In The Beginning God
Sermon
Defining Moments
First Lesson Sermons For Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
I like the story of the Middle Eastern prince who fell in love with a beautiful peasant girl. Eventually he proposed marriage and she accepted. Such an event should be marked by a gift of rare beauty, so he searched the empire for the most beautiful diamond to give to her. Obviously, the most beautiful diamond demanded a specific box of rare beauty for the presentation of the precious gem. For this he commissioned the royal cabinetmakers to make the most beautiful box in the kingdom for the diamond.
On the day the diamond was to be presented, appropriate servants, horsemen, and soldiers were summoned to march in the entourage to the peasant girl's cottage. The neighbors and family gathered as they approached. When the prince presented the kingdom's most beautiful diamond, nestled in the kingdom's most beautiful box, they were amazed and awed at the spectacle. The peasant girl studied the gift at length, and then startled the crowd by discarding the diamond and keeping the beautiful box.
This is not unlike what we have done with the miraculous story of the creation given to us in our text. We have spent our days debating the scientific inadequacies of the story or trying to reconcile it to the results of our latest findings in the laboratories. We have completely missed the beauty of the gift that God has given us in this great story.
There is an unforgettable scene in The King and I. Anna, the teacher for the king's children, was summoned late one night to the king's audience hall. There she found the Siamese monarch engrossed in reading a large book. "Why, your majesty," she exclaimed, "you're reading the Bible!" The king's response was that Moses was surely an ill-informed man if he thought the world was created in six days. Anna's reply was informed and accurate. "Your majesty, Moses was not a man of science; he was a man of faith."
The account in the Bible is a faith story, not seeking to tell how the world was created scientifically, but by whom and why he created the world. This passage is a gift to us as beautiful as any diamond we have ever seen. Let's hold it up and examine the different facets of it as a jeweler would examine a beautiful stone, hoping to unlock its incomparable beauty.
The original text employs a term for the word create which is never used to denote any human activity. It is reserved only for the prerogative of God. The biblical writer is clearly attempting to express something specific. He is saying that what God is creating and making here possesses a quality fundamentally different from anything created and made by human artists or architects. The human artist must wrest the image from the material, which itself sets limits to the freedom that the artist has with it.
Near Clarkesville, Georgia, on the banks of a river there is an old mill and the workshop and gallery of a very gifted potter. He takes the raw clay and creates beautiful pottery that commands very high prices. Each piece has inscribed on it "the Mark of the Potter," which is the name of the shop. That is not what our text for today is saying. That would set limits upon the purposes of God. On the contrary, God created from nothing an undistorted reflection of his thoughts, and this creation bears only the mark of God. So God's creation proceeds with a sovereign freedom that has no other influence or limitation.
Some creation myths do not have God doing this kind of creation. They have the gods creating the world out of pre-existing matter. That pre-existing matter sets limits on what the creation can be. That is not so with our God -- he created the world out of nothing. In fact, the entire first chapter of Genesis pulsates with the creative nature of God: "God said," "God saw," "God created," "God called," "God made," "God appointed," "God divided," "God ended," "God rested," "God blessed and sanctified."
These words describing the creative activity of God overwhelm us with implications for our lives. It means that I am in the story of creation. My life is fashioned and guided by the same God who put the stars and the sun in place at the beginning of the world. Long before I can think of God and love him, he has already thought of me. Before the foundations of the world, there began the history of a great love and a great search.
God made the world from nothing. I am in it, and therefore I have to accept responsibility for the gifts and talents he has entrusted to me. One day he will inquire, "What have you done with yourself?" We will have to give ourselves back to God just as surely as we have to repay the money we have borrowed from the bank or property we have borrowed from our neighbor. We will be judged by what we have done with what he has given us. He will ask, "What have you done with your body, your gifts, your calling, your family, your wife and children, your friends, and the church I gave you along the way?" There are no excuses. The creative process takes away all the excuses and limits that we have set on ourselves. We cannot blame our lack of stewardship on anything; we must accept it ourselves.
God who confronts us with our stewardship is the father of Jesus Christ. God is faithful and never lets us down. God himself is not a mere part of the world; he is the Lord, the creator of the world, and he dwells in majestical remoteness for all things made, from all creatures. But even though he is the Lord of the world who stretches his commanding hand above the universe, he knows me, and he clasps me to his heart. He will never give me up. I shall always be his child, even when I depart from him or when death comes or the world ends. His faithfulness will never cease.
Luther said, "God created the world out of nothing. As long as you are not yet nothing, God cannot make something out of you." He will never give us up.
"As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:10-11).
