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John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Genesis 1:1-2:4 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights– the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night– and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
In the Beginning…
Isn’t it great to be back in the sanctuary this morning? There is just something special about worshipping in this space looking at the Good Shepherd window.
This morning we begin with a joke. A man is talking to God. “God, how long is a million years?” God answers, “To me, it’s about a minute.” “God, how much is a million dollars?” “To me, it’s a penny.” “God, may I have a penny?” “Wait a minute.”
Now this may be a funny joke but it gives us a look into time from God’s perspective. Genesis begins with the assertion of God’s sovereignty over time: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” . This foundational statement let’s us know God as the Creator of time itself. Throughout Scripture, God is depicted as existing outside the limits of time. Consider Psalm 90:4. “For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.” This verse highlights God’s eternal nature and His dominion over time, emphasizing that He is not bound by the temporal limitations that govern human life.
Every fall we return to Genesis and this morning we have the story of creation. Now when I say story I don’t mean it in the sense of fiction, something that isn’t true but story as in an account of events that took place. The book of Genesis isn’t a scientific account of the origin and nature of the physical world. Genesis was never meant to be a science textbook about how the world began. That is not the purpose of Genesis. The story of Genesis is meant to convey statements of faith about our creating God. Hebrews 11:3 says “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible”.
Many people around the world and throughout time have mythological stories of creation and gods. I know I’ve read accounts of Greek, Roman and Norse mythology which told myths of the lives of their gods. These accounts are filled with violence and deceit, trickery and death. The gods in them seem to be just like humans but with special powers. Genesis contains nothing like this. There is no myth about our God for He is above all things. God simply is.
That’s where Genesis starts. In the beginning God. Before there was a universe, before even time began, there was God. It all begins with God, it all flows from God. Think about it. Imagine if you can, being an observer at the moment of creation. Look at the sheer power of God demonstrated in creation, His sovereign control, His irrefutable design for the universe. He spoke and light started speeding through space. At His word suns, moons, planets, stars and galaxies began their dance through the universe.
When we look at all the factors that had to be exactly right for planets to form and for life to exist on our planet it is staggering. One of my professors in seminary spent an entire 2 ½ hour class period on the statistics of why the universe couldn’t exist just by sheer chance. That’s what science tells us; it all happened by chance. There was no plan or purpose. The universe is so large that eventually our planet and the life on it just… happened. That’s like saying if I take a box containing a jigsaw puzzle and toss the pieces up in the air enough times it will one time fall into place completely assembled. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
Science can tell us how things happened but they can’t create them. We can certainly make things. We are surrounded by things we have made. Look around our sanctuary. Consider the clothes we are wearing. The cars we drove here. All of these things were made. Creating is not making. Only God creates something out of nothing.
As I said, Genesis is not a science textbook. It was not written to answer questions of how did it happen, but to instill faith and awe in humanity in the face of our Creator God. It is an account of creation that focuses not on what happened but on Who caused it to happen. Genesis presents this in language easily understood by all peoples throughout time. You don’t have to know about dinosaurs. You don’t have to know how oil was made. I looked it up though. Oil comes from the remains of algae and plankton, that lived in ancient oceans millions of years ago. Through a slow process of burial, heat, and pressure, this organic material transformed into the crude oil we extract today. This happened between 252 and 66 million years ago, when warm, shallow seas covered much of the planet. Yes, we can discover these things but we cannot create them. We cannot make something out of nothing.
Now with this in mind let us turn back to Genesis. In the beginning God created. My Hebrew professor told our class that a more accurate translation of the first verse would be “God began to create” because he said the verb tense in Hebrew indicates on-going action. I like that. God didn’t create the world and then go away, leave creation on its own. Oh no! Our God began to create and continues to create because God is involved with His creation, God loves His creation, God loves us.
Genesis tells us that we are created in the image of God, uniquely endowed with dignity, honor and infinite worth. God entrusted mastery over His creation into our hands. This biblical concept of reality proclaims the essential goodness of life and assumes a universal moral code over all of human society. We are commissioned by God to “have dominion” and to “fill the earth and subdue it”. In a sense we are God’s earthly representatives. Humanity stands under God and above creation, we are to order and direct it as God desires. From the moment of creation God put us to work in the most responsible position imaginable.
