Pretty good opening line...

Call me Ishmael 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

If you are thinking Melville, Dickens, Austen, or Tolstoy – grab a pen and jot down the name of the person who introduced you to great literature. And by “introduced” I mean some unreasonable teacher who forced you to read the classics under the threat of great punishment!

The editors of American Book Review selected what they consider the most memorable first lines of novels. The titles on the list span centuries and genres and include classics and even some contemporary novels that are certain to become classics.

An opening line is without question the most important phrase of any work. It’s an attention-getter and either grabs the reader or not. A mediocre opening might barely entice the reader to venture to the next sentence, but a lackluster opening is the kiss of death.

I know that I have only a few seconds to either convince you to listen or risk losing you for the next 15 minutes. The first sentence is the most crucial of any written work and every author is intimidating by the crafting of same…every author, that is, with the possible exception of God!

Now, given the fact that this church is known to be a tad progressive, even, God forbid, liberal – it should come as no surprise that this preacher doesn’t accept the Bible as the literal word of God. I’m sorry if that comes as a shock but I’m of the stripe that claims that we “take the Bible so seriously that we don’t take it literally!”

In that light of considering the Bible as God’s Word and a work of great literature, we add to the above listing of august opening lines its first sentence:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

It’s not “Call me Ishmael” but it’s a pretty great opener!

Every student of the Hebrew Bible, and/or every member of this year’s Confirmation Class, knows that the word for “wind” in this sentence is translated from the Hebrew “ruah” – and it equally appropriate to substitute “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit” – same word used interchangeably. It’s up the interpreter to decide which to use. Frankly – that’s a lot of leeway for a nerdy scholar.

Other equally nerdy scholars claim that this first line also contains the “premise of all biblical faith.”

That’s a lot of weight for an opening sentence.

Now, while it may be the premise of all faith, it’s not where the story began. The people who remembered this saga are themselves in the “formless void” of the Exile, staring at the face of the waters of Babylon, having seen their carefully ordered life shattered into deep darkness. They had known the halcyon days of the United Kingdom ruled under the charming and charismatic Kind David where unemployment was low, interest rates favorable, health care cheap and available, and national security unimpeachable.

You know those days. Career is chugging along, family is healthy, 401k is robust, and the world has order and purpose and promising trajectory. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.

Then…a spot on an X-ray or a downturn in the market, or a merger and subsequent layoffs, or a phone call from the police, or a diagnosis with no cure or treatment.

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice!” (Psalm 130)

And so, from the perspective of the ones who crafted the opening line of the Bible, they asked…

Where does one look in order to trust the ongoing ordering of the Lord when the temple is destroyed, one’s power has been shattered, and one’s captors follow a different calendar and worship different gods? Shackled in a prison cell, with only a slender slice of sky visible, the ongoing division between day and night might be your only sign that God is yet creating order out of chaos, the wind or spirit of God yet moving over the “face of the waters.” (Richard Boyce, Feasting on the Word, year B vol. 1, page 223)

It puts things in a different light, doesn’t it?

This first of two creation stories in the canon isn’t the grand prologue with humanity in the starring role, God’s agent of creation—no, this is the story for people whose lives have been shattered, whose hope has been swallowed by that deep and formless void, whose lives are chaotic and dark.

This creation story is a way of holding onto hope when all signs of order in our lives have been destroyed and we must look out for signs of the creative work of God beyond our control. If God is still creating order out of chaos in the succession of day and night, maybe God will one day create order once more out of chaos in the lives of God’s people. Hold on, and do not lose hope. (ibid)

This opening line is not solely an introduction to an epic; it is rather a confession of faith. A faith that states unequivocally that…

• God was before the beginning.
• God is creator out of nothing. 
• God is creator out of chaos.
• God’s Spirit/Wind/Breath “ruah” is present in all places, even and especially those that are dark, void, formless, and deep.
• God’s ruah is more than present – God’s breath sweeps over the face of the waters, the places in our lives where hope has been overwhelmed and all but drowned.

Jesus is immersed, baptized, in the muddy, chaotic waters of the Jordan and God’s Spirit, the one that swept over the face of the waters of creation, was yet again breathing life.

And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit [ruah] descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Today as we remember our baptisms, I wonder if there are places in our lives that are dark and void and formless and deep that need God’s wind [ruah] to sweep over them, to remind us that God has created out of chaos, that God will again bring the breath of life to those places where the spirit of hope has been overwhelmed.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

This is the opening line of the Bible, it’s the first sentence of Creation, and it is the premise of our faith.

That’s a lot of weight for a few words.