such a drastic difference in her daughter since she started following Jesus. And so she wanted to see what had caused this.

The best way to show others what you really believe has always been to put skin on it.

I have a feeling that if the average person was to walk into the average church without any pre-conceived bias’ their first thoughts probably wouldn’t be, “This place is so creative.” I don’t know anything about the above video clip. I’m sure it’s probably done by well-meaning people with a great heart. All I know about it, is that it was sent to me by a pagan friend who thought it was lame.

And he was right.

One of the dangers of our Christian sub-cultures is that we tend to evaluate poor things poorly. We say something is good if it just doesn’t use cuss words or show the “good characters” drinking. But the problem with that is that it undercuts the very things that we say we believe.

Namely, that God created, and what he created was good.

See a Theology of Creation, like everything else we believe, has to be embodied.

I think that churches should be the most creative, most innovative places on earth.

And I’m not just talking about our powerpoint slides. I think that what the world needs is a group of people who are connected to the Creator God and are looking at everything from the war in Darfur to Nuclear Weapons to the AIDS crisis.

People who don’t just fall into the partisan lines that their political parties draw. But find a creative third way to communicate and enact change.

People who haven’t lost hope in the power of a God who is still creating.

And it is good.