Member-only story
“The Distinctions in God’s Creation”
Genesis 1:1–31
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness” (CSB Gen 1.3–4).
When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was a seminary student he outlined a sermon about diversity in creation as evidence of God’s goodness. Using Genesis 1 as his source text, King argued that God’s goodness is so vast that one creature alone could not represent it. King said that “God brought things into being in order that his goodness might be represented by his creatures.”
Note: I cannot presume to know what Dr. King might have done with these notes, but I find them compelling enough to try and tease out where he might have gone had he written and preached this sermon. Forgive me for my audacity in advance.
Dr. King never preached this sermon; there’s no evidence that he ever completed it. Still, much of his later teachings indicate that the ideas he scratched out for seminary budded and blossomed into a fulness of philosophy that led him to become one of the most beloved men in America. His faith propelled his vision and his dream that truly, all men are created equal. The goodness of God has made us in his image, but created each person to a unique likeness, with variations in looks, intelligences, talents, gifts, ethnicities…
