“Creation by the Word”

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

^1:1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

³ Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”

And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” ⁷ And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. ⁸ God called the space “sky.”

And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. ¹² The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

¹³ And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

¹⁹ And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” ²¹ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

²³ And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened. ²⁵ God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

²⁸ Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. ³⁰ And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.

³¹ Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

^2:1And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. ² On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

⁴ This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.

This morning’s reading reminds me of an alternate beginning story. It goes like this: In the beginning, God created the dog. He told it, “For 20 years, you are to sit near the door and bark at whoever walks by.” The dog responded, “20 years? That’s a long time to do that. How about I do that for 10 years and give you back the remainder?” God agreed. He then created the monkey and told it, “For 20 years, you are to entertain and bring joy to others.” The monkey replied, “20 years is a long time to do that. What if I do it for 10 years and give you back the rest of the time?” God agreed. He proceeded to create the cow to which He told, “For 40 years, you are to slave and provide others with milk and labor.” The cow protested, “That’s a long time to do that. What if I do half and give you back the remainder?” God agreed. He finally created man and said to him, “For 25 years, you are to eat, sleep, marry, and have fun.” Man asked, “Only 25 years? That’s not nearly enough time. Couldn’t you give me the remainder of the time that the animals gave back?” God agreed. That is why now after marriage, we spend 20 years slaving and providing for our family, 10 years entertaining our grandchildren, and 10 more years sitting near the door and barking at whoever walks by.

Speaking from the perspective of the cow who’s role is to slave and provide for his family for 20 years, I can’t wait to get to the dog years! I think my wife will have far more fun in the monkey years than I will, playing with all the grandkids. But who am I kidding…I’m not very good at barking at anyone except maybe my wife and kids. But they’ve gotten pretty good at barking right back at me! We’re just one, big household full of barking dogs! I guess I should just be content with being a lowly cow slaving away at providing for that family of dogs of mine…

Nevertheless, we come full circle yet again in our journey through scripture. Every fall for the last few years we’ve returned to the familiar words of Genesis. It’s a good place to start off the new program year as we welcome the kids back to Sunday school and confirmation and the adults back to choir rehearsals. Who knows what awaits us in the year ahead! Hopefully good growth in learning and faith developing and financial giving. Not all of us will make it through the year with us. There will be new faces and familiar faces, some faces we haven’t seen in a long time. Like it or not, our congregation will change in the year ahead and you know what? That’s okay! A congregation is a living, evolving thing. We aren’t static and unchanging. We, like the rest of creation, are a living, changing thing. Everything is in one form or another of change. Nothing stays the same forever. Except, of course, God and his love for us. Even his Word changes as our understanding of language changes. But He himself is the same from day to day. Or should I say, She herself or They themself? You get the idea, language changes but God stays the same through it all.

We might change, our congregation might change, but God will never change. And there are things that we can learn about our God from his creation story. First and foremost, our God is himself an agent of change. We heard how the earth was formless and empty, a darkness covering the deep waters. Many agree that “the waters” represent chaos even though they adhere to chemical and compositional rules. But God was displeased with chaos and chose to impose order upon it. God was pleased with his order and thus called it “good.” So secondly, we learn that our God has a moral compass, distinguishes good from bad, right from wrong. Our God goes on to create all the essentials of our ordered world: night and day, skies and lands and seas and all the creatures in them. Good, good, good…He gets to his ultimate creation, man himself. Now man is different than all the rest of God’s creation. God entrusts man with looking after his creation. Is man “better” than the rest of God’s creation? Does man have more intrinsic value than the rest of his creation? Not necessarily, or at least not according to the words of scripture. God simply chose man to serve as creation’s caretaker. Now then, we could unfold what it means to be creation’s caretaker but that’s getting us away from the point. God created man and entrusted him as caretaker…this reveals another key truth about our God. Our God is a God of relationship. He established a special relationship with us from the very beginning. Friends, we are in a relationship with God, like or not. Now we can work to destroy that relationship, we can ignore that relationship, or we can nourish and grow that relationship. Regardless, we’re in a relationship with God.

Three fundamental attributes of our God revealed in this opening chapter of Genesis: our God is an agent of change, our God has a moral compass, and our God is a God of relationship.  These three attributes are ultimately emphasized the most throughout the rest of scripture. God is in a relationship with us—always has been and always will be—and He knows what’s best for us, the most “good” for us—always has and always will—and He knows how to change us and our world to get that good out. Again, always has and always will.

Like it or not, our God WILL walk with us in the year ahead and He knows what is the most “good” for us and He will work towards revealing that to us. All we really have to do is listen to and trust him. He WILL speak words of creation into our congregation, and oh, what words they will be! Psalm 33 reminds us, “The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.” (vs. 6) We have to trust him too! Hebrews says, “By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” (11:3) Let us have ears to listen and hearts to trust and obey. Thanks be to God!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.