We’re going to start by playing a quick game. I’m going to read a few famous names and I want you to try and name their places of birth.
Abraham Lincoln Answer: Hodgenville, Kentucky
Gene Simmons (musician) Answer: Haifa, Israel
J.R.R. Tolkein (writer) Answer: Bloemfontein, South Africa
Nicki Minaj (musician) Answer: Saint James, Trinidad and Tobego
Steve Jobs(Founder of Apple Computers) Answer: San Francisco, California
Thurgood Marshall (justice of the Supreme Court) Answer: Baltimore, Maryland
Stefani Germanotta (musician known as Lady Gaga) Answer: New York, New York
George S Patton (US Army General) Answer: San Gabriel, California
Edger Allen Poe (poet and writer) Answer: Boston, Massachusetts
Superman (Superman) Answer: Krypton
Icebreaker discussionIf you were to describe where you came from(your hometown or your family) in one word, what would it be?
When we talk about who we are, we often have to start with where we came from. On a first date you talk about your family or your hometown, while in a job interview you talk about your work history. When we talk about God and the Universe, we talk about The Beginning. The Bible isn’t just a collection of random books and sayings, it’s a huge interconnected story about God and the world we live in, so when we talk about where to start, we start at Genesis
Let’s start with prayer:
Lord, you created the heavens and the earth, and you also made us. We thank you for the chance to get to know you better, to experience your wisdom and your power. We thank you for the opportunity to understand our beginnings and our place in the world. Open our hearts and eyes to the wonder you have in store, and help use realize the blessings you have in place in your creation. –Amen
A quote that Barry gave this week is a great place to start when we talk about why we read Genesis. "Genesis is not about how things were, but how things always are" –Leonardo Kass. There are a lot of things that we can say about the world we live in. It’s certainly far from a perfect place, and we’ll be learning more in the next few weeks about exactly how things got broken.
In the spring of 1876, the Saint Pancras Renaissance Hotel was opened in London. At 300 rooms, gold leaf on the walls, and the most cutting edge in late 1800’s technology, the hotel was a huge expense for the builders, but an amazing sight to behold. However, the hotel closed in 1935 as the expense of running the huge establishment, as well as the fact that it’s interior workings were no longer up to the current expectations of the public(personal restrooms were not in style when it was first built, but quickly became the norm in the following 50 years) The building fell into disuse and disrepair, developing a reputation to be haunted, largely inspired by the pitiful broken walls and shambling roof. In the 1980’s, the building was shut down entirely for failing fire and safety codes. If you were to look at the building from the outside, you would likely assume it was a worthless dump, and think that it could be moved away to make room for more parking, or a more efficient building.
However, in 2004, a group began to work to rebuild the hotel. They found the beauty of the original frame and vaulted ceilings. At huge expense, the building was revitalized and brought back to life. Now it stands as a premier 5 star hotel in London, and it’s interior is an example of some of the most gorgeous architecture in that major city.
When we look at the world around us, it’s easy to have our eyes drawn to the pain and brokenness that exists. It’s easy to think sometimes why does anyone bother with wanting to take care of the world around us when it is so broken and shambled. But we have to look at it’s core. What’s inside, what’s its foundation? When we know where the world comes from, that it originates as God’s creation, we can learn to look for the beauty He has placed inside. True, we can also see where things have gone wrong, but we can also see where it can be fixed.(And really, that’s what the Bible, Jesus, and Christianity is all about, God fixing what’s gone wrong in His creation, and how he’s inviting us to take part!)
Discussion question: When you consider that the world around us is God’s creation, what are the things that come to mind? How do you react to the idea of God as the source of existence? When you consider that God saw the trees , oceans, animals, and sky and said “It is good” what do you consider the natural reaction? Is this a struggle? Why?
Have you ever visited a building site? Maybe it was a house being built, or a new business. I get excited whenever I see a building site in my neighborhood. I always want to get nosey about what’s going to be going in there. Maybe it’s a new restaurant, or a new place to hangout. Maybe a store that will sell something I really like, or maybe it’s something boring but necessary like a bank or a post office. One way to tell what’s going to be built is to look at its foundation. You might be able to tell how big the building is, or if you know more about construction you can see how many rooms will be in the building. The foundation tells you a lot about what is to come. In Genesis chapter 1 we see God as the foundation of creation at every step. In Genesis 1:2, we have a phrase in the Hebrew “Tohu wa bohu” (תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ) which gets translated in the NIV as “formless and empty,” while other translations use words like “the void” or “Chaos.” Think of this like a wild and huge ball of clay. The rest of the creation story is about God bringing order to that chaos, forming existence like an artist might form clay on a wheel. God has His very specific plan for creation, building to something that He considers to be great. (I promise, we’ll be getting into that more later) The fact that all of creation, including us, comes from God, tells us something fundamental about that creation. Again, we know that things are broken, we know that things in this world are not perfect, but we also know where we came from. Some of us may come from what might be referred to by some as “broken homes.” We may have grown up with serious disadvantages or painful relationships with our parents. There may be pain and injury in our past, but that’s not where we ultimately come from. Our true source, our “First Cause” is God. Just like the hotel that at one point looked broken and destroyed from the outside, we have a chance to get back to where we first came from, our first source, God. And that’s the story the Bible, and Jesus, and every day the Holy Spirit, is telling us.
