“In the beginning.” These simple words are part of the fabric of the Christian faith. They describe something that astrophysicists and theologians have studied for a long time, how this all began. I spent time this week mulling over these words, and at one point I had to step away because my head was starting to hurt, not because there was too much noise, but because this very statement has an almost vacuous characteristic to it. We are surrounded by a lot of noise.
I wonder if some of you have seen the movie adaptation of Carl Sagan’s book Contact. It begins with a breathtaking opening sequence in which we see our planet and we hear through radio frequencies all sorts of noise. But as the camera, which is the vantage point through which we see, moves back traveling past the moon and mars, Jupiter and Saturn and out into deep space, you begin to realize that you’re actually going back in time. Pretty soon, the noise begins to diminish and only a smattering of voices come through. You hear MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, then Adolf Hitler speaking, then pretty soon nothing at all. Silence, as you move further and further out into space. Scientists who work with the Hubble Telescope will tell you that what you see as you look at the beautiful images it displays, as you look deeper and deeper into space, what you are in fact looking at is the past. And if we were able to look back 13 billion years, scientists say, what we would hear is a very loud noise.
But what the Bible tells us we would hear is a simple phrase: “Let there be light.” Just one voice, the Word of God, speaking into emptiness, darkness and chaos, “Let there be light.” Then with each successive act of creation, God says, “It is good.”
This is how the Bible begins: simply, with one lone voice speaking into nothingness, into blackness, into chaos, and then declaring it to be good.
Download the entire sermon transcript here: Genesis 1-3 Entrusted-Creation and Fall
Download the study guide here: Study Guide 1 Creation and Fall
