Good
(morning/evening)! Welcome to Sunrise United Methodist Church! I am Tim Roberts
the pastor here and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being here
to worship Jesus Christ with us today. We believe that is no accident that you
are here with us this (morning/evening), but that God prepared you for this
experience and so I pray God will greatly enrich you lives for being here.
Please pray with me.
[Prayer]
Today we are
beginning, not one, but two major events in the life of Sunrise. First, we are
beginning a third worship service, Genesis Kardia, in which we are
intentionally reaching out to persons with special needs and their families to
help them experience love and grace of Jesus. We are so excited about this new
endeavor as we unequivocally believe that this service is one for which God has
been preparing us for years, even though we did not know it until recently.
Over the last few
weeks, I have been pleased with how so many people have asked how they could
help with this new service and maybe some of you are wondering the same. To be
truthful, I don't know yet. There are many things we have for which we've
prepared, but it has become apparent to me, in recent days, that starting this
new service in much akin to having a baby. There are some things you know you
need before birth, but many of the real needs do not come to surface until
afterwards. That's where we are right now. After this evening and probably next
week, we will have a much better idea of how you will be able to serve as the
service grows and takes on it own life. But the one thing we do need is your
prayers and enthusiasm as we follow our God-given mission to Share the love of
Jesus so all become his followers.
The second is that
we are launching today a new church-wide event, known as The Story. During these weeks, we will be joining together to read
and study the Bible, from beginning to end, as one continuous story of God's
love for us. Each week, we will be reading a chapter out of this book, The Story, which is the New
International Version of the Bible, yet written similar to a novel and in
chronological order, to help us get a good feel for it. My Sunday messages will
be structured to compliment our reading and we also have opportunities for
small group study throughout the week. So, with that, let's begin.
One of humanity's
great questions is one that transcends time, ethnicity, nationality, religion
or age.
It is this,
"What is the meaning of life?"
Of course, we could
go to the dictionary to find a definition for it. This week, I was a bit
curious about how it might be defined and so here is how the Oxford Dictionary
defines life:
the condition that distinguishes
animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth,
reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death
Well, yeah, that is
a definition what life is, in a cold and clinical way. Yet, as I look at that
definition...it seems to be woefully lacking, doesn't it? It just doesn't seem
to capture the real essence of life. So, where can we turn to gain some
understanding about what life is and its meaning?
Over the years, I
have found that if you really want to get to know something well, you first
need to go to its source. So, if we really want to begin to understand the
origin and meaning of life, I believe the place to look is at its source. Take
a look with me at four words that brings all of this in perspective
In
the beginning, God...
For
people of faith, God is the source, the Creator of all that exists, including
life itself.
That is
why I am so happy that you are joining me on this journey to look deeper into
our faith, our lives, and our story as we begin today with: "The
Beginning of Life...As We Know It."
Let me
ask you something, have you ever seen a portion of a picture that is distorted,
like this one, for example?
It seems
fuzzy, or in this case, highly pixelated. It seems to be either ugly or
unappealing. It is not something that you would want hanging in your house or
to make a special trip to see, or is it? The problem that we sometimes have is
that we often turn our focus on the fine details. We see the imperfections and
the rough edges, which gives us the impression that it's just sloppy and makes
no sense. But, if we were to expand our view
and take
in the big picture? It is then we begin to see that all of these flaws and
defects, even they have their place...in a masterpiece.
This
(morning/evening), we are going to begin looking at the story of the beginning
of life, with all of the awesome details of creation and the ugly elements of
lies, murder, and deception. But we aren't going to keep a constant focus on
those details. Instead, we are going to expand our view and our understanding
of this amazing story of God's love.
The Story
and every other translation of the Bible, begins with these words, or some
similar ones,
Genesis 1 (NIV)
From
there, the history of creation is recorded in detail of what happened each day
and the order and methodology. I love the phrase that is used to describe God's
feelings about each milestone...
"God
saw that it was good"
Right
off the bat, we see that God is very much in the details of life. But you know,
I bet that if we somehow were able to have witnessed that creative process, we
probably would not always thought it to be so good. There must have been some
terrifying moments with the earth trembling as mountains and land rose from the
tumultuous seas and wind and storms battered the infant planet as it began to
spin and revolve around its sun. Yet, in the midst of all that chaos, God saw
that it was good.
God did
not stop there. After the universe and the world were formed, God began
speaking life into existence. God spoke and fish began to swim in the rivers
and oceans, birds streaked through the air and animals began to roam the
valleys.
And God
saw that it was good.
Still,
God was not finished. There had to be one more act of creation, the crowning
jewel of this creative process. So, God knelt down and scooped up a handful of
fresh mud and began to knead it in his fingers, slowly rolling it and carefully
shaping until it became a human form. Then, this God who had brought forth
light, sky, water, land, plants and every living animal with just a spoken
word, took this muddy form and breathed into it...God's very own breath of
life...and that lump of clay became a living human being.
