Just before I went away on holiday, the A-level exam results were out, and on the radio the news was full of them - but there was little interest in the students and what they had done, and lots of flak about increasing pass rates, whether standards were dropping, how the system works, and so-on. And that happens every year.
And Genesis 1 is just the same - whenever it comes up, there's very little interest in the Sovereign God who makes himself known in these verses as the Creator of the Universe, and lots of flak about science v. religion, 7 day creation, the dinosaurs, and so on.
And because of that, Christians are embarrassed to talk about the opening chapters of Genesis. Not only that, but we're scared to look at them ourselves - because we fear that 'Modern Day Science' has reduced them in status to nothing more than fairy-tales.
Richard Dawkins, who is the Oxford Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, ridicules belief in a creator God as childish, infantile. He says that it was the product of childish thinking, from the 'cry-baby' stage of human progress, but that now humanity has grown up, we're adult, and we can leave that baby-talk behind. Poor, silly, foolish you if you're stuck in that toddler mindset. (Today programme pseudo-thought for the day broadcast, 14/8/2)
Brothers and Sisters - don't worry about Richard Dawkins. We have every reason to hold our heads high, and proclaim to the world the wonder of it's creator - the one true God who is Sovereign over all things, and who created the whole universe by his powerful Word.
And the opening chapters of Genesis are why we can hold our heads high. They're extremely important in our whole understanding of God and his Universe, and how we relate to God and his Universe. And we're going to be looking at them over the next few weeks.
This morning it's Genesis 1, and we're going to spend a moment or two looking at why 21st century people can still read Genesis 1, and then we're going to examine under two headings: Wonder at the Creator, Worship the Creator.
We'll "wonder at the creator" - and see how amazing he is.
We'll think about how we "worship the creator" - and see how God being the creator affects how we live today.
But first of all - why read Genesis today? How can you take Genesis 1 seriously? How could the world have been made in 7 days?
Now obviously some Christians are convinced that it was, but many other Christians, who still take the Bible as God's Word (the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct), believe that God has something different to teach us from Genesis 1.
When you go into a library, to find a book you have to know what section it's in - thriller, romance, detective - or physics, medicine, art, architecture and so-on. There are lots of different kinds of writing. And you read each kind in a different way.
And the Bible is similar - it has different kinds of writing, that we have to read in different ways. The psalms are different from Revelation is different from the Gospels - and so we read them differently.
And Genesis chapter 1 is not a science book.
It's artistic, it's theological, and it's 4000 years old.
It's artistic in that it's very well constructed - for example, the number 7 is very important: the first verse in Hebrew has seven words in it, verse 2 has 14, the final three verses (2:1-3) have 35 (=7x5) words. The word "God" occurs 35 times, 'earth' 21 (3x7), the phrase "God saw that it was good" seven times - it's very well constructed.
It's theological in that God is the focus - not the how of creation, but the who. It was never intended to tell us the detail of how the universe is constructed, but the nature of the one who constructed it.
And it's 4000 years old, and so it attacks wrong ideas of God that were around 4000 years ago.
The first audience for Genesis was probably the Israelites, God's people under the leadership of Moses and Joshua. They needed to know why this Yahweh, (their name for God), was so much better than the idols of the Egyptians they had left, and the Canaanited they were heading towards. Who was this God who promised them rest in the promised Land? Who wasn't he? Genesis 1 helped.
For us today - this chapter is a scene-setter for the whole of God's plan of salvation. We know that there's a problem with the world. There's disease, disaster, and destruction around - the Apostle Paul says the whole creation is groaning, and we can hear it. But here God shows himself to be the perfect and powerful Creator, to help us to trust him as the one who can bring about new creation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it tackles 21st century AD issues as well as BC issues.
Why look at Genesis 1? Because it shows us God the Creator.
So, let's 'wonder at the creator', what we learn about him from this creation passage
And then lets see what that means about how we 'worship the creator'
First, lets Wonder at the Creator.
Let's take a look in Genesis 1 at God's power, God's people, and God's promise.
And remember - we know from the New Testament something the first readers didn't know - that this God here is the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - existing together before creation, involved together in creation.
God's power.
This is clearly shown throughout the passage: God only has to say the word, and things spring into being.
v.3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
In Moses' time other peoples had their creation accounts - but they saw their gods as being involved with struggles and fights with the waters and other powers, before the world could be created. The true God, in contrast, actually had complete power over all the creation - he spoke and it happened - no struggles with the water - v.9 "And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so."
And did you notice the Sun and the Moon in v.14? Named and worshipped and served by many cultures, but in reality, to the true God, they're just lights in the sky, and they serve humanity by marking seasons, and giving light on the earth.
"And God saw that it was good" - It's God who says what's good and what isn't. A little later on, Adam and Eve are going to have some problems with that, but for now, let's just marvel at his power.
This is not the God of the New Age, or Buddhism - a kind of mutual consciousness that comes from the creation. No the true God is very clearly outside of what he makes: yes he's involved with it, yes we can understand his power by looking at it, but God is independent of it - he's bigger than what he's made.
Nor is our God incompatible with Science. He is a Scientific God, the God of order.
In verse two, the earth that God has created is formless and empty. Over days 1-3 he gives form, structure, to what is formless- by seperating out light and dark, earth and sky, water and land. Over days 4-6 he fills what is empty - first with lights for the day and night, then birds and sea creatures, then land creatures and humans. And then he rests.
Perhaps this order in creation gives rise to what we understand as the laws of nature - the fact that there can be scientific formulae that describe how matter interacts - E=mc2 and all that.
Our God is compatible with science.
But not with Evolution - at least not with the thoroughgoing kind of evolution that says every development was by natural selection. Whatever process the creator God used to bring about the diversity spoken of in verses 11 & 12, 20-25, he was involved in it, and still is.
On the other hand, he's not just the 'God of the gaps' - whenever we get to something that science can't explain, we say: ah, "God did that". The ever-shrinking God of the gaps - no he's God of all of it - gaps, and bits between the gaps too.
Genesis 1 tells us that, and calls us to wonder at God's power.
Then let's wonder at God's people.
v.27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
People, men and women, are a special part of what God has made on this planet - unlike the animals, we're made in the image and likeness of God.
There are libraries full of books debating what that means. But here are two clear things that we can see in the text: relationship and responsibility
To be made in God's image is to be able to have a relationship with God.
God is a personal being (not just an impersonal force) and he communicates with what he has made. He loves us, and we can love him - relationship. In the account of Eden, he walks with Adam and Eve and talks with them. That relationship is then wrecked by sin - but for us, it can be restored when we trust our lives to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
Image means relationship with God is possible.
It also means responsibility - we're made responsible over God's creation. He calls mankind to fill the earth and subdue it - v. 28. Not to pollute it and deforest it and generally abuse it, but to be responsible for it, under the authority of the creator himself.
Made in the image of God - relationship and responsibility.
Genesis 1 calls us to have a high view of what it means to be human - to marvel at being made God's people.
And then let's marvel at God's promise.
Genesis 2:2-3 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Where's the promise?
Having made the world, God rests. Creation is complete, it's good - it's perfect, and God enjoys it by resting.
The promise is that, through faith in Jesus Christ, we can experience that same rest, we can join God in his rest. For example, Jesus said: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
What we're promised in Jesus Christ mirrors what happens in Genesis 1.
Here in Genesis 1 we have creation followed by rest.
And Jesus promises us, through the power of his death and resurrection, a new creation and his rest - a new creation: new lives for us, living before him as forgiven people, restored to a relationship with God, and his rest - a perfect existence in the future with Jesus.
Once we take a close look at Genesis chapter one, at the true God who makes himself known as the Creator here, we can wonder at him: at his power, his people, and his promise.
That's how amazing our God is.
So, how shall we worship Him? That is, how shall we respond in our lives to this God?
Our first point was Wonder at the Creator, now lets Worship the Creator.
Four Ws to think about: wonder (again!), work, wealth, and wisdom.
Wonder, work, wealth, and wisdom
Our Worship is all of our response to God, and that must include sheer wonder at his creation.
When we know that God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the creator of the Universe, we simply have to stop and praise him for the wonder of it.
Did you know that there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on beaches on the world? And the one who made those stars is interested in you - What an amazing God!
And that wonder extends further because we now know that Jesus was involved with it - the same Jesus who people met and knew, who taught and healed, and died, and rose again - as John wrote - John 1:2 "He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
And so we can echo what King David wrote in Psalm 8: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:3-4)
Do you ever stop in wonder and praise God for his creation?
Another way to worship the creator is Work.
Work is part of what God created for us. v.28 "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea...."(1:28)
This is a mandate to work in God's world. Productive labour ought to be a good thing. We can serve God, worship him, at work - working as if we were working for him, although the presence of sin in the world can make this hard.
Do you see your work as something you do for God? Or does something need to change so that it can be?
God establishes an important pattern for work here: taking one day in seven as a day of rest. 2:3 "And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."
According to Romans 14, Christians have some freedom about what days we take as special, but it's clear that the need for a regular pattern of work and rest is inbuilt to creation - and surely work will be more productive when we follow the Creator's design?
How can you do that in your week?
I do it by taking Tuesday as a day away from Parish ministry - so you'll always get the answerphone on a Tuesday - but hopefully that means that when you do get to speak to me on the other days, I'll be much better value!
Work & Rest - worshipping our Creator.
3rd W: wealth - What about wealth?
What has our wealth got to do with Genesis 1 and worshipping God?
One answer is that much of our wealth and quality of life in the Western World is based upon exploiting the environment, and oppressing the people of the Third World.
Again - that's not what God meant by 'fill the earth and subdue it'.
Our priority and focus as believers is always going to be proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus. As disciples of Jesus, our main desire in life is helping friends and colleagues and neighbours to hear about Jesus.
But part of our discipleship lifestyle must be to promote good stewardship of this planet.
How can we, wealthy westerners, be more 'creationist' in our care for God's world?
Wonder, Work, Wealth, and Wisdom - the final and perhaps most important way to worship our Creator.
Having seen what he is capable of, the kind of Sovereign he is, the power he has at his command, true wisdom will bow the knee in humility before him.
True wisdom will recognise his majesty and our minuteness, however much he loves us.
True wisdom will turn to him for answers and for understanding of the world, trusting his Word to be wiser than the world.
Because of that, in God's sight, the simplest believer in Jesus is far wiser than any non-believing Oxford Professor. We can, humbly, hold our heads high before Richard Dawkins.
Of course, at the same time, true wisdom will fear God, in awestruck submission - like Thomas when he met the risen Jesus: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28)
Do we worship Jesus Christ wisely?
Wonder, Work, Wealth and Wisdom.
Don't be scared of having firm beliefs, from the Bible, about God the creator.
Believe in Genesis 1, and be ready to speak out for God.
Perhaps we are like children - but only in comparison to the majesty and wisdom and wonder of the God who made us,
who made us powerfully,
who made us his people - to have relationship with him, and responsibility over his world, and
who promises us a share in his rest.
So let's see: how can we Worship God more? (Father, Son and Holy Spirit?) - with wonder? at work? with our wealth? with wisdom?