Scripture Reading:  Genesis 1:31   God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

My dear friends,

It's hard to argue against the fact of humanity's fallenness. Our downfall may have started with the mythical apple, but we've managed to damage much of creation, including the apple – now genetically-modified – and the evidence of our abuse of creation is overwhelming!

Read through Genesis, chapter 1, and there is no hint of anything untoward. In fact, the created world began with great delight and enthusiasm. God created the heavens and the earth, and God said, "‘Let there be light,' and ...God saw that the light was good.  God created humankind – male and female – in God's very image! And "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." (1:31)

Creation is good, good, good, very good! One of the more exuberant translations of this last expression renders it this way: "God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!" (Genesis 1:31, The Message) Another translation puts it this way: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good ...and (God) approved it completely." (AMP) Or another: "God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased." (TEV)

We were created by God, and created in God's image and received the stamp of
divine approval. God took one look at us, "and God was very pleased." What does it take for us to please God?  I think we all know to some extent.  May our actions and thought put a smile on God’s face.

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 1:31   God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.

My dear friends,

Creation is an act of grace. God made a place and space for us that we might live and flourish with freedom and joy. God creates a rich, intricate, and growing world that we could never completely explore or explain. Creation is an act of divine generosity, an exercise in self-giving, and a flood of goodness that seeks only to bless.  God himself delights in creation and our part in it. The appropriate response of faith is not just to acknowledge our gratitude to God, but also to imitate God’s lavish generosity, goodness, and blessing with our lives. We might not only respond to God but also
correspond to God, so that, as St Paul declares, we become “co-creators” with God and stewards of creation.

Creation is grace is not “just” doctrine. It illustrates for us how to live and behave as God intended. The great second century church father, Irenaeus, declared,  “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” You are not only the apex of creation but the very glory of God. Gloria Dei is Latin for “the glory of God.”  I named the church Gloria Dei! with the exclamation point, because we are here to proclaim the glory of God with our lives.  May it truly be so.

God bless you,
Pastor Tom

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 1:1-3   When God began to create the heavens and the earth – the earth being formless and void, darkness being upon the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God brooding upon the surface of the waters – God said, “Let there be light,” and light was.

My dear friends,

Perhaps the beauty of the creation story isn’t so much that it happened, but that it happens. Here, the genius of a temporal clause, “When God began to create…” (as he continually “begins to create”) echoes into all the daily events of human activity within our relationship with God, others, and the heavens and earth. In contrast to the distant god of Deism who simply“created” and stepped back, our God (the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel)“creates”.  God takes the chaos and confusion of a formless void and creates order and beauty.  The creativity of God is realized in every act of kindness, generosity, forgiveness and love. The Spirit of God hovers or broods over the formless waters as a hen hovers or broods over her eggs that contain within them a formless yoke. Yet, this spirit of creativity brings form to that which is formless and fills that which is empty, bringing life to that which is dead.

God can take the chaos within our hearts and create order and stillness. God broods over the sad and despairing spirit and creates joy and peace. God still creates in us.  We can rejoice in a God who can say to the dark places in our lives, “Let there be light,” and light happens.

God bless you,
Pastor Tom