Conquering Vertigo

and on the fourth day

God set the sun to rule over the day, and the moon the night.

When I worked as a pastor, I drew some fire for talking about the role of mythology in the bible. Although myths are neutral, in the sense of being either true or false, many people heard "myth" and thought "fairy tale." When really, I was trying to bring a nuanced approach to understanding the truths of the bible. Mythology truth, historical truth, narrative truth, etc.

All this comes to mind as we experience the summer solstice, the day in the northern hemisphere that has the most sunlight.
As people gather around Stonehenge in England, celebrating the assumed sun worship of earlier cultures, I am reminded of the first chapter of Genesis, where the first creation account (there are two in Genesis) tells us that the sun rules the day.

In 2007, we are the inheritors of thousands of years of biblical history and interpretation, paired with modern scientific fact in an often uneasy pas de deux. We forget the ancient nomadic tribes, telling and retelling their oral history around the campfire. One generation passing along the story of creation -- and their place in it! -- to a new generation.

The fire flickers at a crowded oasis, as children gather to hear the stories. The Creator God making the heavens and earth, separating seas from dry land, and setting the sun to rule over the day, the moon to rule over the night. With such heady stuff, is it any wonder people all over the world celebrated the sun?

From temples in the Andes to circles in Europe to ziggarauts in the East, people knew that the sun ruled the day. They trusted it, counted on it. And often not knowing names like YWHW or Adonai, they gave the sun names and worshiped it. Our concept of the twenty-four-hour day comes from Egyptian Sun worship. The Egyptian Sun god, Ra, traveled half the time through the twelve domains of the underworld and half through the twelve domains of the day. Three thousand years before the birth of Christ, Egypt began using a 365 day calendar based on the solar year.

I take the bible seriously enough to believe in a connection between the ancient Hebrew creation myths and the fact that cultures from all over the world tracked, celebrated and worshiped the sun. According to ancient beliefs, the Japanese royal family is descended from their Sun goddess, Amaterasu.

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. Gen 1:14-19

Happy summer solstice. Want some spf 40?

posted by Woman In Love @ 8:37 PM