“Out of Chaos; Into the Light”
Text: Genesis 1:1-5
Elpis Christian Church
January 8, 2012
Do you remember the old TV sitcom about a secret agent named Maxwell Smart? He was the little guy who, though he often bumbled his way through the cases assigned to him, somehow managed to defeat the agents of the enemy and save the day. I loved the show “Get Smart,” especially the part when secret agent Max got a phone call from his boss. Do you remember what happened? He would have to take off his shoe and talk to the “Chief” on the phone hidden in a little compartment there. Who would have thought that one day we would all be talking on cell phones?
Do you remember the name of the evil, secret agency with which Maxwell Smart was constantly at war? What was it named – do you recall? It was called KAOS – which was aptly named, because the good guys in the series worked for an agency called CONTROL. It was also well named because this evil agency was supposed to be all about messing things up. Anything they could do to upset the world; start wars; ferment disease; whatever they could do for their own mad reasons – that was their sole purpose. KAOS, spelled K-A-O-S, was all about causing chaos, spelled c-h-a-o-s.
Well, I start here today because I want us to talk about c-h-a-o-s – and how it is foiled, not by a TV sitcom super-spy, but by God. It’s a brand new year. And that seems to me to be a wonderful time to go back to the beginning of known time and look at what was happening. Things were in chaos. The description is given to us in the book of Genesis, in the first part of verse 2: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep . . . .” It’s like one of those disaster movies, after a great flood or hurricane has blown through town. Everything is dark and has collapsed into a confused mass of wreckage and mud. There are downed power lines everwhere. There is no sign of life anywhere – only mass destruction. There is no sound. And the twisted wreckage hangs tentatively upon itself – poised to collapse into the muck at any moment. This, according to Genesis, was what the world was like “in the beginning.”
Let me pause for a minute to interject that this is why there are two distinct theories about what was going on in the universe at the very start of things. One is called the “Original Chaos” interpretation – which poses that when the scripture says the earth was “formless and empty” it referred to a description of an “original, formless matter in the first stage of creation.” The other theory, called the “Divine Judgment” interpretation, suggests that the words “formless and empty” refer to the earth only, “in a condition subsequent to its creation, not as it was originally.” In other words – one theory says that God created out of total, original chaos. The other says God created earth out of the chaos that had come in some timeless past there had been great warfare in heaven, Satan had fallen, and the original perfect creation was destroyed in spiritual warfare.
Either way – the point is this – things were in a real mess. And in that pitch, black darkness that surrounded the teeming waters of total disorganization - what does Genesis say was happening? Verse 2, the second part says, “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” I like the way one Biblical translation puts it, saying, “and the spirit of God was brooding over the face of the waters. “ Picture a worried, mother hen. Picture a concerned parent leaning over the bedside. Picture total blackness about to filled with the most beautiful, comforting, illuminating light possible. That’s what God was up to “in the beginning.”
We can’t pinpoint when that happened and stick a date on a calendar. Scripture is silent on that and science isn’t up to the task. At least for now we will have to settle for the fact that at some point, long before recorded time, God emphatically dealt with the chaos and brought order to it all. The darkness was shattered and light ruled the day; because God wanted it that way. I like the way the old Scofield Bible puts it. It says, “The Bible begins with God, not with philosophic arguments for His existence.” There is no debate. There is no “Power Point” presentation – outlining the various arguments for how and why a divine creator has existed – only the bold assertion that He has. And the equally bold assertion is there as well – that when real, total chaos is at hand – God is the one who takes it in hand and does something about it. Eight days into the New Year – we ought to remember that. Eight days into the New Year – we ought to celebrate that. And every single day of every single year we draw breath – we ought to live our lives based on that glorious fact. There is no chaos, universal or personal, that is greater than God’s ability to handle it.
The other night you couldn’t turn of the TV or computer without seeing all kinds of talk about the “Hawkeye Caucae.” In gathering places all over Iowa, Republicans came together to make their first statements of approval or disapproval over the candidates who say they want to be the next President of the United States. And the TV and radio commentators and newspapers were having a field day talking about who was going to come in first, second, or last place. You would have thought the world was going to come to an end based on the outcome of this first straw poll, taken months and months before the real election is held.
Don’t misunderstand; I know why people were interested and how it does have some impact on the direction this country goes on down the line. But the world wasn’t going to end depending on whether or not Rick Santorum or Ron Paul or Mitt Romney came in first. Nevertheless, the commentators would have you believe it was going to do just that.
And if it isn’t the political news, it’s the economic news that has us on the edge or our seats at night. If it’s not the economic news it’s the crime statistics. If it’s not the crime statistic’s it is the latest report from the National Institutes of Health. On and on and on we worry and fret. But the God, who once “hovered” over the waters of chaos – hasn’t dropped us yet – and He never will.
There are a couple of other points that help hammer home this comforting reality. First, in the original Hebrew, the wording used when speaking about the “light” doesn’t imply an original creative act at that moment. Instead, the sense is things were made to appear, or made visible. Why is that important?
Because it reminds me that so often in life it isn’t that no light exists – it’s that the darkness of the doom and gloom around me have simply obscured it from my vision. And it’s always God who in His grace, dispels that darkness and lets the divine light shine through and show me the way. Like the proverbial “silver lining behind the cloud,” God’s light is always there – nothing can stamp it out. It’s just the chaos that sometimes blocks it from my sight. And God knows how to deal with chaos.
Finally, there’s this business of the “day.” How long was it – 24 hours or some other designated unit? People have been arguing about that for a long time. But it turns out the word used for “day” in the scripture is used to mean not just 24 hours a solar day but also a time set apart for some divine purpose as in the “Day of Atonement,” or a longer period of time, during which certain revealed purposes of God are to be accomplished, as in “the Day of the Lord.”
Why is that important? Because it reminds me that regardless of what I think about how things should happen at this time or that – God’s perfect timing is another whole thing. And so, not only can He deal with the chaos in my life in just the right way – He can deal with it at just the right time.
The New Year is, in a way, all about fresh starts. But in another way – it’s about how what has been slowly unfolding, in just the right way, at just the right time, is continuing to unfold even now. Regardless of how upside down our world appears to be, God’s creative, redeeming, purposes are being fulfilled. And so it will always be.
Secret agents named Maxwell Smart aren’t the answer to chaos – God is. So, just for a moment – picture in your mind that thing; that situation; that person; that dilemma; that question; that sin; that addiction; that – whatever it is – you’ve been brooding over lately. Sit in that darkness for just a few more seconds. Then picture God’s loving, illuminating, redeeming light exposing it for what it really is: just something over which He has complete control. Imagine God, in His mercy, easily sweeping it all away and replacing it with love and grace and wisdom and purpose and meaning.
It’s God’s New Year invitation. Come out of the chaos; into the light – once and for all.
