As I acknowledged when we began our focus on “Creation,” there are hundreds of religious stories about how we and our earth came into being…and why we are here. Several of you have been kind enough to share your particular favorite stories, some touching, some difficult to understand and at least one even funny.

One way to think about the creation is to focus less on the objects and creatures which fill space and live in time, and to focus more on the creation of that space itself. There is a challenging wisdom in this approach. Often it is necessary to “create a space” for the Spirit of Life.  It requires a giving up of “busyness,” a putting down of the “to do” list. For creation to operate in our lives, emptying is often necessary.

This emptying is close to the heart of much Buddhist practice, but the idea of creating space before creation can take place occurs in several religious traditions. In Unitarian Universalism we speak of the spark of divinity that resides within each of us. This grounds our affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of each person. But for that spark of divinity to burn, we need to create space for it.

Here is one telling of the creation story from the Hassidic Jewish tradition. I am indebted to Rev. Jim Nelson of Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena for this version.  You will, I think, feel the resonance of this story with our religious tradition.

“In the beginning, or in the time before the beginning, before history, before there was anything other than God, God decided to create the world. Why is a mystery; perhaps God was bored or lonely; maybe God had read a self-help book about expressing one’s inner artist.  No one knows for sure. 

But there was nothing but God, the tale says, and so in order for the world to come into being, God had to make room within his or her Self; God had to create space, a place of emptiness into which the world could become.

And the space God created is known as the shekinah. This is a word used often in the Hebrew Bible and usually refers - the translation is difficult- to the presence of God, the sense of God’s holiness. 

 It is a feminine word – Hebrew has genders, so it is perhaps the feminine aspect of God’s presence. In any case, as the world was created into the empty space of God, bits of the shekinah were embedded, so that everything that exists has a bit, a spark of the sacred, a piece of the holy in it. 

Our task as humans, it is thus believed,  is to see the sacred in everything and so release it [how that happens is a mystery] until ultimately God will be one again.  We must make the space within ourselves, however, to recognize these sparks of the sacred.”

In the Jewish traditions, the work of allowing those sparks to connect and allowing God to be one again, is called Tikun Olam.  It is often translated as “healing the world,” and that is language that we often use.  But the whole process hinges on space being made and space being held.

When we approach difficult conversations and invoke our covenant of respect and care, as we resist the temptation to demonize and dismiss those with whom we disagree, as we strive for real honesty with ourselves, we are creating and holding space. We are making a place where the holy can live and where healing can happen.

“Making space” and “holding space” can themselves seem like too much mystery. For our faith, mystery may certainly be involved, but not miracles.  We “make space” intentionally.  We do it every time we promise to respect another and attempt to listen as deeply as we can.  We do it every time we gather in prayer and silence. We do it whenever we are most honest with ourselves.  Holding that space is part of our calling as religious people and part of our hope for the healing of the world.

Blessing,

Bill