Tuesdays at Noon in the Student Lounge

Bible Conversations - Tuesday, May 11, Noon

Reading: Genesis 1:1-31

This is the first sermon in the 3-part series on the overarching Biblical story of Creation, Fall, Redemption (described on the front cover article). This is a wonderful story. Though it is at the beginning of the Bible, it is actually one of the later stories to be written. The second Creation story, which begins in Genesis 2:4b and describes God physically forming the first human being from the dirt of the ground and then breathing into its nostrils the breath of life, is actually a much older story. It presents a much more ancient and anthropomorphic view of God.

The story in Genesis 1 begins with God’s Spirit sweeping over the face of the waters, and then God speaking: Let there by light. On the first day God created the light and the darkness and separated them. On the second day, God created the sky to separate the earthly waters from the heavenly waters. On the third day, God separated the waters from the dry land, and then created plants, fruit trees, and every kind of vegetation. It is interesting that only after the third day, when there is some kind of life on earth, does the day end with the saying: And God saw that it was good. Perhaps it takes life of some kind for there to be goodness. At the end of the sixth day, when God had created humankind and set the order of nature and life, we read this: God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

One point of this story is certainly to show the intimacy and love God has for God’s creation. There is certainly a majesty to God in this story, but there is also an intimacy. God is intimately involved with God’s creation, and this is shown when God looks at God’s completed work at the end of the sixth day and sees that everything is very good. God’s love for all this which God has created clearly shines through this narrative. It is the basis for those words that young people in bad circumstances were encouraged to think and say about themselves many years ago: God didn’t make no junk.

Questions to think about: how is God’s good creation manifest in you? If God’s creation is good, what does that say to how we treat it? If human beings are all created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), what does that mean for personal relationships? For war among nations?