In the Beginning
A Brilliant Start
Sunday, January 11, 2026
Feast of the Baptism of Jesus
Father Richard Rohr describes how the creation story found in the book of Genesis is good news:
Genesis is the first book in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. It’s neither the oldest, nor the first Jewish Scripture written down, but its brilliance gets us off to a very good start. The Genesis creation story is really quite extraordinary when compared to other creation stories of its time. Some peoples envision creation happening by spontaneous combustion, or emerging out of a hole in the ground, or through a mythological figure, or even through an act of violence. But our creation story declares that we were created in the very “image and likeness” of God, and out of generative love (Genesis 1:27, 9:6). This starts us out on an absolutely positive and hopeful foundation.
The first act of divine revelation is creation itself. The very first Bible is nature, which was written about 13.8 billion years ago, at the moment that we call the Big Bang, long before the Bible of words. God initially speaks through what is, as we see Paul affirming in Romans 1:20: “Ever since God created the world, God’s everlasting power and deity—however invisible—have been there for the mind to see in the things God has made.”
The biblical account tells us God creates the world developmentally over six days, almost as if there were an ancient intuition of what we would eventually call evolution. Clearly creation happened over time. The only strict theological assertion of the Genesis story is that God started it all. The exact how, when, and where is not the author’s concern. [1]
This creation story, which some modern scholars think was written down nearly five hundred years before Jesus lived, has no intention or ability to be a scientific account. It’s an inspired account of the source, meaning, and original goodness of creation. Thus, it is indeed “true.” Both Western rationalists and religious fundamentalists must stop confusing true with that which is literal, chronological, or visible to the narrow spectrum of the human eye. Many assume the Bible is an exact snapshot—as if caught on camera—of God’s involvement on Earth. But if God needed such literalism, God would have waited for the 19th century of the Common Era to start talking and revealing through “infallible” technology. [2]
Science often affirms what were for centuries the highly suspect intuitions of the Scriptures and mystics. We now take it for granted that everything in the universe is deeply connected and linked, even light itself, which interestingly is the first act of creation (Genesis 1:3). Objects—even galaxies!—throughout the entire known universe are in orbits and cycle around something else. There’s no such thing in the whole universe as autonomy. It doesn’t exist. That’s the illusion of the modern, individualistic West, which imagines the autonomous self to be the basic building block and the true Seer. [3]
In the Beginning
An Intimate Origin Story
Monday, January 12, 2026
Brian McLaren reflects on the miraculous creation of the cosmos and everything in it:
The first and greatest surprise—a miracle, really—is this: that anything exists at all…. The first pages of the Bible and the best thinking of today’s scientists are in full agreement: it all began in the beginning, when space and time, energy and matter, gravity and light, burst or bloomed or banged into being. In light of the Genesis story, we would say that the possibility of this universe overflowed into actuality as God, the Creative Spirit, uttered the original joyful invitation: Let it be! And in response, what happened? Light. Time. Space. Matter. Motion. Sea. Stone. Fish. Sparrow. You. Me. Enjoying the unspeakable gift and privilege of being here, being alive….
Genesis means “beginnings.” It speaks through deep, multilayered poetry and wild, ancient stories. The poetry and stories of Genesis reveal deep truths that can help us be more fully alive today. They dare to proclaim that the universe is God’s self-expression, God’s speech act. That means that everything everywhere is always essentially holy, spiritual, valuable, meaningful. All matter matters.
Through the book of Genesis we encounter a story of goodness and interconnectedness.
Genesis tells us that the universe is good—a truth so important it gets repeated like the theme of a song…. Every river or hill or valley or forest is good. Skin? Good. Bone? Good. Mating and eating and breathing and giving birth and growing old? Good, good, good. All are good. Life is good.
The best thing in Genesis is not simply human beings, but the whole creation considered and enjoyed together, as a beautiful, integrated whole, and us a part. The poetry of Genesis describes the “very goodness” that comes at the end of a long process of creation … when all the parts, including us, are working together as one whole. That harmonious whole is so good that the Creator takes a day off, as it were, just to enjoy it. That day of restful enjoyment tells us that the purpose of existence isn’t money or power or fame or security or anything less than this: to participate in the goodness and beauty and aliveness of creation….
