i can't explain it

any other, any other way

Sermon on the Creation Story in Genesis 1

This is so nerdy, but it’s a true story…

During my senior year of college I did an independent study on justification and the way other theologians deal with this surprising thing God has done in Jesus Christ.

I was trying to get my mind around Reinhold Niebuhr. But to keep justification front and center, I was also reading Gerhard Forde’s book, “Justification by Faith; a Matter of Death and Life.” 

The semester was getting on, and I was in the library late, reading Forde’s section dealing with the battle of the wills between human freedom and God’s election. 

And he made the point; if we’re so darn free, how come no matter what our knee jerk reaction is that we’re the free ones. 

And he went on, adding; for our so called freedom, we always windup doing what we can to maintain our own control rather than the real freedom God has given us in Jesus Christ. 

And reading that was no insight, it was nothing less than a revelation. Never before had someone shown me, in only a couple of sentences no less, that the real thing that robbed me of my freedom was myself. And not only that, but in Jesus Christ, I had been baptized into freedom evening from myself!

It felt like my entire world had been turned on its head!

By that point, I had already written why I felt called to be a pastor and been accepted into the call-process. I had already written my entrance essay and been accepted into seminary. But for all that, it felt like I missed the mark all along! 

I sat there wishing I could go back and rewrite everything I’d ever said about Jesus, faith, ministry, the Bible and God.

What I’ve come to find out, though, is that is the way the Gospel of Jesus Christ happens to us. When it shows up, it turns everything on its head!

Now, I know it’s an odd choice to begin our sermon series through the Bible by talking about Jesus already. Especially since we’ve only made it through the first chapter, in the first book of the Bible. We still have thousands of pages and plenty of months before we even get to Jesus!

But like that night in the library, this is the way God chooses to work!
You never see God’s amazing grace coming. It always sneaks up on you. Shows up when you least expect it, and turns your world on it’s head!

…Case and point, today’s scripture.

Because if you take your time and pay close attention to what the Holy Spirit is up to from that start, Jesus will come along and flip your world, too!

I mean, how often do we assume today’s scripture is just a story of before. Before God’s creation in all it’s goodness was wrecked by sin. Before God has to resort to plans B though H, until finally coming to backup plan “J”; Jesus Christ. 

I know that’s how I’ve always understood it.

But having everything flipped one night in the library, doesn't mean God will leave you alone after that. 

Our return flight was delayed by a couple of hours. And, when we were checking in, I forgot to take my carryon out of my checked bag. So I was stuck in the airport with nothing to do for a couple of hours. With nothing else to do, I read today’s scripture over and over. 

And in the process I noticed something I never had before…. 

Something that fiddled with the idea that Jesus is the plan God has to resort to… 

We’ll do this part interactive.
Crack open your Bible or turn your bulletin to the scripture to what God does before wrapping up the whole kit and caboodle and taking a rest from all the work that he had done in creation: the creation of humankind…

When God turns to make humankind, what’s God’s template?

Go ahead, just shout it out…

Yes! God makes humankind in the image of God.

I’ve been so used to just saying that, I had never noticed the problem with it. But there is a problem, and it’s a pretty serious one!

Does anyone have any guesses as to what it could be???

Don’t worry, I never noticed this before. What about the commandment against “graven images?” That no one, is ever supposed to make anything in the image of God!

And yet, that’s exactly what God does! Right here! Before humans have even had a shot at breaking any of the rules, God is already playing fast and loose with the first one!

Here, I’ll tip my hat before we move on; what if God is playing fast and loose with the rules when it comes to you and me, because when it comes to you God determines to break the rules?

Because it wasn’t until I was trying to make heads or tails of God ignoring the First Commandment, that I was finally able to see this other strange fact about creation for what it is…

Plenty of people will point out a problem between the first thing God does and what God does on the fourth day.

So, what’s the first thing God does? Go ahead, just shout it out.

That’s right, “God sends light.”

But what does God wait three more days to create? What does God do on the fourth day? Let’s hear it.

Yes! It isn’t until the fourth day that God creates the Son, Moon and the stars.

So how is it that, before the Sun is ever made, God has sent light to the world?

Now I had always taken that a simple evidence that this passage isn’t concerned with giving a scientific explanation of creation. But then it dawned on me that this passage isn’t merely telling a story; it’s doing gospel to you and me!

It’s proclaiming that from the start God is, spoiler alert, sending Jesus!

It’s undoing this story I’ve told myself, that first and foremost God is waiting for me to get my act together and if that doesn’t work God will resort to backup plan Jesus! It’s affirming what the Nicean Creed said over 1,600 years ago!

The light that is there before the Sun, Moon and stars is Jesus Christ! From the start, there Jesus is! Before we need it, there grace is! Before we expect him, Jesus shows up, turning everything on its head!!

From the start, all this is covered by grace. Grace isn’t where God has to resort to! Grace is what God has willed from the beginning! 

We imagine that we're the one with all the freedom, that Jesus is just God’s Plan B, because we’re afraid we’re on our own. That God is just sitting back waiting for us to get our act together. 

But scripture refuses to bear that out! 

From start to finish, scripture declares, that isn’t how God has decided to be to you. Rather, God has determined to be your God from the start. To be gracious and merciful to you!

We’re calling this series, “The Art of Being.” And I have to admit, at first I was a little surprised by how many of you were interested in that. But the more I think about it, the more it make sense.

Because we’re always trying to figure out how we should live, aren’t we? 

And to varying degrees, we manage to get our minds around it. 

For all our efforts, there always seem to be these rough edges, these parts that don’t hold together.

And what scripture reveals is, it’s because of this false assumption of our’s. That the project of all this is our’s to make or break. 

But what scripture declares from beginning to end is, that’s a bad trip we’ve put on ourselves. The more we cling to it, the more we make a mess of things. Because this is not how God is, not how God made everything!

So hear this loud and clear, from breaking the First Commandment to make you, to sending Jesus the light of the world from the very start, God has refused to leave you to your own efforts. 

All along, God has determined to be the one who rescues you, who saves you, who redeems you.

Jesus is no backup plan, beloved. 

Jesus is what God has willed for you from the start!

Never for a moment has God sat back and just waited for you to get everything together. Instead, God constantly shows up. Right up at the beginning. Before we expect God. Before we need God to set all things right. 

Because this is just the kind of God you have in Jesus Christ, the light of the world!

That’s the way grace is. It shows up when you don’t expect it. And it turns everything on it’s head. 

And that’s what God did at the very start. And it’s what God does to you today. 

In the beginning, God spoils the ending! God does this in the Light of the world that shows up first thing. God does this in the Word made flesh that shows up now in these words you hear. God does this in playing fast and loose with the commandments by making you in the image of God. 

In the name of Jesus, the beginning and the end interrupt your regularly scheduled life. Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus, the light of the world comes to you, and gives you creation in all its goodness as I proclaim what today has become for you: the sabbath. 

The day all the rules are laid to rest. The day you are laid to rest. The day there is nothing more for you to do. Because in Jesus Christ, God has given you everything!