Irresistible Invitation by Maxie Dunham - Day 1

Irresistible Invitation: Responding to the Extravagant Heart of God

Day 1


I’m calling it -- Today is the beginning of Stewardship “season.” Right now. Grab a bag of chips and pull up a comfortable chair, because this year I would like Stewardship “season” to last for 40 days (actually, it should last for 365 since we are always stewarding our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service). Using the devotional book written by United Methodist scholar and pastor, Maxie Dunham, I would like us to consider the full meaning of stewardship this year. Stewardship, of course, includes our financial gifts to God, but there is so much more. Stewardship is life changing.


To begin this season of stewardship, it’s important to go back to the beginning. The very beginning:


In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).


In Maxie Dunham’s book, Day 1 is titled “Incandescent Amazement,” a phrase Mary Martin used in talking about how her grandmother lived. It’s how Maxie says he feels when he thinks about God’s eternal nature, particularly in light of the beginning. Poet Shelly describes the creation story as “when God first dawned on chaos.” What revealing words these are when we think about the chaos of our time and what it means to have God dawn upon whatever those times might be. The creation story is where we begin, where we are created. It is the start of our exploration of faith.


Madeleine L’Engle, when asked what book most influenced her in 1989, answered:


“There is no question that the book that has been most influential for me this past year is the Bible’s first one: Genesis. . . . The marvelous story of the creation is for me filled with incredible joy . . . the words shouting all things into being in a great cry of joy. Genesis is also filled with marvelous people – flawed and human – and underlines for me that God does not choose ‘qualified’ people to do the work of love. . . . Genesis has everything – all the human vices and glories, love and hate, murder, sacrifice, and a great story. There is no end to plumbing its depths.”


Think of the people found in Genesis. Think of those amazing stories. William Logan said of Genesis:

“The stories are told in such manner that when I read them, I realize that I’m not reading an account of history; I’m looking in a mirror! This is not Adam I’m reading about; this is myself. This is not a tower build long ago in a faraway country: this is my own society in action, and I am part and parcel of that society.”


In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Maxie reminds us that the Hebrew word used for “created” is only ever used in reference to God. The point is that the “word implies work that is utterly beyond human imitation or comprehension. The world in all its complexity did not come into existence by chance; the odds are too great for that.”


Maxie invites us, and I invite you, to think of these concepts that are at the heart of our Christian faith as we begin a 40-day journey of stewardship together. In the beginning, God created everything that exists. “God is bigger than any concept we can hold in our minds, yet God in his infinite love desires a personal relationship with us.” We might think chaos is about to overwhelm us, but God’s reality is one that is based on rhythm, law, beauty and order… it’s been breathed into God’s creation plan.


In the details of our busy lives, it’s easy for us to lose sight of the bigger picture. It’s easy to miss the moments of “incandescent amazement” when God is at work and something beautiful is happening around us. “But if we are willing to listen, we soon realize that God is calling us to slow down and pay attention to these moments of wonder.” Listen more carefully to the lyrics of songs, look for the divine in the nature around us, look for the face of God in a child or a homeless person. If we open ourselves up to seeing the creation with new eyes, we will find more moments of “incandescent amazement.”


The Heart of the Matter

- What do you feel when you reflect on the first few lines of Genesis? How does this feeling color you perception of God?

- How could a deeper understanding of the creation story affect your relationship with God? Does this story challenge any of your previous assumptions?

- Have you experienced moments of incandescent amazement? If so, how have those experiences informed your understanding of God?

Comments

Popular Posts