In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God hovers over a formless void. The picture is one of disparate chaos, of nothingness. And into that darkness, the Lord God speaks, “Let there be light.” The world breaks to life, its very existence a gift of sheer grace, addressed by God, called to be by the one who is. The world begins with God. His extravagant love sets him to work creating a world where he can reveal his glory by drawing near: a world full of valleys, mountains, oceans, canyons, butterflies, and orangutans. At the conclusion of each day, like an artist admiring his work, the Lord God steps back and pronounces his judgment upon what he has made: it is good. On the sixth day, last day of his labors that first week, he crafts his masterpiece, the one’s made in his image to reflect his radiant glory and to partner with him in caring for this world that he has made: daughters and sons. At the sight, the Lord cannot contain his joy. His creation, it is not just good it is very good. With the satisfaction that comes from meaningful work, joyfully and masterfully done, the Lord God rests. The week begins and ends with God.
When we come to follow Jesus, our lives are often mired in the chaos that comes from years of living for self. The light of Jesus comes upon our lives like God saying over the world in the beginning, “Let there be light.” In an instant we are awakened to salvation, new creation, a small life with us at the center is replaced by a full life centered on Jesus. And God gets to work in us,creating just as he did in Genesis 1, a place where we can intimately know God and join with him in the work that he is doing. In Genesis 1, the whole world was a temple, a theater of the grace of God. Now, because of the work of Jesus, God is building our hearts into a temple where he will remake us and the world from the inside out.
At Ecclesia, we have identified six rhythms, Six Days of Creation, to be received in grace as ways of cultivating a life with God. Like the systems of the body, these rhythms can never be isolated from one another. Additionally, these rhythms are not ways that we somehow earn the love of God. Rather, they are ways that we plumb the depths of the love of God, finding out how to live as God’s children. As Hans Urs von Balthasar says, “The everyday world in which we find ourselves and find our bearings, is afloat like a ship above the immense depths of the unfathomable love of the Father.” The Six Days of Creation are immersing ourselves in that love. They begin with the love and power of the Father and end with Sabbath rest.
Stay tuned as we elaborate on each of the Six Days of Creation as we seek to be an authentic expression of the Kingdom of God in central New Jersey.
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