Genesis 1:20-23 – “Diving Deep and Flying High” – August 20, 2017

We are invited by God to dive deep like the creatures of the sea. We are invited by God to soar high like the creatures of the air. I know that is quite an interpretive and metaphorical leap to take with this passage. But, there isn’t much else to do with it. “On Day 5 God made birds and fish.

We could talk about the structural organization of the 7 days of creation and how the creative activities on Days 1, 2 and 3 line up perfectly with the creative activities on Days 4, 5 and 6. That is very interesting, but what kind of application does that have for us today?

We could also talk about the abundance of animals described in Day 5. The great flocks of birds to fill the sky and the swarms of fish in the sea. We could use that as a reminder of the original abundance of creation, and how we are called to preserve and even restore that abundance. That’s a really good message, but I’ve talked a few times already in this sermon series about the importance of creation care and I will touch on it some more next week.

So, today I’m going to metaphorically dive in, or interpretively take off, and say that Day 5 of creation invites us to dive deep like the creatures of the sea–diving below the surface of our normal consciousness–and to fly high through faith like the birds of the air.