God then
stepped back and surveyed all that was created. But the story does not go on to
say that God saw that it was good. Instead, it proclaims this,
"God
saw that it was very good"
At this
point, we are introduced to this first man, whom we come to know as Adam. For
those of us who are parents, it is also here that we are able to identify a bit
with God. God has brought into this world, a son, if you will. As any parent
would do, God begins to delight in just being with this child. He brings to him
all the different animals to see what he would call them and the names stuck.
I am
reminded of when my oldest daughter, Katie, was just learning to talk, we would
always say to her, "I love you!" As she began to form words herself,
she wasn't the most eloquent, so her way of repeating "I love you" back
to us was by saying "Soshu." Even here today, over twenty years
later, we still say to each other, "Soshu," as a term of endearment.
It is
amazing how a child changes your whole perspective of life. The way you think,
talk, act and react gets flipped around. I believe God felt that way. As we
read the story, we get the idea of how God loved being around Adam, wanting to
spend with him, walking through the garden of Eden with him, just delighting to
be with him.
Yet, at
some point, God recognized that this man was lonely and somehow incomplete. So,
he caused him to go into a deep sleep and from him, he took a rib and fashioned
it into another human being, a woman this time.
We could
spend hours, or even the rest of our lives, trying to figure out exactly how
this happened, how did a rib become a woman or any of the other details. But to
do so is to really miss the point or the big picture. I believe what can really
be learned from this is that God wanted the best for Adam and at that time, it
was a companion.
I
sometimes imagine the first encounter Adam had with this woman, who we come to
know as Eve. I sometimes think that Adam woke up and began playing with his
best friend, the dog. He was still wide-eyed with astonishment of the all
animals yet, professing his enduring faithfulness to old Spot, saying something
like "Yeah Spot, it's me and you forever! We'll always be best buds."
But then, Eve walks by and gives him that little wink and smile that only a
woman can. Yep, old Spot was probably wondering "What the heck just
happened?" as Adam left him sitting there all alone.
Things
seemed ideal for Adam and Eve. All they needed was there for them. They could
do about anything they wanted except for one thing - God told them not to eat
from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That's it. One rule. Life was
perfect. But as we know, it doesn't stay that way.
Eve and
Adam were tempted. Again, we could get bogged down in the details, but to do so
may keep us from seeing the big picture. They were tempted to become eat the
fruit of this one tree which would make them wise. What's wrong with that?
Wisdom, knowledge, that's a good thing, right? After all, we spend tens of
thousands of dollars or more to acquire quality education. How could that be
bad?
Several
years ago, a young girl was tempted about having a physical relationship with
her boyfriend. She knew of others who had engaged in such activity, seen it
portrayed on television and the movies as something to be desired. She saw that
it looked to be good. So, at the age of fourteen, she found herself pregnant.
She tried to hide the result of her actions for a while, but as you can imagine
and always happens, the truth eventually reveals itself. She could no longer go
back to being at the place in life where her parents and friends weren't
disappointed in her. Her life was forever changed from that one moment of
indiscretion.
If we
were to focus only on the details of this story of Adam and Eve eating the
fruit, we may get caught up in trying to figure out how knowledge is bad. Once
again, that would be missing out on seeing the whole, big picture. The problem
is that they broke a sacred trust and that trust could never be restored. That
perfect bond they enjoyed with God was forever shattered and there would be no
way in which they could return it to its previous state.
But once
again, the story does not end here. Though Adam and Eve were banished from the
Garden of Eden and could no longer enjoy the intimacy of strolling through it
alongside of God, there's more to the story. We are told that God loved them
still and made clothes for them to wear. Through grace and mercy, God covered
up their wrongs and allowed them to live just outside of the garden.
You and
I live similar lives to Adam and Eve each day. Though God gives us what we
need, we constantly look for more. We desire to acquire more. We want to be
independent and self-sufficient, but all the while, it causes a rift in our
relationship with God...and we suffer the consequences.
At
various times in our lives, we will experience moments where the pain of our
sin and wrongdoings will overwhelm us. We will feel like there is no hope and
no future. But my dear friends, just because we may have messed up and maybe
even abandoned God, God has not and will not abandon us. Just as God still
loved Adam and Eve enough to clothe them with animal skins, God loves you and
me enough to clothe us with grace - that unmerited love of which we cannot earn
and do not deserve.
If you
have read the first chapter of The Story,
(which basically covers Genesis 1-9), you will note that there is a great deal
more that I did not include. So, I invite you to go back and read it again, but
this time, don't just focus on the details, but see how you can expand your
understanding of God's love as it relayed in these pages. You cannot always see
it if you look at just the small details, but it is ever so evident as we
expand our gaze to take in the whole picture of God's story of love for you and
for me.
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