Sunday, May 31, 2026

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-31

Sermon Title: “God Is Our Creator”

When I was in college I interned at a church in Athens, Ohio. It was part of an internship program through the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church for college students discerning a call to ministry. And while I was there, I think it may have been the first or second week, they did Vacation Bible School. And they went all out for Vacation Bible School. It was filled with music, kids screaming as they jumped up and down and danced to the music. I think there might have even been a fog machine involved. It was controlled chaos.

I have never been to Vacation Bible School at First United in Ormond, but I’ve heard they go all out as well. I know the last day will be all sorts of water slides outside. It sounds like it will be controlled chaos as well. This year, we will be hosting the controlled chaos here at Tomoka UMC. Vacation Bible School is kicking off next Monday, June 8th. We’re very excited to be doing this in partnership with First United since their church is undergoing construction. This year the theme is “Rainforest Falls” and is talking about the nature of God.

Now when we talk about the “Nature of God” we’re not really talking about nature. But rainforest and nature is a nice play on words. When we’re talking about the “Nature of God,” we’re actually talking about the character of God. Think about when you hear someone described as “good natured.” You’re talking about their character. So, the kids will be learning about God’s nature.

Inspired by Vacation Bible School, these next five weeks we’ll be in a series called “VBS for Grownups.” Each week we’ll be looking at the theme and scriptures the kids will be learning the five days of VBS and digging in a little deeper. We’ll be looking at these scriptures from a grown-up lens.

Our scripture today, which will be the first day of VBS, is all about creation. The theme for the day is “God is our Creator.” If you remember back to Children’s Sunday School or Vacation Bible School as a child, you probably remember learning the creation story. My girls have both attended a church affiliated pre-school, so we have certainly seen our fair share of art projects about creation. Most of us probably don’t remember each individual day in the creation story, but we remember it begins on the first day with “Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:3, NIV) and we know it ends on the 6th day with humanity being created. Then we have God resting on the 7thday.

As adults, many have gotten hung up on the idea of whether we believe in the idea of a 7-daycreation story as told in scripture, or if we believe in science which says that the earth is millions of years old. Some have been told if you believe in science, then you can’t believe in God. I fear that people have left the Church and Christianity because they have been told they can’t be a faithful follower of God and believe in science as well.

United Methodist Pastor Adam Hamilton writes this, “The tragedy of a literal or creationist reading of the Bible is that it sets up a false dichotomy: one must choose between science and God. But this dichotomy only exists when one insists upon a literal approach to scripture or believes that the Bible’s account of creation is God’s account of precisely how, and how long ago, he created the world and everything in it.” (Adam Hamilton, Making Sense of the Bible p. 188)

I would like to propose an alternate path, a middle way. Which is what I would say most Methodists believe. We can believe that God is the creator of all that is and also believe in science. We can believe that science is the way in which God works and orders the natural world. God and science are not two opposing beliefs.

The point of the creation story isn’t to tell us the science behind how the earth was formed. It isn’t meant to be taken literally as a 7-day story. But it’s meant to tell us that God is the creator and we are the created. It’s meant to tell us that we would not exist without God. That before there was the earth and all creation, and even us, there was only God.

Adam Hamilton writes, “Genesis 1 is majestic, beautiful, and poetic. It is not a lesson in cosmology; it is a creed. It is not a science lecture; it is poetry. It makes a claim not about scientific knowledge but about truth and theology. There is a God. This God is good and glorious. Creation is good. We, both men and women, were made in God’s image. Life is a gift. God is the rightful ruler of all things.” (Adam Hamilton, Making Sense of the Bible, p.190-191)

As we dig into the Genesis story, I want us focused on what the story is meant to tell us. The Genesis story is not meant to tell us a scientific order about creation. But it’s meant to tell us about God and our relationship to God and creation.

Since Vacation Bible School is focused on the “Nature of God,” or the character of God, the very first thing we ever learn in scripture about God is that God is our creator. The first thing we learn about God is that God is creative. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t feel very creative. But I’m always amazed at the creativity of children.