This Sunday we are reminded of the baptism of Jesus. Granted, that theme is secondary in the creation story, yet it is appropriate that at the beginning of the year we recognize its implications in our lives. It is a way of renewing our vows at this Epiphany season. Too often baptism is a rite for small children and is a good excuse for families to get together. The trivialization of this profound moment robs us of its mark, God's mark, upon our lives. This mark has made all the difference.
Baptism is a moment of decision. In the creation story God decided to create order out of chaos. In the baptismal experience we acknowledge our decision to let Christ bring order to our lives which are heretofore chaotic. In fact, chaos describes the condition of at least seventy percent of the adult population. They are "without form and void," totally incapable of loving others. This relationship with fellow humans is manipulative and self-serving. They don't care for anyone else, are unprincipled and governed by their own will. Their total being lacks integrity.
When people at this stage get in touch with their own being it is very painful. They either ride it out unchanged, kill themselves, or decide to change, to convert.
Such conversions can be sudden and dramatic and are God-given. It is as if the person has said, "Anything is preferable to this chaos. I am willing to do anything to liberate myself from this chaos." Nevertheless, a conscious decision has been made for God. As the spirit moved upon the waters at creation, so the spirit moves upon the chaos of human life and brings order. The baptized life is the opposite of the undecided life. Regardless of its form, or the candidate's age, it is the yielded life that began when we were "drowned" in baptismal waters and rose resurrected in the Spirit.
Because of this decision, aimlessness is no longer an option. The decision for Christ has become the first thing in the new life of order and grace. Everything else is secondary. We have but one purpose and that is to express Christ in this world.
This decision for Christ and the subsequent baptism is, in effect, an ordination for us. It is at this point that we are certified for service by the Christian community. Too many in the Christian community fail to see baptism as the certification for ministry. In a real sense all Christians are called, not just the ordained clergy. Baptism puts life in proper perspective. We have but one purpose: to express Christ in the world.
"In the beginning God" ... "and God said that it was good" (v. 9). He begins a work and confirms that it is a good work. As Mark says it, "You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." These words of affirmation are words of grace. Grace is what we hunger for. Baptismal affirmation empowers us for ministry. The descent of the dove empowers the baptized not only to defeat every form of evil, but also to be the people of God -- as God has called them to be.
Henry David Thoreau once went to jail rather than pay his poll tax to a government which supported slavery. His friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, visited him in jail. Walking up to the cell Emerson asked with surprise, "Henry, what are you doing in there?" Thoreau never missed a beat as he replied, "Nay, Ralph, the question is what are you doing out there?"1
____________
1. Synthesis, January 12, 1997.
On the day the diamond was to be presented, appropriate servants, horsemen, and soldiers were summoned to march in the entourage to the peasant girl's cottage. The neighbors and family gathered as they approached. When the prince presented the kingdom's most beautiful diamond, nestled in the kingdom's most beautiful box, they were amazed and awed at the spectacle. The peasant girl studied the gift at length, and then startled the crowd by discarding the diamond and keeping the beautiful box.
This is not unlike what we have done with the miraculous story of the creation given to us in our text. We have spent our days debating the scientific inadequacies of the story or trying to reconcile it to the results of our latest findings in the laboratories. We have completely missed the beauty of the gift that God has given us in this great story.
There is an unforgettable scene in The King and I. Anna, the teacher for the king's children, was summoned late one night to the king's audience hall. There she found the Siamese monarch engrossed in reading a large book. "Why, your majesty," she exclaimed, "you're reading the Bible!" The king's response was that Moses was surely an ill-informed man if he thought the world was created in six days. Anna's reply was informed and accurate. "Your majesty, Moses was not a man of science; he was a man of faith."
The account in the Bible is a faith story, not seeking to tell how the world was created scientifically, but by whom and why he created the world. This passage is a gift to us as beautiful as any diamond we have ever seen. Let's hold it up and examine the different facets of it as a jeweler would examine a beautiful stone, hoping to unlock its incomparable beauty.
The original text employs a term for the word create which is never used to denote any human activity. It is reserved only for the prerogative of God. The biblical writer is clearly attempting to express something specific. He is saying that what God is creating and making here possesses a quality fundamentally different from anything created and made by human artists or architects. The human artist must wrest the image from the material, which itself sets limits to the freedom that the artist has with it.
Near Clarkesville, Georgia, on the banks of a river there is an old mill and the workshop and gallery of a very gifted potter. He takes the raw clay and creates beautiful pottery that commands very high prices. Each piece has inscribed on it "the Mark of the Potter," which is the name of the shop. That is not what our text for today is saying. That would set limits upon the purposes of God. On the contrary, God created from nothing an undistorted reflection of his thoughts, and this creation bears only the mark of God. So God's creation proceeds with a sovereign freedom that has no other influence or limitation.
