Worship is the central recurring event in the life of a Christian community. Christian worship is a ritual in which God sets us in right relationship with God, with ourselves, and with our fellow creatures. Most of the time, our worship has focused on the relationship between God and humans. In recent years, however, the church has become more attuned to the extraordinary number of references throughout our traditions of worship to God as the creator and to a concern for the well-being of other creatures.
Today we begin a four week celebration of The Season of Creation. It offers us an opportunity to turn our attention toward God the creator and toward our relationship with the whole creation.
Genesis 2:4b-15
4These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,5when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7then the LordGod formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.
8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 11The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
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