May 31, 2026
Organizing Chaos
Genesis 1
Rev. Shannon Jordan
Genesis 1: 1 When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
For the next five days God continued to create the fullness of the heavens and the earth and saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humans in God’s image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
For many of us, reading the news is a stressful task. Worldwide there is quite a bit going on. News sources use clickbait, twisted or outright inaccurate information to get us to read their articles so they can get ad revenue. When I read, I am constantly asking: It is true? Is it really urgent? What do I REALLY need to worry about or am I just being manipulated? The questions swirl: What are we doing to help or hurt world peace? Food shortages? Lack of medical care? Affordable housing? What do I do about my plastic usage? Add in a dash of gun control, abortion, gerrymandering, Ebola, Measles, and dementia–the list goes on and on.
News, opinions, and viewpoints are coming at me not just when I choose to go to a chosen news source, but through various emails, social media, and conversations with people. How do we decide what is true and right? What is wrong or false?
Many of us also have loved ones who are dealing with significant medical issues or relational issues. Job issues. Parenting issues. Loss and grief. Learning new ways to do what we have always done because of a painful change.
I find my mind and our world to be chaotic as I try to sift through all of it and discern what really is God’s will and how God wants me to respond to particular issues at a given time when the reality is I am actually pretty powerless.
I have heard from many of you how chaotic you are finding this season of life and the current world. We are all trying to discern how to live faithfully in a world that feels increasingly chaotic.
Isn’t a great thing that God is a God of organizing chaos?! Isn’t it a great thing that God is a God that creates in darkness?
Our passage this morning is all about God creating order out of chaos. Genesis 1 was not written as a historical account, it is theology. Genesis 1 is about God’s power, God’s creativity, and God’s connection to creation—humans created by God in God’s image.
Now first, you may have noticed that when I read the passage the more modern translation did not start with the classic “In the beginning…” for a variety of reasons including Hebrew parts of speech I am not going to get into this morning, the better translation is “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was in complete chaos…”
If you want to meet for coffee and discuss Hebrew translations, send me an email! LOL! But looking at this translation shaped by accuracy and not tradition, how well does it speak to our world? “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was in complete chaos…”
This passage was likely written during the exilic period, when the priestly class was in Babylon and people were experiencing deep despair. Their lives were in displaced chaos. Our passage states that God creates order from a state where darkness was over the deep.
I remember in one of my classes that my professor, as well as author and theologian, Dr. Sharon Ringe, talked about how we need to pay attention to scriptures that talk about the sea. Imagine being on the sea at night in total darkness in an ancient sailboat or rowboat. No flashlights, navigation, GPS. Just darkness. On a cloudy night, not even stars or a moon. That is dark and that is a time that you are completely out of control of your surroundings and direction.
It is in THAT darkness in which God creates. God can create amazing, complicated beauty with a purpose in the darkest of times.
Let that sit for a moment.
God can and does create in darkness. This is a word of hope for us when we find ourselves in stormy and dark times.
I want to share a bit about why I am thrilled to be preaching on this text on Confirmation Sunday—it was written to teach people about their faith. The writers composed it and worded it to teach people about God in relationship to the culture in which they found themselves. The patterns present in each verse of this ancient song, “on the first day God created, on the second day God created, on the third day God created, then the next refrain that God saw that it was good is familiar to many of us.
The writers have more hidden meanings than a Taylor Swift song. First, the writers minimize the primary god of the Babylonians, Marduk, who, according to their traditions, defeated the goddess of chaos, Tiamet…and there is a play on these words in the original Hebrew. Our passage says, without saying it, that God organizes the chaos, not Marduk. That Marduk and Tiamet weren’t the origin of the world, but our God, Elohim, was. Added to that, on the fourth day, the greater and lesser lights were created…the sun and moon were key gods for the Canaanites, and the writers of Genesis make it clear where they fell in relation to the power of Elohim. They are not gods, they are created beings with a purpose. They weren’t important enough to be created first, and they weren’t important enough to be created last. They are just stuck in the middle.
