( Genesis 1:1-4a.26-28.31a.and 2:1-4a ) - [ Deutsch ] - [ Akündigungen622.92 KB ]
Move 1 Jubilate – Praise of Creation
Dear church, the first creation narrative in the Bible is a hymn of praise. It does not give us neutral information and does not give us answers to the questions: how and when did the world come into being. Rather, it expresses how people understand and experiencel each other: placed in a life-enabling order of the world, emphasized and commissioned as creatures of God.
Today on Sunday Jubilate we should become aware of where we come from and where we are going and what orders God has set. How the world is built because of creation. That's what it's all about. So it's about the deepest foundations of our existence. Which the Creator has set at all times around the world. He is an architect and builder of creation.
Whoever confesses God as the Creator also confesses that we, as His creatures, cannot intellectually comprehend this incredible creation.
Move 2 In the beginning, God created heaven and earth
In the beginning. God created heaven and earth.
It's about THE beginning. As a foundation. That's how you can think of it. Even before anything happened. God created heaven and earth. But how can we imagine this creation? If you look at the Hebrew verb that stands for "to create" here, it occurs otherwise in the OT 46 times, because it is only in relation to God. It's about God's work. It is categorically different from all human creation. And a material is never named. We humans need a material, God does not need it.
And the earth was desolate and empty.
If you stand in the desert, you see sand as far as the eye can see. No way. No way out either.
Where there is a path, there has been someone before us in the place. All the paths we take, that you have come today, you owe to people who were before you. The roads have made possible. It is in this sense of security that we move.
Paths protect us from chaos.
How grateful I can be that God keeps showing me ways in life. Who transforms the desert and emptiness.
Desert and empty. Tohuwabohu in Hebrew. Empty, shapeless, a black dark hole.
And darkness lay on the depths
Dear church, please let this picture arise in your head. Desert and emptiness and darkness. No life. No space, no orientation.
These are deep human experiences that are included in this narrative and all of us have these experiences.
In the beginning, Tohuwabohu and God's Spirit are separate. Darkness reigns and then it says: And the Spirit of God hovered over the water. Jubilate I can only say:
So now movement comes into this state. The breath, the wind of God comes and that is the hope to end this initial state. A switch is flipped, so to speak. Only when God comes, into the darkness, into the chaos, then everything becomes different and glorious and bright.
What a terrific performance. And how many times have I experienced this myself in my life. When God comes, when I entrust myself to Him, when His Spirit blows among us, there becomes light in me and between people.
Move 3 Light
God brings light. Without effort. Just with his words. He tames the chaos. Because, there was light. God is the light.
And God saw that the light was good
People are light seekers and enjoy every little light.
Light is the basis that we can perceive something that life is born. It is a great gift to us. And God separates the light from the darkness. That doesn't mean it's gone completely. it's still there. The darkness. But it is limited by God. Those who have not experienced darkness cannot appreciate the light.
Dear community, I would like to tell you another story. It is about the well-known French painter Henri Matisse. He lived from 1869 to 1954, mostly in Nice on the Côte d'Azur for the last few decades. Matisse was one of the founding figures of modern painting, who was particularly fond of light. He loved to show landscapes, people and things in different lighting conditions.
At the end of the forties, a Dominican nun asked the old painter if he was willing to design a chapel for her monastery. The chapel was to be located in Vence, a small town in the hinterland of Nice. Matisse hesitated at first, so he got involved in the order.
Tourists and believers can still visit the Chapelle du Rosaire today. When they enter the small room, they first see an escape of glass windows. Sunlight comes in from the south and west.
Those who enter the chapel for the first time are overwhelmed by yellow and blue hues, by the light of the sun, which reflects the light of God. I am convinced that Matisse, who did not believe in God, still had this verse in mind: "And God saw that the light was good." The stay in this light-flooded room becomes an exposure to the kingdom of God.
If you turn around and look back after the first amazement, you will see a representation of jesus' Way of the Cross on the back wall. Capture, betrayal, torture, execution, death sentence, cross. This is the world from which the worshippers come to the chapel. They seek shelter from the horrors of the world and yet have to leave it in this direction after the celebration of the Lord's Supper. With this chapel, Matisse has managed to depict only with the help of light and colors what awaits believers as the illuminated kingdom of God.
"And God saw that the light was good."
Dear congregation, this Sunday is called Jubilate. Cheer everyone! About the fact that God was there in the beginning. His Spirit is about us and He said: let there be light.
It is good to occasionally remember the light that God has created, despite all that causes suffering to us and to the world.
Cheer God, all the lands. Amen.