Thursday, February 5, 2015

Is there a gap or isn't there?

Still wondering about the question of whether there is a gap between us and God, or not.

I got very excited a week or so ago by a post from Fr. Richard Rohr, whose alternative theology is quite engaging.  You'll find the post here.  In short, he suggest that in the book of Genesis, God's first two gestures are acts of separating: light from dark, and waters above from waters below.  And these acts are not called "good," "tov" in Hebrew, as God does for other acts of creation.


Well, that got me going!  Separations aren't good, expressions of union are good, tov.  I like that notion.  So I pulled out my Bible so I could see the words for myself, and lo and behold, it's not quite that simple.

First of all, the spirit of God, "ruah" or "rushing-spirit" as Everett Fox translates it, is hovering over the face of the waters.  Although this account of the creation is frequently described as a process of creating order out of chaos, the term "chaos" doesn't even appear, at least in the translations I have to hand.  What God is hovering close to is deep, vast, dark, and waste, but it is not chaos, and  God does not hang back from it. God simply introduces light.  And there in verse 4, God calls the light good, and then separates it from the dark.  The impression these first few verses gives is not that things need to be separated, or that separation is somehow not good, but that things are in motion and in darkness, and that they need to be illuminated.  Once the light shines, it is seen to be different from the darkness that preceded it.

The language of separation is much more concentrated in the next passage, the creation of the dome or vault of heaven, separating the waters above from the waters below.  And yet, while this is a separation -- the word appears three times in a single verse -- and there is no declaration of "tov" to accompany this event, the substance which is divided is the same on both sides.  The waters above are the same as the waters below.  And we know that rain comes down and steam goes up -- this separation of "heaven" and "earth" is completely permeable.  And God does not take up residence on the far side of the dome.  God is active on the earth, bringing life itself into being from the sea creatures to the plants and animals of the earth to the human family, made in the divine image. 

So -- while Rohr's interpretation of the creation story addressed the question of separation vs unity in one way, it led me to see it somewhat differently.  And no, there is no real gap between his reading and mine.  Both of us come to the conclusion that God's design for the created order, humans included, is a pattern of unity in diversity.  All of creation is good, because we are of God's own substance.  No gap here.  Blessed be.

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