It's Native American Sunday, and I decided it was time to address one of the main lessons we learn from the Native American Spiritual tradition: living in harmony with the rest of creation. Besides, the last two weeks at our church Rev. Peter Sawtell of Eco-Justice Ministries has been teaching a class about the creation stories in Genesis, and that is the subject of those stories. I caught the second week of his class and learned a great deal, some of which I am going to subject you to.
First of all, it's important to remember that every culture had its creation stories. Primal or early stories of the origin of creation and humans in particular were remarkably similar. The Native Americans, the Celts, and the early cultures of East Asia, Africa and Australia were all non-dualistic. What I mean by that is that in these traditions, humans lived in harmony with creation. We were part of the whole, not special or separated out. Generally, humans had their role to play, as did other animals, plants and even geography. It was not unusual for every animal, plant, body of water, mountain or hill to have its own spirit. If humans wanted to climb that hill, or deal with that animal, or eat a plant, they had to first placate the spirit. If you have seen some of the movies of Japanese animator, Miyazaki, such as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, you will be familiar with this view of nature with river spirits who transform into people, that sometimes must be purified from pollution, and spirits of animals and trees. This is the way the Primal religions viewed the world, populated by spirits, good and bad.
The Hebrew Creation stories, and yes, in case you never noticed, there are two creation stories in Genesis, took western civilization, particularly the Judaic, Christian, Islamic world in a different direction: dualism. These two stories were written down at different times. The oldest story is in Chapter 2 and is the one with God creating a Garden in which he place Adam to live. This version, called the Yahwist version since it was the product of stories in which God is called Yahwah, was written around 1000BCE. Adam means "the one made out of the earth" and has no sex. This androgynous Earthling lives in the garden with the other animals. This story is closer to the early Primal religious views of creation. God is a immanent, present in the garden, walking around and calling Adam by name. It is a folksy story, as Peter Sawtell called it. God makes errors and has to correct them, animals are companions, and some plants are off limits. Woman is created out of Adam and so the two sexes appear. Unfortunately, this secondary creation of woman has led to the second class existence of women throughout western history. Humans in this story are given the earth to "till". This word would best be translated, "serve". Humans also are given "free will" by God, the ability to choose. So in this version of Hebrew creation, humans are expected to care for and serve the rest of creation, but have free will to refuse!
The trouble really started with the second story of creation in Genesis, which is the one we heard, Genesis 1. This is version was written down by the Priests after the Exile, around 500BCE. The priests at this time were trying to establish the authority of the priestly culture and the temple. This has been called the most carefully crafted chapter in the Bible. Compared to a complex legal document, it is laid out as the perfect plan of how God created the heaven and the earth (that is, everything). It is a highly structured hymn, such as could be recited in liturgy and is a constructed as the official cosmology of the reconstructed State of Israel. It's important to know at this point that the Hebrews view of the scientific structure of the universe was pretty different than ours. When God separated the waters of the sea from the waters of heaven with a dome, people understood this to be an actual dome that kept the waters of heaven up there. The light of God came through this dome in pin pricks, which were stars, and two big holes, the sun and the moon. God carefully separated all things: day from night, waters from heavenly waters, people from other animals, animals and plants into kinds, male from female, etc.
In this version, animals are not companions, but humans are created separately, in the image of God, and are special. This is the affirming a philosophy of dualism in which humans are different, special, separate. Male and female humans are created at the same time; a nice touch that I'm sorry was lost. All creatures, including humans are given plants to eat. Notice this vegetarians; you have a divine mandate to back you up. No one ate meat, not until later, after the flood. This is a perfect world: a peaceable kingdom. Isaiah 11 harks back to this creation in its vision of a peaceable kingdom with the lion and lamb lying down together. If they all eat plants, there's no problem. And over all, dominion is given to the humans of God's image. They have complete control over it all. But it is benevolent control. It is clear that they are to care for it, be stewards, subdue it, but with everyone's interest at heart.
Tied to this vision of a peaceable kingdom is the later account given of the flood. The flood, of course, appears in many cultures cosmology, even the Native Americans had a story almost identical to this one, including a dove to fly over the waters. But the Priests used the flood story to explain how things got messed up. All flesh, animals and all were going against the rules and eating each other, so God decided to start over. The waters kill all life, except the righteous man, Noah, and his family and the animals he saves. The flood reverses, carefully, step by step, the 6 days of creation. The dome of the heavens opens, and the waters return, bringing chaos. Only later does God remember Noah and rebuilds the earth. The new covenant allows humans dominion and any food, even meat, and expects us to keep order in this potentially chaotic world.
There you have it. Two versions of creation that are theological, not scientific accounts. I doubt that even the Priests who wrote them intended them to be taken historically as many fundamentalists do with "intelligent design". Pete Sawtell noted that much of our problems environmentally come when people ignorantly mix the two stories and come up with a dualistic view in which people have dominion over creation, and the free will to do anything we want with it. Lost is the imperative to serve and care for this creation. This is theological, philosophical point must be regained.
Clearly, we are called to live in harmony with the whole. To take our place, but to serve, care for, honor all the other parts of this creation. One of the main things I get out of the creation stories in Genesis is that there is an order in the Universe, and it is God. We must be good neighbors to the rest of God's creation. We must be good stewards and servants. The endangered species act with is under attack in Congress right now, is in a sense, a modern day Noah's Ark, saving our fellow species. We need these species for our own survival, but also, we simply have not right to eliminate them, for they, like us, are part of God.
I end with a story from the Winnebago Tribe. A young man seeks to dream about the Earthmaker, Man-O-Na. He wishes to see the Maker. So he dreams, but in each dream he never sees the Earthmaker, instead he sees all the works and creations of the Maker: mountains and seas, trees and plants, animals and sea creatures, but never the Maker. But after many frustrating months, it dawns on him that all this time he was being shown the Earthmaker, for the Earthmaker is one and same with all creation. God is in all and creator of all. To know about God, we must understand all that God creates.
We do well to remember the vision of the peaceable kingdom, contained in virtually all human cosmologies and take up our place in creation, living in harmony, serving and caring for, and becoming united with all creation. That will be shalom, wholeness, completeness
peace.
