Text: (Genesis 1:1)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit to all of us, so that I may speak well, and we all may hear well, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
In the Christian Church, we have a thing called the “Apostles’ Creed”, which is a brief statement, if you like, of the main Christian beliefs. Many people learn this right from early childhood. It goes like this: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, he descended into hell, on the third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.” These words have been spoken by Christians every day for centuries and are the words which are spoken when a person is baptised.
The largest part of the Apostles’ Creed is about the life of Jesus. But there’s one very important thing, that many people overlook, and that is the first sentence: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”
This is almost a direct quote from the very first sentence in the bible, which says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Really the belief that God created us, that God created everything, is a belief that separates Christianity from any other religion or philosophy. Everybody is essentially religious: there’s not such thing as a true atheist. Everybody believes in something.
So if people say that God didn’t create the world, then what do they say? They say it happened “by chance”. People have been worshipping “chance” throughout the centuries, right back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome. And still there are plenty of sceptics around who blame things on “bad luck”, “fickle fate”, and say “what is the chance of that happening?”
Christians don’t believe that the world came about by chance, but that it came about by God, and through him designing it and creating it and shaping it and forming it.
In some sense, it takes more faith to believe that the “eye” in all its complexity could simply come about by chance, that the way the earth is set up with its specific tilt, and with its atmosphere that burns things up like meteorites. Every leaf on every tree is unique, every human being has a unique personality and a unique life experience.
These things didn’t come about by chance – they came about through love, through God, who spoke and these things came to be. He said: “Let there be light”, and there was light.
+++
Sometimes we wonder why evil and bad things happen. Did God plan these things? Christians believe that there was a time when everything was perfect, without suffering, without evil, without death – this was how God created the world. He also created people with a free will, so that people could freely love him. He never forced people to love him. There’s no love when it’s forced.
But human beings fell into sin through selfishness. They brought evil into the world. We read in the bible that Adam and Eve took the fruit from the tree against God’s command and against his will. So the evil that happens in the world is not God’s fault – it’s our fault. It’s our sin.
Now, because he loves us, and because he cares about us, God now works in such a way to bring good things out of bad situations. He even brings good things about when we think we are doing the worst things imaginable. In the bible, the man Joseph who became a prince in Ancient Egypt says: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
The main demonstration of this is when God sends his Son Jesus Christ, to suffer and die, and to experience the most incredible evil, but for one reason: the win salvation and eternal life for the whole human race. We read: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.
+++
But one more thing about God’s creation, and the fact that he creates the world. Many people don’t believe in God, but they believe in justice. And so when something bad happens to people, they say: “They’re getting their come-uppance”, or “It serves them right”, or sometimes people say “That’s karma”.
This sort of justice is dangerous though. There’s nothing that people can do about it. This sort of justice is impersonal, and it just punishes and punishes without changing its mind.
God on the other hand operates differently. Sure: he created justice. He will judge the world according to his commandments. But also, he forgives people when they acknowledge their sin. He doesn’t have to punish if he doesn’t want to – he can change his mind. And he promises to change his mind for you, when he looks at his Son Jesus Christ having died on the cross for you. And he speaks this forgiveness to you through his word when it is preached, and also he applies it to people in Holy Baptism.
+++
Death is the same. People think that death is a good thing, and that it brings people an end of suffering. We don’t know that. It’s not necessarily true. Death is a cruel thing. It just takes one person after another.
But for a Christian, and for you, the only reason why death is a blessing, is because God himself work to bring something good out of something bad. The only reason why death is a blessing is because Jesus Christ went there first and experienced it first hand. He went through it and defeated it. He rose again from the dead. That’s the message of Christianity: we don’t say that world came about by chance, but that God made it. We don’t say that people are punished no matter what, but that God forgives because of Jesus. We don’t say that death is a good thing, but that God blesses those who die in him, trusting in Christ’s death, and that he himself raises the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, you have made us all in your image and each of us is precious in your sight. You sent your Son Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross, and to rise again from the dead. Send us the Holy Spirit, so that our sins may be forgiven, so that we may also be led to eternal life with Jesus, and finally be raised from the dead with Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment