First Sunday After Pentecost

Today's text is Genesis 1:1-2:4a, read by DJ Dagani. This morning's sermon was delivered by Jacque Cook.

Lead Pastor: Rev. Dr. Phil Snider (he/him)

Associate Pastor: Rev. Emily Bowen-Marler (she/her)

Youth Director: Paije Luth (she/her)

Children’s Church Coordinator: Valerie Bush (she/her)

Executive Assistant: Wacey Rivale (she/her)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Reading for this morning, Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 2, verse 4. When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and darkness, God called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. And God said, Let there be a doom in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. So God made the doom and separated the waters that were under the doom from the waters that were above the doom and it was so. And God called the doom sky, and there was evening and there was morning the second day. 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. And God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together. God called seas. And God saw that it was good. And 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 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. And there was evening and there was morning the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the doom of the sky to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the doom of the sky to give light upon the earth. And it was so God made the two great lights, the greater light to the rule to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. God set them in the doom of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the doom of the sky. So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves that moves of every kind with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and saying, Brie Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the sea, seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. 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. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make humans 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. So God created humans in God's image. In the image of God, God created them, male and female, God created them. 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 of the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. God said, See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food, 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. God saw everything that God had made, and indeed it was very good, and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. On the sixth day, God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work and that God had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

The story of creation. But it's a story we often tell to the kids, we tell to others, and it becomes very familiar. And sometimes we think of it as a kid's story. But it's really not, even though it's familiar, I think there's something more we can get from that. Because this story was written during the time of the Babylonian Empire. It was a huge empire. It encompassed Judah, Lebanon, Syria, and a lot of those surrounding areas. It was a big force in the time. It was kind of when Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Babylon, if that helps you do that. But it was a time when the Hebrew people were trying to understand who they were in a culture that was much different than theirs. What was the identity? What is power? And is God even still here? You know, they're not the only ones. The Hebrews were not the only ones that had a creation story. The Babylonians had a creation story. And their story was about many different gods, but the two gods that started were the god Apsu of the freshwater and Tiamat from the salt waters. And as they mingled together, there became lesser gods, their children. And Apsu was tired of the children fighting and nagging each other, not that that ever happens in our lives today, but he got tired of it, so he decided he was going to kill them, literally. And so the children heard that this was coming, and then one of them gave the dad something to drink, and it put him to sleep, and they killed him. It's just lots of violence in the story. So then Tiasmant, she became the god, and she was not the nicest one. She was mad a little bit at her children for killing Apsu, and she became a very terrible god, and the people were scared of her, the other gods were scared of her, and they're saying, What are we gonna do with this big monster of a person that is ruling over us? And they finally got this um god called Marduk to take up the task. And um, Marduk, then through violence, has a big fat battle, there's a lot of fighting going on, and he ends up killing Tumasut and he cuts her in half, and that becomes the separation of the sky and the land. And then Marduk is in his infinite wisdom, because he was now the god, the big god, and everybody had to serve him. And he ordered the stars as the story goes, he established the calendar and he organized the universe. And then he too created people, and he did this because the gods were just tired of having to do everything, and they were thinking that they needed somebody to take care of them, and they wanted somebody to serve them and to appease them. And so there was another god called Kingu, and his blood mixed with clay, made humans. Again, they were created for the pleasure of the gods, to appease the gods, and they lived in fear of this god. So there's kind of two different stories here. In the story of the Babylonians' creation, Marduk defeated the chaos through power and violence. During that time, a son sat down with his father. The son had come home from school. He had just this kind of look on his face. You could tell he was thinking about things, and they sat down to supper, and dad said, What's going on? And the son really didn't want to talk about it. And then he said, No, really, what's going on? And the son said, I just don't get it. All my friends are going to church. They bow down to this God named Marduk. I don't understand what they're doing. They think that there's a lot of things that we can do that I need to be the best in my class and I need to work it hard to do that. And the father was like, how do I deal with this? How do I tell my son what's going on? Because he wanted his son to know that even though every day they saw the power of the Babylonians, maybe saw soldiers in the street, and had to keep order through violence, that that is not what they believed as the Hebrews. The massive walls and the temples weren't what the Hebrews were all about. The father was thinking, you know, it takes anybody can tear something down, but to build something takes a lot of wisdom and work. And so he said to his son, son, it's true, the