“In the beginning…” it is very likely that you can complete that sentence or at least know that those words can be found in the first verse of the Book of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”[1] or as we have heard in the Common English Bible reading this morning, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth—the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters.”[2] These words from the book of Genesis are some of the most poetic and profound words we can find in the Holy Scriptures. Genesis begins by offering a theological affirmation, which tells us that we have been created by a good and creative God who makes, transforms, moves, and separates things that already exist so life can come into being[3]—a God who is able to bring order into chaos, light into darkness, and creation into existence. These first two verses in the book of Genesis tells us that we have been created by One who sees possibility where others may only see desolation. These are beautiful words for us to hear in this new year. After enduring a year filled with tragedy, and moving into a new year that is already making headlines, I find comfort in hearing words that remind me of God’s good and creative power—a power that is able to make things new.

There are scholars who argue these words in the Book of Genesis were recorded sometime during the period of exile of the people of Israel—sometime in the sixth century.[4] A time when the nation was confronted with forces of evil beyond their imagination. Though prophets had spoken of a time when chaos would befall a disobedient nation, no one ever imagined that they would see the Temple in ruins, the city walls destroyed, the people exiled, and their God seemingly defeated. Babylonian theology told the Israelites that their God was too weak. The Babylonian gods had been forged in war, they created the world not out of chaos, but through chaos and bloodshed.[5] For the Babylonians, it was their gods who controlled the future. But against these claims, rose a voice that said, not so! Out of despair came a theological and pastoral address that told the people, “do not lose hope, the reality we see is not all that there is… When God began to create the heavens and the earth—the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters. God said, “Let there be light.”

The people of Israel heard the words of creation not as scientific wonderings that answer questions about origin, but as a faithful affirmation that proclaims “the God of Israel is greater than all other gods because through God’s Word reality was transformed.” Genesis makes a scandalous claim which must be received by faith, God can make all things new. Just look at the world! All that we see did not always exist, through the Word God created all that is and formed an enduring (covenantal) relationship with the good creation. The desire of this God for creation is not servitude, it is relationship and love. That is the character of the one who said, “Let there be light” and “Let us make humanity in our image.”[6] This is a God that does not force obedience. God invites relationship. To those who found themselves in a state of oppression, the words of Genesis offered hope. The late Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who was the pastor at Riverside Chruch in New York, is quoted as saying, “Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart’s full of hope, you can be persistent when you can’t be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So while I’m not optimistic, I’m always very hopeful.”[7]

It is this type of hope that inspired African slaves to sing of freedom. In a time when the reality they could see dictated otherwise, their hope in a God who was able to make all things new birthed songs of freedom in the hearts of a