Some creation myths do not have God doing this kind of creation. They have the gods creating the world out of pre-existing matter. That pre-existing matter sets limits on what the creation can be. That is not so with our God -- he created the world out of nothing. In fact, the entire first chapter of Genesis pulsates with the creative nature of God: "God said," "God saw," "God created," "God called," "God made," "God appointed," "God divided," "God ended," "God rested," "God blessed and sanctified."
These words describing the creative activity of God overwhelm us with implications for our lives. It means that I am in the story of creation. My life is fashioned and guided by the same God who put the stars and the sun in place at the beginning of the world. Long before I can think of God and love him, he has already thought of me. Before the foundations of the world, there began the history of a great love and a great search.
God made the world from nothing. I am in it, and therefore I have to accept responsibility for the gifts and talents he has entrusted to me. One day he will inquire, "What have you done with yourself?" We will have to give ourselves back to God just as surely as we have to repay the money we have borrowed from the bank or property we have borrowed from our neighbor. We will be judged by what we have done with what he has given us. He will ask, "What have you done with your body, your gifts, your calling, your family, your wife and children, your friends, and the church I gave you along the way?" There are no excuses. The creative process takes away all the excuses and limits that we have set on ourselves. We cannot blame our lack of stewardship on anything; we must accept it ourselves.
God who confronts us with our stewardship is the father of Jesus Christ. God is faithful and never lets us down. God himself is not a mere part of the world; he is the Lord, the creator of the world, and he dwells in majestical remoteness for all things made, from all creatures. But even though he is the Lord of the world who stretches his commanding hand above the universe, he knows me, and he clasps me to his heart. He will never give me up. I shall always be his child, even when I depart from him or when death comes or the world ends. His faithfulness will never cease.
Luther said, "God created the world out of nothing. As long as you are not yet nothing, God cannot make something out of you." He will never give us up.
"As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:10-11).
This Sunday we are reminded of the baptism of Jesus. Granted, that theme is secondary in the creation story, yet it is appropriate that at the beginning of the year we recognize its implications in our lives. It is a way of renewing our vows at this Epiphany season. Too often baptism is a rite for small children and is a good excuse for families to get together. The trivialization of this profound moment robs us of its mark, God's mark, upon our lives. This mark has made all the difference.
Baptism is a moment of decision. In the creation story God decided to create order out of chaos. In the baptismal experience we acknowledge our decision to let Christ bring order to our lives which are heretofore chaotic. In fact, chaos describes the condition of at least seventy percent of the adult population. They are "without form and void," totally incapable of loving others. This relationship with fellow humans is manipulative and self-serving. They don't care for anyone else, are unprincipled and governed by their own will. Their total being lacks integrity.
When people at this stage get in touch with their own being it is very painful. They either ride it out unchanged, kill themselves, or decide to change, to convert.
Such conversions can be sudden and dramatic and are God-given. It is as if the person has said, "Anything is preferable to this chaos. I am willing to do anything to liberate myself from this chaos." Nevertheless, a conscious decision has been made for God. As the spirit moved upon the waters at creation, so the spirit moves upon the chaos of human life and brings order. The baptized life is the opposite of the undecided life. Regardless of its form, or the candidate's age, it is the yielded life that began when we were "drowned" in baptismal waters and rose resurrected in the Spirit.
Because of this decision, aimlessness is no longer an option. The decision for Christ has become the first thing in the new life of order and grace. Everything else is secondary. We have but one purpose and that is to express Christ in this world.
This decision for Christ and the subsequent baptism is, in effect, an ordination for us. It is at this point that we are certified for service by the Christian community. Too many in the Christian community fail to see baptism as the certification for ministry. In a real sense all Christians are called, not just the ordained clergy. Baptism puts life in proper perspective. We have but one purpose: to express Christ in the world.
"In the beginning God" ... "and God said that it was good" (v. 9). He begins a work and confirms that it is a good work. As Mark says it, "You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." These words of affirmation are words of grace. Grace is what we hunger for. Baptismal affirmation empowers us for ministry. The descent of the dove empowers the baptized not only to defeat every form of evil, but also to be the people of God -- as God has called them to be.
Henry David Thoreau once went to jail rather than pay his poll tax to a government which supported slavery. His friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, visited him in jail. Walking up to the cell Emerson asked with surprise, "Henry, what are you doing in there?" Thoreau never missed a beat as he replied, "Nay, Ralph, the question is what are you doing out there?"1
____________
1. Synthesis, January 12, 1997.