Ellie loves to draw and is very creative. But creativity can go beyond drawing and visual art. My girls also like to make up shows to perform for us. That’s creativity. For some reason, every time our youngest Isla tries on her dad’s glasses, she says, “welcome to the show.” Isla can be very creative when it comes to making up stories and playing with little people or Barbie Dolls. She can entertain herself for quite a long time.

During Lent, I loved seeing the children’s creativity as they worked on their gigantic masterpiece artwork. And Genesis reminds us that we serve a God who is creative.

It’s amazing to see artwork begin. It begins with a blank paper or a blank canvas. And then we add lines. It might just be pencil lines and blobs at first. It might involve crayons or paint. It’samazing to watch a good artist, because at first you might not see what is being created, and then all of a sudden, you have a masterpiece.

That’s what the creation story tells us. God begins with nothing. And forms a masterpiece.

The first two verses of Genesis say, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Gensis 1:1-2, NIV)

Last week we celebrated Pentecost. We celebrated the Holy Spirit coming. Today is Trinity Sunday, reminding us that we serve a God who is three in one. And here in scripture we see even before creation, the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. Imagine God like an artists, hovering over the paper, pencil or paintbrush in hand, waiting to create something out of nothing. Before all of creation existed, God was there, three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we see the God, three in one, hovering, waiting to create.

God is creator, God is creative, and God made everything out of nothing.

But this story also has a few more things to tell us. Whenever something is repeated, we should pay attention. When a teacher repeats something over and over, it’s because they want us to get it. I know I repeat every week that we have an Open Communion Table: All are welcome. And I do this because I want us all to get it. Whoever we are. Especially if we are new. And the same is true with scripture. When something is repeated over and over again, the writer of that scripture wants us to understand the point.

Over and over, in this creation story, after something is created, “God says that it was good.” And the last verse of this creation story says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” All of creation was not just good, it was very good.

Last week Jesse and I celebrated our anniversary, and we went to St. Augustine for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant called Saint, that we went to last year for our anniversary as well. We liked it so much that we went again this year. We had this bread board for an appetizer that had all these sorts of breads and different spreads to go on it. Then we had this Caesar salad, then we had this pasta called Cacio Pepe. And after each course of our meal, we were saying the same thing as God here in the creation story, “that was good.”

Then we got to the dessert. It was this limoncello cheesecake. And when we ordered it, the waiter even said, “that’s the best dessert.” It was amazing. When we finished the dessert, we couldn’t help but say, “that was very good.”

You see, when something is good, you can’t help but go on and on about how good it is. That was us as we ate our meal, especially the dessert. And that is God here in creation telling us how good creation is. Telling us how good we are as part of God’s creation.

Genesis 1:23 tells us, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (NIV)

I don’t know if you grew up hearing how good you were as a child or if you grew up hearing how bad you were. Maybe you heard something in the middle. Or maybe as you got older and made more mistakes, you heard more about how bad you are. But here in scripture, we are told that we are good, and that we are made in the “image of God.”

The image of God is sometimes hard to imagine. But when I think of the image of God, I think of a mirror or water that is so clear you can see your reflection in it. A reflection is not quite the real thing but looks a lot like it.

We are certainly not God, but we are to be God’s reflection in the world. We are to have the characteristics of God and reflect those characteristics to the world. Characteristics like creativity, love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, you name it.

Yes, sin and brokenness entered the world, we see that later in the next couple chapters of Genesis. We live in a broken, fallen world. But at the heart of creation is God. And God is good, creation is good, and we as people made in God’s image are good as well.

God is our creator. God made everything from nothing. God is creative. And all of creation, including us, is good. We are made in God’s image.

Now the last thing the creation story tells us is that we are to rule over creation. In our broken, fallen world, sometimes we have taken this and turned the idea of “ruling,” into a bad thing. Throughout history though, we have witnessed good rulers and bad rulers. Rulers who have lifted up their people to thrive, and rulers who have oppressed their people.

And we have the choice will we rule over creation in a good way, in a godly way. Or will we rule over creation in a fallen, broken, and cruel way. We can lift up creation so that it thrives. Or we can oppress creation in a way that hurts our world.

