Genesis 1:1 –
2:3; Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13;
Exodus 14:10 –
15:1; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Jonah 3:1-10; John 20:1-18
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In the beginning…. When someone utters a statement
that begins with words “In the beginning…,” you know you’re talking either to a
theologian or a philosopher, or perhaps even a lunatic. Those words indicate
that the speaker is about to make an absolute statement, something that they
believe to be true even if they could never be prove it using empirical data or
scientific method, even if contradictory evidence exists. In essence, they’re
making a statement of faith, even a creed. And that is exactly how the sacred
Scriptures begin, “In the beginning, God….”
And, the first thing that God reveals of Himself in
the beginning is that He is a maker, a creator. This is remarkable, for to make
something, to create something, is to put some amount of yourself into that
which you make. And, the created, for as long as it exists, bears the mark of
the Creator. It is remarkable that God should have created at all, but this He
has revealed of Himself that to make, to create, to give life to another is an
essential quality of God in His innermost being.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth by speaking, by His Word gone forth from His mouth. And, the Word of God
does not return to Him void, but it accomplishes that for which it was sent. In
this way did God make all things that have been made, by His Word, in six days:
sun, moon, and stars, the birds, fish, and animals, the trees, and everything
else. And then, remarkable, God made a man, not by His Word as with everything
else, but with His hands from the dust and dirt of the earth. God made a man in
His image and breathed into the man His own living breath, and the man became a
living creature. And from the flesh of the man God formed a woman and He
brought her to the man. God blessed the man and His wife with the blessing that
they would be makers, creators, life-givers like Him: “Be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth.” And on the seventh day God rested from all His work of creation,
and God blessed the seventh day.
God is a maker, a creator, a life-giver – this first
self-revelation of God is most important, for it helps us to better understand
the incomprehensible and boundless love, grace, and mercy that also are
essential qualities of His innermost being. We know how it went with our first
parents in the garden. Infinitesimally more amazing than their rebellion
against their Creator is God’s plan of salvation, that He would save man at
all, let alone at the self-sacrifice of His Son. Before their fall He knew what
He would do. In a moment’s vision to the “I AM”, but over hundreds of
generations of mankind, God was creating anew, re-creating His fallen, broken
creation. Why in this way? Why so long? These are imponderable questions from
man’s perspective, but suffice it to say that this, too, is a revelation of
God’s essential quality in His innermost being. He will not force Himself on
anyone, but loves men that they might love Him in return. He gives life to dead
and dying men that they might receive it from Him once again.
The flood was a mighty example, not of God’s silence,
but of God’s mercy towards man. He cried out to the world drowning in sin and
death that there was another way. He cried out “Stop going down the path you
are going, the path that leads only to death”, and His life-giving Word cried
out “Turn around and live!” The waters He utilized in creation He would now
utilize in re-creation, washing away all sin and corruption while lifting up in
salvation those who hearkened to His voice.
Similarly did God demonstrate to His people that He
would save them, provide for them, and protect them, ushering His people out of
the house of bondage in Egypt, passing them through the Red Sea, while
destroying those who refused to repent and live in that same life-giving water.
The valley of dry bones combines themes of God’s
creation of man with those of the resurrection of the dead, both occurring by
the life-giving breath of God. These were the bones of God’s people that once were
covered with flesh and tendons, but now were dead, dried out bones. Along the
way the people of God turned from faith and lost hope; they cut themselves off
from the life-giving breath and spirit-filled water of God.
In Jonah, God gives us a prophetic type of His plan of
salvation. God told Jonah to preach to the Ninevites that they might repent and
be saved. Because Jonah disobeyed God and fled, God brought both judgment and
salvation upon Jonah when he was swallowed by the great fish. The three days Jonah
spent in the belly of the great fish are a type of the three days Jesus spent
in the heart of the earth. Jesus was judged in the place of Jonah and in the
place of all men, and He arose triumphant from the grave to release all us
would-be-Jonahs from sin, death, and the grave. And, once again God used water
as an instrument of judgment and salvation. Jonah was thrown into the water in
judgment to drown, but he was swallowed by a creature of the water and was
saved.
Not only does God continue to call men to repentance
and faith, but those who receive Him He marks and seals and protects. The
baptismal imagery in the readings you have heard this evening are no
coincidence, God continually uses His life-giving Word, water, and Spirit to
mark and to seal His people. In renewing your baptismal vows, you are not
unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refusing to bow down to false gods and
idols, renouncing the devil and all his works and ways. So doing does not
endear you to this world whose prince is the devil who will hurl many fiery
darts at you. But like those three faithful Israelites, you know that you are
baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection and that nothing, not even death,
can separate you from God the Father’s love.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. In six days God made the universe and everything in it, and on the
seventh day He rested. When Adam’s rebellion plunged the world into sin and
death, God set about restoring His fallen creation. The last thing He had to do
was to redeem mankind from sin and death. God the Father sacrificed His
only-begotten Son for the life of the world. God the Son willingly laid down
His life in love. When He died on Good Friday, all that was required for the
redemption of mankind was completed, it was finished. Having finished God’s
work of re-creation and redemption, Jesus rested from His labors on the seventh
day. Jesus rose from the dead on the day we call the first day of the week,
Sunday, but from God’s perspective, it was the eighth day, the culmination of
the seven that went before it. The sun never sets on the eighth day, it is
eternity, for Jesus, and for all who are baptized into His death and
resurrection. The sun has set, that day is now. This is the day that the Lord
has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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