Both of our readings today from Hebrew and Christian scriptures describe “In the Beginning…” The book of John says that the Word was in the beginning, and that the Word was with God and was God. Kind of a confusing description to most of us today, perhaps, but interestingly, many creation stories, from Indigenous ones to those in Islam and others, describe God as speaking the heavens and the earth into being. In a way saying that God’s words, the vibrations and the meaning making from Divinity form and maintain creation. Strangely enough, physics tells us that all matter is made of vibrations and is in deep connection with the rest of the universe.
The book of John goes even further perhaps, and says that God is that Word, that Truth, that Divine-coming-forth that crafts all things and that continuously works to uplift and maintain creation’s health and growth. That’s what we hear in the beginning of the Genesis creation story whether taken allegorically or more literally: God crafting each element of creation on top of another and seeing that it is good. Eventually, when (s)he crafts deeply intelligent and spiritual life, beings that reflect God’s likeness and image, she sees that they are very good. These humans, we know, like God also use communication and vision to craft the world around them in ways seemingly beyond imagination. Perhaps it’s that help that allows God to find peace, or perhaps it’s that on that day the beginning of God’s full purpose started to find fruition – what a relief!
The idea that we are made in the image and likeness of Goddess isn’t a groundless or aimless one, according to Hebrew and Christian scriptures, as well as in many other traditions, like Hinduism. No, these texts tell us in many ways God is as much a person as we could ever hope to be (although, perhaps one that transcends gender or any one species of life), and indeed, that all the things that makes us human in the best sense is from the Word, the Light, the Life that creates and infuses the universe. Ultimately, God’s goal is to share all he has with creation and uplift the diversity of life and community, which is where Divinity can truly shine. All the goodness described in the Genesis account is good because of the Creatress infused within it, the holy energy, the higher power and vibration that infuses and empowers all matter: our highest self.
I think this is evident even throughout the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) as well as in traditions like Islam, despite many Muslim traditions rejecting the idea that God can be compared to a human at all. In the Qur’an God is described as exemplifying positive, humanlike attributes including wisdom, compassion, goal-setting, communication, and mercy.
Before the Christian tradition says the Lord had incarnated as the “Word made flesh,” we still see many human attributes given to God in Jewish holy texts. Scripture says that this isn’t because we unduly craft God into our image, but the inverse – God crafts us out of love into his image. Even at the beginning of Genesis, we already see that God(dess) speaks “Let there be light,” God sees that the light is good, God also separates, names things, and reflects on how great the universe is as she crafts it – celebrating and resting once humanity enters the scene. These ideas not only help us to start to understand God, but also ourselves and our great empowerment to transform things for good.
Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th century mystic that inspires many of our reflections, wrote that yes, God is a person, even the Person. He called Divinity the Divine Human, the infinite source of our humaneness and the goodness, love, wisdom, healthy structure, and strength of all things.
It was his viewpoint that the book of John is right: God is the Word and Life that invigorates and uplifts all things, especially the human mind and spirit. Further, like both John and Genesis, he agreed that there is another element of creation that often works in opposition to Goddess: spiritual darkness. Swedenborg believed that the metaphor of scripture was mainly concerned with just that, our spiritual journey from relative darkness to greater and greater light and life. This darkness runs the gamut in what it represents, from general ignorance to active destruction of life and our environment, things that we unfortunately can see manifest around us today in horrific fashion, things that God calls on us to work to change. We do that by speaking, by creating and shedding light on things. That’s why Christ is said to have only spoken in metaphor or parable, why God became flesh, to uplift hearts and minds; he always strives to transform our lives and our universe toward greater peace, light and warmth.
Swedenborg uses that idea of holy mission as the lens that he interpreted all of scripture through, saying that God’s work to uplift the human spirit started long before Christ was born, continues long after his resurrection, and transcends any one religion or view. That’s why we have scripture and higher awareness throughout the world and why he saw their narratives as similar to Christ’s metaphorical stories, indeed, as another form of Christ’s metaphorical stories, just ones that transcend what we’d call those given during his earthly life. He believed that scripture was inspired, crafted and maintained by spiritual communities because they often speak the language of God as parables that call on us to receive more of God’s goodness, more of the life and light from the just, loving personhood of God, whatever we may call him. This is why the literal, narrative language of scripture so often lends itself to how we speak about our spiritual “walks”: from the “illumination” and “expanse” of our minds to the “hurdles” of our inner “journeys” and the “dawn” found when we overcome them, the list goes on.
That is how Swedenborg read the Genesis creation story, as a parable describing our spiritual development and one that inspires us to grow further on our journey toward peace, the Sabbath day.
Personally, I can see how this is true in my life and in many of the spiritual journeys that are shared with me. For me, at one point I was much like the void or abyss that was covered in darkness in Genesis 1. I had no belief in higher truths or deeper connection, no transcendent inner sight or anything that I would have described as a spiritual or deeply meaningful life. And yet, even then I’m sure that like in the Genesis story, the Lord was nearby with a holy wind, his breath hovered over me as he looked ahead toward my hoped-for positive transformation.
How wonderful it is when the Lord says, “Let there be light,” and we start to find the inner light within, insights into higher truths, and an awareness and vision of our own depth and the possibility of truer life before and within us. Some of us are even blessed enough to have that from an early age!
Although it takes our freewill working, creating and speaking in concert with God, eventually I believe we can further discover the fruit of life more and more within and around us. Life springing, like in the creation story! We can allow Divinity to till the ground of our mind and spirit, evolving more abundance and connection, inspiring greater life, love and community within and through us. We can let God craft more goodness in our inner and outer environments just like the story describes, as the enlivening life, the enlightening light that she is. We no longer have to be stuck on day one of creation allowing spiritual darkness cover “the face of the deep,” our face, but instead can start to see that we ride on the wings of an eagle, we climb the tree of life; we walk hand-in-hand with the living, walking Lord.
