I’m going to be preaching out of the book of Genesis this summer. As I do some planning for how many messages I’ll do, I’m blown away by the wealth of material to be dealt with in Gen. 1-3. An entire series could grow out of these three chapters. The “goodness” of creation, the God behind the goodness, gender, marriage, family, the nature of the fall, and the implications of the curse are all worth talking about in an extended way. All of these topics can be traced throughout the rest of scripture. It’s no wonder that Jesus, Paul, and John (this apostle, not the baptist) all refer to the garden in explicit ways in their teachings and writings.

One thing I won’t be talking about much in this series is the evolution/creation debate. I’m not really sure how literally everything in Gen. 1-3 is be taken. What is apparent in these chapters is that behind the process of creation, whether it took seven literal days or thousands of years, is a purposeful God, not a cosmic accident.

Yesterday, like most churches, we had a larger than usual crowd. We had a couple of problems with our technology midway through the gathering. The glitches were unfortunate, but everybody kept their sense of humor about it. I preached on the story from Luke 24 about the walk to Emmaus. I keyed on the statement Cleopas and his friend made about how “We had hope that he was the one to redeem Israel.” “We had hoped” is a powerful phrase that invites us to reflect on the way life has disappointed us and how the risen Christ who meets us on the way to Emmaus raises our hope from the dead.

On Saturday, I finished Dan Kimball’s The Emerging Church and was extremely impressed. Kimball gives a balanced, humble, and extremely readable explanation of what the “emerging” church is all about. It’s not intended to be a “how to” but rather a “what if” kind of book. If you’re already well into the emergent transition and you have someone in your life who just doesn’t get it, this would be a good book to share.

Last night we hosted a Passover Seder at our house. It was a wonderful experience. We had multiple generations sitting around the table retelling the story of the Exodus.

Nine Questions that Lead to Answers
From Judson Poling

1. That’s an interesting question. What do you think?
2. What situation in your life makes you wonder about that?”
3. Even though you don’t know, if you had to guess, how would you answer?
4. Is there any answer to that you won’t accept? Why?
5. What has led you to conclude that?
6. What information do you think would cause you to change your mind?
7. What’s the strongest argument for those who disagree with you?
8. If everyone held that view, what would society look like?
9. If you found out you were wrong, what would be at risk? How would your life change?