best science of the day - The creation story of Genesis 1 is one of the best-known stories in Scripture but known primarily in a polemical or stereotypical way. As Brueggemann points out, however, this story reflects a "bold intellectual effort" as well as "believing passion." The writers of this story are interested in theological reality, but are not uninterested with nature around them. They marshal the best intellectual data of the day and then interpret the data to yield fresh new thoughts about God. To borrow from Anselm, Genesis 1 reflects a "faith seeking understanding." [1]

the beginning? - How are we to understand "beginning?" According to NIB, beginning does not need nor does it probably refer to, some arbitrary beginning of ordered creation-including time-history. Time begins with God’s ordering. What is intriguing about the opening line is the suggestion that God is the creator of all things, but that God’s creative work begins with something already existent-the earth, which was "formless and void." [2]

tohu wabohu - The formless void (tohû wabohû) does not mean "nothing" nor an undifferentiated mass, the writer already tips us off to the existence of earth, (deep) waters, the darkness, and the wind. Rather the formless void more aptly refers to the sense of something desolate and unproductive. That’s how God begins the story-by entering an unproductive and desolate world with life and light. [3]

[4] How do you go about doing tasks, projects, or meetings? When are you most creative? Have you ever experienced an epiphany? One of those fleeting, ephemeral creative insights that become a creative idea?

How does Genesis 1 connect with Christian baptism? What do both share in common?

block #1 - suggest the evolution/creation debate that has at its core this very chapter from Genesis. If you are conversant with the current debate, you may want to summarize them. The idea: Genesis 1 has been used as polemic.

block #2 - shift to the historical situation from which this text was heard: historically, this text was used to refute Babylonian theology of the 6th cen bc. Babylonian gods seemed to control the future. Genesis 1 reminded Israel that God Yahweh is the one who watches over creation, who is the Lord of life.

block #3 - suggest how this chapter moves well beyond the purview of creationism to a God whose Word transforms reality. This story makes a theological claim about the character of God who is bound to the world and about the world who is bound to God. "When the text is heard as news in a theological idiom, it leaves open all scientific theories about the origin of the world. The faith of the church has no vested interest in any of the alternative scientific hypotheses. The text is none other than the voice of the evangel proclaiming good news. [5]

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[1] Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), page 14.
[2] New Interpreter’s Bible I  (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), page 342.
[3] Ibid, page 342.
[4] Serendipity Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Co., 1998), page 354.
[5] Brueggemann, pp. 26-27.