6-14-20 Grace-Benson & Vail Sermon

June 14, 2020 - Sermon Genesis 1:1-19 Pastor Frank Rose. Grace, Benson & Grace, Vail You receive a gift and it’s a device that you’ve never seen before. You know nothing about it, but you are interested to know more. Which question do you ask: How was it made?

Or, why was it made? Do you want to get the history of the machine’s production, what material had to be gathered and how it was all put together? Or do you want to know why it was made, what it’s function is, what you can use it for, what enjoyment you can get out of it, what problems it can help solve? In most cases, for most of us, we want to know the why question first; and then, maybe later, we come back to the how question.

A lot of people read Genesis 1 and they get lost in the how question. How was the world made? Can I really take Genesis 1 as the whole story? And they forget about the why question.

What does Genesis 1 tell us about why the world was made? The function of the universe as we know it and experience it. Now, both the how and the why are in Genesis 1, both are important, we’ll consider both today; but I hope to show you that the why is perhaps more the point of Genesis 1, the why question is more powerful in helping us apply Genesis 1 to our lives.

Yet the 2 are related, and I will start with the how, and move into the why. So, how was the sun and the universe created? The first words of the Bible say, “In the beginning.” How the sun and the universe was created involves a beginning. There is a beginning point at which there was nothing but God. Now that’s a different answer to how the world came to be than most of what you’ll hear in our world. It’s different than saying, the sun and universe came by random chance. The long period of time collection of molecules that has brought about the universe. The Bible says, no, there is a beginning of the universe, and at the beginning, there was nothing but God. Now that’s a how question, but it spills over into the why. If this world is here because of random chance and selection; then why not simply live evaluating every question by: what is best way to advance the human race, or my particular people group? Some have lived that way, some societies have lived that way; and when they have, the results have horrified most of us.

Behind the terrible things done in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Maoist China, there was a thread of thought; our people are the continuation of the survival of the fittest, and for us to advance, we need to take measures to eliminate threats and advance our cuase. Most of us respond with horror when such things are done.

A few implications of this. First of all; though a lot people would say some version of, this world is here by chance; the vast majority do not live that way, and are horrified when others do. Most live as if there is some greater design and purpose to people and the world than just random selection. Another implication is; if you say you believe in random selection, evolution, and chance; yet you live as if there’s a greater design and purpose; you’re not living consistent with what you say you believe. There’s an inconsistency, and it’s a good thing too.

The Bible explains it differently, “In the beginning, God.” Before there was a sun or a world or people, there was God. God is behind the how of creation. He wants us to know what kind of God he is. And as we explore what kind of God made everything, we’re really answering the why question, why did he make everything?

The God who made everything is eternal. He was there in the beginning. Before there was space, God was. Before there was time, God existed. He is able to exist apart from time and space, though you and I are bound by such things, he is not. He has no beginning and no end.

There is nothing and no one like him in these ways.

The God who made everything is powerful and wise. “In the beginning, God created.”

That word created means he made it out of nothing. He made it using nothing other than the power of his word. When you and I say, ‘Let there be light,” we need to go and turn on the switch, or pull the blinds, or light a match, or tell someone else to do it. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was no switch, no match, nothing at all. But when God spoke, the nothing listened, and light sprang into existence even before there was a sun or stars or moon. He can speak things into existence out of nothing. He can make anything he wants.

And finally, the God who made the sun and everything else is Triune. He’s too 1 to be 3, and too 3 to be one. The universe was not made by many gods, but to say that the universe was made by one God doesn’t even quite get it exactly right. The universe was made by a Triune God. In the beginning God was there. And God spoke. His word has the agency to make things happen. Later on Jesus himself is identified as the Word of God, the personal creative agent who was there at creation. Not only was God the Father and God the Word there, we’re told that the Spirit was hovering over the surface of the formless and empty earth. The word hover has the picture of a mother bird hovering over her eggs when she’s waiting for them to hatch.

Or a bird hovering over her young when they are learning to fly. God the Spirit was taking an active interest in the creation he was bringing about. God is personal, powerful, and eternal.

As we’ve considered the how, we’ve already started answering the why question. Why did God make the sun and the universe? Because he wanted it to be. He considers it good. That opinion of God is repeated over and over in Genesis 1, capped off after he made people by God saying, “It was very good.” God considers the entire creation good. Creation was an invitation into goodness by a God who from all eternity has been enjoying the goodness of the trinity.

They why of creation is about an invitation into community with God for all of it: the sun, the moon, the stars, the dry ground, sea, and sky, the light, the plante, the animals, and finally human beings made in his image as relational beings. God did not make people to control them, or to fill some void of loneliness. He made people, and he put a sun in our world, to invite us into a community of friendship with him as creating Father, as speaking Son, and hovering and interested Holy Spirit.

Answering the why question that way makes all the difference in the world. God is not someone to be feared and avoided. He is someone inviting you into a community of love and goodness. He desired his perfect enjoyment of the loving community of trinity to be expanded and extended. Everything that exists has value as it relates to that ultimate purpose.

So take the sun as an example. The sun has value insofar as it enables people to enjoy communion with God and with the rest of his good created world. The sun has value as it provides heat and light for people; along with heat and light for plants and animals that people rely on and benefit from. The sun benefits the dry ground, the sea and sky. God made you to know your place under the sun as someone to whom God says, “you are very good.”

