¹In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

³Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

 “My idea was to bring them alive for the children in the Sunday School class and Children’s Department so they would understand and love them and know they too were ‘sermons’ for us who worship here.” This was how Emma Gay began her booklet on the Sanctuary Windows that she printed in 1979.  Her booklet includes drawings and descriptions of the symbols in these beautiful windows.  This is the third and final series of sermons built around the stories in the windows.  The primary focus of this series is the   magnificent group of three tall windows, referred to as, “The Trinity Windows”.  The windows are designated quite simply as a gift from the Flinn family of Cameron, Texas who placed them in memory of Edward A. Flinn, Class of 1893.  I have tried to find out a little more about Mr. Flinn, but so far I have only his name and his class at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.  The windows are a trio of arched windows of magnificent color to reflect the majesty of the Triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  I kind of expected them to be arranged in that order from left to right – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  However, I was surprised to find upon closer inspection that the first Person of the Trinity is designated by the middle window and is flanked by the windows designating the Son and the Holy Spirit.  It occurred to me that I had seen that type of designation before – where the first letter is flanked by the subsequent letters.

The Trinity is not only described by the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the Trinity is also described by the activities of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.  This is where we first meet God.  God is introduced as a very active Creator, transcendent from and intimately connected to creation.  This story is told in Genesis 1 and depicted in the middle stained glass panel of the Trinity Windows.  God only has one line in the opening drama of Scripture.  In Hebrew it is only two words, but in English it is four, “Let there be light.”  Victor Hamilton wrote in his extensive commentary on this passage that everything else is an appendage to these two words – y^Əhih ’or – let there be light.  There is something very powerful about this opening drama of scriptures.  In this passage we discover that God speaks.  There seems to be an assurance that the God who connected with creation so intimately, still desires to connect with creation.  Every time you gaze up at this central window of the Trinity Windows, I invite you to remember that God speaks.

God the Father Speaks Order into Chaos

The crown at the very top of this window points to the sovereignty of God.  I do not say lightly that I think the NRSV missed the boat on the translation of verse 1.  Linguistically, it is possible to translate the verb as a temporal participle, “when God created the heavens and the earth…”  However, it is also linguistically consistent to translate the verse as a declarative sentence, which is the most common translation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  I prefer this because it is such a majestic beginning to an extraordinary drama in which God and God’s creation are bound together in a distinctive and delicate way.  Indeed, the active verb create is used in the Old Testament exclusively with God as the subject.  This is an act that is uniquely divine.  So I prefer to begin with this simple majestic declaration, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Nevertheless, I still have to meet verse 2 and I have to say that the more I look at this verse the less comfortable I am with it.  Here there is chaos (the formless void), darkness, and the abyss (the deep).  These are not words or entities that I desire.  Why do they have to show up so early in the story, what does God have to do with them, and what do they have to do with God? Walter Brueggemann encouraged his readers to not lose sight of the experiential factor in the notion of creation from chaos.  That is, the author of Genesis 1 and God the Creator boldly proclaim that chaos is a constant threat that God’s order is able to overcome.

The same thing that troubles me about these scriptures, comforts me.  Here we are only two verses into the Bible and we have already met God, the heavens, the earth, emptiness, chaos, darkness, and the deep or the abyss.  How can this not bring comfort and speak so loudly to each and every one of us? To those of us who approach the Scriptures with an ax to grind with God, God heads us off at the pass and says, “I know – chaos, darkness, a deep abyss.  I’ve seen it before and I can deal with it.”  To those of us who seek to make some sense of this world, we meet this incredible God in the very first verses of the Bible who speaks order to chaos, who is transcendent or separate from creation, yet intimately bound to it.  God releases creation to be, beginning with just two words, y^Əhih ’or, “let there be light.” And order was established with evening and morning providing a rhythm of the day that continues to inspire with every sunrise and sunset.  Gerhardt Von Rad wrote, “Darkness and chaos are now limited by a wholesome order.”

We cannot ignore the existence of chaos, darkness, and the abyss; but neither do we need to succumb to them, for here we discover a God who addresses them and speaks order into chaos.  Isaiah 45:18-19 has a wonderful commentary on this tension.  Listen to these words of faith: “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in chaos.”  God speaks.  God speaks order into chaos.

God the Father Speaks Light into Darkness

No one can miss this part of the story in the window.  Just below the crown in the window is a hand reaching down from heaven with rays of light emanating from it.  It is worth noting that light precedes the creation of the sun, moon, and stars that don’t appear until three days later.   There is no room in this story for sun worship or worship of anything or anyone except the One who calls light into existence.  This whole theme of light is consistent through the scriptures.  In fact, the Gospel of John, begins the same way as this book, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  William Barclay put it, “Darkness did not put it out.” 

God then called the light “good”, which is both ethical and aesthetic.  It is both right and beautiful.  I continue to be amazed at the power of light.  One candle has the power to illuminate a whole room.  On Christmas Eve I had the chance to see that power magnified as this sanctuary glowed with hundreds of candles held high while we sang, “Silent Night.”  I can only imagine the awe of that first day when with just two words, y^Əhih ’or, light came into being.  God then gives both light and darkness names – Day and Night.  Gerhardt Von Rad wrote, “The act of giving a name meant, above all, the exercise of sovereignty over it.”  Again we find in Isaiah 45, God declaring this sovereignty, “I form light and create darkness.” God speaks light into darkness.

God the Father Speaks Eternity into Time

Hamilton pointed out that God’s first creation was time, the next few verses tell us that God’s second creation was space.  In our windows there is a wonderful trilogy that occurs along the bottomof each window.  The Son Window, which we will discuss next week, has a sheaf of wheat, and the Holy Spirit Window, has a cluster of grapes.  The Father Window has the chalice standing as a testament to when God poured out his being into flesh, dwelt among us, gave himself up for us, and sought to liberate those whom God had in mind when God created.  The same one who was poured out in human flesh taught his disciples to pray by beginning, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”

I cannot begin that prayer without recalling two profound truths about God – God chooses to relate to us as a caring Father and God is eternal.  That is, God sees the whole picture.  God has a heavenly vantage point. 

Every time the weather report tells us to protect our pipes I am reminded of a conversation with my father 30 years ago.  Tammy and I were living in a mobile home in Pasadena, Texas and one of those arctic blasts froze our copper line running under the house.  I called my dad to see what I should do.  I needed a shower before church that morning.  His advice was for me to wait until noon.  He had seen the weather forecast and the freeze was to be as short lived as this week’s freeze.  But I needed water now.  That’s when I came up with the brilliant idea of turning the Sunday morning newspaper into a flaming torch.  Between the rapidly burning paper and the stiff north wind, I nearly burned our home down and all those surrounding it.  I think of that exchange with my dad a lot, because I have had similar experiences with my Heavenly Father.  I have my narrow vision of what needs to be done by me now, and my Heavenly Father encourages me to wait – after all, God has the heavenly vantage point and knows that the arctic blasts of life are often short lived.  God speaks eternity into time. We can see that in the cup in the window and we can see it in our lives.

So this morning take a look at the windows as you leave this sanctuary, particularly the God the Father window, and listen for the story in the window – a story that reminds that God speaks.

John Gibson concluded in his commentary on Genesis, “God created the earth to be a place where he could meet and speak with his people in truth…This world in which God had set them was a good place, and life was to be welcomed and enjoyed.”  So go and enjoy the wonderful world that God has created and as you do listen, because what was true on that first day of creation is true today – God speaks.  Amen.