Tag: Genesis 1

Sept 12 Creation by the Word

Living Into this God Given World: God Gives Creation

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

John 1:1-5

Psalm 33: 1-12

Call to Worship

God you created all the things

Combining the Light with the Darkness, the Sky and the Earth, the Water with the Land

God, you are not a God of singularities, but combinations, yielding all kinds of crops and animals and sunsets

And you saw that this was good.

Let us rejoice in the manifest glory of your creation today and everyday!

Let us praise God, mysterious, manifold and and always creating. Glory to our God, the creator!

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that sometimes we ignore the manifold of your creation. It is hard to imagine that you created so much that you needed to rest aftewards. It is hard for us to imagine that you hallowed every aspect of creation. It is hard to imagine that you designed the earth out of abundance so that every single being should have enough. We confess that we are very limited in our understanding of your creation. Forgive us, teach us to have a better understanding of your creation we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God promises God’s mercies are new every morning. Let us tell one another the good news today. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of Dedication/Day: God as you first shaped the world and breathed life into it, we ask for your continued inspiration and shaping. Grant us the gentle breeze of your your Holy Spirit, especially when we are weary and out of breath, to cool and inspire us. Continue to minister to us in your gentle way as we go into the world, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Children: Play with Legos, Cooties or some other interchangeable toys, discuss how many variations there are, discuss how God made so many varieties of the earth. Talk about the our human job to do science discover, create and name things with God as “Co-creators.” Read God Gave Us You.

Hymns: “Spirit” “This is My Father’s World” “God of the Sparrow” “Morning Has Broken”

More Narrative Lectionary Year 4 Fall Resources

(If you appreciate my work donations for my Creative Writing Doctorate in Ministry accepted for my GoFundMe here)

StoryTime!

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4 

Once Upon a Time: there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. (John 1:1-3) Before creation, there was chaotic nothingness, an empty mess, energy without form. God Took in a deep breath, and let it all out

And Said, Light, let there be Light

And God saw that it was Good.

      Then God took the light and separated it from the Dark. Separate, the light shone within the darkness, and because they were now separate, the light could not overcome the darkness (John 1:1-5)….

      And God came up with names: the light is Day, the Darkness is Night.

Then Evening Came, followed by a new morning, and so that had to have been the 1st day…

      Then God said, “Let me separate the waters from the waters….and God did this by taking a deep breath, and then blowing a bubble, so that there was water above the bubble and water below the bubble but space inbetween,

and it is in this inbetween space that we love, how many of us our living in-between in some way? Truly, here we live between the waters, and by through and in God’s love, we love. We live in the space between the waters, knowing many waters cannot quench love, nor can floods drown it. (Sol. 8:7)

Then Evening Came, followed by a new morning, and so that had to have been the 2nd day…

And God said “hmmm, I will gather the waters together, in one place, and let dry land appear.” And it was so.

God named the dry land, earth, and he named the gathered waters seas.

 

And God saw that it was Good.

Then God said, “Earth, you can make food: shh….plants, you can each hide seeds, and Trees can make ALL KINDS OF FRUIT (and it will be delicious) ssshhhhh! And the fruit can also have fruit.

And it was so

The earth became full of food, the plants each multiplied themselves by twenty, thirty and a hundredfold.

And God saw it (tasted, no wait) was Good

Then Evening Came, followed by a new morning, and so that had to have been the 3rd day…

And then God knew that light must always shine, so he made lights for the daytime and lights for the night time. Ones that can turn with the seasons—for though I am the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8) these can be signs: signs of the seasons, signs of days, and signs of the years. And then God made two shining lights, the greater to keep the day, and the lesser to keep the night, and the stars.

And God saw it was good.

Then Evening Came, followed by a new morning, and so that had to have been the 4th day…

Then God said, let there be living creatures in the waters of the sea and the waters of the sky: fill it with schools, gaggles and groups and God made multitudes of  creatures fish and flocks of birds could zoom across the sky!

So God created Sea Monsters, and creatures to move together, of every kind, teaming the waters and spreading across the very sky.

And God saw it was good.

And, they were so Good that God’s next words spilled out not as a creation, but as a blessing—Go and be fruitful! Join me in creation! Help me to fill the waters, the seas, up until the sky is overflowing with life. Blessings be on those who live, for they have the power to give life!

Then Evening Came, followed by a new morning, and so that had to have been the 5th day…

And God said, now to the earth—I want there to be countless variations of life—from those who stampede, to the creeping and crawling creatures. Let there be wild animals all over earth!

And it was so.

And God saw it was Good

And so full of life was God, that God knew what to do next, and drawing in a deep breath, God spoke words that rang with the fullness of God’s being.

      “Hmm….let us create something in our image, something that shares our likeness. They can be the keepers the fish of the sea, the keepers of the birds of the air, keepers of the tamed cattle, keepers of wild things on the earth the keepers of every creepy thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created earthcreatures/humans in God’s own image. In the image of God, God created male, and in God’s image God created female. Male and female, God created them.

Again, God’s voice rang out as a blessing over those beings he had just bespoke. Blessing them, God said “Be fruitful and multiply, Fill the earth and subdue it (with love). And have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Then God said… “Look! I have given you all the seeds that grow upon the face of the earth, and every tree with seeds in its fruit…You shall have them all for food! And every beast of the earth, every bird of the sky, and everything that creeps upon the earth, Everything that has my breath of life (Genesis 2:7), everything that I have blown my spirit into—for I have attached the sinews, put meats on the bones, covered them with skin, and breathed the breath of life, and all creatures have come alive and realize I am God (Ez. 37:5-7). Everything that has the breath of life, I have given, every green plant is yours for food.

And it was so

God saw everything God had created,

And God saw it was Good Indeed!

Then Evening Came, followed by a new morning, and so that had to have been the 6th day…

Heavens and earth were finished, and

And on the 7th day, when God finished his handiwork, and he rested.

So God spoke, blessing the 7th day, on which he did not work, and he hallowed it. The 7th day is a blessing for stillness, rest and creativity. The 7th day was made a day of Sabbath. On the 7th day we practice what all who has breath should know: Be still and know that I am God! (Ps. 46:10)

Because on the 7th day God rested from the work he had done in creation

These are the accounts of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, In the day that the Lord made heaven and earth!!

All things came into being through God, and without God not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in God was life, and the life was the light of all people. (John 1:3-5)

Why?

Because it through our Creation, we Learn about our end. Its through knowing God better, we learn about our true being. God is the beginning and the end, and God began life with Words of Love and through a filling of the void. Though we live inbetween–After God Breathed out the world, and after God Breathed Jesus back in to himself, but before God breathed his entire being into the world. Giving us space to be, space to live, love and breathe, space to become Co-creators with God, discovering and naming the world. We live inbetween, but we know the beginning, and we know the end….it is full of God’s breath, full of the life and light of the world, it is full of love. We are to fill and subdue the world, not with our own ordering and control, but with life! Fill the world with life, light, breath and love! Know God, know ourselves and know the Alpha and the Omega. Pray for the end of the world, pray for the fullness of time, pray for “God’s Kingdom to Come” and rejoice in what is promised to us then.