Image by wallyg via Flickr
This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world. If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts. This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.
Psalm 24: 1-2
It is interesting to compare the first line in the NRSV version with the paraphrase in Churches' Together in England's title (above). 'The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it'. The word 'belongs' implies ownership, as if the world is God's property. To say the earth is the Lord's implies it is the Lord's in the sense that a work of art is the artist's. If I buy a Picasso it is mine but the painting is still his.
One point I have made many times is, ecumenism is a part of the wider Oikoumene, which stands for the reconciliation of all things to God. The world is God's and God calls to all created things. Evolution is their response to God's call.
In what sense is this world God's? There's not a lot to go on in this particular text. The focus is not on God designing animals and plants but in setting the parameters of seas and rivers. Perhaps the image is of God the theatre owner, who maintains the theatre in order that others might put on plays? There might be a tendency to forget the theatre owner's work at the final curtain.
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