We may not immediately associate the rest of God (Sabbath) with the account of Noah and his ark but there are clear connections to be found in these foundational stories. Noah means rest in Hebrew. After sin (people ignoring God’s limitations) is dealt with, the ark rests on Ararat, which means sacred mountain. God actively dealt with, and continues to deal with sin in our lives and in our world, not to punish us, but to give us rest, peace, garden, and relationship. He wants us to be fruitful and multiply without being driven beyond our limits. 

 

Genesis 2:1-3, 6:14, 8:4

 

It’s interesting to imagine what it must have been like for Noah and his sons to build a giant boat on dry land. What kinds of things were said about Noah as he stood out from the rest of the world by being righteous and by building an ark? In many ways, seeking rest in God and building churches that value restfulness is like building an ark on dry land. We live in a fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world. This hurried existence often makes its way into the church. Many ministers have thought and even said, “I’ll rest when I’m dead.” Is this the posture that God wants from his leaders? Is this the spirit that he desires for his church?

 

Like building a boat on dry land, promoting a spirit of rest, Sabbath, and true reliance on God can be counter-cultural. It should be said that this posture of restfulness and reliance in no way devalues hard work. Noah certainly worked hard to build the ark and fill it. And if you’ve ever tried to truly unplug and rest in God then you know how difficult it can be. 

 

We might be tempted to characterize our work as Christians as either hard-working or lazy (and to some extent that’s fair). But a better characterization might be that we’re either self-reliant or God-reliant. The way these two types go about their lives will be very different. Both types will get results. But the fruit of the God-reliant Christians will certainly outlast that of the Christians who grow in their church with too much of their effort and not enough rest and trust in God.

 

Some reflective questions:

In the lesson above on human limitations, you considered if you were doing too much and how that was affecting your church. With that in mind, what practices could you adopt to keep yourself resting and relying on God?

* How can valuing sacred rest help you to work even harder and more effectively for God’s Kingdom?

* What practices or rhythms might be healthy for your church to stay grounded in God so you can avoid the chaotic flood waters of our world’s frantic pace?

* Noah built the ark on dry land. No one understood what he was doing for God but it was still right. What “arks” are you building or should you be building in your community as a church?

Early on, the Bible frames what we would later call sin, as going beyond the limitations God set for humans. The theological word for such sin is transgression. God, in his love, has given us boundaries to keep us safe, to keep us from hurting ourselves by doing more than we can handle physically, mentally, and spiritually. If we were to look at lists of sin like Galatians 5:19-21 or 2 Timothy 3:1-5, we could identify how each sin is a type of transgression – an overstep of boundaries established for our good. 

 

Genesis 3:1-9, Ephesians 4:11-13, Matthew 11:28-30

 

Our first ancestors succumbed to temptation and pushed past God’s loving limits. They tried to be like God and it left them exposed. In loving response, God came to them in the cool of the day and asked a question that we would do well to ponder in regards to human limitations, “Where are you?”

 

What is the general feel of your church? Frantic, peaceful, reliant, reluctant? Why?

 

In Ephesians 4, when Paul talks about the church building people up towards maturity, he mentions the importance of multiple roles. How could raising up and entrusting others to serve according to their gifts help you stay within your limits and change the atmosphere of your group?

 

 

It’s easy for us to take creation for granted. In other words, we get used to existing. It’s good to step back and look at the miracle of our existence and to try and recognize God’s purpose and intent for humanity. As Christ-followers, we are image-bearers for the divine, and yet, at the same time, we are often plunged into the messiness of muddy situations in the church and in our own lives. There is a tension here that can be difficult to hold. We’re called to reflect the glory of God and yet we’re made from dirt. Keeping this tension in mind can be very beneficial to us and the people around us.

 

One way to hold this tension is to see ourselves and the people we lead as works in progress. Paul describes us as the workmanship of God in Ephesians 2 and then goes on to explain that God is building us up and joining us together and making us holy through the work of the Spirit. These are present tense actions. God created. But God is creative and continues to create through us and through the church. 

 

In an ambitious fellowship, many members may also contribute fuel to the fire of perfectionism. If we don’t have realistic expectations we can end up leading groups that are discouraged by the inevitable hardships that come into our lives and the life of the church. We don’t need to lower our expectations. God can do amazing things! But rather, we must make sure our expectations are placed upon God and not on our leadership, our ideals, or the people. With expectations in the right place, we can rejoice when we feel like the church is reflecting the image of God and we can keep our faith even if it seems like the church is being dragged through the dirt. 

