Trinity Sunday (A)—Genesis 1:1–2:4a; Matthew 28:16–20

Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night (1889) 
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Genesis 1:1–2:4a 

Creation Boiled Down

First, when chaos reigns and life is ruined, 

There will always be light;

Second, when we find ourselves lost and at sea,

There is yet air to breathe;

Third, when we are flailing around thinking there is no tomorrow,

There are still grounds for planting trees and tilling gardens;

Fourth, when we are completely under the weather,

The sun and the moon will rise;

Fifth, when we feel like a fish out of water, with bird brains,

We really don't have to be everything to everybody;

Sixth, when we think it's all about us,

There are countless other creatures, but we're made to create;

Seventh, when we think we have to work until we drop,

Even God said, "I've gotta get out of the office."

Man, that's good!

Scott L. Barton

(Walter Brueggemann used the line about getting out of the office in a talk I heard many years ago. The last line of the poem is how a colleague, the Rev. Jim Cortelyou, ended his mini-meditation one morning long ago as all the canoes of an Adirondack Canoe Expedition trip of the Presbytery of Northern New York rafted up for morning devotions on a still and misty pond. Since then, I've wondered if Jim ("Les Voyageurs") was thinking at the time of James Weldon Johnson's sermon on Creation in God's Trombones.)

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God 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 dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

+ + +

Matthew 28:16­–20

 

His Face, Everywhere

Sometimes it seems most of my Facebook feeds

Are full of rants and diatribes and screeds

That, I admit, all have their point that we

Must pay attention, and not fail to see

Injustice wheresoever it might lie,

Not be complacent, ills of the world deny.

And yet, I also know that I need more

Than simply outrage over sin abhorred.

Be angry, yes, but then never forget

The time they worshiped, and some doubted, yet

He told them that despite the wrong they'd known,

Authority o'er all was his alone;

Which means his way, his grace, his love, his face

Can never be supplanted or replaced

By anyone or anything; so sing,

Since his enduring life is one sure thing.

Scott L. Barton

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”