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Creator. . . created. . . creating                        Genesis 1:20-27                   February 15, 2009

On Feb. 12, 1809, thousands of babies were born in many places around the globe. There is nothing particularly significant about that. The same thing happens every day. Two of the births occurring on that particular day, within a few hours of each other, did prove to be significant, however. One occurred in a cabin in rural Kentucky, belonging to a dirt-poor farmer; the other on a comfortable estate in Shropshire, England, owned by a wealthy doctor.

The American baby was named Abraham, and the English boy was called Charles.

Yes, my friends, this past week we were reminded that Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day of the same year. February 12, 1809. Two hundred years ago this past Thursday.

So on this Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, 2009, when nothing of particular significance appears on the Church calendar, and when we find ourselves in the middle of Presidents Day weekend too boot, I thought it might be useful to ponder the significance of those two remarkable men and see if there is something for us to learn from their contribution to the world.

Examining the legacy of these notable figures from a faith perspective presents a challenge. Neither of them were Christians, by almost any definition of what it means to be a Christian, yet God used both of them. As one scholar put it, "they both changed the most basic ways that people viewed human existence and helped bring about a new era in the history of human thought."

Of the two, Lincoln's contribution is easier to view with the eye of a person of faith. Darwin's is more problematic. He is more a lightning rod than a positive example for most Christians. A bogeyman rather than a thought leader.

So let's start with Lincoln: A self-made man. A remarkable orator. A consensus choice as one of the greatest if not the greatest President in the history of the United States.

Lincoln led the defeat of the Confederate states in the American Civil War and freed around four million slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Without Lincoln, the United States probably would have been split into at least two nations.

Lincoln's most significant accomplishment, though, was defining and articulating the very core of what America means. When he stood up to deliver his Gettysburg Address, he knew that people in the North were wondering aloud just what it was they were fighting for. Was it to preserve the Union, or was it to abolish slavery? Lincoln was keenly aware that he needed to clarify the issue.

So, in that short speech at Gettysburg, Lincoln reminded his audience of the democratic origin of the United States in a color-blind statement that none of his listeners would ever forget. "Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation," he said, "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

This is why we, as people of faith, have no trouble holding Lincoln in high esteem. This biblically-based creed; the notion that everyone is equal in God's sight and should be treated equally by the law, has never been more clearly articulated.

By lifting up this standard, Lincoln literally changed the world. You could argue that he was a prophet in the tradition of Isaiah and Amos. You could argue that God used him to advance the cause of justice in the world.

It is simply impossible to overstate the importance of this man. No wonder we have erected monuments in his memory, minted or engraved his likeness on our currency and sculpted his face on the front of Mount Rushmore.

He may have never joined a church, but Lincoln firmly believed that he was doing God's will when he freed the slaves. He firmly believed that his actions grew out of his belief in the will of the Creator. And few would argue that this, in fact, was the case.

So when I suggest that we wish Abraham Lincoln a "happy birthday" today, my guess is that most of you will happily join me in that sentiment.

But Darwin? Why, other than the coincidence of their both being born on the same day of the same year two hundred years ago, would anyone even compare him to Lincoln? And why would any Christian say anything positive about Darwin?

After all, many people of faith, perhaps many of you, believe that the scientific discoveries about just how life developed on this planet - the theories we lump into the category of evolution - undermine faith in God.

And most of these folks blame a man named Charles Darwin for this state of affairs.

So why would we want to be reminded about this troublemaker? In Church, no less?

Well, first of all, let's acknowledge, together, that no matter what we may think of him, Charles Darwin has influenced the thinking - and the behavior - of generations of scientists around the world. His central contributions, the theory of organic evolution and the notion of natural selection, are the cornerstones of modern biology and explain all sorts of adaptations in the plant and animal world.

For good reason.

A simple, straightforward example of this phenomenon is the increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

Remember the "wonder drugs" our parents gave us when we got sick? Well, they don't work any more because the bacteria have become resistant to them - in other words, these bacteria have evolved - right before our eyes, in our lifetime.

Clearly, if we look at the overwhelming evidence, the notion, first put forward by Darwin, that life continually changes and evolves and adapts is not just an obscure concept, concocted by a misguided theoretician. It is true.

We know from astronomy that the universe had a beginning, from physics that the future is both open and unpredictable, from geology and paleontology that the whole of life has been a process of change and transformation. And Darwin, whose birthday we celebrate this week, started it all.

