WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:00.880 Good morning. 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:07.519 Well, for the next month or so, we'll be making our way through Genesis chapters 1 through 3. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.880 So Wednesday morning, I was sitting on my porch. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:12.320 I was working on the sermon. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:22.719 I was in my comfy chair, and I could hear birds chirping and see ferns and azaleas and oak trees, and there's water falling from the sky. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:40.240 We call it rain, providing for these creatures and these plants, and inside, just behind me, Christy was talking with Rachel Sam's wife, who at the time, because this was on Wednesday, she had a baby in her body. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.320 A human being inside of her body, her being a human being, and a human being inside of a human being. 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:52.479 And this human being, she had been growing it inside of her body for the past nine months. 00:00:52.719 --> 00:01:02.240 There was a tube connecting, it's crazy connecting this human being to her. 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:11.760 And then this little human being came out of her body on Friday and was born into the world. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:17.840 And in an instant began to breathe oxygen. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.760 And in an instant needed to begin to be fed through its mouth. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:30.159 I mean, what an amazing world we live in. 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:31.439 And it's all around us. 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:33.200 How did all of this begin? 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:35.680 How did all of this begin? 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:45.920 These babies, and did you know, by the way, 350,000 species of beetles. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:47.680 Of beetles! Who knew? 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:49.439 Who knew? 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:57.040 So maybe you have read Genesis at some point about all this creation, about these creation of babies and animals and beetles and all of this. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:06.400 Maybe you have read Genesis at some point, or heard someone tell the Genesis story, and you just did not buy it. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:09.199 Or you bought it. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:16.240 And then over time you began to think and you just said, ah, that just doesn't add up for me. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:18.800 So maybe that's you. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:25.280 Or maybe you're all into it, you love it, you've always loved it, or you've come to love it, and you're in it, you believe it, you're for it. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.840 And I just want to say, great, great. 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:30.159 I'm glad you're here. 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:39.120 No matter who you are or where you are on this, I'm glad you are here for this theological conversation. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:42.000 Because I got a bunch of questions. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:46.560 Like, why this creation story written like this? 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:51.199 And does anything about this creation story written like this tell us anything about God? 00:02:51.520 --> 00:03:02.319 And if it tells us something about the core of who God is, is it possible it could tell us something about the core of who we are? 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:07.199 Now, it's not groundbreaking news, but Genesis 1 is a poem. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.879 We see it and we feel it in the structure, those repetitions. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:17.680 God created this and he created that, and it was night, it was day, day one, and it was good, and he saw it was good. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:21.680 All those repetitions, that feeling of repetition in the text. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.360 And so with any poetry, you got to do some digging. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:26.800 You remember that? 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:34.159 You remember that when you were reading Shakespeare and you're in the 11th grade, and you're sitting in the back of the room, and the teacher, she was gonna call on you, and you were so nervous. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:45.280 And the reason why you're so nervous is because the answer was not clear, like two plus two equals four, because it was poetry and it was gonna take some digging to get to an answer, and you didn't want to get called on. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:47.680 Well, we're gonna have to dig some this morning. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.960 It's sort of like a good Matlock episode. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:52.879 Remember, remember Matlock? 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:57.120 I used to watch the reruns on TBS in the afternoons. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:00.719 It was CSI before CSI, but like take away the gore. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:01.919 That's what Matlock was. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.719 There was this one show where a guy was dying. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:08.400 He's on the floor, he's dying, he's laying on his back. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:15.120 And above him, kind of kind of behind his head and above him, there's a T VR and there's a VCR tape. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:19.439 A VCR tape is running, and the counter on the VCR is running. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:29.120 And just as he dies, like his last breath, his last movement, he reaches up and he hits stop on the VCR. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:35.519 So Matlock comes on the scene and the VCR, the counter says 337. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.600 And so the whole show we're trying to figure out who killed this guy? 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:40.800 What happened? 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:57.040 And then Matlock figures out at the very end of the episode, he figures out, well, if you're dying and you're lying on your back on the floor and you're looking up at a VCR counter that's going by 337 spells Lee. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:02.160 Lee was the killer! Amazing, amazing. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.519 Ben Matlock, amazing, amazing. 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:19.199 Well, that's a long way around to say that I wanted to plug Ben Matlock, but also we have to dig a little into the poetry to understand what the author is saying. 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:23.680 We just gotta work a little to get to the answer. 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:28.480 So, Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:34.000 Now remember, the Old Testament was not written in English, but in Hebrew. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:38.000 And that word for God is the word Elohim. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:41.040 So this Elohim created the heavens and the earth. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:48.639 This Elohim created, that word created, he barod, so this Elohim barod the heavens and the earth. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:53.519 He, that word barod means he made things out of nothing. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:55.920 Elohim made things out of nothing. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:02.720 So with the gift of science, we know this is even more true for Elohim. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:17.360 That the gift of science shows us, yeah, okay, some things made some things, but what we know Elohim did is he made the things that made the things, and the things that make the things, he made those things, he made them out of nothing. