“Becoming Me. A Story of Creation” (Children's Service)
The 3d Sunday of Easter, April 6, 2008
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
On one of my recent trips to California…
Jennifer and I took Amelia out to lunch in Berkeley.
She slept.
We ate.
It was a warm, sunny day…
and we ate outdoors.
Afterward, we walked around a bit in that charming…
bustling Berkeley neighborhood populated by all kinds of people…
and I mean ALL kinds of people!
We wandered into a bookstore.
I was hoping to find something I could use with our Sunday school boys and girls on this children’s Sunday.
I found this little book.
Becoming Me. A Story of Creation
I bought the book.
Took it with me…
back to Jennifer’s.
When José got home…
I showed it to him…
And then I read it out loud for the three of us.
When I was done…
Jennifer and José and I stood silent for a minute.
All three of us found it to be incredibly, surprisingly moving.
It’s just a “children’s book,” you know!
But Wow!
I left the book there for Amelia to grow up with.
I’d like her to grow up knowing this alternative spiritual story of how it all began.
Ordered my own copy when I got home.
The title again…
Becoming me. A story of creation.
Not “the” story of creation”…
but “A” story of creation.
“Another” story of creation, actually.
There are already two creation stories in the Book of Genesis, you know.
The second version is older than the first.
Although both versions are supposed to have been written by Moses…
it’s totally not possible…
unless it was written posthumously.
The biblical creation narratives are clearly inspired stories told by followers of the One God…
but told in another time and another place…
based on a prehistoric understanding of the Universe.
So now there’s a third story of creation…
not science…
not evolution…
but also a clearly an inspired story told by a follower of the One God…
This version is told in the personal “voice” of our Creator.
It’s God who’s speaking directly to us in this little book.
It’s a story about creation…
but it’s also a story about relationship…
a story about each one of us.
In simple words…
and with beautiful illustrations…
it’s about creation…
it’s about playing…
it’s about friendship and love…
it’s about our world…
and it’s about becoming ourselves…
our True selves.
It tells a very big story in a very simple way…
a simple, charming, and profound story of God’s moving and changing presence in our world.
BECOMING ME. A STORY OF CREATION, BY MARTIN BOROSON1
Once upon a time…
I was.
There was nobody who knew that I was…
But I was.
I liked to make myself into different shapes.
Lots of different shapes—all me.
Everywhere I looked there was only me.
I must be VERY BIG.
I played by myself for ages.
It seemed like forever.
Then I started to get lonely.
I wanted someone else to play with, someone who wasn’t ME.
So I took a deep breath, gathered all my strength together, and squeezed really hard.
I started to feel dizzy.
It felt like I was falling.
And then suddenly, in a big burst, I became…
something ELSE.
This was so much fun, I did it again and again, lots of different ways.
I do it all the time now.
I can become all kinds of things, things that grow and swim and crawl and fly and run.
One day, I squeezed extra hard.
PUSHED and I PUSHED and I PUSHED, and then all of a sudden, I BECAME…
YOU.
What is this thing I’m in?
Just one moment ago I was SO BIG and now I’m SO little.
It’s like I’m all wrapped up in love.
But as soon as I become you, you forget that you’re me.
In time, you forget all about me.
Every so often, you wonder who you are.
And I’m right here, reminding you.
I’m always busy now, cheering you on.
I like it best when you discover me.
Then we play together, you and I.
And sometimes you realize that you ARE me.
But sometimes you forget that everything else is me too.
Even then…
don’t forget…
I still love you…
little ME.
NOTE
By the way, there’s a video version of this book…
narrated by the author, Martin Boroson.
If only a video screen could come up out of the floor like magic…
and a projector drop from the ceiling…
I could have shown the video this morning.
The video…
however…
is posted on my blog.
Among the February postings.
http://episcopalmarlboro.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-creation-story.html
(You can get to the blog from our church website.)
GOD ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Touching on this morning’s gospel reading…
to kind of tie this together somehow…
we get another big story told in a simple way.
We find Luke’s Jesus on the Road to Emmaeus.
In telling this story…
Luke also wants us to know something about God’s moving and changing presence in the world.
Luke has Jesus telling the two people on the road that his death had to happen.
It had to happen because the fear of a violent God who demanded blood had to be undone.
The “good news of great joy” for Luke was this:
God…
the creator…
the creative Lover of the World…
was willing to die at the hands of his own people…
and then was willing to come back again…
not to make them pay…
but to give them more love.
This love is unstoppable.
This love transforms people.
Even when we forget that God is with us…
and in us…
God still loves us…
little US.
That’s what Luke wanted us to know.
He also tells this very big story in a very simple way…
a profound story of God’s moving and changing presence in our world.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
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