SERMON: “Where It All Started”
Genesis 1:1-5, John 1:1-9
January 11, 2009 Dr. Dennis Ginoza
Can you just imagine with me for a moment:
a time when there was nothing—
No sun, no moon, no stars;
No water, no land,
No cars, no television, and no shoes, and no pizzas.
There was nothing.
This is the great mystery. Out of nothing God
created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis says:
Then God said, “Let there be light and there
and there was light and God saw that it was good.
Then God created the land and the seas,
vegetation, and every living creature and God
saw that it was good.
Then God created us—you and me,
Male and female and God blessed us, all of us
and God saw everything and it was very good.
The Interpreter’s Bible says that Genesis is not a
scientific book and it is not a historical book.
It is a religious book. It is a story of faith.
When Henry Morton Stanley was crossing the
continent of Africa, he carried with him 73 books
weighing 180 pounds. As he traveled the load
got heavier and heavier so he started to carry less
and less until he had one book left. It was the
Bible. He read the Bible through three times.
The Bible is a book of faith,
it is a book of inspiration,
it is a book of truth.
George Washington said: “It is impossible to rightly
govern the world without God and the Bible.”
President Woodrow Wilson said, “I ask every man and woman
in this audience that from this day on they will
realize that part of the destiny of America
lies in their daily perusal of this great work.”
2
Will someone tell me how many hours and how many
minutes it takes to read through the Bible from
Genesis to Revelaiton at pulpit rate? Will anyone guess?
Answer: 70 hours and 40 minutes.
The book of Genesis teaches us that everything begins with
God and everything ends with God. It also tells us
that this life has been interrupted. That interruption
was a moral one. We call this the Fall, the sin of Adam.
In the year 2009 this is what I see.
The universe is made up of laws, physical
and spiritual laws, and these laws operate to bring
order, balance, and life to everything. The world of
physics, biology, and chemistry teach
us that the universe is dynamic. It is alive. Philosophy,
psychology and theology teach us that where logic and
science cannot reach, we must take a leap of faith. In
that leap of faith, we land in the hands of God. And
that’s where it all began.
Jesus helps us to see this universe in a different bent. He says
that for us to understand this world and this life, we
must become like children. Children see things as
they really are, simple, true, and fascinating.
The heart of a child takes us to the heart of God.
Listen to these letters from children.
--Dear God, instead of letting people die and having to
new ones, why don’t you keep the ones you have? --Jane
--Dear God, Maybe Abel and Cain would not kill each
other if they had their own rooms. It works with my
brother. –Larry
--Dear God, I read the Bible. What does begat mean? Nobody
will tell me. Love, Alison
--Dear God, Are you really invisible or is this a trick? --Lucy
--Dear God, I would like to live nine hundred years like
the guy in the Bible. –Love, Chris
--Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw
the sunset you made on Tuesday. That was cool. --Eugene
In the year 2009 this is what I see.
As little children, we all are here to discover that this
world is God’s world. That is the original blessing. But
3 this is a disrupted world. Whatever the context we find
ourselves, this universe is a moral universe; it is a universe
of virtues.. Faith, honesty, truth, love, beauty, joy,
benevolence, purity—these are all attributes of God.
This world as we know is at war with itself. Suffering
and pain are our teachers and they are lighthouses that
help guide us to the kingdom of God. In the kingdom
there will be no more tears. Jesus is the light along the
journey. When Jesus died and was resurrected, he showed
us that in Him we break our attachment to this world—the
bond of sin and death. In Him we unite with the true
Essence of God.
We are here to set our hearts right with God. Henry G. Bosch
once wrote in Our Daily Bread about how as a little boy
he went to work with his father. Each morning he would get
up early and he and his dad would stop at a store and his dad
would buy the morning paper which he read during his coffee
break. One day his father took two newspapers by mistake.
Right away he went back to the store and paid for the second
paper. The store owner was not a Christian and Mr. Bosch didn’t
want the owner thinking he was dishonest.
During the next week, some expensive items were stolen from
that store. The police calculated that when the items were
stolen, there two men who were at the store, Mr.Bosch
and another man. The store owner told the police, “I know
Mr. Bosch is an honest man.” He told them how a week ago
he returned a newspaper he had taken by mistake. The other
man was questioned and he was arrested. We are here to set
our hearts right with God.
In the year 2009 this is what I see.
Our world today is a stockpile of material goods. It is a world
abundance. Where there is abundance there is great waste.
This is also a world of want, unfulfilled dreams, great suffering.
This is a world full of conflict, children of war, powerful men
and women caught in dishonesty, greed and power. The
economic power of Babel is falling. But our world is never
without hope. Hope is always with us. In the last eight years
we had three major fires in San Diego – 2001 2003 and 2007.
In 2001 I was sorting through the ashes with a family and
a mother quail came walking along the edge with about five of
her little quails. Hope will rise from the ashes.Paul said: ‘Hope
will not disappoint you.” Jesus said, “Lo, I will be with you
always to to end of the age.”
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