Sermon – It is Good

(I preached this sermon at Christ Lutheran Church on Sunday, September 7, 2025. It is based on the reading from Genesis 1:1-2:4a)

If you’ve been near 13th Street this week, you’ve seen the chaos.

The road was blocked off, forcing traffic into one lane. Cars stacked up like a line of ants, trying to squeeze past the cones. Horns blaring, drivers throwing up their hands in frustration. Parking was nearly impossible—street cleaning on top of the construction, “No Parking” signs everywhere, neighbors circling the block like buzzards looking for a space. And here at Christ Lutheran, scaffolding rising up like a steel skeleton around our bell tower. Fencing, dust, hammers ringing against stone.

It doesn’t look like progress. It looks like a war zone. It looks like chaos. Nobody standing there would stop and say, “Now this is good.”

But sometimes the mess is exactly where creation begins.

I want us to listen again to the beginning of the creation story, only from a different translation:

“At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth,
when the earth was wild and waste,
darkness over the face of Ocean,
rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters—
God said: Let there be light!
And there was light.”

Picture it: “wild and waste.” A swirling, stormy sea. Darkness thick as tar covering everything. Chaotic waters crashing with no boundary, no order, no shape. And in the middle of it, God’s Spirit—hovering, brooding, stirring, ready to act.

And into that mess, God speaks. Light. And light slices through the darkness. Boundaries form. Land rises up out of the waters. Green shoots push through the soil. Fish dart through the seas. Birds stretch their wings and take to the sky. Animals roam. And at last, humanity formed in God’s image and likeness.

And after each act of creation, Scripture doesn’t say God made it good. It says, “God saw that it was good.”

God noticed. God recognized the goodness that was already present. God was pleased. And at the end, when all of it stood together, God looked and saw that it was very good.

This matters, because some of us struggle to believe that God could see goodness in us. 

Maybe it’s the mistakes we’ve made—the words we can’t take back, the choices we regret. Maybe it’s addiction, and the feeling that it keeps winning. Maybe it’s depression, anxiety, or the weight of mental illness. Maybe it’s struggling in school, or feeling like you’re not smart enough. Maybe it’s poverty—always behind, never ahead. Maybe it’s aging—your body slowing down, people treating you like you’re invisible. Maybe it’s your sexual identity, or who you love.

And so it’s easy to think: maybe God doesn’t love me. Maybe I’m disposable. Maybe I’m trash.

But Genesis says otherwise.

Genesis says you were made in the image and likeness of God. Which means when God looks at you, God doesn’t see trash. God sees God’s own reflection. God sees goodness at your very core—not because of what you do, not because of what you earn, not because you’ve got it all together. But because you are created by God.

That’s why you have worth. That’s why you have value. Not because the world says so. Not because you’ve proven yourself. But because God already sees it in you.

And so I want you to hear this as clearly as I can say it:

• You have worth.
• You have value.
• You matter.

You matter to this church.
You matter to this community.
You matter to me.
You matter to so many others who love you.
And most importantly—you matter to God.

When God looks at you, God sees a reflection of Godself. And God notices the goodness. 

And that’s why this message is so different from the message of chaos that sees itself as a conquering, inevitable empire.  

Empire whispers three lies:

1. Might makes right.
2. The strong survive.
3. The ends justify the means.

And when you live by those rules, people become tools. Disposable. Used up and cast aside like broken furniture on the curb. Neighborhoods stripped of resources, families torn apart, the poor treated like numbers instead of human beings.

And here’s the cruel irony—even the people who believe in that creed are disposable too. They don’t realize it until the machine they built chews them up as well.  You see, Empire thrives on chaos that destroys.

But Genesis tells another story. Genesis says people are not disposable. Creation is not disposable. God doesn’t make trash. God makes life. God notices goodness. And God refuses to stop until even the chaos is shaped into something good.

And if you look around, you’ll see: chaos still swirls around us today.

• Chaos when the bills pile up and the paycheck runs out.
• Chaos when the doctor says, “There’s nothing more we can do,” or when you sit for hours in the ER with no insurance.
• Chaos when ICE vans drive down the street and people scatter.
• Chaos when another gunshot echoes, and another young life is cut short.
• Chaos when leaders cut healthcare, close clinics, slash food programs, and then tell us churches can just pick up the pieces.
• Chaos when every system tells you that you don’t matter, that you’re disposable.

That is the chaos of empire. That is the voice of destruction. But it is not God’s voice.

God’s voice still hovers, still speaks into chaos: “Let there be light.”
God still sees goodness in what the world calls trash.
God still notices worth where empire sees none

On Friday, I saw the goodness happen right here during the annual United Way Day of Caring.

It was chaos in the building. Broken chairs stacked up in piles like a graveyard of furniture. Cardboard spilling out of bins. Tools scattered on the floors. Buckets of paint open, brushes dripping, people rushing in every direction.

If you walked in halfway, you might have said, “This place is falling apart.”

But by the end of the day, something new had taken shape. The room dedicated for the expanded dental clinic had more space. The basement and HACC nursing area were cleared. The upstairs hallway was painted fresh. A new display case stood ready to tell our story. 

In the middle of the mess, creation was happening. And when you step back and look at it, you can’t help but say what God said in Genesis: “It is good.”

And really, that’s been happening here for years—one project at a time, one clinic at a time, one worship service at a time, one meal at a time, one life at a time. It looks messy in the middle. But step back, and you can’t help but see the goodness God already sees.

Genesis tells us that God saw. God noticed. God looked at creation and saw the goodness.

And God looks at you today—and sees goodness. God notices it. God delights in it. God calls it very good.

So hear this again:
You have worth.
You have value.
You matter.

Not because the world says so. Not because you’ve earned it. But because God sees it in you. And if God sees it, it cannot be denied.

Thanks be to God.