There are signs of brokenness everywhere. You can see it in the environment that we live in. There are forest fires creeping frighteningly close to where we live, animals losing their habitats, and of course death and decay. Perhaps even more pronounced is the brokenness we see in our relationships. There are broken promises, broken marriages, violence, and corruption.
But of course brokenness is only part of the story. While there are plenty of things sin has tainted in nature, who hasn’t stood in awe of the stars at night? Who hasn’t felt the absolute magnificence of a glaciated mountain peak, jutting up into the sky? And how can one not be moved by the complexity of various ecosystems? Just the same when it comes to relationships, for all of the pain and brokenness that one feels, there is even more of the opposite. There are genuine acts of kindness, sacrificial love, and people who treat us better than we deserve.
It’s as if in the midst of the pain and suffering we experience there are echoes of another place, remnants of another time…a time where things were as they should be. And this is what our faith tradition’s origin story is about. It’s about understanding how the world was and how it should be. It’s not simply about where we came from but where we are going and what kind of direction we should be steering the world towards until we get there.
In this two-week series, we’ll be looking at the the creation story in pursuit of an understanding of the purpose and potential we each have.
The Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter
The Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Coogan
The Teacher’s Bible Commentary by C. T. Francisco
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament by T. E. Mccomiskey