"The Creation: The Beginning Of Life” Series

In Jesus Holy Name May 1, 2016

Text: Genesis 1:1-2 Series: The Story Redeemer

“The Creation: The Beginning of Life”

Life is a story. Bring two people together and they will soon be telling stories. Two men in a fishing boat… well you know how that ends. Look at our fixation with the news. Every morning, every evening billions of people read a paper, turn into the news. Why? Because we human beings have this craving for meaning we want to know the “rest of the story”

“Tell me what happened”, we say to a friend. Tell me your story. I’ll try to help you make sense of it. Who am I? Why am I here? What does God want of me?

Neil Postman wrote: Science provides many answers. “but in the end science does not provide enough. They have unique answers to the origins of our universe, our evolving human body…. But somehow it is unsatisfactory. How did it all begin? Science will now answer: “probably by accident.” “The Big Bang” or “Intelligent Design” The Story is about the “Intelligent Designer”.

In 1996, astronomers focused the powerful Hubble Space Telescope on a small and utterly black patch in space right next to the “Big Dipper” constellation. They left the shutter open for ten days. Wow! 3000 more galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, planets & moons. In 2004 they did it again.

This time they focused on the constellation Orion and left the lens open for 11 days and discovered ten thousand more galaxies. And here we live on a small blue marble spinning in our own orbit around the Sun.

Walk into any large mall. On our trip to Germany we did just that. It was huge. There were shops for cheese, German sausages, clothes, shoes, balloons. Everything look familiar, but unless you could read German you were lost. So we found a map. All big malls have a map. On the may was a big red star. We knew that the star meant “you are here.” This is the big picture. This star is where you are in the big picture.

(hold up blue marble) Here we are on this blue marble, spinning in space. It wasn’t always that way.

God has a story. Genesis, is the first book that tells us about God’s interaction and plan for mankind. The real point of Genesis is that God wants to be with us.

In the beginning….. or Once upon a time…..

It is a wonderful phrase. Full of promise. An invitation. Once upon a time a beautiful maiden….

A long time ago in a galaxy far away….

All really good stories start that way.

Christianity tells us that there is an Author, A Creator, and He is good. He is the source of all things good. The Hebrew word for God is Elohim….. Elohim is plural for God…. Not the English word “gods” but God plural. The Trinity. God the Father.. God the Son.. God the Spirit… for the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters…

Before the world began there was darkness. Like the darkness of a cave in which you can not see your own hand inches from your face. Suddenly a voice shatters the darkness. A voice breaks the silence. There is light. Another word. The seas form. Another word and mangoes laden the branches of trees. Poppies fill the hills. Rain forests. Prairies in full bloom. All in an instant.

It doesn’t stop. God opens his hand and animals spring forth. Birds of every kind fill the skies with flight and song. Thundering across the plains. Buffalo, horses running like the wind. Elephants. Caterpillars. Snow. Peacocks.

Stop. Think of the complexity. Step outside this evening. Look at the universe, the blade of grass.

The perfect and beautiful world God created was good. Hummingbirds. Kangaroos. Tulips. Mangoes. The Serengeti. Morning mist.

God has a story. It’s a fairytale world ready for romance. Surely there is a place for lovers & honeymooners. They choose Yosemite, Hawaii or Tuscany. But whose idea was Yosemite, Hawaii or Tuscany? (read Psalm 8:3-5)

We have come to the dramatic words of the Creator. “Let us make mankind in our image.” Elohim the master potter scooped out of the ground a clump of clay, molded and made it into the first human, and then breathed into that human the breath of God. He began with a lump of clay. (read Genesis 1:26-27) When God breathed into the human body His breath added a “soul”.

We were created to be like God. What does that mean? Reason. The ability to create. To share intimacy. To know joy and laughter. And most of all. We have the ability to love. In love he gives freedom. Yes even the freedom to reject His love. Even before God created Eve he told Adam that there are 2 trees in the garden. The tree of life would sustain life forever. The other was the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told him that if he chose fruit from this second tree he would die.