Trinity 21 2019
Genesis 1
November 10, 2019
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
One of my favorite phrases in the Hebrew Old Testament: tohoo wabohoo תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ. It is the phrase right after God’s initial act of creation, that 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.” God’s initial act of creation made “the stuff” of creation from nothing. However, this stuff was “without form and void” – it was tohoo wabohoo. It was disordered, but then He speaks and brings order to His creation so that it was declared to be good.
By His creative Word, God brought order to disorder. He speaks and it comes into being. He speaks His creation into being, separating the light from the darkness, the waters above from below, the land and the sea. And then God fills His creation with more good things, sun and moon and planets and stars, plants, and animals, each to reproduce after its own kind: a fish to beget a fish, not a dog; an apple tree to bear apples with apple seed, not pumpkins. Where there was disorder, tohoo wabohoo, God brings about an order, and He orders things in way that is good.
And then on the sixth day, God does something different. “Then God said, ‘Let us (a statement itself about the triune nature of God) make us man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
And so God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God creates man and woman, only two genders based on God’s created biological intent to compliment one another in marriage, blessed them, gave them the ordered life of being fruitful and multiplying, of having children, and taking care of God’s creation. It is in humanity alone in all of creation, that the image of God rests. Created in that image, Adam and Eve reflect the order of creation because they live holy lives and perfectly reflect God’s will. Even then, their righteousness, was from God, through faith/trust in Him. And it was not just good, but after God creates Adam and Eve, He sees all that He has made and it was very good.
But Adam and Eve didn’t feel like it was good enough. God surely must be holding back, for there was that one tree in the garden that they were not to eat from. And then it happened, the Fall into sin. The devil comes to Eve and tempted her with the thought that there was something better. That they could be more than created in God’s image. He offered the thought they could become like God, knowing good and evil, that only then will their eyes be opened. Before the Fall into sin, they did not know the difference between good and evil, for there was no sin, no evil. And their righteousness was from God, through faith, trust, in Him. When Adam took that fruit from Eve and ate, sin entered the world and brought disorder. It brought pain, anger, suffering, and death – all a result of sin, of rebellion against the holy will and intention of the Creator for His creation.
And that disorder is now the reality of the world in which we live. St. Paul notes in Romans 8 that even creation itself groans, subjected to futility, in bondage to corruption of sin imposed upon it. God’s creation now becomes a source of danger, of violence in storm, wind, and wave, of animals that now live as predator and prey. The big disaster isn’t human pollution or global warming or whatever else gets dreamed up. It is the effects of the Fall of sin that infects all of creation and brings disorder to what was declared good when God created.
But it’s not just out there, or back then, but it’s here (within me). Human nature has become completely corrupted, disordered, because of sin. A disordered heart and human nature leads to disordered living. We do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We have not loved God with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Husbands and wives argue. Children are disobedient toward parents and other authorities. Parents irritated with children. Confusion over identity, what it means to be human, male and female as God created and intended. Terrorism, acts of violence, and more plague the world over and over again. Even the institution that God has given to maintain order – government authorities – can’t keep its own house in order.
And if that isn’t a depressing enough picture for you, in the end, the disordering effect of sin brings only thing: death. Sin always brings death. St. Paul explains it this way, again in Romans (5:12), “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” Sin and death disorders what God has created, it undoes what God has created us to be.
There is no way for us back to Eden. There’s no way back of the tree of life. From Adam and Eve onward, the only way is to the tree of the cross. God sends His Son took humanity into Himself, without the corruption of sin, perfectly ordered, true God and true man, he came as the second Adam in order to restore order and the image of God in us. To do this, He had to deal with the main problem, with sin. St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus received the punishment and ultimate consequence of sin that we deserve – he died. Obedient unto death, and then three days later rose from the dead! He defeated death because He had dealt with sin on the cross. He defeated your death because He dealt with your sin on the cross.
New creation of God’s good order is being restored as the disorder of sin is being removed through forgiveness. Just like the first go around, God brings the goodness back into creation by means of the same creative Word. He declares you to be righteous, good, re-ordered back toward Him and His intent for the sake of Christ alone. In Christ, you are a new creation. The Holy Spirit who hovered over the face of the waters, hovers over the water in your baptism, so that by the Word the Spirit renews you. The Word and the Sacraments order your hearts again upon the right thing, the good thing, the good One.
This side of eternal glory and the new heavens and new earth, we still struggle, but we do in sure and certain hope of the consummation of the new creation in Christ. God’s order will be restored. In the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ He has acted to overcome tohoo wabohoo. Through the Means of Grace God has already made us a new creation now and we look forward to the Last Day when once again all things will be very good and there will be no more tohoo wabohoo. We live knowing that Jesus Christ will return in glory on the Last Day. When that happens He will give us a share in his resurrected and immortal body. He will restore creation and free it from the slavery of corruption. And we will rest with Christ, an eternal Sabbath, in the new heavens and the new earth. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.
This sermon was inspired by a sermon preached by Pr. Mark Surburg in 2013. http://surburg.blogspot.com/2013/10/sermon-for-twenty-first-sunday-after.html