Feb 7: The Everlasting Journey of Creation

Kim Jae Im: In the Beginning
Korea, 1993

Memorial of Saint Mel, bishop

Reading I: Gn 1:1-19

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 (NRSV, Gen 1:1-2).

Father, the foundation event for the Israelites, what made them understand themselves as your people, was the act of your calling them forth out of slavery in Egypt. That was the first moment that they, or apparently any people in history, recognized you as God. Of course, it was not your first moment for them. You, Father, we have learned do not have moments. You have no “now and then,” no “here and there.” You just are. Without past and future. Just an eternal unchanging present. Everywhere and yet no place.

But for us who are created, who exist here or there, with a present, yes, but a past and future as well; for us, in every one of our moments we meet you, Lord, and in every moment, without fail, we experience you as calling us. First calling us into existence and then calling us forward. Calling us out of Egypt to freedom. Calling us, as you did Abraham, out of Mesopotamia, into a future of faith. Always, calling, calling, calling, out of whatever limits us into further growth in the freedom of your life. If we resist and turn away from you, you are still there calling us to accept forgiveness and to move forward once again.

The creation of the world, Lord, is not something you once did. It is a reality that in the one act that is your being that you just do. Nothingness, chaos, responds to the wind that is your Holy Spirit, and through your Word, begotten but uncreated, the world is called into existence. And out of that world that you create, you call life, then human life, then human life to share and grow always in your life. The call is eternal. It just is. The response is gradual. Understanding is gradual. Growth in life is gradual. But everything created is called always forward, to increase upon increase, to growth upon growth, without end.

Father, in the Book of Genesis, it seems that creation began and was ended. It appears to have been done in six days and then you rested on the seventh because everything that needed to be done had been accomplished. The story of Sabbath rest, like so many stories in Scripture, is a story for us. We are the ones, not you, Lord, who must rest. Not that we must cease to act, but that, to be truly human, we must punctuate our work-a-day lives with celebration, that, in leisure and prayer, we may find ourselves, and better understanding our being called constantly by you, Lord.

Creation, Lord, is a never-ending process. Actually it is our pilgrimage, our journey to you. It began in nothingness and continues forever toward you who are the beginning and the end of all. Father, continue to bless us on our pilgrimage.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.