Well, it is New Year’s Day, and perhaps as the name implies, it is time to consider “new” things, to think of new beginnings as we begin a new year.  With that in mind, we begin today with a five-part series on the book of “beginnings,” the book of Genesis.  The very name, “Genesis,” means “birth,” or “origin.”  The Hebrew Bible calls the book bereshith, which literally means “beginnings.”  So, beginning at the beginning, chapter one of the book of Genesis.  {read Genesis 1:1-25}

The creation account in the book of Genesis brings to us a different perspective on life.  That perspective is that the Creator, Almighty God, desires a relationship between Him and His creation.  Out of nothing, God calls the creation into being.  In the midst of chaos and disorder, God brings structure and order.  And God does so, simply through the power of His spoken word.  God speaks, “Let there be light,” and there is light.  And God pronounces His creation “good.”

Our focus in Genesis, particularly today and next week with the creation story in this book of beginnings, is not on the “how” of creation, but on the “why,” God’s purpose in creation and our response to it.  Much has been written and said concerning the “how” of creation.  Recent news stories have told about debates and discussions within school districts, state governments and the like over the topics of creation, evolution and intelligent design.  Our purpose today and next week is not to enter into that discussion of “how,” except to claim without equivocation that God is the Creator.  That claim alone is not without its dissenters, who, by the way, take no less a step of faith in their rejection of a Creator.  I find interesting the words of Arno Penzias, the Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist for his role in discovering the “background noise” of the universe that led to the Big Bang Theory for the beginning of the universe.  This great scientist said, “The creation of the universe is supported by all the observable data astronomy has produced so far.  As a result, the people who reject the data can arguably be described as having a ‘religious belief.’”  In other words, those who reject the evidence for a beginning of the universe because it conflicts with their preconceived ideas are, themselves, stubbornly clinging to a dogma of another kind.  Penzias goes on to say that the most logical explanation for this “background noise” in the universe is “a moment of discrete creation from nothing.  The best data we have,” he continues, “are exactly what I would have predicted had I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, or the Bible as a whole.”  So, on the matter of a creation moment, a beginning to our universe and the role of God as Creator...I stand with the great scientist, Arno Penzias!

More important to our purposes on this beginning of a new year, however, is the “why” of creation.  God creates that He might be present and in relationship with His creation.  Accepting that as truth brings a different perspective to our lives no matter the circumstances we face.  In the midst of nothingness, barrenness, God is at work.  God speaks and creates something good.  In the midst of chaos, God speaks and creates order.

The image I have for this different perspective the creation story brings to our lives comes from the 50^th anniversary remembrance of D-Day.  You’ll recall in 1994, a variety of TV programs reminding us of the importance and significance of that event.  One program included a series of interviews with veterans who participated in the Normandy invasion.  Two interviews, in particular, that ran back-to-back bring to mind the perspective of creation.  The first interview was with a Marine who was part of the invasion force that landed at Omaha Beach.  His account reflected the horrors of the beach landing depicted in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award winning movie, Saving Private Ryan.  If you’ve ever seen the movie, you know how difficult it is to watch that scene.  This Marine lived it and as he recalled in the interview the horror and chaos of that scene he distinctively remembered thinking, “We’re going to lose.”  Right after that interview, they showed an interview with a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps who was on reconnaissance missions that day.  Flying over the entire scene, he recalled seeing the carnage on the beach, but also saw the successes occurring—where the Marines were taking and winning the beach, where the paratroopers were taking control of enemy territory, where naval and aerial bombing had driven off the enemy—and he distinctively remembered thinking, “We’re going to win!”  That’s the perspective the creation story brings to our lives!  At times, the darkness and chaos of our circumstances in creation brings the perspective of the Marine.  Life appears overwhelming and defeat seems certain.  But, the story of creation brings to us the perspective of the pilot—a bigger picture where the ultimate outcome is good.  In the midst of darkness, God speaks light.  In the midst of chaos, God creates order.

So, as we begin this new year, this time of beginnings, let us bring to it the perspective of creation and our response to God’s creation.  For, indeed, we have a response and a role in God’s creation.  We’ll say more about that next week, but suffice for now to say that we have a response in God’s creation.  God creates and invites us into the relationship, not out of coercion, but out of gracious invitation where we are free to act.  In that freedom, let us resolve—in this season of resolutions—to bring a creation perspective to life.

I think that means, first of all, that we actively seek to see the “good” of God’s creation.  Please note that God’s pronouncement over His creation is that it is “good.”  Yes, we know all too well the “bad” of this world, a “bad” introduced into creation through the exercising of our freedom, through sin.  But, that is a counterfeit to the good that God created.  God’s creation is pronounced good.  In this new year, indeed, with the new beginning of each new day, let us intentionally look for and immerse ourselves in the good of God’s creation, acknowledging that God continues to speak creation into being today, and sustains that good creation through the power of His word.  Let’s begin there.

Then, as we intentionally look for the good in God’s creation, let us also be led to moments of rejoicing and delight in God’s creation.  In Proverbs 8, the writer tells of the presence of Wisdom with God at the moment of creation: “I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be,” (Proverbs 8:23).  Then, Wisdom models for us our response to God’s creation.  “Then I was constantly at [God’s] side.  I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in humankind,” (8:30, 31).  As we seek the good of God’s creation, as we ponder the majesty and might of God’s creative power, we are led to rejoicing and delight.

Frederick Buechner writes of this very thing in The Sacred Journey.  Describing a time when he was in the army, in training in Alabama, Buechner writes of a miserable day when his unit was on bivouac. Outside in the elements, the unit stopped for a mess kit supper.  That alone, a mess kit supper, is difficult to see good in!  Add to a mess kit supper an evening of cold rain and mud everywhere and there’s little good to be seen.  Buechner writes of finishing his meal and still being hungry.  Noticing a soldier nearby has something left in his mess kit he’s apparently not going to eat, Buechner asks if he could have it.  It turns out it was a turnip.  Imagine the “good” of a cold, raw turnip!  The man tossed the turnip to Buechner, who adds to the misery of the moment by dropping it in the mud.  Still hungry, Buechner picks it up to eat it anyway.  He writes of that experience, “And then, as I ate it, time deepened and slowed down again.  With a lurch of the heart that is real to me still, I saw suddenly, almost as if from beyond time altogether, that not only was the turnip good, but the mud was good too, even the drizzle and cold were good, even the Army that I had dreaded for months.  Sitting there in the Alabama winter with my mouth full of cold turnip and mud, I could see at least for a moment how if you ever took truly to heart the ultimate goodness and joy of things, even at their bleakest, the need to praise someone or something for it would be so great that you might even have to go out and speak of it to the birds of the air.”  That is creation living—“taking truly to heart the ultimate goodness and joy of things” and needing to praise someone for it!

No doubt it takes a conscious effort to begin living that way.  No doubt we need reminders along the way.  Worship reminds us.  This table reminds us.  God’s Word reminds us—that out of darkness, God speaks light, in the midst of chaos God brings order.  And it is good.

That’s the way to start the new beginning of a new year, the new beginning of each new day.  “Taking to heart the goodness and joy of things,” seeing from a higher perspective the ultimate victory that is there in the midst of darkness and chaos, we respond to the good of God’s creation and His invitation to us to participate in it with rejoicing and delight.  Happy New Year everybody!  Happy new beginnings in God’s good creation!