The Evolution of Creation – Based in Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos

Submitted by Michael Mugford 

Welcome

Call to Gather as Community

            L:         Where have you come from?

            P:        We have come from home, work, family and task to be together.

            L:         Why have come here?

            P:        We have come here to be together in holy time and holy community!

            L:         How have you come here?

            P:        We have come here open to the Spirit of Life in the world and to each other.

            L:         What have you come here to do?

            P:        We have come here to sing, pray, learn and share who we are with God and                           find our way deeper into God’s eternal presence!  We have come to worship!

Prayer

As we gather here this morning, we are challenged to think about things that many consider beyond our finite abilities to truly comprehend.  Science tells us that there is more to know than we can ever know and faith tells us that the ways of God are beyond our ways.  We may not be able to know it all, but we are educated people and people of mature faith, we are ready and able to think deep thoughts and offer our revelations to the deep mystery of God and the universe.  We are ready to walk the journey from the beginning and further define our place in the world and in the universe.  Today we say thank you God, for mind and spirit working together to make me who I am and who I can become.  Amen.

Song – Called by earth and sky – MV 135

Theme Intro – Where did it all begin?

Stories of Creation

Enuma Elish – The Epic of Creation
The Seven Tablets of Creation, L.W. King Translator, London 1902.

THE FIRST TABLET
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;

Mi'kmaq - Two Creators and their Conflicts

The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Micmac History, 1500-1950. Ruth Holmes Whitehead, Nimbus Publishing, 1991.

Before the earth was new, the sun was all that existed in the great universe. The sun divided the earth into several parts separated by many great lakes. In each part he caused one man and one woman to be born. They bore children and lived for many years. Wickedness pervaded in this family, and slowly they killed one another. The sun wept and wept with grief. The tears became rain that fell from the skies until water covered the entire earth. The family had to set sail in bark canoes to save themselves from the flood. A violent wind overturned their boats. All perished in the sea, but the old man and the old woman, who were best of all people, and it was they who populated the earth.

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness covered the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Poem – I Was Fashioned in Times Past, in the Beginning – Susan McCaslin (Darwin Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos - p. 97)

Theme – Eight Epochs of the Flaring Forth (The Big Bang)

The Big Bang Theory (song)

Eight Epochs of the Flaring Forth

1.)        The Law of Expansion is Fixed

2.)        Struggle Between Matter & Anti-matter

3.)        Creation of Atoms

4.)        Ripple of Gravity

5.)        Supernova Sacrifice

6.)        Our Solar System Born

7.)        Life Emerges on Earth

8.)        Emergence of Conscious Self-reflection in Humans

Song – Each Blade of Grass – MV 37

Theme – The Evolution of Creation and Our Place In It

Song – Touch the Earth Lightly – VU 301

Community Life

Offering & Offertory –TUNE MV 191 What can I do

Earth wind and fire   

all life inspires, 

plants, rocks and trees, 

and rolling seas

Creation lives

If we will give

And so we bring

Our offering.

One with the land

Creation’s grand

Respect for life

Will end much strife

So all might live

We freely give

Bless all we bring

Prayer

Blessing Song – It’s A Song of Praise to the Maker – MV 30