Discussion Question: How does considering God as your creator change the way that you think about yourself? How should you change the way your see yourself knowing that God is your creator?
In the Hebrew tradition, this nature of the universe as a creation of God, has a deeply central point in the way they see the world. This has carried over for us as Christians, we’ll be learning more later about the nature of our mission as given by God as “image bearers” and stewards of creation, but for the moment, let’s consider this following passage from the Psalms
Psalm 19:1-6 “The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Creation is a gift from God. Again, we recognize that there is brokenness in this world, and we’ll be talking later about how God’s Kingdom covers creation too. Creation is God’s expression of love. We saw during the weekend service the video showing the beauty of nature set to the lyrics of “Wonderful World,” and it truly is a wonderful world! Throughout history there are many stories of Christians who were brought to God, or found a deeper relationship with God, through the joys of the beauty of nature around them. One of the greatest poems of prayer in the Catholic church is the “Canticle of the Sun” by Saint Francis of Assisi, which among other expressions of the beauty of creation includes the lines:
“Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful.”
Creation is God’s gift, and we’ll be talking later about how it’s part of our job to care for it as stewards, but for now we’ll touch a little bit about how part of our place in relation to nature is to view it as the gift it is. If you give someone a gift, say a kitchen pan, or a nice living room chair, how do you feel if you go to visit them and you find out they’ve broken it? Or what if you give them something like a car and you find out they aren’t taking care of it? At the same time, imagine a parent buying a child a pet, but then the child spends so much time with the pet that they ignore their parents! All of these things can come close to how we might view our relationship with God’s gift of nature. Barry said this weekend that anything we worship that is not God is an idol. Many people over the years have taken portions of nature and made them into idols, but that also doesn’t mean we should cast nature away and treat it as something to be used and abused.
Discussion: How should our approach to creation be informed by the knowledge that it is a gift of God? How should we work to find the proper place for the care for this gift in our lives?
Finally, we see in all of this that creation is an expression of God’s love. English author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of Sherlock Holmes stories, said in his short story, as spoken by the famous detective character, “’There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion,’ said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. ‘It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the g
Abraham Lincoln Answer: Hodgenville, Kentucky
Gene Simmons (musician) Answer: Haifa, Israel
J.R.R. Tolkein (writer) Answer: Bloemfontein, South Africa
Nicki Minaj (musician) Answer: Saint James, Trinidad and Tobego
Steve Jobs(Founder of Apple Computers) Answer: San Francisco, California
Thurgood Marshall (justice of the Supreme Court) Answer: Baltimore, Maryland
Stefani Germanotta (musician known as Lady Gaga) Answer: New York, New York
George S Patton (US Army General) Answer: San Gabriel, California
Edger Allen Poe (poet and writer) Answer: Boston, Massachusetts
Superman (Superman) Answer: Krypton
Icebreaker discussionIf you were to describe where you came from(your hometown or your family) in one word, what would it be?
When we talk about who we are, we often have to start with where we came from. On a first date you talk about your family or your hometown, while in a job interview you talk about your work history. When we talk about God and the Universe, we talk about The Beginning. The Bible isn’t just a collection of random books and sayings, it’s a huge interconnected story about God and the world we live in, so when we talk about where to start, we start at Genesis
Let’s start with prayer:
Lord, you created the heavens and the earth, and you also made us. We thank you for the chance to get to know you better, to experience your wisdom and your power. We thank you for the opportunity to understand our beginnings and our place in the world. Open our hearts and eyes to the wonder you have in store, and help use realize the blessings you have in place in your creation. –Amen
A quote that Barry gave this week is a great place to start when we talk about why we read Genesis. "Genesis is not about how things were, but how things always are" –Leonardo Kass. There are a lot of things that we can say about the world we live in. It’s certainly far from a perfect place, and we’ll be learning more in the next few weeks about exactly how things got broken.
In the spring of 1876, the Saint Pancras Renaissance Hotel was opened in London. At 300 rooms, gold leaf on the walls, and the most cutting edge in late 1800’s technology, the hotel was a huge expense for the builders, but an amazing sight to behold. However, the hotel closed in 1935 as the expense of running the huge establishment, as well as the fact that it’s interior workings were no longer up to the current expectations of the public(personal restrooms were not in style when it was first built, but quickly became the norm in the following 50 years) The building fell into disuse and disrepair, developing a reputation to be haunted, largely inspired by the pitiful broken walls and shambling roof. In the 1980’s, the building was shut down entirely for failing fire and safety codes. If you were to look at the building from the outside, you would likely assume it was a worthless dump, and think that it could be moved away to make room for more parking, or a more efficient building.
