Art Reading Scripture

Genesis Frontispiece Depicting Creation from the Luther Bible, 1st edition 1534 Displayed at a Luther Exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3

Before astronomers with land based and orbiting telescopes, before Galileo, Copernicus, and others, people thought about what the universe looked like. They thought about what the world they lived in looked like and how it was placed in the midst of everything else. They did not see or understand things the way we do. Observing heavenly bodies like the sun and moon gave them some information, some sense of the roundness of the world. But their ability to observe creation from anywhere other than their own perspective led them to create a very different picture of the the world. The opening page of the Luther Bible illustrated a typical view of creation according to available observation.

At the center where we live dry land appeared. It was stable, nourishing, and filled with plants and other creatures including us. Beyond the dry land was water. "And God said, 'Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.' ... God called the dome Sky. ... And God said, 'Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear." The water was chaotic as the seas and as threatening as dark storms and floods. Beyond the dry land was "the face of the deep ... the face of the waters." The dry land needed protection from the chaotic waters. Plants, animals and people needed a separate place to dwell. The story of Noah would speak of the windows of heaven being opened and the foundations of the great deep gushing forth. The waters of chaos released into this space. A common picture of the world was a kind of terrarium, a place for things to grow under a glass dome, as depicted in this image by Hieronymus Bosch. It was a place where dry land could exist in the midst of the waters.

It made observable sense. When you come to the edge of land at a beach you find water. If you dig deep into the earth you find water. When it rains water falls from the heavens, and indeed, the heavens are the colors of water, blue, with white cap clouds, and dark and foreboding as the sea. On the fifth day God created water creatures, both things that swam in the waters and the birds that flew in them. Birds that flew in the blue up above were water creatures like the fish that swam in the blue of the waters that surrounded the earth. "And God said, 'Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.'" In the art that introduced Luther's Bible fish and birds populate the circles of creation surrounding the dry land. In the next sphere surrounding creation, beyond the realm of birds and fish, was the domain of the sun, moon and stars. They too were within the dome protected from chaos. They provided order, marking seasons, days, and years. Ancient peoples observed the order of the heavenly bodies and counted upon, but differently than we do now. Beyond the created lights the waters of chaos still swirled, outside the dome, threatening, but under God's control and care.

Finally, outside of it all, outside of creation and outside of chaos, where God called all things good the light of God blessed all things. Creation has always filled us with wonder. We look at it, observe it, and wonder about it. Science looks and explores the realms of the universe more accurately than the ancients could. Still at the basis of science is a sense of wonder and discovery, discerning where we are and what all this is. Psalm 8 expresses the wonder of one who looked. "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" The questions remain: Where did we come from? Why are we here? How long have we got? Is the universe cold and empty or is there something beyond all this that cares? For me faith begins in wonder rather than fear. It is not the threat of chaos or condemnation that calls me to faith, rather it is the wonder that I and all of us and all things are given the gift to be. Dag Hammarskjold sensed that one evening. "The light died in the low clouds. Falling snow drank in the dusk. Shrouded in silence, the branches wrapped me in peace. When the boundaries were erased, once again the wonder: that I exist." Observe all this. Give thanks for this place God created from the beginning for you, for us, for all things to exist.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer