Creekside Church, Sunday, Oct 6, 2024
In The Beginning
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
Genesis has been used in many ways. In this series we'll focus on Genesis as:
1. Theology – teach us about God
2. First book of the Bible – sets the stage, introduces themes
3. Worldview Shaping
---
Everybody has a worldview whether explicit or implicit.
A worldview being the lens through which we make sense of life.
Worldview answers questions like:
o Who are we? Where are we?
o Why are we here?
o Is there a problem?
o What is the solution?
o Is there a story being told in human history and if so, what part of the story are we in?
Life is chaotic. How do you order your thoughts to navigate the chaos of life?
---
Imagine living in the Ancient Near East some 3000-4000 years ago.
These cultures had their own creation narratives.
Primary Themes - Darkness, watery chaos, no land – Establishing some form of order.
Worldview and Life created:
- Why are we here? -> Result of violence and conflict in some other realm
- Who are we? –> slaves, servants
- What kind of world? -> Everything is a god, god’s are angry, against you, even the gods are at war with each other
- Expectations? –> when you had a problem sacrifice to them, fear them. Hope was in the gods perhaps shining favor upon you
- Purpose? – create/conquer through blood shed - world was made through violence and scheming, so you be violent and take control. Seek to ascend the throne.
---
It is among these kinds of cosmologies, creation narratives, worldviews, that Genesis emerges.
So imagine growing up with these types of stories and then one day you bump into an ancient Israelite and they begin to recite for you…
"In the beginning God/Elohim created the skies and the land."
Just one God?
Chaos waters? Oh yes, familiar.
Creation Good?
God just speaks and he creates?
No war?
Already you begin to see how these are similar and yet different.
Not that the ancient Israelites were copying the Babylonians homework but they were aware of the themes that make for a creation narrative and they employ them in order to subvert them.
---
Read Genesis 1 this week and notice:
1. Verse 2 introduces obstaces - Desert, Darkness, Water. These are then dealt with on Days 1, 2, and 3.
2. Notice how Days 1, 2 and 3 create containers or order that is then filled on days 4, 5, 6.
3. Notice God's benevolence to the humans on Day 6.
4. Notice the seed bearing plants and humans told to multiply. This creation is dynamic, it's no museum.
5. Day 7, this God rests. Doesn't he have to guard his throne? Life in this creation is not a constant stressful power struggle.
---
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Colossians 1
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
---
To be a follower of Jesus is to find rest and goodness and peace in a sometimes chaotic world, knowing that the one who was there in the beginning, holding all things together, bringing light into darkness and beauty from chaos, is still at work today.
And he has promised, behold, I am still at work, making all things new.
1. Theology – teach us about God
2. First book of the Bible – sets the stage, introduces themes
3. Worldview Shaping
---
Everybody has a worldview whether explicit or implicit.
A worldview being the lens through which we make sense of life.
Worldview answers questions like:
o Who are we? Where are we?
o Why are we here?
o Is there a problem?
o What is the solution?
o Is there a story being told in human history and if so, what part of the story are we in?
Life is chaotic. How do you order your thoughts to navigate the chaos of life?
---
Imagine living in the Ancient Near East some 3000-4000 years ago.
These cultures had their own creation narratives.
Primary Themes - Darkness, watery chaos, no land – Establishing some form of order.
Worldview and Life created:
- Why are we here? -> Result of violence and conflict in some other realm
- Who are we? –> slaves, servants
- What kind of world? -> Everything is a god, god’s are angry, against you, even the gods are at war with each other
- Expectations? –> when you had a problem sacrifice to them, fear them. Hope was in the gods perhaps shining favor upon you
- Purpose? – create/conquer through blood shed - world was made through violence and scheming, so you be violent and take control. Seek to ascend the throne.
---
It is among these kinds of cosmologies, creation narratives, worldviews, that Genesis emerges.
So imagine growing up with these types of stories and then one day you bump into an ancient Israelite and they begin to recite for you…
"In the beginning God/Elohim created the skies and the land."
Just one God?
Chaos waters? Oh yes, familiar.
Creation Good?
God just speaks and he creates?
No war?
Already you begin to see how these are similar and yet different.
Not that the ancient Israelites were copying the Babylonians homework but they were aware of the themes that make for a creation narrative and they employ them in order to subvert them.
---
Read Genesis 1 this week and notice:
1. Verse 2 introduces obstaces - Desert, Darkness, Water. These are then dealt with on Days 1, 2, and 3.
2. Notice how Days 1, 2 and 3 create containers or order that is then filled on days 4, 5, 6.
3. Notice God's benevolence to the humans on Day 6.
4. Notice the seed bearing plants and humans told to multiply. This creation is dynamic, it's no museum.
5. Day 7, this God rests. Doesn't he have to guard his throne? Life in this creation is not a constant stressful power struggle.
---
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Colossians 1
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
---
To be a follower of Jesus is to find rest and goodness and peace in a sometimes chaotic world, knowing that the one who was there in the beginning, holding all things together, bringing light into darkness and beauty from chaos, is still at work today.
And he has promised, behold, I am still at work, making all things new.