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Does the Center Hold?
Is the world fundamentally chaotic or controlled? Is there a point or a plan holding together what’s happening all around us, to us, and in us? The textbook for my philosophy class in college was titled, Does the Center Hold? Is there a coherence to the chaos in the cosmos?
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of chaos in the world. Just in my short lifetime, I’ve seen wars in the Middle East, scandals in Washington, and betrayal and disintegration and pain in my own family.
Is there any coherence in a world where nineteen men fly commercial airliners into buildings? Or where a twenty-year war seems to land us right where we started? Or in a group of men who believe that women should be beaten publicly if they’re not dressed in a certain way? Or in a world where hurricanes devastate people’s lives and property? Or where a virus can bring the entire world to a grinding halt? Or where a vaccine can get people who love each other to start hating each other? Or where race relations still aren’t what they should be? Or where you can let your children decide what gender they’d like to be? Or where the greatest sin is telling someone that what they’re doing is wrong? And this is just the stuff “out there.” I haven’t even mentioned the turbulence swirling around in our hearts.
Is the world fundamentally chaotic or controlled? When many people look at the landscape of the world, they struggle to say, “What a beautifully planned and executed world!” It’s not surprising that many are turning away from faith in God. They can’t seem to see him anywhere.
Pessimism and Optimism
The unique thing about the Bible is that it warrants a deep and abiding pessimism and optimism. The Bible has resonated with so many people through the centuries because of its honesty and hope. In it, we find an honest assessment of life as it actually is. No sugar-coating. All the main characters do something that would easily get them fired from their jobs and probably thrown in prison if they were alive today. We resonate with them so much because we’re like them.
But running through the Bible, in an inexplicable way, the hand of God is moving and shaping people and events in such a way that his good plan and purposes are advanced. There’s massive hope to be found because God is present and patient with his flawed people and actively involved in organizing their chaos for their redemption.
In short, the Bible presents reality as both chaotic and controlled. We might call it “controlled chaos.” There are unexplainably hard realities in this world, and in our lives. And there’s a good God whose design is to bring beauty from the ashes, joy out of tears, healing out of pain, and resurrection after death.
Explanatory Power
The Christian story, as found in the Bible, has explanatory power that no other religion has. The Bible tells us why there’s chaos, but also why we still have hope. It tells us that we see, and long to see, truth and goodness and beauty in the world because God made the world inherently good to display his beauty and reveal his truth. And because we’re made in his image, meaning that we have capacities for love and goodness and creativity and justice and righteousness.
It also tells us that sin has broken everything. Some skeptics admit that the universality of sin is the leading empirical proof for the Christian worldview. Our history starts with original sin, meaning that sin touches everything and that it’s spreading and corrupting everything like a cancer. One time an Eastern guru said that the earth is supported on the back of a tiger. “When asked what supports the tiger, he says it stands upon an elephant. When asked what supports the elephant he says it is a giant turtle. When asked, finally, what supports the giant turtle, he is briefly taken aback, but quickly replies, ‘Ah, after that it is turtles all the way down.’”[1]
For us, “It’s sin all the way down.” Marvin Olasky says, “We are naturally wretched, passing on original sin in ways that are sometimes creative but often repetitious…An iron chain bonds together generation after generation. And I’m part of that chain.”[2] The Bible is honest about our condition. It doesn’t spray perfume on us. It holds up a mirror so we can see clearly. I love Ray Ortlund’s illustration about this. He says, “We’re all like Jason Bourne. We’re trying to figure out who we are. But the more we discover, the less we like what we find.”[3]
The Bible also says that God can turn that unbreakable iron chain into a “readily breakable daisy chain.”[4] When we see God’s goodness in the face of Jesus Christ and understand that he’s removed our chains and stains by his blood, we come into a world of hope, a new life with new eyes that start to see goodness in the brokenness.
Finding God in Our Little Stories
So is there a point to the chaos and confusion? Yes. There’s a Big Story that God is writing in the world, a story that he, like Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton, both wrote and plays the lead role, a story of cosmic proportions, and a story that we also have a part to play. God’s Big Story is how we make sense of our little stories. The chaos of our lives can only find coherence within the story of God.
The problem is that many of us are consumed with perfecting our little stories and don’t see the Big Story. Or we think that our story is the point, so we’re not interested in the Big Story. But, as I said last week, I want us to be a people who go deep into the story of ourselves and deep into the story of God. These aren’t unrelated pursuits. Remember what Calvin said, “The knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to him.”
If we believe that God wrote our story, then we’ll find him in our story. But, as I said last week, many of us are too busy to take a look, or we’re scared to deal honestly with the painful parts of our story. Which is so sad because the Lord wants to meet us in a special way in the dark alleys and dimly lit rooms of our stories. As John Ames said, “He is forever raising up those who are brought low.” The point of engaging your story is to allow God to raise you up to himself.
The Big Story
It’s important to have a good understanding of the Big Story as we start walking through our own stories. This means we need to know the Bible, because this is where we hear and learn the story of God. In about 750,000 words, the Bible tells a very simple story, a story we can summarize in less than sixty words: God created everything good, including you and I, but we sinned against God by disobeying him, thus making us deserving of his justice. But in love, God initiated a plan to send a redeemer who would remove our sin and remake us and the world again. This redeemer has come and will come again. His name is Jesus Christ.
Write down these four words to help you remember the Big Story of God: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation (or Endgame). This message can be shared anywhere, anytime, with anyone. I got to share this with Emani while buying books at Goodwill in Dallas, Roger while eating lunch at the beach in Hawaii, and Johnny while buying a new phone at the AT&T store in Addison. It’s amazing how much hope you can give people by simply telling them the Big Story behind their little chaotic stories. Look and pray for ways to share this story with those who are far from God.
