Words of Welcome

Genesis 1:1-2:4 In the beginning, when God started creating things, the earth was nothing more than a dark formless void. While a wind from God blew across the waters, God began to speak. With each word, the earth began to emerge in all its complexity. God first called for the lights to turn on. From there, things proceeded step by step until the earth was ready to receive fish, birds, and the animals, including cattle.  God said to this menagerie: “be fruitful and multiply.” When everything was in place, God said, let’s create humankind in our image. So God did just that and entrusted this good earth to humankind’s stewardship. Then God rested. Now, Genesis doesn’t provide us with a scientific statement as to how things came into existence. What it gives us is a liturgy that celebrates the beauty of creation and invites us to worship the creator.  Therefore, “Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise!” Although this litany suggests th...

Genesis 1:1-2:3 God said, “let there be light” and there was light.” And when God saw the light, God said, “That’s good!” Indeed, light is good. As you know, it’s kind of difficult to see where you’re going in the dark, so having some light can be helpful. In the beginning of time, you had the sun – not bad during the daytime – and then there was the moon – it gives off some light, but it’s pretty limited. In time somebody discovered fire, and fire helps a lot. Over time the campfire gave way to the candle, and the candle to the lamp. Every advancement in lighting made living in-doors and going about at night just a bit easier. Then came the biggest revolution in lighting history. Back in the 19th century somebody figured out how to hook up lights to electricity and everything changed. Even though he wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of the incandescent bulb, a guy named Thomas Edison came up with a long lasting filament and history was made. In fact, his idea worked so well th...