Today’s Readings

Genesis 1:1-2:3                       Mark 1:1-13

 

            In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1

 

            Welcome as we begin this Lenten season.  Together in the Word is our theme, but it is not a new thought.  Immanuel has been a congregation Together in the Word since its founding over 136 years ago (August 12, 1871).  During this Lenten Season all are invited to read a series of passages together each day.  We are invited to formally and informally to discuss these readings as we gather together.  We will follow the major accounts in Genesis and early Exodus,  and Jesus’ ministry among us as recorded in the Gospel of Mark.  During these weeks in Lent, we will review one of the Old Testament readings on Wednesdays, and one of the Gospel texts on Sundays.  Some of our Bible Study groups will gather in round table discussions of the readings for the week.

           

            The first reading for all of us today is Genesis 1, the account of creation.  It is the beginning of time.  It is the beginning of us.  It is the beginning of God’s relationship with his people and our relationship with him.  It is the beginning of earth’s history that one day will end as God has declared.  Most importantly, it is the beginning of our lives that are eternal with him, well beyond what we know in this creation.

 

            In the beginning, God created….  The word “created” means to make something from nothing.  Today we use the word “create” to mean to make something that has not been made before.  But we always have something to begin with.  One might create a new recipe, but we have the ingredients and other “food thoughts” to fall back upon.  An artist might “create” a new concept, but he needs paint and canvass or clay or some other medium to work with.  And man’s “creation” is always limited to what he/she knows.  God made all things out of nothing. 

 

            In verse two we see that at first everything was formless.  There was no order to anything.  Darkness covered everything.  Another way of translating this is that all was chaos.  Webster’s describes chaos as: 

1   the disorder of formless matter and infinite space, supposed to have existed before the ordered universe

2   extreme confusion or disorder

            Without God’s intervention, there is no order and everything is useless.  In our sinful nature and in our sinful lives, we live in a state of chaos.  We live in extreme confusion and disorder.  But God has a greater plan for this creation.  The Spirit of God was hovering over this chaos.  The term for “hovering” used here is the same as that of a bird or animal hovering over its young.  It is a watchful and caring hovering.  In the beginning we see that God does not allow anything to escape his sight and his caring watchfulness.

 

            Remember that this chaos is in darkness.  In darkness one cannot make sense out of chaos.  We need to see what we have.  God creates light first, and calls the light “good.”  This is a perfect light.  Jesus is the “light of the world.” Whoever follows him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  [John 8:12].  This created light is life, it is the beginning of all good things, it is good as God calls it so.  And he separates the light from the darkness, good from its opposite, evil.  God is light.  Jesus is light.  Without God, without Jesus, we have no light, no way out of our darkness.

 

            In the beginning, God knows chaos from orderliness.  In the beginning, God knows good from evil.  In the beginning, God hovers, watches carefully all that he creates.  In the beginning, God makes all things good.

 

            As we continue our readings this week, we see all of the good God creates messed up by man’s sin.  You and I continue to make chaos out of his love and commands as we sin daily.  But in the beginning God made man in a way unlike anything else in creation.  He made man in his own image, and he breathed into man the breath of life.  Even though Adam and Eve fell into sin, and we follow along in our sins day in and day out, God still intends for you to be restored to his image again.  God will give you that breath of life, his life, eternal life again. 

 

            In the beginning, God set the standard.  Mark records the second beginning, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him [John 3:17].  The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance, the cry of John the Baptist sent to make straight the path for the Messiah to come to the hearts of his people.  In the beginning, God made you to be his dear child.  In the beginning of your faith you are brought to him in baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  In the beginning of your faith you are given a new life, that of desiring God’s will, not the sinful will of your earthly birth.  In the beginning of your faith you are given the Holy Spirit, who hovers over you watchfully, so that as you grow in God’s word, you grow in faith and faithful living as a witness to others.

 

            In the beginning, now and forever in the word.  Amen.