GenesisWhen I was in 9th grade I wrote a paper chastising my biology teacher for teaching evolution in her classI had just been confirmed in my church and really wanted to live out my faithAnd somewhere I had picked up the idea that evolution was an attack on my Christian faithI was determined to defend my faith and the Bible against what I saw as the onslaught of cultural forcesSo I wrote a scathing paper refusing to answer questions on evolution while sharply criticizing my teacher for teaching such nonsenseMy biology teacher was kind and understanding and wise enough not to take the bait I think she even gave me a B for the paperShe was just doing her job teaching the science of the day with no agenda regarding my faithI hadn’t really though through what evolution was or wasn’t I just knew that as a Christian I was supposed to be against it.In my youth I got swept up in the culture warsLike a child soldier who doesn’t know why he’s fighting just that the enemy is evil and it’s his job to vanquish themBut I was wrong maybe not in my zealous desire to defend the faithbut I was wrong to think that science was the enemy of faithIn the past several decades Christians in America have drawn battle lines over the bibleThey have politicized it and unwittingly and hopefully unintentionally confused our reading of ScriptureAs a result, when we read the story of creation our minds naturally go to these battle linesThe debate over evolution same sex marriage and the age of the earthAre all red herrings that throw us off the trail of the Bible’s messageWe miss hearing what scripture is trying to say because we’ve been culturally conditioned to read this story through the lens of political battle linesYou know the term ‘Red Herring’?It’s a term used to describe a logical fallacyIt comes from an old trick used by bandits or criminals to throw bloodhounds off their trailThey would take a fish—a red herring--- and throw it down a trail going the opposite wayIn hopes that the bloodhounds chasing them would lead the police toward the herring so they could escape captureThese political debates centered on the book of Genesis are the devil’s red herringIf he can get us to argue about science vs. religion then we won’t hear the good news of the creation accountAnd as bonus the devil can make sure non-believers will be turned off altogether from the stench of our argumentsLast week I made a strong statement that got a lot of your attentionI said that Jesus and not the bible is the blueprint for us to followNot that the Bible isn’t of extreme importance to us it is very important, it is the manger in which Christ is laidBut Jesus is the one we follow and He is our guide to reading the bibleI’m doubling down on that statementwhen we give up trying to defend the Bible and instead focus on reading it and letting it point us to JesusWe can slip out of all these pointless debates and fall in love with scripture again as God uses it to open us up to a relationship with Himthe bible is not a science book and we don’t need it to beWhen you read the first two chapter of Genesis you run into a huge contradiction right off the bat one that was put there intentionallyThere are two accounts of the creation story in GenesisYou find not one, but two accounts of creation that when read together clearly contradict each otherIf we read them as science there is no way to reconcile the storiesIn the first story lights and plants and stars and sun and animals come firstThe last thing created is humansbut in the second account the story is almost completely reversed starting in Genesis 2:4it says that before there were any plants God knelt in the dust and made a man and breathed life into himthen God planted a Garden and made animals and gave them to the man to take care ofSo the man comes first in one story and last in anotherAs a science book that doesn’t add upIf we’re talking science we have to decide which story is accurate and which story to rejectBut the author of Genesis wasn’t writing a science bookHe knew that the two stories contradicted and still chose to put them back to back at the very beginning of the storySo right of the bat we know something about the Bible We know that the Bible is NOT interested in scientific questions that’s not what it’s aboutClearly there is some larger truth that we need to pay attention toThere’s a larger truth about God and his creation that the Biblical author is makingIn the first story God says “Let us make humankind in our image—according to our likeness and let them have dominion over every living thing”In the second story God creates the man first plants a garden and puts the man in the gardenHe gives him the responsibility to till it and keep it then God makes the animals and brings them to the man to name each one of themDo you see a common theme a red thread that connects these two storiesDo you see the larger truth that Genesis is makingThe story of creation is about our identity who we are and who we are meant to be as the ones God has createdWe are God’s crowning achievement made in his imageWe are given the earth and all that is in it to care for, to keep and to protectWe are given a special identity as God’s image bearers his representatives on earthThis is who we are!When we tell the Christian story to a world that increasingly doesn’t know even the basicsThis is where we need to start not with silly arguments about evolution and Big bangsBut with the deep truth about humanity that we were created in the very image of God that He has great intentions for usI remember doing a stump the pastor event at my previous congregationFifty teenagers piled into the youth room and our youth director challenged them to ask me anything they wanted about the faithAfter a minute of awkward silence one