CREATION DAY
1 September 2013
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Gen. 1:1: “In the beginning God, created the heavens and the earth… and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.”
Luke 4:18 (quoting Isa. 61:1): Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”
Reflection
“Unfortunately, in our days, under the influence of an extreme rationalism and self-centeredness, humanity has lost the sense of sacredness of creation and acts as its arbitrary ruler and rude violator.” —Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, 1989
Today, Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the start of their church year. Called the “Feast of Indiction”, this day is also known as “Creation Day”, for pious Eastern tradition (probably with Jewish influence) holds that it’s the anniversary of the creation of the world, and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
Most world religions have a story of creation. Most Christians are familiar with their own. An all-powerful, invisible and transcendent Being creates the world, the universe, the cosmos—oh, and in seven days, to top it off. For much of history, this has been used as a kind of litmus test of faith. Those who believe in it are in; those who don’t are out. But for many of us, whether it’s “seven days” or “seven ages”, the story is simply too mythical for us to bear.
How fitting is it that, with the words above, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios called his church also to observe today as the “Day of the Protection of the Environment”. It’s a call that all churches, and indeed all people, would be wise to heed, for it summons us all towards humility and respect.
Regardless of how the world and humanity came into being, the story behind “Creation Day” claims that it certainly was not we ourselves. We make our first appearance at the extreme ends of both the first chapter of Genesis and the theory of evolution. Despite all our advances in technology, medicine, agriculture, architecture, etc., this world still does not belong to us. Rationalism will not help us here, only humility. And because we are sustained by something we do not possess, we must not bite the hand that literally feeds us. Self-centeredness will not save us here, only respect.
Yet we can also fall into a kind of existential despair. If the world got along fine without us for eons, why do we matter? Here’s precisely where we need the language of myth—the language of faith and transcendence—for even our God-given reason can’t adequately answer this question. “Creation Day” promises that the same Spirit of God, present during God’s creation of the vast and infinite cosmos, was also there when the human Jesus started his lowly ministry in an isolated corner of the Earth. And, Christianity teaches us, we partake of that same Spirit humbly through faith. In other words, we are not alone; we are special; we have potential.
Yes, we’ve evolved last, but won’t the last be first when they humble themselves?
Prayer of the Day
O God of all, transcendent in your essence,
Creator and Master of the ages,
bless the cycle of the year,
and save by your boundless mercy,
O compassionate One,
all those who worship you,
and who cry out to you, saying:
‘Grant to all, O Savior, a fertile year’.
This we ask through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
—based on the Eastern Orthodox Kontakion of the Indiction
Hymn: “O boundless Wisdom, God most high”
(Words: “Immensi caeli Conditor”, translated by Gabriel Gillett, 1906; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013
Tune: ‘O invidenda martyrum’, Dijon Church melody)
O boundless Wisdom, God most high,
Creator of the earth and sky,
You made the parted waters flow
In heav’n above, on earth below.
The streams on earth, the clouds in heav’n
By you their ordered bounds were giv’n,
Lest ‘neath untempered fires of day,
The thirsting soil should waste away.
So too on us who seek your face,
Pour forth the waters of your grace.
Renew the fount of life within,
And quench the wasting fires of sin.
Let faith discern eternal light
Beyond the shadows of the night,
And, through the midst of falsehood, view
The path of truth revealed by you.
O Father, what we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ, your only Son,
Who, in the Spirit’s unity,
Reigns now and lives eternally.
Amen.
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