There are lots of board games where players may find themselves going back to the beginning or starting point during the course of the game. This mechanic is often used to create tension, add strategy, or increase the overall challenge. Have you ever played Sorry!, Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, or The Game of Life? That last one fittingly names a reality with which we all can identify, sometimes life just takes you back to the beginning where you have to start all over again.
This week we are kicking off a new school and programming year for our church. We’re also beginning our sixth year of relying on a resource called the Narrative Lectionary (NL) to lead us through the weeks of our church year from now until Pentecost Sunday, near the end of May. The NL suggests the scripture texts we might focus on each Sunday and on the special days like Christmas, Ash Wednesday, and during Holy Week. Like churches that use the more traditional Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), Prince of Peace joins with thousands of Christian churches that all use the NL to shape their life together.
Each year’s set of readings are ordered chronologically through the Bible so that, over time, we might become more familiar with the story of God’s activity in the world, discovering how it was experienced by those who crafted these texts and the people described within. The NL is crafted in a four-year cycle with each year centered on one of the four Gospels. This year, our companion will be the Gospel of Mark, believed to be the earliest comprehensive account of Jesus. Mark’s witness to Jesus will be woven in and through much of what we experience this year.
But before we get to Mark and Jesus, and just like in The Game of Life, we first have to go all the way back to the beginning. Scripturally, that means we turn back to the very book in the Bible, Genesis. And of course, the first story is the account of creation itself. But do you remember that the second story is also a story of creation?
Click here to read Genesis 2:4b-25.
This account centers on the creation of the first humans and the garden within which they are placed to experience and abundant life (and ultimately also the brokenness which is also central to the human story). There’s an order to how different elements come to exist but there’s no seven-day schedule. Do the two accounts seem in conflict or are they more complimentary?
Going back to the beginning affords a unique opportunity to ask, knowing what we know, what might be different this time? The same can be true for our journey through scripture this year. What might be different for you this time? What new details will stick out? What new insights might emerge? I look forward to starting this journey together again with you.
May God’s peace find you this day. -Pastor Peter
Let us pray… Holy Creator, you created humankind in your own image to till the earth and help one another. Give us hearts to continue tending to all that you have made so that the earth will sustain life for generations to come. Amen.