 

Here are some foundational questions:

* God creates on purpose (saw that in the parable of the tenants in the last series). Why does your church exist? 

* In what ways is your church divine? (reflecting the image of God) 

* In what ways is your church messy? (reflecting the humanity of the people)

As you dive into this topic, what do you want your church to know about the tension between divine and dirt in your life? In what ways are you encouraged by your own relationship with God? In what ways do you need grace for your shortcomings?

Read Genesis 1:1-6, 14-19

It makes sense that we would generally see light as good and darkness as bad. The scriptures often associate light with righteousness and darkness with hidden sin. Light is associated with joy. Darkness often symbolizes sorrow or confusion. But if we look deeper, beginning even with the very first chapter of the Bible, we see a more nuanced depiction of light and darkness. 

 

The above metaphors abound but there are others. Even here, in Genesis 1, darkness is not villainized even as light is celebrated. Indeed, there is a place for the bright light of the sun as well as the dim illumination of the moon and stars. There is a temptation in ministry to have as much “bright light” as possible, even if you don’t have the budget for laser light shows. We want shiny happy people filling the pews. It doesn’t take much time in leadership to realize that this desire doesn’t line up with reality. As individuals and as churches we certainly experience joy. But, just as often, our ministries struggle. And on any given Sunday, the sanctuary is filled with many who are struggling in some form of darkness. They may not be helped by frequent messages about being happy and letting their lights shine. We’re called to minister “in season and out of season” and to meet people where they are instead of making them meet us.

* What have been some of the bright spots for your church lately?

* In what ways is your ministry experiencing darkness or wilderness?

* How do you feel about the difficulties your ministry may be facing?

* How has God brought you through dark times in the past? What did you learn?

Our Sunday worship is not the church (it’s the people!) but it is the most important moment each week in the life of the church as the people gather together to worship in united fellowship.

* Take a moment to thoughtfully examine your church’s Sunday worship (and other events). Is there too much sunshine (manufactured happiness) in your services? How might you achieve more depth on Sunday mornings by thinking about God working through the sunshine and the moonlight?

* Are there any ancient practices that you could incorporate into your services like scripture reading, lectio divina, silence, community prayer, etc…? 

It’s easy to overlook some of the finer details of this creation poem, especially if we come into it depending too much on centuries of ingrained rationalism. God’s creative work is not limited to the creation of physical things like the sea, land and sky, and the creatures that would inhabit each. He also created seasons and rhythms that still govern our world. Our society, however, seems bent on creating its own rhythms and displacing the seasons God established in his wisdom and grace. 

 

Just as the world has seasons and rhythms, there are seasons and rhythms in each person’s life. Moreover, the church operates differently according to seasons and each church has its own rhythm. We would do well to consider if the seasons and rhythms of our church year, months, weeks and Sundays are governed by God and his grace or influenced too much by humanism or our own agendas.

 

The services, events, and expectations of our ministries influence the lives of the people in our churches. Take time to consider the effect of the seasons and rhythms of your ministry on your members:

* What is your weekly rhythm?

* How do your expectations take into account the different needs of each life stage?

* What is the rhythm of your Sunday worship? How does it honor God?

* Is your leadership sensitive to the seasons of the year? How much emphasis do you put on the ancient holy days and times (Easter, Christmas, etc…) How much do the seasons of the world (summer vacation, football, children’s activities) affect the life of your church?

Read Genesis 1:1-2:3 (or have someone in the congregation come and read it clearly)

 

We’ll spend the next few weeks in and around this text. 

 

We’re going to learn so much from it, but we’re going to learn what it has to teach us about God and life. Instead of trying to get what we want out of it, we’re going to let the creator lead us into his creation poem.

 

1. God gives structure to our world

* Starts with chaos and ends with structure

* Spirit of God hovers over the waters 

* Hebrew people were not sea-farers (Sea of Galilee only mentioned once in OT, did not inhabit the Mediterranean coast) 

* Saw water as chaotic – Tohu va-vohu “wild and waste” or “formless and empty” 

* God’s creative acts takes the chaos of wild and waste and formless and empty and gives it all kinds of structure

Structure in Genesis 1:

* Day and night

*  Sea, sky, and land

* Vegetation of various kinds 

* The universe from the grandest heavenly bodies to the smallest atomic sub-particle – science is just the discovery of God’s ordering 

* The sun and moon give us years and months 

* The fish, bugs, birds, and animals – all according to their kind → structure/order 

* Finally people – Who are given instructions and order 

* The week is also structured by this poem – 6 days of work and 1 day of rest

* What does this tell us about God? 

