Listen here.
Welcome to
Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for
the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
in Hudson, OH.
Thank you for
being with me today.
One of the
aspects of Mark 1:4-11, our Gospel Lesson this week, that I did not mention
yesterday is that it contains activities of all three Persons of the Trinity;
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son was baptized, the Spirit
descended in the form of a dove, and the Father spoke from heaven. In our
reading today, the Old Testament lesson, we perceive all three Persons of the
Trinity at work together again; this time in creating the world. The Father
specifically creates, the Spirit hovers, and the Son is the Word that creates
all things (for without him nothing was made that has been made, as it says in
John 1).
This Epiphany
reading shines the spotlight on God as our creator, and reveals to us that we
are creatures made by God. We are not accidents, but intentionally made for
God’s purpose – part of which, we learn through the Scriptures, is to live as
God’s people receiving and reciprocating God’s love. We also learn in Scripture
that the relationship between us and God is broken because of our sin. Jesus’
baptism was part of His work to restore our relationship with God.
The Reading:
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be
light," and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was
good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called
the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and
there was morning, the first day. (Gen. 1:1-5 ESV)
There are so many
things we could talk about in these few verses. In today’s world this reading
stands in contrast with scientific theories about the origins of the universe
and of humanity itself. I’m not going to dig into that topic other than to say
that I believe what the Bible teaches regarding a six-day creation; the day’s
being 24 hour periods. Yes, I know that the Big Bang Theory, made with the best
evidence we can observe to date, disagrees with this. Yes, I know that the
Theory of Evolution disagrees with this as well. And, no, I am not terribly
bothered by that. I still believe Hebrews 11:3 which says, “By faith we
understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is
seen was not made out of things that are visible.” I do not expect science to
prove the Bible right, nor do I fear that science will prove it wrong. Science
works on the basis of observation – or as Hebrews says, “what is seen,” – God
created the world from what is unseen, so I don’t expect scientific answers to
align with Scripture in regard to origins, nor do I expect the Bible to conform
to scientific theories.
This passage says
some very important things to us. It describes God as the originator of all
things. Throughout the Scriptures this, above everything else, is what makes
God, God. He created the world. The other gods act within creation, they might
be gods of storms or seas, sex and fertility, hearth and home, etc., but the
God of the Bible created all those things.
The saying that
God created the heavens and the earth does not mean that He only created those
two things. This is a figure of speech known as hendiadys, in which two items
refer to one whole. In this case heavens and earth refer to all things.
One of the
important aspects of the biblical account of creation is that God creates
everything from nothing. The theological phrase for that is that God creates ex nihilo. From nothing, God made
everything. From dead nothingness God made living existence.
This is what God
does – He creates that which does not exist from nothing. He does something
similar in us in that He takes those who are dead in trespasses and sins and
makes us alive. He buries us with Christ in baptism to make us alive in him –
dead nothingness to living children. And in the end He will recreate this world
– a process He has already begun and He undoes all that has been done and
brings about a new creation.
Think about this
today: God made everything that exists from nothing. If He can do that how much
can He do with our lives, even if they seem short and not very significant? He
has redeemed you for His purpose. You are part of His new creation.
Prayers
O God, creator of
the heavens and the earth, thank You for being mindful of us and for giving us
existence, life, meaning and purpose. Lord, we have not always lived according
to Your purpose and our lives have not always been lived within Your design.
Forgive us our sins. Renew us. Help us to live in newness of life, according to
the salvation Jesus has won for us. Fill us with Your Spirit so that we may
trust You in all things, and cling to the hope that we are a new creation
through faith in Jesus. It is in His name that we pray. Amen.
Memory Verse:
Romans 6:4
We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life.
Thank you so much
for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you
and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle
around in your brain – for the rest of the day.
Would you do me a
favor? If you got something out of this devotional time, would you like and/or
share it on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever you do social media? That would help
me get the word out, and hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to
others.
Look this podcast
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If you would like
to join me in reading through the whole Bible this year, or if you’ve never
read the Bible, maybe just read through the New Testament, I would be glad to
share a reading plan with you. Email me at eric.tritten@gmail.com.
God bless you!
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