Of course, more can be said about God’s story. You can spend hours, indeed a lifetime, trying to get to the bottom of it. Here’s another, slightly longer, way to summarize what theologians call the Bible’s metanarrative, or Big Story:
“The biblical story begins with the fact that there is only one God. He has created everything and especially made humankind to rule under him. In this context, God is the center of the universe, and we humans find our purpose in having a right relationship to God and to one another. The first man and woman, however, rejected this way. Now, what happens when God is no longer the center of our universe? Who steps in to take his place? Why, we do. I want to be at the center of the universe. Will this work? No, because you want to be there too. And so, chaos and evil have reigned since the rebellion of Adam and Eve, because from then on, we no longer had a right relationship with God and did not treat each other as genuinely human.
God judged the entire human race and made a new start with Noah. This too ended up in chaos and evil, as is clear from the story of the Tower of Babel.
Then he made a fresh start with Abraham. He would restore a creation and humanity ruined by pride and rebellion by using Abraham and his family as a pilot project. The people of Israel would be an example, a light to the world of what it meant to be properly related to God and to treat each other according to the dignity of our humanity. We may call this the Mosaic covenant, set forth in Exodus and restated in Deuteronomy.
But the people of Israel did not keep the Mosaic covenant. They were to be blessed for obedience, cursed for disobedience. That is why the biblical story ends up by talking about a new covenant. This time it would be possible to keep this covenant.”[5]
This new covenant was inaugurated and accomplished through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection so that everyone who trusts in him is forgiven of their sins and brought into new relationship with God and God’s people.
This is the Big Story that gives shape and meaning to our little stories. This is the story that provides order to the chaos and hope for the hopeless. This is the foundational story of reality. There’s a God in heaven who created you and loves you despite all the stuff that might make you unlovely. This God has come to you in his Son and in his Word to give you a new beginning, a new life. He wants to bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. He wants to make you his son or daughter. And he wants you to reflect his goodness to the world.
The reason I’ve belabored the point of our story and God’s story is because I want us to approach the Bible as it’s meant to be approached. It’s not a theological textbook meant to fill our minds with facts. It’s the revelation of God meant to bring us into relationship with God. It tells one main story meant to shape our little stories. I want us to be sharp theologically. But if our heads enlarge while our hearts shrivel, then we’ve missed everything.
Beginning at the Beginning
This is why, as God’s people have done for thousands of years, we look to the Bible to find God, to find hope and help, and to make sense of the madness around us.
Here at Preston Highlands, the way we usually do this is by studying individual books of the Bible verse by verse. Today, by way of introduction, and next week in earnest, we’re going to begin a new study. We’re going to begin at the beginning. We’re going to start working through the magisterial book of Genesis, the “Book of Beginnings.”
The word “genesis” literally means “beginning,” or “origin.” It’s the first word of the first book in the Bible. It’s a great way to begin the Bible, as it provides us with an account of the beginning, or origin, of everything! All the basic realities of life find their beginning in Genesis. We learn of the beginning of things such as: the universe, animal life, human life, marriage, evil in the world, language and languages, government, culture, nations, religion, Israel, and God’s plan to recreate the world and bring his people back to the Garden through the Snake-Crusher.
Humility and Openness
Every story has to start somewhere. God’s story, and ours, starts in Genesis. It can’t be overstated how important Genesis is for our understanding of everything. As one commentator says, “No one…can hope to attain a true and full understanding of anything, without a basic acceptance and comprehension of the origin of everything, as recorded in Genesis.”[6]
In order to find shape and coherence in this life, we must “accept” and “comprehend” how God says the story starts. There’s an act of the will and the mind. We need to humble ourselves before God and open ourselves to God. I pray that our study of Genesis will help us do both.
Cynicism and Faith
Our generation needs solid ground to put our feet on. It’s been said that 9/11 is one reason why millennials are so cynical about everything. Sociologist Christian Smith says that, after the Vietnam War, Americans “still felt more in control of their destiny and purpose than younger Americans do now.” He sees “a streak of nihilism among millennials – ‘Not total despair, but just lowered expectations.’”[7]
This is one reason why conspiracy theories have blossomed, as many people have less and less trust for government institutions, scientists, journalists, and others in positions of authority. Many wonder if there’s anyone who can be trusted, anyone who can help us make sense of the world and our lives.
Maybe its in a time like this that the Big Story of God as found in the Bible can make inroads into a culture drowning in despair. In the Bible, as we’ll see in Genesis, we find honesty about what’s going on. No sugar-coating. No pretense. Just blood-earnest truth.
But we also find hope. We find that chaos and evil isn’t the end of the story. We find that though paradise was lost in Genesis, it’ll be regained in Revelation. We find that the God who made us wants to enter into a personal relationship of love and trust with us.
In Genesis, we’re going to meet the God who wants to meet with us. We’re going to meet the God who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6). This is the God who really is, the God who began all things but who has no beginnings, the God who made us and who wants to remake us, the God who’s full of grace for the undeserving and full of power for the powerless.
In our generation, lots of things have changed and are changing, but God hasn’t changed. Genesis will teach us that God is still the foundation of reality, the author of our lives, and the redeemer of our stories. And Genesis will teach us that God is good, which means he can be trusted.
[1]Marvin Olasky, Lament for a Father: The Journey to Understanding and Forgiveness (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2021), 102-3.
[2]Ibid., 103.
[3]Ray Ortlund, The Death of Porn: Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 30-1.
[4]Olasky, 103.
[5]Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 170-1.
[6]Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1976), 22.
[7]Emily Belz, “Generation 9/11,” in World, vol. 36, no. 17, Sep. 11, 2021: 50.