* He created a world for us with structure and order so that we could thrive 

* His intent is not for us to live in chaos and the insecurity of uncertainty

* What does this tell us about ourselves?

* We’ll all have times of craziness but we should examine areas of our lives that are chaotic, unstructured, lacking order

* Practical: Designed in God’s image, we are also creators. We are in charge of our lives. Are we building lives that reflect the structure and order that we were created with or are our lives turbulent waters?

 

* Face so many distractions in our lives that pull us in many directions. 

* Where does your life lack structure? 

* Not trying to become robotic or overly efficient 

* But examine cycles of chaos 

2. God fills our world

* Another thing we see in this text is God’s desire for his world to be full. Begins empty/void but the things that God creates are made to fill up creation.

* Fills the world with light 

* Barren ground with vegetation 

* Sun and stars don’t just shine but rule the day and the night 

* Waters swarm 

* Birds fly across the expanse of the heavens

*  Told to “Be fruitful and multiply.”

*  God makes humankind and tells them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…”

What does this tell us about God?

 

* He desires fullness. He wants his creation to teem with life – to overflow. 

* And he knows how to fill emptiness

* What does this tell us about ourselves?

 

* God wants us to live full lives 

* He doesn’t want you to live an empty life, a boring life, a lonely life, an average life 

* He wants you overflowing, filled up (not chaotically but with meaning and purpose and joy)

* Practical: What are we filling our lives with?

 

* Does your daily, weekly life reflect the heart of God for fullness? 

* Are you overflowing with the good? Bearing fruit of all kinds? 

* Or are there empty practices in your life? 

As you look back on your life as a Christian or as a leader, what are some things that you’ve needed to reframe? In what ways were your beliefs or actions askew from God’s story? How did you come to realize that your beliefs needed to be reframed? How did the Spirit help you see things more clearly? Describe an instance. Can you think of anyone in your congregation or someone who came to Christ with an especially powerful story of being broken up so he/she would not be crushed by false thinking?

Spirituality is how we live out the story. In our faith tradition, we have a tendency to live out our faith with great human effort. Human effort is good.

We are called to hold to (abide) the teaching of Jesus. But Jesus makes it clear that we don’t need to abide alone (we can’t). Rather, he’s given us the Holy Spirit as a helper so we can live for God and in God.

One of the features of Thread is a focus on spirituality. We want to become more Spirit-reliant as we live out our faith. Everyone has a spirituality, even people who don’t seem very “spiritual” or who reject the faith.

In this lesson, we examine some of the distinct features of your spirituality (how you live out your faith).

Human (non-spiritual) efforts to follow God are tempting because we remain in control. If we, as individuals, or as church leaders and churches, try to

have too much control over our experiences with God, we can feel like we’re being active and effective in our faith, even though such efforts don’t

take much faith, if we’re honest.

Jesus describes the Spirit in John 3 to Nicodemus as a wind that blows where it pleases. The Spirit takes the lead and the spiritual life is wind-blown.

It’s powerful and it’s often out of our control.

Prayerfully consider who is in control in your life and leadership:

* In what ways are you controlling things?

* How are you allowing the Spirit to lead your life?

* How are you making space for the Spirit to work in your church?

As we continue our journey exploring the idea of Yahweh and the People, through the Thread Podcast, we focus our attention in this week’s episode on the idea of “Why Story?” Why is it important to understand the story of God in the scriptures and how that may intersect and impact our story? If we consider last week’s episode on “Our Image of God” we can see clearly that our Origin Story has a huge impact on how we see God, so it then becomes vitally important that God’s story is not just told but understood and experienced by us, so that His story becomes the most important narrative that governs our lives.

As co-host Hannah Desouza so eloquently quoted an old indigenous proverb, “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn, Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”

Join us on this journey as we learn how the word of God and His story may live in our hearts forever.

This week we started a three-year journey where we explore God and man through His three persons, Yahweh and the People, Jesus and the People, and The Holy Spirit and the People.

“Our Image of God” focuses on how formative experiences both spiritual, emotional, and physical affect our image of God and therefore can shape our spiritual paradigm.