Genesis 1:1-5

Epiphany 1 - Year B

Genesis 1:1-5

There was deep darkness. There was only deep dark - darkness so deep that darkness itself couldn’t be seen.

What is to be done? Drop a stone and listen for a clink? Sort of. Blow and whistle into the dark until it cannot hold and breaks apart. Lo and behold, there was light all along, but not sun light - formless, void.

This is a scene of high drama taking place under the stars that knows lunar months and solar years well attested in scripture. Here there is no astrological correspondence for a seven day week. We might look to numerology and all that we have claimed that “seven” means, but that is also problematic. Why not seven 4-day weeks instead of four 7-day weeks per lunar cycle?

If this recounting of calling forth light rather than finding it and naming it, is from the Priestly line, we might see this whole process as one of beginning a blessing of all that is, night and noon, and becoming our call to bless. It becomes the light the comes up out of the water, dark water, baptizing water, living water.

May you see numinous light and shape it to practical light. May your numinous light be named with your name.