Now, we rarely experience life under the sun that way. We doubt whether or not God looks at us and says, “You are good.” And we have good reason to doubt. We sense that though we were made for unity with God, we don’t currently have it on our own. That we have not been good, instead we have thought bad thoughts, done bad things. We sense that God does not have an interest in the evil things we do. That he does not speak a blessing over the ways we harm one another and the world in which he has placed us. We know that though the sun was meant to be warming and illuminating, we have all kinds of problems with the sun. Not enough sunlight is bad for us; but too much sunlight is bad for us, you can get sunburn and skin cancer. Not enough light and our plants don’t grow and we don’t have food. But too much sunlight scorches what we try to grow, and we starve. Too much heat from the sun is unbearable, and forest fires get started and rage out of control. Too little sunlight and things freeze, and little can survive freezing conditions.

The universe is not always good, but much is bad. And the reason for this I’ll compared to a grandfather clock. Think of how a grandfather clock has all kinds of parts and gears, and as long as every gear is in its proper place, the whole thing works harmoniously. But just imagine one of the gears toward the top of the clock saying, “I’m not satisfied with my place, I want to go higher up to the top.” And the gear hops off its axle, only instead of going higher it falls down, and gets jammed in the other gear below it. Soon you’d hear the grinding, you’d smell the grinding of metal, all the other gears would get damaged and malfunction as a result.

We are like the gear that jumped off our axle. Humans are the ones who said first, “We don’t like our spot in God’s ordered design, we want a higher spot.” And in attempting to go higher up, we fell far below our original position. And as a result all the rest of creation grinds and malfunctions and groans in frustration. Fires rage in some parts of our world while ice takes over others. Sun burns some people while others don’t get enough. The world is out of balance because we’re out of place in relation to the God who made us.

We have become unable to live with the why question. We’re doomed to fear the sun, worship it, or exploit it while we can; but all the while we’re unable to get back in touch with the why question of existence. Why am I here? We pay less and less attention to why, and more and more attention to how. How can I manipulate the system I find myself in to get some pleasure some enjoyment while I can in my days under the sun?

So, how can we get retaught to live out the answer to the question why. To get reconnected to the why question, we need to go to the other place in the Bible where it says, “In the beginning.” The book of John begins with those words. In John 1 we’re told, “In the beginning was the word. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In Jesus we have in human flesh the same personal, powerful, eternal God who made the sun and everything else by the power of his word.

When Jesus came as God in human flesh, he did not come primarily to speak into existence again. He did some of that in healing and commanding nature; but most amazingly, he came to do the opposite. On the cross, he spoke, and received no answer. On the cross, the Spirit was not hovering over him, not taking an interest in him. On the cross, the Father did not look at him and say, “you are good.” But instead, “you are cursed, you are the bad which has happened.” On the cross Jesus became formless and empty. He was unmade so you could be

remade. He was uncreated but then at his resurrection recreated so that he could be not only the one who spoke the sun into existence, but the one who can speak into you, “Let there be the light of faith.”

In Jesus you get to hear again what you need to hear more than anything else. “You are good. You are very good.” Because of Jesus the Holy Spirit now hovers over you and even in you, God takes an interest in what you do day by day. The powerful word of God is once again spoken over you in the words and water of your baptism, “You are my child, my kingdom heir, you are good.”

In Jesus you are once again what you were meant to be: a creature of God, created to have dominion over the created world. You once again live in alignment with the question, “Why am I hear?” You get to share appropriately in the attributes of God that I mentioned earlier. In a way, you share in God’s eternity. Jesus says, it’s an eternal kind of life he gives you.

Now you are not eternal like God, but you are endless. You will outlive the sun. The sun has a beginning and an end. It will burn out one day, when Jesus comes. But you, though you do have a beginning, you’re not eternal like God; but your existence has no end. After the sun is gone, you’ll still exist. You are destined to exist forever. And the way for that ongoing existence to be heaven and not hell, you need to be remade through faith in Jesus.

In Jesus you share in the power and wisdom of God. God is all powerful, you are made to be powerful under God, to have dominion over the created world. God wants you to harness the sun’s power and use it for good. So get involved with solar electricity and solar power.

Learn how to let enough sunlight onto your skin so that you get vitamin d and other beneficial effects while at the same time guarding against too much sun and sunburn. God wants you to harness the power of light. We have done so much with light in the past hundred years. From fire as the main heat and light source to electric light, energy saving light, different kinds of lighting that have different affects on the body. Some burn therapy involves the use of specific kinds of light to induce healing. God wants us to learn about light and use it for good. Learn how much light a certain plant needs to thrive and put it in a place where it can receive that light. Learn how to make safe yet efficient and reliable sources of heat and also of cooling. Can you imagine living in Tucson before air conditioning or even swamp boxes? God wants us to harness the ability to make hot places habitable. In Jesus you get remade as a person who can be entrusted with dominion over the created world.

In Jesus you are reinvited into a communal life. The Triune God has invited you to know him, to know yourself loved by the father; spoken well of by the son, hovered over by the Spirit, taken an interest in by all powerful God. God also allows you to be like a father to others, literally a father for many. If you’re a parent, just consider what an amazing ability and responsibility God has allowed you to be a part of; giving life to another person. Amazing. God allows you to speak in powerful words, as a brother of the word made flesh, your words have power; both for bad and for good. God wants you to be aware of the power of your words of criticism or compliment; of destruction or affirmation. He invites you to speak words which he can use to create a faith connection for others, and which he can use to remake people in his image. And like the Spirit hovering over you, like a bird hovering over the eggs, God allows you to hover over, to take an interest in

others. To care for what people’s potential gets turned into. To invest in people so that their eternal destiny is one of glory and joy; not nightmarish darkness and shame.

You were made to live this way, and you’ve been redeemed to live as an agent of the Trinity for as long as you have life under the sun. The answer to the question how is: you were made by Almighty God. The answer to the why question is: to know him, to be known by him, to glorify him, and to help others do the same.