However, in 2004, a group began to work to rebuild the hotel. They found the beauty of the original frame and vaulted ceilings. At huge expense, the building was revitalized and brought back to life. Now it stands as a premier 5 star hotel in London, and it’s interior is an example of some of the most gorgeous architecture in that major city.
When we look at the world around us, it’s easy to have our eyes drawn to the pain and brokenness that exists. It’s easy to think sometimes why does anyone bother with wanting to take care of the world around us when it is so broken and shambled. But we have to look at it’s core. What’s inside, what’s its foundation? When we know where the world comes from, that it originates as God’s creation, we can learn to look for the beauty He has placed inside. True, we can also see where things have gone wrong, but we can also see where it can be fixed.(And really, that’s what the Bible, Jesus, and Christianity is all about, God fixing what’s gone wrong in His creation, and how he’s inviting us to take part!)
Discussion question: When you consider that the world around us is God’s creation, what are the things that come to mind? How do you react to the idea of God as the source of existence? When you consider that God saw the trees , oceans, animals, and sky and said “It is good” what do you consider the natural reaction? Is this a struggle? Why?
Have you ever visited a building site? Maybe it was a house being built, or a new business. I get excited whenever I see a building site in my neighborhood. I always want to get nosey about what’s going to be going in there. Maybe it’s a new restaurant, or a new place to hangout. Maybe a store that will sell something I really like, or maybe it’s something boring but necessary like a bank or a post office. One way to tell what’s going to be built is to look at its foundation. You might be able to tell how big the building is, or if you know more about construction you can see how many rooms will be in the building. The foundation tells you a lot about what is to come. In Genesis chapter 1 we see God as the foundation of creation at every step. In Genesis 1:2, we have a phrase in the Hebrew “Tohu wa bohu” (תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ) which gets translated in the NIV as “formless and empty,” while other translations use words like “the void” or “Chaos.” Think of this like a wild and huge ball of clay. The rest of the creation story is about God bringing order to that chaos, forming existence like an artist might form clay on a wheel. God has His very specific plan for creation, building to something that He considers to be great. (I promise, we’ll be getting into that more later) The fact that all of creation, including us, comes from God, tells us something fundamental about that creation. Again, we know that things are broken, we know that things in this world are not perfect, but we also know where we came from. Some of us may come from what might be referred to by some as “broken homes.” We may have grown up with serious disadvantages or painful relationships with our parents. There may be pain and injury in our past, but that’s not where we ultimately come from. Our true source, our “First Cause” is God. Just like the hotel that at one point looked broken and destroyed from the outside, we have a chance to get back to where we first came from, our first source, God. And that’s the story the Bible, and Jesus, and every day the Holy Spirit, is telling us.
Discussion Question: How does considering God as your creator change the way that you think about yourself? How should you change the way your see yourself knowing that God is your creator?
In the Hebrew tradition, this nature of the universe as a creation of God, has a deeply central point in the way they see the world. This has carried over for us as Christians, we’ll be learning more later about the nature of our mission as given by God as “image bearers” and stewards of creation, but for the moment, let’s consider this following passage from the Psalms
Psalm 19:1-6 “The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Creation is a gift from God. Again, we recognize that there is brokenness in this world, and we’ll be talking later about how God’s Kingdom covers creation too. Creation is God’s expression of love. We saw during the weekend service the video showing the beauty of nature set to the lyrics of “Wonderful World,” and it truly is a wonderful world! Throughout history there are many stories of Christians who were brought to God, or found a deeper relationship with God, through the joys of the beauty of nature around them. One of the greatest poems of prayer in the Catholic church is the “Canticle of the Sun” by Saint Francis of Assisi, which among other expressions of the beauty of creation includes the lines:
“Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful.”
Creation is God’s gift, and we’ll be talking later about how it’s part of our job to care for it as stewards, but for now we’ll touch a little bit about how part of our place in relation to nature is to view it as the gift it is. If you give someone a gift, say a kitchen pan, or a nice living room chair, how do you feel if you go to visit them and you find out they’ve broken it? Or what if you give them something like a car and you find out they aren’t taking care of it? At the same time, imagine a parent buying a child a pet, but then the child spends so much time with the pet that they ignore their parents! All of these things can come close to how we might view our relationship with God’s gift of nature. Barry said this weekend that anything we worship that is not God is an idol. Many people over the years have taken portions of nature and made them into idols, but that also doesn’t mean we should cast nature away and treat it as something to be used and abused.
Discussion: How should our approach to creation be informed by the knowledge that it is a gift of God? How should we work to find the proper place for the care for this gift in our lives?
Finally, we see in all of this that creation is an expression of God’s love. English author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of Sherlock Holmes stories, said in his short story, as spoken by the famous detective character, “’There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion,’ said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. ‘It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the g
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