Babylonians teach us that violence and power is the way to be somebody and to make the way that you want. And then the father began telling him the Hebrew version of creation. In the beginning was God. Only one God, not many gods fighting for power, not rival gods competing with one another, just God. A God who looked upon a world that was formless and empty, a world of chaos, a world of darkness, a world of uncertainty. And God wanted to create something beautiful from that. God didn't run away from the chaos. God hovered near it. He hovered over the darkness, over the uncertainty, over those deep waters. And God spoke. Only with a word, and creation responded. God spoke, and the light emerged from darkness. But darkness was never the same again. Darkness had to respond to God to give up just a little bit so that light can come through. And God spoke to the waters, and the waters responded and had to give up something so that there could be water and sky. And then God spoke to the dry land, and again the waters had to change. They weren't going to be the same again. From the waters came the land. And the land, responding to God's voice, also responded by building and making grass and allowing animals to live on it. God spoke, and the fish and the birds and all of the animals came along. But then God made humanity. But unlike the Babylonian gods, God wanted relationship. He didn't want people that were just going to appease him, that were going to do things, that he could have a heavy hand on them. But God wanted relationship. God loved humanity. God provided for humanity. And God walked with humanity. And even more important, humanity was named, was formed in God's image. And everyone has a name. And the father said, You can see, son, there's two different ways. But as the Jewish people, we believe in a God that is all powerful and creates rather than turns down. And you can see the difference in the two stories. One is on power, violence, and domination, and one is built on love. One, you're supposed to appease God because you live in fear that God may destroy you, and the other story is you have a relationship with God who can meet you where you are. Today we live in one of the most powerful countries in the world. And our culture tells us many things. In the United States, we lead in military forces. We have more military than anybody else in the world. Our culture tells us to be someone, you need to compete to make it to the top. If you make enough money, you're powerful, you can get what you want. Everybody has to bow down to you. And their status and what you get with status. And we see a lot of people that businesses that compete and compete with each other. And sometimes businesses or other people gain their power on the backs of someone else. I recently read a book called The Fall of Marigolds, and one of the characters had lived during the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in New York City. It was a 10-story building where they were mostly immigrants, were making shirts in a textile factory. And a fire broke out. In that fire, the factory where they were doing the textiles was on the ninth floor. And the people tried to get out, but all the exits were locked. And they ran, there was only one way out, it was the elevator. And the elevator in those days were elevators where you had to do pulleys to and there was metal gates that had to open, and so it almost itself, because it was a fire shaft, then the fire would have immediately come up through that. And so the people in that um fire were finally got the open windows open, and some of them fell to their death, and the character had seen that and how it affected her. But all the executives were on the tenth floor, and the tenth floor had exits. And the exits they were able to get out and jump onto other roofs, and they were all fine. 146 people died in 30 minutes, and people watched, and it was chaos, and it was heartbreaking. And it was a system that valued profit more than people. But something happened afterwards, and the people said, We're better than this, we can do better. And from that fire came some of the codes that we now have. Codes that you have to have fire escapes, you have to have uh fire extinguishers, you have to have water. Because the people responded to the chaos and how they thought God wants us to do this differently. We need to look at humanity and protect humanity. We are created in God's image. Our identity is to be shaped by God, not by society. When we respond to God's voice, we create with God, and we begin to see gifts emerge. Sometimes we see the light coming out of a dark spot. Sometimes people will bring food to people that don't have food. We begin to see people that encourage one another, that listen as people are healing. We see teachers, people building community, and some helping others to find that hope. Because all of us create and participate in that ongoing creation of God. God still hovers over our fears, our uncertainty, and over a broken world. And the question is not whether God is speaking. The question is how will you respond to God's voice? So maybe you've got chaos in your life today, none of us experience that. Maybe there's a relationship that's strained. Maybe a dream you had has faded. Maybe there's something heavy on your shoulders that someone's hurt you, and that wound is very deep, and it's not healed. Some of you may be struggling with grief and how that influences and changes your life. But the good news of Genesis is that God is hovering with you wherever you are in life. God is hovering, God is near, God continues to speak. And God invites you to work with God to create something beautiful in this world. And maybe that's why the story of the Hebrew creation has endured so many years. Because I don't think it's a story of just how the world began, but it's a story about how God works. Because again and again and again, God said, What appears empty brings forth life. Again and again, God takes what appears broken and begins healing. And again and again, God takes what appears hopeless and creates a future. And that's the pattern of Genesis, and that's the pattern of God. And that's the pattern that starts our Bible to show us throughout the rest of the Bible what God is speaking. I found a verse in Psalms 51 in the version of the message that I really like. It's about verse 11. And the psalmist is praying and says, God, make a fresh start in me. Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. May God speak light into your darkness. May God bring life where things seem barren. May God call forth gifts we do not know yet we possess. And may you respond to the voice of love, creating with God a world that reflects the beauty, goodness, justice, and hope of the one who in the beginning said, Let there be. And there was.