But wait, you might be asking, don't Darwin's theories stand in direct opposition to the explanations for the origin of things in the Bible?

Let's take a look at the Creation story in Genesis and see what we find.

But before we do that, let's be sure we put the Genesis account of creation in its proper historical perspective.

The Creation story in the book of Genesis is, in fact, a book about the beginning of the universe and the beginning of the people of Israel. It lays the foundation for our understanding of the rest of the Biblical story. It is because of our understanding of creation and the Creator that we can, in turn, grasp the meaning of redemption.

But Genesis, despite its position at the front of the Bible, is a prequel, much like each of the three more recent Star Wars movies, LThe Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were prequels to Star Wars, the original film.

Even though it stands at the head of the canon, as the first book of the Bible, the Genesis story of Creation is not the first story.

The first story about the people of God is the story of the Exodus. The written account of the people of God begins in Egypt by the banks of the Nile, where the desert nomads who were the descendents of Abraham found themselves crying out under hard labor as slaves. The first story is the story of the people of Israel's deliverance from that bondage.

So when we read, as we did a few minutes ago, that "God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.' And it was so." Or when we read that "God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them," we must remember that this account of creation was written as a prequel to the already well-known story of the redeeming power of God.

Here's the bottom line: The story of Creation is a statement of the faith of a people who experienced a miracle and believed that the God who miraculously delivered them from bondage in Egypt was - and is - the God who brought the world into being.

When we view the wonderful story of Creation as a testimony of faith, we can affirm it for what it is and, at the same time, accept that science has advanced our knowledge of such things as the age of the world and the existence, millions of years ago, of creatures that have long since become extinct. We can take in all of the knowledge we have gained and will gain about the world and recognize that it in no way invalidates our belief in God the Creator.

Biologist Kenneth Miller, in his fascinating book, Finding Darwin's God, asks the key question. "Does Darwin's work strengthen or weaken the idea of God? Did his work ultimately contribute to the greater glory of God, or did he deliver human nature and destiny into the hands of a professional scientific class, one profoundly hostile to religion?"

Miller argues, convincingly I think, that the conventional wisdom about Darwin is incorrect. "Science in general, and evolutionary science in particular," he writes, "reveals a universe that is dynamic, flexible, and logically complete. It presents a vision of life that spreads across the planet with endless variety and intricate beauty. It suggests a world in which our material existence is not an impossible illusion propped up by magic, but the genuine article, a world in which things are exactly what they seem. A world in which we were formed, as the Creator once told us, from the dust of the earth itself."

"In biological terms," he concludes, "evolution is the only way a Creator could have made us the creatures we are - free beings in a world of authentic and meaningful moral and spiritual choices. Evolutionary biology, then, is not at all the obstacle we often believe it to be. In many respects, evolution is the key to understanding our relationship with God."

So, I guess we can celebrate Darwin's birthday after all.

Adam Gopnik, author of Angels and Ages, one of the several new books about Lincoln and Darwin inspired by the 200th anniversary of their births, writes that "By the time Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were dead-the American murdered by a pro-slavery terrorist in 1865, the Englishman after a long illness in 1882-the shape of history had changed, and the lives they had led and the things they had said had done a lot to change it.

Very different beliefs, ones that we now treat as natural and recognize as just part of the background hum of our time, were in place. People were beginning to understand that the world was very, very old, and that the animals and plants in it had changed dramatically over the eons . . . and people were convinced, on the whole, that democratic government, arrived at by reform or revolution, was a plausible and strong way to organize a modern nation."

Darwin and Lincoln, he goes on to conclude, "hadn't made the change, but they had helped to midwife the birth."

The creation accounts, so beautifully laid out in Genesis, help us see the import of these two men and the changes they helped to bring about.

They help us see God as the one who creates order out of chaos. Always has. Always will. And they help us to see that every human being is a child of God.

Therefore, we are reminded, today, to hold on to hope when all signs of order in our lives have been destroyed. We are encouraged to look out for signs of the continuing creative work of God beyond our control.

When we affirm that God created the order we see out of the chaos of nothingness, and further affirm that God is still creating order out of chaos in the succession of day and night, we can also affirm that God will one day create order once more out of chaos in the lives of God's people.

It is possible, for us, to see the Creation story as a prequel to a story whose sequel is still being spoken and enacted today. We continue to evolve. Our Creator is still creating. Thankfully, God is not finished with us.

                                                                             AMEN

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