Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

Gen 1-2:3

My brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are blessed not only with a baptism, but also the account of creation. We witness the amazing works that God performs through His power and Might and manifests His Majesty using the Word to create all things, and, as though that were not enough through that very same Word that spoke all things into existence God gave us Words when joined with water that transformed Kimber this morning, and brought her from death to life and transformed her from a child of Adam to His own dear Child through Holy Baptism.

Now we cannot cover everything that is in our text this morning and to treat fully the debate between Creation and Evolution that has raged on not just since Darwin, but goes back to Plato and Aristotle. These arguments aren’t new, so we should not be afraid to believe Genesis 1, because when you examine the foundations upon which they have built what they call science, but is rooted in myth. I know those are bold claims, and the best place to address them is in a Bible Study or as I do in the Pastor’s Class or look at going to the Ark Encounter which has a tremendous set of resources to equip Christians for that Debate.

It is important for you dear Christian to know that Evolution is contrary to the Word of God first and foremost because you deny that God is the Creator of all things, nor Christ as the one through all things exist, you limit God’s power, God’s ability, and deny the Word of God. For this is what God has told us about the Creation of the World. If you believe the Word of God, then you are a creationist. If you embrace Evolution then you are at odds with Jesus who believes these words to be true as found in Matthew 19.

But there are some things that I want you to learn here about who God is, and His majesty, for in the very first verse of Bible we hear, Gen 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” which means that God is not part of the creation, but separate from it. That is why when Moses asks who shall I say sent me, he Answers I am who I am. The Father, Son, and HOly Spirit exist eternally, without beginning or end, that is why He is the Alpha and the Omega, He does not depend on anything or anyone, rather all things depend on him for life and breath. This means that God does not need anything to be God, He doesn’t need the earth, the Sun the Moon, the Stars, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, even mankind, even doesn’t need us, whether you believe in him or not He will do His work. He is God whether the world acknowledges him or denies Him.

So Genesis 1 shows us is that all of Creation is subject to Him. That who you are, depends upon the work that He has done, and He sustains all livings things, He set all of Creation into motion and sustains it to this very day. We witness in this first chapter that He even though He is separate from the creation is very active in it. Indeed the Scriptures acknowledge that in Him we live and move and have our being, that He is the one that knit us together in our mother’s womb, that He has numbered our days from their beginning to their end. He is even the cause of our salvation.

You can begin to appreciate why our Psalm today says that His name is Majestic in all the earth, and why when it looks to the heavens above, and as science has progressed showed us the intricacies of life inside an individual cell that we stand in awe of of who He is. For He spoke not just the universe into existence, but plant cells, with their variety, the birds, fish, animals and mankind. This is why the Lord through the prophet Isaiah last week says that your thoughts are not my thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.

For even if we can understand the creation and see His Majesty, His Power, His glory, and the wondrous works that He has accomplished. We cannot even begin to do what He has done. For He didn’t do His work like a carpenter, who has wood that he fashions and shapes into a bench, chair, or bed, but a carpenter needs wood. God is the Creator. There was nothing, and from nothing He created all things.

That is why David asks, what is man that you are mindful of him? What are we in the scope of the universe? He made us stewards of this creation, and we messed it up, so why is it that He is so concerned about us?

Now if God is the creator, then you are his creature, and mankind is a special part of creation. He gave to Adam his divine image and Eve was made in the likeness of Adam which means she shared in that. God does not love Sin that is the corruption of what God had made that was Good. Even though Adam had failed and doomed the the human race, and had built a dividing wall of hostility between God and man.

We don’t think of sin in those terms, but that is what sin is, it is a rejection of what God has called good. The first commandment for instance you shall have no other gods. That is part of the reason why we don’t support evolution. It doesn’t just have to do with how it is not scientific, but to embrace evolution is to deny who God is, the creator. It also diminishes the one through whom all things were made and weakens your understanding of who Christ is and why He came.

For will notice that God made all things through speaking, and when He made all things He said that they were good. Now if it was through the Word of God that all things were made good, then what could make a world that has fallen into sin and death, good and acceptable in God’s sight? That very same Word, that is why John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” and just a few verses later says, John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Word through whom all things were made, came into this world to make that which had fallen into sin, good in God’s sight by making all things new. You know that Word by a different name, Jesus. For the Father sent, that Word which had been spoken at creation into the world to be your redeemer and to make you new. To rescue the world from the sin that had corrupted it and blinded men and women to the truth that they have God as their creator loves them and cares for them.

Jesus came into this world that we might be saved through Him, and to assure us of that promised salvation do you know what He gave to us? He gave to us that Holy Name, the name that God gave Moses, I am who I am, as we were born not into the line of Adam which brings death, but born into God’s Kingdom through the Word.

The baptism this morning, it wasn’t just that water was poured on the head of Kimber, but the Word was added to that Water, she was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through those Words that were given to us by the Word made flesh, she was born again into the Kingdom of God. For the Word that gives Baptism its power is that same Word through which all things were created and declared good in God’s sight, and that Word transformed her from a child of Adam to a child of God this morning. It brought her from death in sin to life in Christ and that Word saved her.

With our eyes Baptism seems very plain and simple, but when you consider that the God who made all Creation looked down from heaven at her, and gives to her the Divine and holy name of God. It is a majestic and glorious thing that God does in Baptism, He calls us His own. Now faith is also needed, and faith is created by the Word. That is why it is vitally important that all of us continue to hear the Word and be where God works. For it is not just Baptism alone, but faith is also necessary for salvation. Because faith clings to the promise God gave in Baptism.

That is why the Church has appointed sponsors and witnesses because it is easy for things to fade away into the background. If we move away from the Word, faith flickers and eventually dies. We don’t want that for anyone, but rather that all people might be strengthened and stay in the faith. For it is easy to lose sight of this precious gift, when you don’t know the Word. So that is why we have public baptisms, with sponsors and witnesses so that we might encourage one another as the body of Christ.

For my brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a truly Majestic and wonderful God, who not only created all things through that Word whom we know as Jesus. By that same Word which spoke all things into existence, He saved us through the Word, that Word that bespeaks us righteous, and looked down from heaven and by which we were born into the Kingdom of God. Treasure the Word forever, and give thanks to Him for your Creation, your Redemption, and your Salvation. If your faith has flickered and died, It is not too late for you. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench, but it is only the Word that does that, so do not flee from Him. In Jesus name. Amen.