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.519 He was there at the beginning. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:23.439 Verse 2. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:28.800 The earth was without form and void, meaning it was wild and waste, is what that means. 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:36.800 So the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.519 Oh, interesting, interesting. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:46.560 So this Elohim who creates this Elohim has some sort of spirit. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:50.480 So now we have Elohim and we have spirit. 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:56.079 This word spirit in Hebrew is the imagery of wind, and it's in the feminine. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:01.360 The gender of the word in Hebrew is in feminine. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:06.000 Now in the New Testament, the word for Holy Spirit is neuter in gender, but not here. 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:12.160 Here in this Hebrew word and this poem in Genesis 1, she is there. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:22.639 The spirit, she is there, and she's sort of warming the unseen creation like a mama with her baby. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:30.079 Okay, so if you track with me now, we have Elohim, and we have spirit, and we move to verse 3. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:34.560 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:40.000 So God spoke, he said a word, the word, he spoke a word, let there be light, and there was light. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:43.519 And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:49.920 God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening, and there was morning the first day. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:57.920 So God, out of speaking, out of his word, he created. 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:02.079 I went and I visited three babies this week. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:08.639 Apparently, something good was going on around our church folks around last Thanksgiving. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:17.279 Some real gratitude was being shared amongst marital couples, and we are, hey, I am proud of that gratitude. 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:18.240 Hey, good job. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:19.839 Good job. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:22.959 So all these babies are being born. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:29.439 I went and saw three babies this week, and these babies they got me thinking about the first word a child speaks. 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:31.199 You know the storyline. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:38.960 Dad's working with the kid to say dada, and mom's working with the kid to say mama, and then meme or grand or ya, whoever shows up. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:43.919 And they're pleading with that little one-year-old, like, oh, you know, say ya, say grand, say dada, say mama. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:52.480 And we all want that first word, and then it comes, baby Janet says mama, and it's amazing. 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:59.039 And we post it online and we FaceTime her relatives and we say, Janet, say it again, mama, mama. 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:00.960 And it's like it's never been done before. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:03.200 And we throw a party and she's brilliant. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:04.320 We give her presents. 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.200 I mean, she's gonna go to Harvard, she's brilliant. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:15.200 Now, two years later, her little baby brother Larry does the same thing, and he just gets like a cheese stick or something. 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:24.159 But that first kid, that speaking of a word, it's amazing. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:31.840 This being has created something into this world. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:38.000 See, a word is an expression of yourself to be known by someone else. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:40.240 Creation. 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:52.639 Elohim's creation is an expression that comes out from himself, out from Elohim, and this creation comes by means of the word. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:55.279 Now, what is this word? 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:01.279 Well, John helps us make sense of it in John 1, 1 through 3. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:09.120 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:17.360 Now we know John's whole narrative, his gospel is about Jesus, and so then verse 2 he says, He, meaning Jesus, he was in the beginning with God. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:24.639 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:29.840 So this is about the Christ, the word in the beginning. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:33.600 See, the Christ has always been there. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.759 The creation came from the Christ. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:46.000 And in the incarnation, we know the Christ as Jesus the Christ. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:50.639 So now, here we have in Genesis 1, verses 1 through 3. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:58.320 We have Elohim, we have Spirit, and we have the Word or the Christ. 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:03.679 So we get a hint of this plurality. 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:13.679 Not three gods, one God, but three parts of God, three persons of God, for us to begin to understand who God is. 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:19.679 One God, three persons? 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:32.080 Elohim, spirit, the Christ, and then in day six, after five days of creation, day six, Elohim, he created living creatures like cows and lizards and for some reason stuff like hairless cats. 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:35.120 And God saw that it was good. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:48.559 And then he says in verse 26, then God said, Let us, let us, us, let us make man in our image after our likeness. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:50.639 Oh, plural. 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:55.519 Elohim and the Spirit and the Word. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:00.320 Verse 27, Elohim created man in his own image. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:06.480 In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them at the highlight of creation. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:11.519 Elohim creates you. 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:18.480 At the highlight of God's creation. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:20.720 You show up. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.159 And then day seven came and got arrested. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:32.799 Okay, all of that digging, what does that have to do with you? 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:37.759 Well, point number one, you were created out of love. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:50.960 Maybe you have only heard in your own mind and heart, and maybe out of the words of your parents, or maybe from somebody else, that you need to be a little bit more, you need to be a little bit better. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:57.039 But listen, listen, listen, that is a lie you can now leave behind. 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:02.799 You were created in the image of God out of love. 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:08.639 And this doesn't discount the reality of your imperfection or my imperfection or our sin or our brokenness. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:15.679 It rather gives us hope of who we are while we are still sinners. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:21.360 Now back to these days of creation for us to make sense of this. 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:22.639 Hang with me here through this. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:25.120 There's two groupings here in these days of creation. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:29.120 This is taken from the JPS Torah commentary. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:35.440 The JPS Torah commentary says group one, day one, day two, day three. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.240 These are the resources, day one, day two, and day three. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:43.519 The resources, day one, light, day two, sky leaving the waters. 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:45.840 Day three, dry land and vegetation. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:47.360 These are all resources. 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:51.279 And then group two shows up in day four, day five, and day six. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.559 These are the utilizers of the resources. 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:58.960 Day group two, the utilizers, day four, day five, and day six. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:00.320 Day four, the luminaries. 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:01.759 Day five, fish and fowl. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.799 Day six, land creatures, humankind. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:15.360 So what we have here is we have that day four goes with day two, meaning the luminaries, like the sun and the stars, they go into the sky. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:23.519 Day five and day six, the fish and the fowl, land creatures, they go with day three, dry land of vegetation, as do we. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.720 Now, for some, this presents a problem. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:36.080 For the way that we measure a day, the sun does not arrive until day four. 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:43.440 Yet the language and the framework of days that exists from the very beginning, day one, day two, and day three. 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:45.679 They assume that days are occurring. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:48.000 But the sun hasn't existed yet. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:57.840 And then vegetation is created before the sun, but vegetation needs the sun in order to have survival, all of which are literal problems. 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:01.679 But not poetic problems. 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:06.080 And this is where I get to point number two. 00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:13.679 Point number two, the poetry gives light to the Trinity, and the Trinity gives light to your identity. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:14.799 Let me say it again. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:19.519 The poetry gives light to the Trinity, and the Trinity gives light to your identity. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:23.200 So here we have Elohim, Spirit, the Christ. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.399 They're all here. 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:32.000 Now the historical Greek word for Trinity is paracuresis, and it's a good word. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.240 It means to go around or dance around. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.840 Some say it means the dance of love. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:45.840 I think that's what was going on last Thanksgiving when those babies were coming. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:54.159 Our family has a little dance party in our den a few evenings each week. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.919 Probably talked about it before, probably because our family loves it, because I love it. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.000 And then what we'll do is we'll get into the evening, and the evening is kind of slowing down. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:07.679 It's after dinner, we're in our den and we blast the music, and there's lots of twirling and jumping. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:09.279 We had to outlaw cartwheels. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:11.840 Cartwheels are out, too many injuries. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:13.360 But we dance. 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:22.000 Sometimes we dance as a group, sometimes we dance by ourselves, sometimes there's a line dancing going on, and every once in a while a circle forms. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:23.279 You know what I'm talking about. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:25.039 You've been to a wedding. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:29.360 That circle forms, and you go out in the middle of the circle and you dance. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:42.000 You know, there are a lot of days I drive along the expressway, maybe put my head on the pillow at night and sort of relive my mistakes a lot. 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:44.240 Maybe doubt myself. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:49.679 Maybe just wonder if I need I need to be something more. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.000 But I never do it in that setting. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:17:01.600 Not in that circle in my den with those girls. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:04.640 Not with my family. 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.759 Not inside that dance of love. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:29.680 And I as a dad, trying to love unconditionally, I enjoy nothing more than watching one of my children get inside that circle and be free and get embarrassed and make a mistake and realize it doesn't matter. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:33.759 That I don't care. 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:36.240 Their mom doesn't care. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:43.119 Their sisters don't care because they are safe and secure inside the dance of love. 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:59.440 See, this is the image of Paracaresis, the Trinity, Elohim, the Spirit, the Christ that was there from the very beginning, the dance of love, of which created you and defines you. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:06.480 Last point, point number three, the poetry leads us to Jesus. 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:09.440 The poetry leads us to Jesus. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:12.720 God creates, and on day seven, he rests. 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:16.880 He rests in the loving community of the Trinity. 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:19.839 He rests in his own being. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:33.279 And we wonder where we might find some rest from self-justification, performancism, or just pretending. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:40.079 Feeling ashamed or guilty or the endlessness of trying to self-redeem. 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:45.119 I mean, is there a place? 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:57.440 Is there a place for your inner being to understand its origins and to finally be at home where you could be free from religious and secular demand? 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:22.720 Well, in the New Testament, we learn how God takes this loving dance that we see from the very beginning and through the Christ incarnates the love for us to know in Jesus, where our imperfection and sin is put upon him and his righteousness and perfection is placed on us. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:29.359 So we are God's beloved living and the dance of love securely forever. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:30.880 So you aren't perfect. 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:31.920 I know you're not perfect. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:46.720 I'm not perfect, but you were created out of the loving dance of God and are redeemed by Him and His work for you, not your work for Him. 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:54.240 So, my brothers and sisters, may you know you are beautifully created. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:05.440 And while you are far from perfect in the Christ, you are redeemed and you are made whole.