In The Beginning (part 3): Creation

TO START

You might spend the beginning of group checking in with everyone.

  • Does everyone have all the food, medicine, and toilet paper they need?

  • How’s everyone’s emotional state?

  • Does anyone need help with childcare?

  • Is anyone financially vulnerable or in need because of the pandemic?

  • Who could your group keep an eye on for the next month or so?

TO DISCUSS

Our sermon this week was about creation, animals in particular. Let’s start with some fun animal questions:

  • What’s your favorite animal (or perhaps what’s one of your favorite animals)? Why that one?

  • Have you ever experienced God in an interaction with a creature? Share with the group.

  • If you had to answer the question, “Why did God create animals?” what would you say?

  • Do you have a favorite animal-centric Bible story? What part does creation play in the story?

TO READ

Read Job chapters 38 and 39. You might choose to read all of these two chapters or just a portion.

  • What do you learn about God from this passage?

  • Does the fact that God is the one who speaks here affect the way you read it?

TO WATCH

How about watching a nature documentary with your group? Your group members may already have a favorite, but if you’re looking, try Our Planet on Netflix.

TO PRAY

Consider praying one of these prayers from our online worship this morning:

  1. In this time of COVID-19, we pray:
    When we aren't sure, God,
    help us be calm;
    when information comes
    from all sides, correct and not,
    help us to discern;
    when fear makes it hard to breathe,
    and anxiety seems to be the order of the day,
    slow us down, God;
    help us to reach out with our hearts,
    when we can't touch with our hands;
    help us to be socially connected,
    when we have to be socially distant;
    help us to love as perfectly as we can,
    knowing that "perfect love casts out all fear."

    For the doctors, we pray,
    for the nurses, we pray,
    for the technicians and the janitors and the
    aides and the caregivers, we pray,
    for the researchers and theorists,
    the epidemiologists and investigators,
    for those who are sick,
    and those who are grieving, we pray,
    for all who are affected,
    all around the world...
    we pray
    for safety,
    for health,
    for wholeness.

    May we feed the hungry,
    give drink to the thirsty,
    clothe the naked and house those without homes;
    may we walk with those who feel they are alone,
    and may we do all that we can to heal
    the sick—
    in spite of the epidemic,
    in spite of the fear.

    Help us, O God,
    that we might help each other.

    In the love of the Creator,
    in the name of the Healer,
    in the life of the Holy Spirit that is in all and with all,
    we pray.

    May it be so.

2. Creator God,

As we enter into nature today,

as we observe your wild places—however big or small,

whether a field or a flower or a mountain or a tree, 

whether in our backyard or through a nature documentary, 

restore us to our truer, 

wilder stories, O God. 

Let us feel ourselves 

more vulnerable and in awe, 

silhouetted against the backdrop of your beauty

and holiness, small beneath towering trees and 

wide skies, small but known. 

Restore us to our truer, 

wilder stories, O God. 

May we find grace in the wilderness. 

May we find grace in the heart of the wood, 

in space of the fields, 

in the rising of rocks, 

in the rushing of streams, 

in the painterly dabs of wildflowers,

in the windswept bending of wild grasses. 

May we chase your manifold mercies over ragged hills, 

pursue your song through the sparse and 

layered lyric of sculpted deserts, 

marvel at your mystery fixed in the wheeling 

designs of stars overhead. May we hear it 

in the coos and calls of owls and small creatures 

that fidget in the night, trace it in the 

leaping dance of campfire flames, and sense it 

in the sweet incense of pine and rosemary. 

Fill these moments in your creation, O Lord, 

that in your presence

we might be present. 

In the name of the Christ, our maker and bringer of ultimate order, 

Amen.

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