What's Your Problem?!

[PeterHiett]

What’s Your Problem?!

“What’s my problem?” Have you ever wondered that? I want to do what’s right, and don’t… and if I do do what’s right, I feel like doodoo—constantly questioning if it was right or why I would feel wrong about doing right, wondering if it was right and perhaps, I’m wrong? And it’s not just me that doesn’t feel right. Everyone seems wrong. Am I right? So what’s my problem? What’s your problem? Whom should I yell at?

The first chapter of Genesis ends with this statement: “And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. (very right!) And there was evening and morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.” (Gen.1:31-2:2) EVERYTHING GOOD! EVERYTHING RIGHT! So what’s the problem? In my experience it’s not all good and I’m definitely not ALL right.

Folks think they know the answer—It was those two naked people, a talking snake and a freaky tree. Well OK… but who made the snake (he doesn’t seem all that “good”)? Why would you need a garden if the whole creation were already a garden? And how could Adam and Eve be tempted to make themselves in God’s image if they already were in God’s image, which was supposedly the case at the end of the sixth day when God was “done” making us “in His Image?” I mean people in the image of God, knowing good and evil, know that it’s not wise to take advice from talking snakes, who contradict God—duh! They know what’s right and they do it, cause they want to do it. They have a good free will.

So what’s our problem? Whom should I yell at?

I read a fascinating book a few years ago and one thought just rocked my world—our world: maybe we haven’t reached the seventh day. Seriously. Physically. Empirically.

I have a geology degree from the University of Colorado and a Divinity degree from Fuller Seminary and so the relation between Scripture and the age of the earth is one that I’ve found frustrating and fascinating. For that reason I read The Science of God by Gerald Schroeder (Ph.D. MIT). One thought completely changed the nature of all my dinosaur questions, but far more importantly it completely changed the nature of my “what’s our problem,” question.

Schroeder simply reminds us of what Science has known and even proven for the last hundred years or so—it’s something the Bible has testified to far longer—and that is that time is relative. (…relative to gravity and light somehow, and Scripture even says, “God is Light”). Well anyway, if you want to know how old the universe is, the answer is entirely dependent on where you are when you ask the question. Schroeder argues that if the Universe is 15¾ billion years old from the standpoint of the earth, then it’s approximately six days old from the “standpoint” (Schroeder calculates from the moment of “quark confinement,” when matter first forms.) of the Big Bang. Get that? Not seems six days old, IS six days old or a little less than six days old. So the universe is around 15 billion years old and, just as true, it is about six days old… from the standpoint of creation, which certainly seems to be the standpoint of Genesis 1.

Well, you can argue about the math all you want, what really rocked my world was the Bible. When I went back and looked at Scripture I saw it over and over again: We’re living in the sixth day of creation and the seventh day hasn’t happened yet… or at least not for most folks walking around on the surface of this earth.

Genesis one is an outline of all time to the end of time. And in the END it’s all good. But in chapter two we’re back to the sixth day for God is making Adam. And that day is not finished until, “the last Adam,” Jesus the Christ, who is the End, cries, “It is finished,” as he hangs on a tree, also called a cross, in a garden (John 19:41) at the end of the sixth day, a Friday, and delivers up His Spirit—that Spirit that is sent into our hearts crying “Abba Father.” That means “Daddy Father.” That Spirit is God’s Spirit, that makes a good choice in freedom; because it knows the good and chooses the good because it wants the Good. God is Good and God is Love.

So God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” and dang! It looks like He meant what He said. He’s still gonna do it. He does it with His Word. And His Word does not return void. His Word is Jesus. [If you’d like to read more, visit our website, click on “Theology” and then “Epiphany”]

Well anyway, do you see our problem, my problem, your problem and your neighbor’s problem?

We’re half-baked. You’re half-baked.

You’re only beginning to know the Good, let alone love the Good. We learn to love the Good in a world that’s not all Good, but in which the Good would hang on a cross and exhibit the Good—the glory and power of Love, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Grace.

We’re half-baked. But God is still in the kitchen. This world is His Kitchen and He’s cookin’ up a creation that will love Him in freedom; people with a good will and a free will; people with faith in Grace by Grace. God is Grace. Without faith in Grace, you could never enjoy heaven. In fact you’d cast yourself into Hell.

Heaven is Faith in Grace. It’s “eternal” life in a whole new creation, the finished creation, God’s rest, the Sabbath day, the seventh day, where you are good and everything is right.

So you see, I really don’t have anyone to yell at: myself, you, my neighbor… even God. He’s not done yet. And you’re not done yet. I don’t have anyone to yell at, but a whole bunch of folks I can help along the way—help see the Way, Jesus.
And it’s easy to have a little sympathy, when I realize their problem.

They’re half-baked.

Peter Hiett is the pastor of The Sanctuary Downtown and The Sanctuary Foothills. The Sanctuary Foothills’ services are Saturday evenings at 5:30 pm in the United Methodist Church Building at 3757 S. Ponderosa Dr., Evergreen. The Sanctuary Downtown’s services are Sunday mornings at 10:00 am at 2215 W. 30th Ave., Denver.

Information and directions at: http://www.tsdowntown.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Peter will be preaching the weekends of April 21st, May 5th, 12th, and 19th.