April 9th

Creation

To my dear TFMC family,
When talking about Sin, how we begin the conversation is just about as important as how we end it. We are human, and we make mistakes; that’s part of the human condition. We’re not perfect, we don’t have it all together, and we mess up. This is part of what it means to be human. And for some people they would lean into a starting point that we are inherently bad, we’re inherently sinners. And for others they might start the conversation that we’re inherently good, but we make mistakes.
If we start as sinners who need redemption; that is to suggest that our identity is rooted in us being fallen, victims of that first Sin of eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good an evil, then we have a long hole to dig out of to find ourselves back in God’s good graces.
However, if we start as we’ve been created at good; that is to suggest that our identity is first and foremost rooted in how we were originally created by God, as good, ‘tov’ in the Hebrew, then we live with grace. We recognize that we will make mistakes but we are not beyond grace.
In any conversation surrounding Sin, I find I start from a place that humankind was first created at as Good. Some theologians would call this the original blessing. Before humankind was tempted, before humankind tried to ‘be like God,’ we were Good. And Good is a word that is not used lightly in scripture. Jesus corrects one person who calls him good, replying, “only God is good.”
One way I think about it is from the perspective of a craftsman. When I get the chance, I like to make things. And without reservation, I can say that I’m proud of anything I’ve made. There is an inherent pleasure in being able to say, “I made this.” I imagine it’s the same way with God.
God is unabashedly delighted in each of God’s creations, humankind especially.
And as careful as I am, inevitably, sometimes I make breaks, or even have a flaw. I think think of 1001 examples from things I’ve made But I still love and delight in what I made. I think God is like that too. God sees each of us as beautifully and wonderfully, uniquely made. Even when we get chipped, dented, bruised, God still delights in God’s creation.
Even though our love gets misdirected, even though we choose to love ourselves rather than loving others. Even though we orient our love and focus it away from God, it doesn’t make God love us any less. This, I would argue, is at the root of grace. The love of God, in the face of our misdirected love. Or to say it another way, the love of God, in the face of Sin.
While some may argue that Sin causes God to turn away from us. I’d say it’s the other way around, the more our love becomes misdirected, the more we turn away from God, the more we can’t see God. And in our own ‘we are the center of our own universe’ kind of way, we perceive it as God having turned away from us, when really, we’ve turned away from God. God is always there, waiting, arm outstretched, ready to welcome us back, with unreserved grace.
Yours,
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor