Let's start at the very beginning

     And so it begins.  Our journey through 'The Story' has officially kicked off and we are ready to dive into chapter 1 this coming Sunday.  As I read the chapter and its corresponding Scripture from Genesis 1-4 and 6-9, I think of the song from The Sound of Music when Fraulein Maria teaches the children about music.  She sings:

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
When you read, you begin with A-B-C,
When you sing, you begin with do-re-mi

 When it comes to Scripture, a good place to start is the very beginning.  In the beginning...  God's infinitude is so incredibly difficult to comprehend I have a hard time with it, and if I try to think about it too much my head starts to hurt.  God has always been.  Always.  And at some point God created.  Now there is much debate about this part.
     How did God create?  When did God create?  While it is not as notable in the news like it was a few years ago, the creation v evolution debate runs rampant and while we don't debate the issue here at St. John there are people on all sides of that coin.  And at the heart of this debate is not about whether God spoke and POOF! the earth appeared or whether God spoke and BAM! a Big Bang started the slow evolution of our universe; at the heart of this debate is truth of scripture. 
     If the Bible says God created the earth in 6 days what do we do with scientific evidence of evolution, tectonic plate movement, carbon dating, etc?  If you believe in evolution does that mean you don't think the Bible is true?  If you believe the Bible's version of the creation story, does that mean you don't believe science is true?  How does one go about reading the Bible and using our God-given sense of reason?
   
It seems that while starting at the beginning is a good place to start, it is not necessarily simple.

     Personally, I believe that God's Word is truth in that it reveals to creation about God, the creator.  It is truth in that it shapes how we think about and live life.  It is truth in that in Scripture we find the Living Word who brings salvation to all creation.  And I believe in evolution, that the earth is 4.6 billion years old, and that God is God nonetheless.  I believe God created and continues to create today.  And I believe species and our planet continues to evolve and change.
     What is revealed to us in Genesis is that God created, and God created an AMAZING thing.  The following video from Hubble gives a glimpse into our universe:

Obviously the people who wrote these words weren't there.  And I also don't believe that God dictated scripture to people who wrote it down word-for-word.  Yet when you get through all the questions, through the absurdity of talking snakes (did the people sinning somehow make it that animals and people couldn't talk anymore?) a very simple truth is left:

God created and saw that God's creation was good.  God was in perfect harmony with God's creation until the humans (which God created with free will) rebelled against this relationship by doing what they wanted to rather than what God commanded which resulted in all sorts of unintended consequences.  Pure and simple.  That is the truth we know about the beginning.

And thankfully for us, it is a beginning that begins again and again, each breath a new creation and chance to live in relationship with our Creator.  As I go back to the beginning again, I am living the mystery of an ever-patient, all-forgiving God who is right there, waiting for me to come back to the beginning.  Again.