CULDEE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH DR. JOSEPH WASHBURN JULY 6, 2014 GENESIS 1 (SELECTED VERSES) SOMETHING TO REMEMBER: IN THE BEGINNING SO WHAT: All that is in this world and throughout the cosmos flows from the hands of God. He is the creator, the sustainer and redeemer and we belong to Him. There is nothing in this world that does not point to Him if only we open our eyes to see. Today we will embark on a journey a journey that revolves around the foundations of who we are as a people of faith. Over the next several weeks I will be preaching a sermon series on some of the basic Bible stories of our faith. The title of this this sermon series is "Something to Remember." That seems like a very appropriate title because I suspect that none of the stories you will hear are going to be new many of you would have heard all of these stories before. And that is the motivation behind this sermon series these are stories that we have heard, perhaps multiple times but they bear repeating and they are worthy of our attention. It is my prayer that as we explore these important stories we will have our memories jogged and our eyes will be open to the important role these stories hold in our faith. So, in thinking about the basic, foundational stories of our faith, we will begin well, at the beginning with the story of creation in the opening pages of the Bible. <READ SCRIPTRUE PASSAGE> You know, whenever I read the first chapter of Genesis, my mind always drifts back to my childhood days in elementary school. I attended Riverdale Elementary School in Germantown, TN and one of the required classes was art. Once a week we would make our 1
way to the art room with no idea what our teacher had in store for us: some days it was sculpting with clay and other days it was drawing with chalk, or we might do wood-block printing or a whole host of other options we never knew what was waiting for us. But my favorite art activity was painting. There was a time when all of my money went to purchase painting supplies. I remember one Christmas where my entire wish list was devoted to painting supplies and materials. My parents even paid, for a short time, for me to take painting lessons I loved painting! After a while something became obvious to everyone around me I was not very good. Sometime after everyone else knew this I finally realized it and I shifted where my time and energy was spent. To this day, the only place you will find one of my pieces of art, if you wish to call it that, is in the far recesses of my parent s closet. Reading the first chapter of Genesis, I imagine God standing before an empty canvas. With one stroke of His mighty brush the heavens and the earth are created. With each meticulous movement another dimension is added to the canvas. After each addition, God steps back to view His work and says, "It is good." His work of creating is brought to completion with the creation of human beings. Upon making this last addition, God steps back to view His completed work and says, "It is very good." What had started out as an empty canvas, without form and void, is now the masterpiece of all time. Only a God who is all powerful and filled with love and compassion could reach within Himself and create all of this. It is through the power of God s word spoken word that He brings all things into being. Now, why do we begin with this story? Why does the Bible begin with this story? Well, it is not to prove the existence of God for nowhere in this opening chapter is there any attempt 2
to prove that there is a God it begins with the knowledge and truth that God is! Instead, this passage seeks to describe how the world and life as we know it came to be. Some people fail to recognize the beauty of God s world they get so caught up in trying to explain the details of how things came into existence that they fail to see the beauty of God s work. Over the years I have met some very creative people. I know that many of you have been blessed with the gift of creativity whether it is through music, art, writing, speaking, growing flowers and other plants, decorating, woodworking, or some other area many of you have the ability to take the materials before you and create a thing of beauty. But we are not creators. While we may be able to "create" something of beauty, we must naturally begin with canvas and paint, pieces of lumber, or seeds or plants. This is true because we too have been created, but God is the creator and He created out of nothing. God created everything and everyone out of nothing but His spoken word. We labor with our hands and strength while God simply spoke words of creation: "Let there be..." and there was. Here is the truth, everywhere we look, we can see God's work. The trees, the plants, the ocean, the animals whether they are very large or so small you need a microscope all point to God's creative power. When we see another person what do you see? Well, what we ought to see is the handiwork of God. But if you are anything like me, all too often we only see "things." I look around my office, our house, or the world in general and I am amazed at all of the stuff the things that we have invented, discovered, or found. But God has this way about Him you see many times when I am in prayer and spending time with Him, He reminds me that I need to look past the things of this world the things of our hands and see God's handy-work. 3
I was talking to a minister not long ago who said that he gets up early in the morning in order to pray before the busy-ness of the day gets underway. Not long ago he realized that as he would begin to pray, he would become distracted by one sound after another. It reached the point that he was about to give up on the idea of beginning his day in prayer because he could not concentrate on God. But then God put it upon his heart that he should embrace those distractions. Rather than having his concentration broken, he began to allow those noises to guide his thoughts and prayers. If a big truck drove by during his prayer time, he would pray for the driver. If a plane flew over, he would pray for the passengers and crew. If his kids got too loud, he would give thanks for them and lift them up in prayer. He worked so that what had once been a distraction now became a way for him to meet God. From that conversation I try to remind myself to intentionally look at God's creation wherever I am. Sometimes this is easy at the birth of a child or grandchild; walking along the beach at sunrise or along a quiet mountain trail or even walking down the street under a bright shining moon. But sometimes it is difficult and we must work on it we must ask God to open our eyes and senses to the beauty of His presence in creation. Remember, the everyday things of life are filled with the love and touch of God if we only take the time to look with the eyes of our hearts. The first two verses of Psalm 24 capture an important lesson from the story of creation. The earth is the Lord s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers. All that is all we are all we can see all we have flows from the God who is the creator of all things. My prayer is that as we leave this service our eyes would be opened to the presence of God that surrounds us. And as 4
our eyes are opened, may we marvel at His work. May we know that God is the creator who in the midst of chaos and void called forth life and order. I believe that is something worth remembering and celebrating don't you. Amen. 5