Sermon from August 20, 2006

In the beginning we stared at our maps and class schedules again. . . murmuring under our breath, "Now where was I supposed to be 10 minutes ago?"

In the beginning we hunted and hunted. . . and hunted for parking. . . and began to believe if we found a parking space, it was an act of God.

In the beginning there were books everywhere, and we wondered how all of our stuff was going to fit in that space.

In the beginning we wondered if we were going to really need all hotse books for classes.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And in this beginning God is continuing to create us.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. . . all things game into being through him. All of our beginnings are through God.

This week will be some week. Life has already been kind of crazy and exciting. We are filled with anticipation. . . and if we are honest, a bit of fear. We are struck by the newness all around us. There is all this energy and liveliness. . . a million possibilities and choices of who to hang out with, what activities to get involved in, which classes to skip. We will easily get caught up and swept away by the flow of traffic if we are not careful. Yes, it is important for us to stretch and grow. . . push past our comfort zones, past what feels familiar. That is a part of beginnings. However, I caution you to not forget that at the central core of our being is God.

Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth out of a formless void. Some translations of the Bible say God created the heavens and the earth out of a watery chaos. In our case, we experience chaos and void in the midst of this beginning.

There is a sense of emptiness because we miss that which is familiar - old friends, family, camp, summer jobs, and home. . . . Who ever knew that we would miss home! Yet on the flip side of the void is a ton of things calling you out of the chaos on campus to fill that void. And they are exciting things. But filling up the void is not God's creative process. Creation is an unfolding of that which is new. It is not filling your life to the point where you can't even think. It is about God's voice speaking to your heart and offering light.

In the movie The Blue Butterfly, there is a boy obsessed with insects. His room was filled with shadow boxes of rare beetles and butterflies. He read everything he could about insects. He had one desire: to find this rarest of rare butterflies, a blue butterfly found in the rainforest. They came out for only a short time in the season and could only be found in the depths of the forest. He wanted to find this rare butterfly for two reasons. First, it was so beautiful and rare. Second, it was said to have mystical healing powers, and you see, he was ill. He talked a well-renowned researcher into taking him and his mother into the forest. It was a long and hard journey. Every day they would leave camp with a company of help to carry trunks, a wheelchair. . . . They kept on making the trips, but it was elusive. Finally the researcher said, "If you want to find what you are really looking for, you must leave all this behind." So the next day, the boy - not accompanied by his mother or a whole entourage of trunks - climbed on the professor's shoulders, and the professor carried him through the murky waters of the forest. There are things we must leave behind, spaces we must leave open, in order to discover that which we search for. God will carry us through the chaotic, murky water so that we will discover that which has been elusive.

Genesis's creation story tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and humankind in seven days. In reality it took billions of years, and God is still in the proces of creation. You are a part of the process. We are partners with God. Marjories Suhocke speaks about our relationship with God as a dance. God takes a step, then we do, and God responds to our response. She sees our relationship as a mystical dance.

But we must take moments to pause for God, to listen for God, to see God, and to wait for God's next step in our lives. In the Gospel of John, the scriptures tell us, "the word became flesh and lived among us." In The Message the translation says, "God became flesh and moved into the neighborhood." Pause and look around to see where God, in flesh and bone, is present on this campus. Look into joyful, tearful faces, acts of compassion, as folk ask difficult questions, as you witness moments of brilliance and revelation. . . fellow students doing important things, in moments of hysterical laughter.

Look for Jesus in the neighborhood. . . this neighborhood of UNL.

Beginnings are about creation, but they are also about call. I think of the history of God's people as they were called forth to do something new.

• Abraham and Sarah were called to leave all that they ever knew to journey to a foreign land.
• Jacob first began his journey running for his life because he was a treacherous scoundrel. But he had a good night's sleep with a rock for a pillow and dreamed about a ladder up to heaven. He knew God was present in spite of himself.
• Paul was struck blind on a lonely road and was called to turn a 180. Those he once presecuted, he joined to spread God's message.
• Peter left his nets, his family, and his business behind to follow Jesus. He did it with great love and totally clueless to the hugeness of whom he followed.
• Moses was called to free God's people. He tried to talk God out of it, but he ended up being the definition of "durable wanderer" for the sake of God.
• Mary, confused, surprized and doubting it was possible, accepted God's call to carry the Christ Child.

Our beginnings are full of confusion and surprise. They hold moments of insecurity, the offer us dreams and possibilities that we never imagined. They call us to a new place - spirituallly, in perspective.

They shed all they had taken for granted. No matter how different our journies are, we trust in one central fact: "God's love endures forever." Not that God's love is. That God's love endures. It pushes us, sticks in there with us, and never leaves us even when we walk away.

In the beginning - you too are among the list of God's people. What will your story be? How will God create something new in you?