This poetic story was a way for a displaced people living in chaos to remember who God is, what God can do, and who they were in relationship to God.
This passage is a reminder that God’s way of organizing keeps God and our relationship with our creator central, over the other demands on our time. Everything else in the world is created by God, therefore not on the same level as God…so God alone deserves our honor and praise.
Why is this passage important? Because our world, our culture will tell us what we can do. It defines success. It defines importance. It defines our priorities. Rarely do we organize our lives the same way God would. We need regular reminders of who God is and what is important to God to live the lives God wants us to live.
This takes us to our confirmands this morning. They have been through an entire process to get to today—ready to profess what they believe and explore how that will inform how they live. David and many volunteers from this congregation have met with and encouraged Asher, Lily, and Christian during this process. They have met with mentors and with Session members. In professing their faith they will answer the same questions that all members answer. They join us in answering these questions: Do you denounce evil? Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Will you be a faithful disciple? Will you devote yourself to the church’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer?
These are not random questions. These questions matter…whether made by confirmands, members, officers or pastors. We need to be reminded regularly that we promise to not just come to church when it fits in our schedule, but to be disciples—which is the biblical word for patterning our lives after Jesus. We do that by keeping these promises.
This is our promise to be a part of God’s work to organize the chaos of our world. This is part of our promise to let Jesus, as Lord and Savior, organize the chaos in our lives through his teaching and the work of the Spirit.
Being a part of this is even more important than ever—we are at the cusp of a new era and our world needs us to be wise participants in shaping a world safe for all people. We can see what a world shaped by greed and fear, power and control looks like. I think we can all agree that it really doesn’t align with what God would want.
So how do we know what God would want? By getting to know God. By studying God’s word. Scripture is not a how-to manual but a way to show us what is important to God, to form us, to transform us, into wise people who can discern the will of God through the power of the Spirit.
A perfect example of this played out this week. Pope Leo had released his first encyclical—which is an authoritative letter, primarily to the Catholic bishops, but to Catholics as a whole—addressing AI.
The Introduction really struck me and I believe it is worth reading to you:
Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible.
Pope Leo goes on to share that each era can also create an unjust and inhumane world and we need to look to Christ—because Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and has the power to guide and transform us and our world. Pope Leo encourages us to ask God for wisdom to interpret the great trends of our time…particularly technological advances.
This quote, and this paper lift the dilemma of how to respond to technological advances that in many cases have been monetized for the wealthy at best or at worst, weaponized, and are often controlled, not by countries, but private parties that have resources and capacity to intervene that surpass in size, wealth, and power many governments.
How do we respond as Christians to a chaotic world with so many aspects beyond our knowledge, understanding, and control?
By remembering that God created our world out of the chaos covered in darkness.
The purpose of scripture, the purpose of discipleship, is about us getting to know God and to develop wisdom through learning about God, God’s character, and how God operates in the world, and to give us a lens through which we can enter into places of discernment. So that we can get to know our Creator God in such a way that we can use what we know in ever expanding ways. Our youth did a deep dive into this over this past year and many of us learned on Friday night about what it means to be a Holy Fool and live according to God’s will versus the world’s. God’s wisdom can look foolish in today’s standards.
In a few moments, our confirmands will come to the front and confirm their faith—profess their faith.
They aren’t up here because they know all of the answers, any more than we do.
They aren’t professing their faith because if they do, the world will magically become less chaotic.
No, they are professing what will form them. They are choosing the story of God over the stories the world constantly tells them about power, success, fear, and worth.
They are choosing to belong to a community that seeks to follow Jesus together.
The invitation for all of us today to is not pretend that being here makes the chaos go away—but to remember that God is in the chaos with us.
We belong to the God who creates light in darkness, wisdom in confusion, and hope in the midst of uncertainty.
This is the story that Genesis 1 tells and the one that we are all called to live, whether brand-new confirmands or lifelong disciples.
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Amen.