DAY 1- GOD ON THE MOVE...TOWARD US

Genesis 1 & 2 and Matthew 1 & 2

The post for today might be a bit longer, most likely because this is a new adventure, but also because there is so much that God is saying to me. I also added a New Testament chapter and subtracted an Old Testament chapter.

HAPPY NEW YEAR: We start anew and so here we go in this new adventure.

Matthew 1 – 2: It is January 1^st. You no doubt have been immersed in Christmas. I pray not the Christmas of the malls, but the Christmas of the Bible. On Christmas we often hear read Luke’s version of Jesus’ birth. It is Luke who gives us the Angel Gabriel visiting Zechariah and then Mary. It is Luke who gives us the manger, the shepherds, and the wise men. We have romanticized (and sanitized) these images. At the Cathedral our young girls flittered about as the most adorable angels; I am sure Gabriel would have enjoyed it and I am sure Gabriel looked nothing like our sweet little cherubs. I like our human sentimentality. It means we have taken hold of the story (or perhaps the story has taken hold of us). The story still seeks to communicate the supernatural truth that God has come to earth – Immanuel – God with us.

But what of Matthew’s version, Gabriel is there again, this time with Joseph. Yet the version is scant with details and therefore what is it telling us? Chapter One of Matthew with its long genealogy reveals something very important. It demonstrates the connection of the New Testament to the Hebrew Scriptures (which Christians call the Old Testament). It communicates to us that the Bible is not a mass of unconnected stories and other bits of writing. Rather the story of Israel is connected with the story of Jesus. Note how Matthew includes two quotes from Old Testament prophets; he will continue to do this throughout his account. The point? It is God’s story: From Creation to New Creation, culminating in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Christ. The Bible is indeed the Word of God, about God, and about how we can find our place in Him through Jesus. It is therefore fitting that we turn to Genesis.

Genesis 1 – 2:4: I love these early Genesis texts. I could write and write about them. “In the beginning…God.” There it is, our starting point. In the beginning God; God is at the center, humankind is not meant for that position. Without God chaos, and as God spoke, creation and order emerge. Ten times God speaks and seven times he says it is (very) good.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of how people use this text and immediately jump to “creation versus evolution.” They end up jumping over so many important truths that we hold by faith:

·         Truth such as there is a God.

·         Truth that God is the creator and sustainer of the cosmos.

·         Truth that God’s world is one of order, not disorder.

·         Truth that God’s creation began as good, very good.

Might God have created all this in “seven days”? Science suggests no. Is that a problem? Not really, Genesis is written as prose with poetic overtones (cf. HTRB p. 27-28) and we know that it is our poets who often communicate truths which science can never present. Do you turn to science, or poets and musicians when pondering love? Francis Collins (past head of the human genome project) says the Bible is primarily not about “how things happened”, but “why they did”. Science might be able to explain the “how”, but it will never explain the “why”, it is not suppose to.  

So why, why did God create the cosmos, why did God create human beings? I don’t presume to know the mind of God. There is however in the Bible recurring themes. We see God “doing things” and then saying he is doing them to reveal his glory and/or his holiness (cf. Exodus 14:4, Ezekiel 36, Revelation 22). My sense is God has done all this in order to reveal himself, and his character, to us his creatures. Don’t misunderstand. God is not some egotist. Yet all He created reveals who He is, including us. Consider one of the things He reveals:

“Let us make humankind in our image.” It is important that I don’t, at this moment, put myself in the center. However it is significant to note our position in God’s created world. The first thing God does after he creates humankind is…bless us (cf. 1:24). After blessing us, he gives us his creation and tells us to care for it. It is as if after God has created all this, he has tossed the keys of his best car to us, sixteen year old's who just got our license. Again why? The answer is a little ahead of us in Genesis. Right now I am basking in the knowledge that I am not some random event in some random universe. There is order. I have a place and a purpose. And even more than that, there is this God who considers humanity as his crowning achievement.

Two side thoughts: God spoke – from a science point of view sound is a wave, but we know at a quantum level that waves are particles – the point? From nothing God speaks and now there is the cosmos (cf. John 1:1). Lastly, I don’t think God created the cosmos in seven days – I do think he is BIG enough that if he wanted to, then he could have!

Genesis 2:5 to the end: I feel like I have written way too much in the first entry. In chapter two though there is much more about God. In verse seven I picture God on his hands and knees making a man out of the earth; a mud pie! Then he breathes life into us. I can remember learning CPR. Nobody wanted to breathe into the mannequins that were provided, it was too yucky. Now I know the language here is poetic, but the poetic language communicates an intimate connection of God with humankind – he bends down, puts his lips to yours/mine, and breathes his very breath, his very Spirit*, into us. Why (again don’t fall in the “how hole”), why? Because He loves us! God’s work goes on, he plants a garden (v.8), he brings the animals to Adam, (v.19), and finally he makes Eve. The chapter closes with innocent bliss; they were both naked and were not ashamed, because it was good – very good.

*The Hebrew word for wind, breath and wind in this section of Genesis is the same, Ruach.

Genesis 1 & 2 tells us who we are at our core; the image bearers of God. It tells us that God created all of this to reveal who He is, and how he desires a relationship with us. Of course we will soon read how we complicate it, but the Good News is there is a way back.

All four chapters – Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Matthew 1, and Matthew 2 – all reveal God moving towards us. It is God who is the first to act. It is God who is the first to step towards us. It is God who after creating this beautiful world, continues to seek us out.

C.S. Lewis in Miracles writes, “No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the word of Genesis, that “In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth.””

As I close this first day of blogging, that is my prayer, that God will break through into your conscious. That His Word, some part of it, has touched you and linked to some deep part of your soul.