young man, Matt Bacon, a great kid always joking threw his hand up in the airthinking he had the ultimate question that would stump me and get his friends laughingHe asked me “Pastor, what is the purpose of life”Everybody laughed not taking the question seriously and the kid was pretty proud of himself for breaking the iceBut I took his question seriously and gave him an answerI answered him to reclaim the night so they would take it seriously but also because Christians actually have an answer to that big questionThe answer comes to us from GenesisThe purpose of life is to bear God’s image in the world to live in relationship with God and represent God on the earth in all we say and do I’ll say it again…God made us in his image and he directed us to rule, to be in charge not in some dictator way of the fallen worldBut as good stewards taking care of the garden and the animals watching out for creationWe are called to represent God in all aspects of our lifeIn how we care for each other praying for one another offering support and meeting needsIn our relationships marking them with humble service forgiveness and loveand to represent him just by being the marvelous creatures he has called us to beLast Monday we remembered our dear friend Pat Blaker who died the first week of JanuaryAs we remembered her we learned that she was someone who lived out God’s purpose in lifeShe cared served her family she served her community and she served her church wellShe was a shining example of someone who bore God’s image and lived a life in His nameWe will miss her greatly and I think we who knew her would do well to imitate her life as she imitated Christ’sThere’s a great quote I love by Marianne WilliamsonShe writes “we ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world…We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us;”How many of us have stood in awe at a star filled night overlooking the ocean, listening to the savesHow many of us have been overcome in a moment watching a beautiful sunrise or sunsetAt our Tuesday morning bible study Louise Walker shared about a visit to the Grand CanyonHow there was all this chatter on the trail leading up to the viewing area but upon seeing the Grand Canyon there was a hush that came over them as they stood in silent awe at the incredible sightWell I ask you when was the last time you looked at a person with that same sense of awe and wonderWhen was the last time someone looked at you overcome with your beauty, with the wonder of who you are?Can you see yourself through God’s eyes can you see each other as His work of art?Humans are God’s masterpiece a cut above the rest of creationWe gape at the beauty of the earth and praise God for all he has made and rightly soBut you yourselves each one of you are made in the image of GodLook at the person sitting next to you you are sitting in the presence of a masterpieceWorthy of the same jaw dropping gapes of respect and appreciation we normally reserve for the wonders of the worldThis is the start of the Christian story this is what the world needs to hear from the book of Genesis and from usTell your non believing friends and family “ do you know that in God’s eyes you are more beautiful that a sunrise and more amazing than the milky way You are beautiful, amazing, a miracle given great dignity and responsibility to bear God’s image in all the worldthis is the beginning of the storyNow, it’s not hard to see that things have not remained as God intended them from the startWe have fallen from this original image bearing relationship with GodWe no longer look at one another as divine masterpiecesThe effects of sin are enormous that human choice to trust in ourselves over God has had disastrous consequencesNot just for our own relationships but our relationship with the earth and its creatures as wellBut it was our relationship with God that took the biggest hitRather than living in security that comes with God walking with usWe live in fear and shame rather than faith and honorWhen we pulled away from God we started dyingBut the minute God’s beautiful creation started to crumble because of our sinGod went to work saving usHe finds us hiding in shame feeling vulnerable and naked because we’ve lost our identity in our sin we have forgotten who we areGod sacrifices animals to make leather clothing for Adam and eve to protect them in the new world that they have put themselves at odds with This sacrifice and clothing prefigures the sacrifice that Jesus would make later when he gave his own flesh and blood in order to provide spiritual clothing for usAnd now when we are baptized we are clothed with Christ and our identity is restoredThere’s a reason we have that baptismal font right at the entrance of the churchBecause we go out from here every week into a world that has forgotten who they are as Children of God and what they called to do as His Image BearersAnd we ourselves forget as we are sold countless counterfeit identitiesWe are told that our identity is grounded in what we produce or in what we consumeThat we’re only as good as our last sale or successSo we put the baptismal font at the front of the church so when we return to this space for worshipWe can be reminded that we are clothed with Christ and are children of GodWe are God’s masterpiece forgiven, cleansed, and filled with Holy DignityWe are the ones God has made in his own image destined to represent him in this worldSo next time you dip your finger in that water and trace the sign of the cross on your foreheadStand up tall straighten up your shoulders as the burdens of the world are taken from by GodLet the light return to your eyes and remember who you areyou are God’s very own He loves you, He made you, He died for youAnd in His eyes you are his beloved child