Devotion to Justice
A series of devotions from the Justice table on the topics of
- Women and children
- Hunger and poverty
- Creation care
- Immigration
Only a Story
Genesis 1:1-5
What a story! God speaks and the world emerges from chaos. God narrates the sun and moon, the plants and animals, the night and day into existence. God’s Story started “in the beginning,” but it didn’t end there. From Genesis to Revelation storytelling keeps God’s generative power alive and functioning. Jesus’ primary mode of communication was parables. Today we keep faith vital by telling compelling stories. Storytelling! As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. A-men. A-men!
It was “only a story”
about light and darkness
water and dry land
seeds and fruit
fish and birds and beasts.
God made it all up.
Such things didn’t really exist,
but in the telling
they came to life:
“LET THERE BE LIGHT”---
AND THE LIGHT APPEARED.
Then God imagined another creature
into existence.
The creature couldn’t
swim like the fish,
or fly like the birds, or run like the beasts.
All the creature could do
was tell stories---Made-up stories.
“IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT…
“ONCE THERE WAS A MAN
WHO HAD TWO SONS…”
“CALL ME ISHMAEL…”
“IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES,
IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES…”
“IN THE BEGINNING, GOD…”
They are “only stories”
But in the telling
They came to life.
And new worlds are created.
Doug Bland: Pastor, Community Christian Church Tempe, AZ
Co-Executive Director for Arizona Interfaith Power & Light: a religious
response to climate change
Creation Care
Read more!