This dominion is not one of total control or authoritarian rule. God does not grant humanity unbridled license to use or abuse the world and the creatures in any way we wish. Rather, we are called to exercise wise, benevolent stewardship, caring for creation as God Himself does. As beings made in God’s image, we are to model God’s gracious and compassionate care for all He has made.
Now let’s explore the way God created. Each day of creation begins with “and God said”. God speaks and our world came into being. As Presbyterians we see the Trinity here.
Listen to the beginning of John’s gospel . In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. Sound familiar? Scholars believe John’s gospel deliberately echoes Genesis. Jesus is the Word of God. The Word was always with God and always was God. It is through Jesus Christ that all things came into being because He is the spoken word of God. Each day of creation contains the phrase, “And God said…and it was so.” It was the Word of God that caused creation. Psalm 33 says, “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made…For he spoke and it was.”
Did you realize that the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are present here at creation? God’s Word and Spirit are the means by which God produces, forms, and fills all things. The Holy Spirit of God swept over the waters. God speaks creatures into existence.
If we want to divide up the tasks in creation and assign them to members of the Trinity then we can say that God the Father thought of creation, it was spoken into being through Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and the action was done through the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of creation. We see all three members of the Trinity present and active in creation.
It is difficult if not impossible for finite, individual humans to even begin to understand the unity within the Trinity. God is one and God is three. Always united, the Three acting as One in mutual submission and love. Some have called it to a dance of unity. It’s okay if we can’t grasp all of this, it is beyond human understanding. This is where faith comes into play. We trust even when we cannot understand.
Let’s compare the biblical worldview of creation with the scientific one. What does our world believe today? What are the cultural stories we are telling our children? Science tells them the world happened through evolution, by chance. Our lives are accidents with no essential worth. If we have no inherent value why would it matter if we hurt or kill each other? Is it any wonder the crime rate is so high and nations are at war?
Friday was the 25th anniversary of 9/11. It doesn’t seem like it was 25 years ago. I would wager that everyone in this room remembers where they were and what they were doing that day. I was in a meeting at work when people ran into the room and told us to come watch TV. We all watched in horror as first one of the Twin Towers fell and then the second one. We learned a plane had crashed into the Pentagon and damaged it. This attack plunged us into a 20 year war which didn’t end until 2021. I looked up statistics and found that almost 3,000 people died on 9/11. We lost almost that same number in Afghanistan. How do we reconcile this and every other atrocity in our history to a creation that God declared very good? We look first at the cause of all this and that cause is sin. We live in a broken world in which sin is rampant. This is our world until Jesus returns.
What does Genesis say about humans? Genesis says we were created in the image of God who loves and values us. Because God values us, we are to value ourselves and each other. Do you hear the enormous gap between the scientific and the biblical concepts of reality? Do you want to be an accident or a valued creation? As Christians we know that we were created by God and that God loves us. This can make such a difference in how we see ourselves and others. We live as the beloved children of God. Knowing we are loved and valued. Close your eyes for a moment and say to yourself, “I am a beloved child of God.”
As I was studying this week I came across a new way to view creation. The universe and everything in it are material things. As we heard in John When “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), the Word’s flesh in Jesus was composed of that same matter as the universe. By virtue of the two natures of Christ, fully man and fully God, the material has been taken into God.
This morning we have communion. Our access to God in Christ is through the material elements of the sacraments. Theologies of the sacraments insist on using physical, material, elements. There is mystery in communion. There is no physical change to the bread, and wine; but through Jesus these elements become true spiritual food. By Word and Spirit these elements become means of grace.
John writes later in his gospel, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Jesus has given us the gift of eternal life.
Revelation 21, verse 5 tells us that Jesus came to make all things new and this is still being worked out in our world today. We need to remember that at some time all this will pass away. Our world, all of creation is not permanent. We are destined for a far greater place than this earth. We are destined for heaven, for glory, serving our loving, creating God in joy and adoration through all eternity.