The Material and The Spiritual

In Christianity, there is often a confusion between the proper understanding of the "material" and the "spiritual."  We're often taught to put our Spiritual needs ahead of our Material (or Fleshly) needs.  While that is true, people often take that to the extreme - an extreme that is not the intent of God.

In Genesis 1:1-2:3 we have the first Creation Story of the Bible.  Following that in Genesis 2 is another Creation Story.  Some consider Genesis 2 to be a continuation, but if you read it closely, it is very different in its details.  That doesn't mean that either is wrong.  In fact, both are right - People just ask the wrong questions.  Genesis 5 can also be seen as a Creation Story in the fact that it's a genealogy.  Showing the progression of people from one generation to another is a type of Creation.

Let me start off by saying that Religion and Science ARE NOT in contention.  They ask and seek to answer 2 inherently different questions.  Science seeks to answer "how" things came to be.  Religion seeks to answer "why" things came to be.  Yes, that's an oversimplified explanation.

The Bible is a living, breathing, inspired by God - written by humans, work.  Genesis is no exception.  The Creation story here in the same vain is no exception.  This Creation Story IS NOT a Science text book.  It is not a How to Create Your Own World in Seven Days book.  That doesn't mean it's not true.

Think of the story of "The Boy who Cried Wolf."  The boy was sent out to watch sheep.  He was bored.  Two times, to cure his boredom, he screamed "Wolf! Wolf!"  Both times, the villagers came running to save him and the sheep.  Both times, the boy was lying.  Then, a wolf finally did come, and they boy screamed again.  This time, no one believed his screaming and the wolf ate all his sheep.

Is "The Boy who Cried Wolf" true?  That depends on what you mean by true.  Did it really happen as told?  Probably not.  Does it teach a lesson that is true?  Definitely yes!

Did Genesis 1 happen exactly as it's written?  I don't know - God didn't invite me when creating the world.  Is it true? Absolutely - God did create the world!

Why did God create?  We can get hints in this passage, but we get the full answer in the context of the whole Bible.  God created because God is Love.  Love can't help but create!  Think of when you were a little kid in elementary school.  How many times did you write "Billy Loves Suzy" on pieces of paper and hand them to your sweetheart?  Artists can't help but create out of love - and even anger is redirected love.  Musicians make music out of love.  People bake cookies out of love.  Carpenters build out of love.  Farmers plant out of love.  Of course our love is not perfect like God's.  Of course we don't create in the same way - from nothing.  But love creates.

Why did God create?  God created the world for the final creation - Humans.  God gave humans dominion over all creation.  Why? Because God saw everything and said it was very good!  We often confuse the meaning of dominion.  Dominion does not mean exploitation.  Dominion means responsible care. Think of it this way:  If I ask you to housesit for me while I go out of town and tell you that you have dominion of my house.  You can use my whole house - my TV, my rooms, my stove, my computer, my porch, and so on.  Your job is to have dominion and keep it safe.  If you truly take your charge seriously, you would not start off by having a keg party and inviting 50 of your felon stoner friends over for an "anything goes" party.  That would be taking advantage of my house.  If you did take your charge seriously, you would use my house, but clean up after yourself, sleep in the bed and then make the bed, watch TV and then turn it off, make sure to lock the doors, and so on.

This world is God's.  We have dominion.  We are to care for it - not rule it - not exploit it.

God made us material beings in a material world.  The material things in life are not inherently bad if we don't forget the Spiritual (cough *God).  Often, when we do enjoy the material things of the world, someone will pull some verse from Romans 8 about the Evils of the Flesh.  They aren't totally wrong, but they are misquoting Paul if they are being extreme.  Paul does say that the Flesh can be evil.  What Paul means is that the Flesh (the Material) should be secondary to the Spiritual (God).

God gave us creation to enjoy, to use, to care for, to love.  But, as we do that, we need to remember who gave us the Material.

Gregory of Nyssa - one of the Church Fathers who lived from 335-395 spoke of Holy Communion.  He said that it is made of material bread and wine (or juice) because we are material beings.  But these material elements remind us of a spiritual truth - the reality of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.