thesoulpurposedotorg

Today is Labor Day and I am having a day of rest. Yesterday evening, my Mother-in-Law shared a DVD with us from a play she had seen in Lancaster. PA called Noah. Like all plays based on a Bible story, liberties with the text abounded. Which caused me to take out my Bilble and re-read the Noah story. (Did you know that Noah sent out a raven once and a dove three times? – I only remember the dove and thought it was only twice). So I decided it was time for me to re-read Genesis. I am enjoying the new translation called The Voice. It can be accessed for free through the Bible Gateway app. Here is an excerpt from Genesis 1:4-9, the second creation story within the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. I hope you enjoy it.

4 This is the detailed story of the Eternal God’s singular work in creating all that exists. On the day the heavens and earth were created, 5 there were no plants or vegetation to cover the earth. The fields were barren and empty, because the Eternal God had not sent the rains to nourish the soil or anyone to tend it. 6 In those days, a mist rose up from the ground to blanket the earth, and its vapors irrigated the land. 7 One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.

(When human body meets divine spirit, soul is born. Divine breath and sculpted earth come together to make up the living soul. For thousands of years, philosophers and theologians have posed the question: what is a human being? Here God gives the answer.)

8 The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man whom He had sculpted there. 9 In this garden, He made the ground pregnant with life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the center of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Our pastor is on sabbatical this summer and he has granted me the privilege of preaching 6 of those Sundays. Two weeks ago, when I did the children’s story, the one and only child (whose name happens to mean Christ-bearer), wanted nothing to do with me.  Afterwards I asked him what he would like to talk about and he said “the weather”.  It just so happened that the Old Testament Lesson on the next Sunday would be I Kings 19:1-15.  In it, the great Prophet Elijah ran for his life into a cave where he waited for God to speak. I rewrote this story as a dramatic reading and downloaded sounds on to my iPad for the rain, earthquake and fire.  Then for sheer silence, I downloaded the Eternal Om. The three adults, the children and I practiced our parts before the service. They took turns playing each sound effect at the appropriate time.  When the Eternal Om came on, my new friend looked at me in wonder and said, “That sounds very familiar”.
For thousands of years, the traditions of the East have taught that Om is the sound of the vibration of the created universe. Those who have attuned their ears through the discipline of years of meditation often hear this very sound in the sheer silence of God’s presence. And Jesus said, the little child would lead us. And as they say, you can’t make this stuff up!