Same Difference

Creation Story Two: 2:4b-25

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Creation Story Two, (essentially Genesis chapter two), marks a change in perspective.

Perhaps the most obvious opening question is: why do we need another creation story? Hopefully, our former reflections answer this: new stories offer new insights. A better question is: what new insights are found in this story that lay beyond the scope of the first? A short time spent comparing them throws up two clear initial differences: they are likely written by different original authors; and, story two deliberately presents a contrasting picture of God to story one.

The effortless transcendence of Creation One gives way to anthropomorphic immanence in Creation Two. In other words, the theological vision in Creation One is top-down - seeing through God’s eyes or from the divine point of view. Creation Two is decidedly bottom-up - seeing through human eyes.

God’s majesty is essentially the heart of the story of Creation One, which is why we see Him simply speaking things into being and then ordering them around as an ancient monarch might. Thus, its tone or mood is one of deference. It’s not that God is aloof - He cares with perfect goodness – but, by definition, He can’t be too buddy-buddy. A clear, unconfused portrait of the transcendent God is vital for grasping the truth of His utter difference to everything He’s created. What we might call His unlikeness or dissimilitude, or more traditionally, mystery.

Arguably, though, God’s transcendence is the least surprising thing about Him. With infinite being, mystery comes as standard. The earthquake shock is that He might choose love and even intimacy with His creatures; that He might thereby make Himself somehow vulnerable. This is the new story Creation Two seeks to tell. It speaks of a God who clings not to some distant majesty but can be quite easily found enjoying an evening stroll beneath the cooling foliage and nectar rich air of his own beloved garden, (3:8).

There’s no intended contradiction. The awe and necessary reverence engendered by Creation One are now enriched by affection and closeness. Respect and intimacy are portrayed as two complementary facets of the same loving-kindness. The combined vision is of a firm yet tender-hearted king.

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It’s worth pausing here. What an incredibly powerful statement at the very start of Sacred Scripture! Namely, that it’s appropriate and, moreover, necessary to tell the same story in two different ways. Or, to tell two subtly different stories about similar realities. The stories don’t displace one another. They serve to celebrate contrast and plurality of perspective. Now, this might not be exactly earth-shattering to readers of the four Gospel accounts, but perhaps it should be.

We’ve learnt that, first and foremost, truth resides at the tops of story mountains. Spiritual realities don’t come cheap. It’ll be some climb! At times it will feel like hell. Because it actually will be hell. And it’s pretty rarefied up there; the air super thin. And it’ll be biting cold. So, you might want to save your breath for making it back down alive. Just enough time for a glimpse of radiant light knelt before the heartbreaking sunset. The descent will be different and not just because you’re heading down. You may take the same trail, but you’re no longer the same person. In a sense, even the mountain’s no longer the same.

Truth is wrapped in story and story changes us even as it changes each time we approach it. Your favourite novel won’t be exactly the same story next time you read it. And there are many paths to and from the truth. As a Christian, I’m in the mid-swirl of another Lenten season. It isn’t the same as last year and I know it won’t be the same next year. That’s because each new Lent has its own story into which I’m being called, to be reshaped by the gifts waiting for me up there in the mountain wilds. And it hurts every time. As the old recalcitrant narratives, in a blizzard of twisters, resist the impulses of the new.

God is laying out His stall at the journey start. Truth is only ever approached through various paths, through humble and persistent searching. No one narrative exhausts it. And it certainly isn’t something to be possessed. I think this is a false reading of Jesus’s own words that ‘you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’. (Jn 8:32) The knowing and freedom here is more like contemplation, realisation, unfolding.

Example: in Creation One, humans are made on day six, the completing day of God’s activity, whereas Creation Two actually kicks off with the creation of man (in the shape of the male) in search of wholeness and completion. The same story told in two directions. They’re not literally compatible because that’s not the point. But there’s also a paradox, normally a clear sign of authenticity: we are both complete and yet also incomplete. Different realities relating to the same reality.

In short, there’s a place for dogma and its appropriate defence, but not for dogmatism.

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As we begin our exploration of Creation Two, it’s worth recalling the exclamation of Deuteronomy 4:7 – what great nation is there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to him? This is the additional divine name we noted before. Throughout Creation Two, God (El) is always also referred to as Lord (YHWH). This new title deliberately signifies closeness and covenantal relationship, since it is the name the Lord Himself revealed to Moses.

From the outset, we’re being called to recognise that our Lord God is both near and far: the same God approaches us through both experiences. His infinite reality gently stretches our inflexible categories upon the rack of paradox. It’s entirely possible for something to be so close we miss it, or someone to be so familiar that we neglect them.

My Lenten prayer is that this new story journey will breathe fresh life into our earthenware beings that we might draw ever closer to the One who is closer still.

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Header photo: Marlon Alves, Unsplash