The Divine Crash

Today’s sermon continued through Genesis 1 and is an interesting account of what happens when we look at the context behind what is written. Feel free to list on iTunes or at the end of this post.  In fact I would encourage you to listen because some of what I said is not in my notes.

Genesis 1:1-5

- Pray:Teach us to love Your Word. Show us Your steadfast mercy in every verse.

Genesis 1:2 puts Tohu Avohu.  These words are sometimes translated “A formless void” or “formless and empty” Regardless, no where in the Bible is Tohu Avohu seen without each other and they mean Formless and Void. Nothingness. Emptiness, closest idea is to think black hole. Everytime it is read there is an accent mark that means slow down.

 

- Tohu Avohu is when everything on this earth is far away.  We feel alone, distant from any safety and security, lonely, no where to turn.

We know that.

 

- We understand Tohu Avohu. When we come home and find out when we left that morning was the last time we would see our family together.

- When the doctor looks you in the eye and says “I’m sorry, there is nothing else we can do.”

- When we get the courage to talk to that one that makes our heart flutter and they shoot us down

- When the world as we know it falls apart and we find ourself feeling alone, broken, in the midst of chaos and that God couldn’t be further away. That is Tohu Avohu.

- When our life has become unmanagable because of our mistakes and we are lying in our own mess.

- When we feel like we have finally hit the bottom and then the bottom falls out.

- When we realize that the plans for our children won’t come true

- When we make that same, pathetic, stupid, avoidable, rediculous, mistake. Again…..again….and again. That is Tohu Avohu.

- Some of us have been at Tohu Avohu, some of us are there now, some of us see it coming.

 

So, when the ancient Israelites would read Tohu Avohu they would pause, slow down, and take a breath

 

but in the midst of that Chaos, on the waters of that formless void where there is nothing God’s spirit is moving.

God’s breath is Ruech. It means breath, wind, or spirit. God’s Spirit was over the face of that formless void.

 

Laphne it means literally “before the face of.”  God’s Spirit is literally right in front of this formless void.

 

A traditional Jewish understanding of what this means is that the Spirit of God is on the face of the earth. Imagine your breath. If you think about it, you can feel your exhale on your upper lip.  That is how close God’s Spirit is to the surface of the earth.

 

In other words in the midst of the emptiness of our world God’s spirit was there and was about to do something.

For the Jews who just left slavery and are wandering around the wilderness this is a great comfort because they felt chaos and alone and understood Tohu Avohu.

 

Moses is telling them Hold on just a little longer, wait just one more day, God’s spirit is over the face of this and is about to do something brand new and make this chaos into something brand new that we have never seen before.

 

I wish this Bible still spoke to us all these years later.

 

God is about to make darkness into light. And literally every time God makes darkness into light there is something brand new happening.

 

Genesis 1 is not a scientific study of how the world was made, Genesis 1 already assumes God made the world, if you want to hear about God making the world read Isaiah 45 and 66. It is actually what is called a Chiastic Poem.

Chiastic Poems have their main point in the middle.

- Vs. 5 night into day

 

Jews believed that night came first than moved into light.  This is why today their Sabbath starts at Sundown.

 

This is probably the best news of this sermon. That darkness moves into light.

This may be the best thing you have ever heard because darkness moves into light. Because tomorrow is a new day. Because if you can make it through the night then light comes in the morning.

 

We do not worship God in the morning because the Sun rose. We worship God in the morning because we made it through the night.  Imagine this. Your infant child has a fever.  If it goes up you need to call the doctor.  If it goes down everything will be okay.  You watch your child through the night. By morning the fever has broken.  You praise God because you made it through the night. Darkness turns to light and God makes all things new when the light shines.

 

So maybe this, that was written 2500 years before Jesus still applies because God’s spirit is still on the surface of our chaos and is about to make something brand new out of our chaos.

 

Because if we admit it to ourselves we are in chaos. We are in a mess of things.

 

Sometimes:

We still hurt,

Our back’s still ache because of our heavy load.

Our heart has been broken again and again by the same person

We are too exhausted to keep going

We have given up all hope of ever overcoming

 

But Moses encourages us with verse 5 DARKNESS TURNS TO LIGHT!!

 

Exodus 3:7 says something amazing God is talking to Moses. God says “I have experienced my people’s pain.”

when we hurt because of our darkness God hurts too.

 

God wants desperately to bring light into our darkness and create something brand new with us just like the rest of creation and so he does.

 

Instead of leaving us in our darkness God sends himself. He puts on flesh and steps down into the earth He created.

 

The book of John records 8 miracles for Jesus. Only 8, each one gets bigger and bigger. The last one was the resurrection comes after the world is dark. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, God brings light to darkness and that light means something brand new is happening.  God is creating a brand new thing right in front of a world full of empty, formless, chaotic, voids.

 

So then, Jesus says in Matthew 5

 

Blessed are those who don’t have it all together.

Blessed are those who have run out of strength, ideas, will power, resolve, or energy.

Blessed are those who ache because of how severely out of whack the world is.

Blessed are those who on a regular basis have a dark day in which despair seems to be a step behind them wherever they go.

Blessed are those stumble, trip, and fall in the same place again and again.

Blessed are you, for God is with you, God is on your side, God meets you in that place.

 

Jesus gives blessings to the people who are in darkness and he says this word “Markiurous” that essentially says to those of you who aren’t good enough and don’t have it all together and who doubt because of your dark days that Jesus is right there with you, closer than the breath in your nostrils over your lips.

 

For Jesus and for Moses….hold on, just a little bit longer. In the midst of darkness and emptiness God’s spirit is moving.  God is getting ready to do something brand new and if you can hang in there it will all be worth it.

 

Closing Prayer: Sometimes I cry at night for all that I do not understand. I feel so alone.  Then, as if in parents’ arms, or held in angel wings, waves of love enfold me.  I think, “This must be the Friend, the One I knew even before my birth.” Then my tears turn to smiles; for I know I am not alone.  ”Thank you,” I whisper into the silence of the night, and sleep with peaceful heart until the dawning of a new day.” – Nan C. Merrill

Sermon Audio

 

Filed under:
Sermon by RevBT