Last week our Adult Sunday School finished up a class on the social principles of the United Methodist Church. We got into discussions on all sorts of subjects. Thank you Pastor Bob Williams, it was a great class. But one week, we focused on creation and how we are to care for creation.

We even listened to the song we sung this morning, “Morning Has Broken.” But we listened to the Cat Stevens version. We discussed how we are to take care of creation. You see, we are not to rule over creation in a way that hurts creation. But we are to be good stewards of creation.

I don’t know about you, but for me I connect most to God’s presence when I am out in creation. Whether it’s a walk around my neighborhood, or at a beautiful National Park. Jesse and I, and now the girls too have seen a good amount of the national parks in this country. And there is just something about when you’re standing looking at canyons or mountain views, or trees hundreds of years older than you, that you can’t help but feel the presence of God. You can’t help but say, “this is very good.” There’s something especially wonderful too when you see wildlife thriving in their natural habitat, you can’t help but say, “this is very good.”

I have felt that same way snorkeling in coral reefs seeing that creation is even greater with a whole other world under the sea teeming with coral, fish, turtles, and more. I can’t help but say, “thank you God, this is very good.”

You see being a follower of our Triune God means not only recognizing that God is the creator of all, not only recognizing that all of creation is good, but as people made in the image of God, we are to care for creation just as God does. We are to be good stewards of all that God has given us, recognizing that creation is a beautiful gift.

We want to be able to continue to go to beautiful places and say, “this is good, this is very good.” We want our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to be able to go to these places after us and say, “this is good. This is very good.”

A few weeks ago, my dad sent a picture to our family group chat of the biggest catfish he had ever caught. It was 35 pounds! I joked that it was about the same size as Isla. Then I asked if he was keeping it to cook and he shared this.

He said, “no, I only cook the 5 or 6 pounders. The bigger ones I throw back because they are the biggest spawners. And I still want their to be big fish for my grandkids to catch one day.”

He gave a scientific reason about breeding the population. But he also gave a somewhat moral reason as well. I want my grandchildren to be able to experience this same thing as me one day.

You see as people made in the image of God, as good stewards who are ruling over creation in a  godly, healthy way rather than an oppressive way, we should be thinking about how we keep the planet the way God would want us to, so more and more generations can enjoy our beautiful creation for many years to come.

There’s a famous saying, “blessed is the person who plants trees knowing they will never sit under its shade.” It’s a quote about planning for future generations.

On Friday night, we were blessed to have Bob and Sue Ettinger come over for dinner. Bob had mentioned he had some crepe myrtle trees we could have, so we invited them to bring the trees and come over for dinner. Well, they surprised us with even more than just the crepe myrtle trees, they brought other plants and flowers to plant as well. They planted sunflower seeds as well.

I just have to say, if you need a landscaper, Bob Ettinger is your guy. Bob even said something like we hope you are here awhile so the girls can see these trees grow as they got older.

Now I will say, Jesse and I aren’t the best plant people. We’re not the greatest landscapers. But we’re feeling inspired. We want to be good stewards of what Bob and Sue blessed us with. We had our sprinklers going and the girls with their watering cans the next morning.

We too should want to be good stewards of creation, recognizing that all of creation is a gift from God. We should want to care about creation, not just for ourselves, but for future generations. We should care about there being trees for future generations and big fish for future generations to catch.

I don’t always give homework, but since we’re channeling our inner child talking about VBS, I figured we could do homework this week. Don’t worry, I promise it’s easy. I want you this week to take time to be out in creation connecting with our creator. Now I know we all have different activity levels. For some this might mean going on a walk, hike, or maybe even a boat ride. For others it might be sitting outside reading a book on your porch. Maybe it even involves planting a plant. Whatever it is, take time to be out in creation. Soak in God’s creation. And spend some time in prayer, thanking God and praising God for creation, for the beauty of the earth. And ask the Lord to speak to you about how God is calling you to be a better steward of the earth and care for creation.

Now since all VBS lessons involve a call and response, repeat after me:

God is our creator. (God is our creator)

Creation is good. (Creation is good)

Take care of God’s creation. (Take care of God’s creation)

Amen