According to the first creation story, you are part of creation. You are made from common soil … dust, Genesis says; stardust, astronomers tell us … soil that becomes watermelons and grain and apples and peanuts, and then, they become food, and then that food becomes you…. Together with all living things, you share the breath of life, participating in the same cycles of birth and death, reproduction and recycling and renewal. You, with them, are part of the story of creation—different branches on the tree of life. In that story, you are connected and related to everything everywhere. In fact, that is a good partial definition of God: God is the one through whom we are related and connected to everything.
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| JAN 12, 2026 The Enduring Exile |
 Throughout the Old Testament, we’ve seen a repeated pattern. First, God desires to dwell among his people. If you recall, this is the primary definition of a temple in the ancient Near East. A temple is where a deity dwells. In Genesis, God dwelt with the man and woman in Eden. In Exodus, God descended upon Mount Sinai to meet with Moses and give instructions to the Israelites—including plans for the construction of the tabernacle where God’s presence would dwell with them. Later, during Solomon’s reign, a permanent temple was built in Jerusalem. Again, the presence of God filled that special place with his presence.The second part of this Old Testament pattern is the repeated failure of God’s people to fulfill their calling as mediators of God’s presence. They were to be priests who represented God to the world, but Adam and Eve failed to keep the serpent, an unclean animal, out of the garden/temple in Eden. When its uncleanness spread to them, the man and woman rebelled against God and rejected their priestly calling. The story of the Israelites is also one of repeated disobedience and idolatry. The Lord repeatedly warned them that their special calling to be “a royal priesthood” would be revoked if they did not uphold their covenant to represent his character to the world. Of course, they didn’t, which leads to the third part of the pattern. When the people persistently rebelled against their priestly vocation to represent God, his presence departed from them, and the temple space was abandoned or destroyed. For example, the man and woman were expelled from the garden/temple east of Eden and prevented from returning. Much later, the same pattern is repeated when God’s presence departed from the temple in Jerusalem, foreign armies invaded the city, destroyed the temple, and God’s rebellious people were carried into exile in Babylon in the east.The exile in Babylon appeared to be the end of God’s efforts to dwell among his people. After all, their priestly calling to represent God was impossible without his presence and without a temple. But hope was not lost. Amid their exile, through the prophets, God promised to reboot his covenant with Israel. He vowed that a remnant would return to the land, a new and more glorious temple would arise, and that his presence would dwell among them once again. And this time, the pattern would not repeat because the people would not rebel against this new covenant. But by the end of the Old Testament, things were in an awkward state. On the positive side, many Jews had returned from exile and reoccupied the Promised Land, and a new temple had been rebuilt in Jerusalem in 516 BC. However, on the negative side, God’s people remained under the control of foreign, pagan rulers. The new temple was not nearly as beautiful as the previous one. And most concerning of all, God’s presence had not returned to fill it with his glory. Remember, a temple is only a temple if God’s presence is there. Without it, all of the priests, the sacrifices, and the rituals were just cosplay. The people were just pretending that things were back to normal. In truth, they were still in a state of exile.When would God fulfill his promises? When would the prophecies regarding Israel’s full restoration be fulfilled? When would a more spectacular temple arise and his presence return to dwell among them? These questions lingered over the people for centuries. Some Jews took matters into their own hands by waging war against their foreign overlords. It didn’t work. One pagan empire was simply replaced by another. Then, Herod the Great undertook a building project in 20 BC to massively expand the temple in the hope of fulfilling the prophecy. Herod’s temple was impressive, but God’s presence did not return. The state of exile persisted; the purpose of Israel remained on hold.This was the condition of things at the opening of the New Testament. And in the coming days, we will look at how our understanding of Jesus’ arrival changes when we read it through this Old Testament temple theology. DAILY SCRIPTURE ISAIAH 2:1-4 JEREMIAH 31:31-34 WEEKLY PRAYER. from Clement of Alexandria (c.150 – c.215) Be kind to your little children, Lord. Be a gentle teacher, patient with our weakness and stupidity. And give us the strength and discernment to do what you tell us, and so grow in your likeness. Amen. |
