Rev. McKinley L. Sims, M.Div.

Note: This is the homily I preached to enter into Preliminary Fellowship on a September weekend in Boston. I’m honored, humbled, and excited to share it and this journey with you. I am excited to be welcomed to the group, and welcomed to the work. 

There is Light by Eric Williams (adapted)
In the beginning
There was light
Infinite and expansive
Flowing out from an unseen center.

Within you
There is light
The same light as the Source
The same radiance that is in all creatures.

May this small flame
Be a constant reminder to you
Of your true nature
And your kinship with all beings.

Bereshith bara elohim et hashamayim va et haaretz…the first words of the Hebrew poem that opens the book of Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Surely among the most familiar and divisive opening words in all of literature. So familiar that we might just skate right past them: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That’s how the Hebrew of the poem is usually translated: the very first word, bereshith, is a translated prepositional phrase of two units, the word bet means “in,” and reshith is…..whatever it is, “beginning”..so it’s literally translated as “in the reshith” or “in the beginning” in English. Pretty straightforward…and yet this phrase has caused so much division and debate amongst humanity over what the words mean. Translations are interpretations, after all. If we skate past this translated line, especially the first word, berreshith, we miss what kind of truth and meaning this poem has for us as Unitarian Universalists, even if we disagree on its..uh scientific, relevance. Reshith is commonly said to mean “the beginning”- some time ago when something was first created. But was it “literally” created, or was it metaphorical? Was that 6000 years ago or 13.8 billion years? Is it talking about the Big Bang or about did some “One” do the creating?. This debate is all based on the idea that be–reshith means “in the beginning”…..But hang on, because in Hebrew, the preposition bet doesn’t have to mean “in”… it can also mean “with”….it doesn’t have to be in the reshith, it could be “with the reshith,” God created the heavens and the earth. There’s ancient Hebrew commentary on this very idea… that it’s not about WHEN God created the heavens and the earth, but WHAT God created the universe “with”. With this reshith. With this beginning stuff. Which begs the question: ok, what is reshith? What is this beginning stuff, that is, according to the Genesis poem, the fundamental building block of the universe? And have we been asking the wrong question in arguing about “when” or “who” created the world?

The ancient tradition was to point to another text in the Hebrew Scriptures to provide an answer to the question…so we’re going to psalm 89. Where the psalmist writes the phrase olam hesed yibaneh, translated as the whole world is built with ….hesed. This word hesed, along with reshith, is another beautifully unspecific Hebrew word with different translations ranging from mercy to loving kindness to simply love…how interesting it would be if the world, the entire universe, was built out of hesed, created not in the beginning, but with the beginning…. With reshith that is also known as hesed love…and love was the core of creation.

And that’s a faith statement, right? We can’t yet scientifically prove that love is the center of the cosmos… but we ask the question, and then we ask what does that mean for us as people of faith? As Unitarian Universalists with a high theology of love, who might we be and what might we do if love is our reshith, the fundamental building block of the universe?

Of course, this is simply a reframing of how we think about the world, but it’s an incredibly important reframing. And it is a translation, an interpretation, to be sure… because either frustratingly or amazingly, the Hebrew Scriptures aren’t crystal clear about what reshith actually is and what hesed actually means. But I think that’s the beauty of the question: it’s pluralism, it’s open to different interpretations. My answer to what is the beginning stuff of creation is that it’s this grace-filled loving kindness/hesed…but it could be something else for you. You might have a different center of creation. I wonder if in the first line of that Genesis poem the ancients were trying to tell us something about the nature of this beautifully complex universe, making us ask the question, trying to determine what that reshith or center is for each of us… what is the fundamental building block of our lives? Is it joy, is it covenant, is it math, is it protons and neutrons, quarks and matter? Is it money, or power, or whiteness?

I do have my own answer, but I think it’s the question that’s more important, because that first questions drives us towards what is true and consequential for how we are to live our lives in trying to be as fully human as possible. When you’ve gotten close to working through the first question of discovering your reshith, your beginning stuff, our faith begs the second question: how am I to live if that is true? If reshith is hesed, if it is loving kindness, or joy or covenant, and that’s the true center of the universe, then what does that interpretation mean for me and my life? Faith is not just an intellectual comfort exercise, it must have real effects in our lived experience, if it is any faith worth having. So If I really believe this to be true, then what must I do or be in response?

I believe hesed, grace-filled loving kindness, is the reshith, the fundamental building block of the entire cosmos… and because I believe this translation, it means that love has demands of me in my life. This is a meaning I struggle with as a Christian, because that love was the message of Jesus of Nazareth and I am challenged by it…. A challenge that sometimes gets sanitized by people of all theological persuasions. The message of radical hesed love from Jesus and the Hebrew prophets is both welcoming…and challenging. It’s not simply “safe.” They radically demanded more of me… often times more than I am willing to do. I walked into a UU church as a questioning Christian, and was welcomed to be just that, to be me..but I was also challenged, not about whether to be Christian at all but to be a More loving Christian, a better Christian. I was taught by this denomination that radical love demands more of me in an interdependent web of all existence, and that faith is not solely an exercise in personal comfort if world peace and harmony and justice, equity and compassion in all human relations are truly the goals. It’s easy to say that I want to be more loving, but if love is my reshith, then what does it really mean when this kind of love ain’t always safe. When it challenges my privilege and comfort, makes me step outside my safe zone to experience the real center of the universe. When it compels me to show up in solidarity, to be…un-safe. I believe Love demands more of me as a person of faith. And I get it if you’re not there, if you’re just looking for a welcoming sanctuary, for some place to feel safe to be who you are. Faith is absolutely supposed to provide a place where you feel comfortable being you and I hope you find that in the UU faith, that you find your reshith.…. And that you feel challenged to become better in doing so. When you find your center, whether it’s joy or wonder or mystery, I hope that your faith interpretation calls you in and sustains you. And when your faith calls you out and up towards something more, that’s a little less safe, I hope you’ll join me in answering that call and question, too. Because that’s the beauty of this fierce tradition, the reshith is gloriously undefined and our pluralism only makes the light of creation shine brighter. But translations are interpretations. Far too many in our world make violence or hate or whiteness as their reshith, and base their lives on this mistranslation, sustaining those systems. Make no mistake, Translations are interpretations, but the first word of the Genesis poem isn’t about a dividing or destructive force, it’s a life giving creative power that’s the heart-engine of the entire cosmos. It’s not the end, but the beginning, and the center, and liberation, and the soul of all life in the universe. And it’s welcoming you, calling you to places you’d never imagine going, and challenging you to witness the beauty of creation, however it came to be. A challenge to find your reshith, to live more fully human, and to build the world with a little bit of hesed at a time.” May it be so. Amen.