If the first thing that I told you were a lie, would you bother to listen to the rest of what I had to say? Yet there are people in our communities who believe that the first thing that the bible says-Genesis 1v1 “In the beginning God made . . .” is untrue. This leads naturally to the next question..

How can we reconcile the claims of Christianity with the demands of science, at least as popularly taught?

The quick answer is...only with difficulty. Each of us is to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling" and I present these ideas rather like a model from Kalmbach or a bed from Ikea, merely as components that will require some assembly by the user.

First, it must be said that Christians originated modern science as natural philosophy, which means the study of the creator by looking at His creation. Rev. John Stott’s word for the study of the creator by studying his creation,'orith-eology' has it’s attractions too. For example, Sir Isaac Newton spent, as much time on bible study as physics, and Gregor Mendl, the originator of genetics, was a monk. Also, frequently university Christian groups are strongest in schools of applied science such as engineering and medicine.

Next, it also must be said that there is a real problem. Consider that justly famous verse you will hear quite rightly in almost every communion service and evangelistic meeting- John3v16. “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Guess what comes in front in verse 14. “ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him might have eternal life.”

Wouldn’t you love to bring Jesus into your home, but be afraid He’s going to do something embarrassing if you took Him to your work or school Christmas party? He does it again and again. He talks of Cain and Abel in Lk11v51, of Noah and the flood in Matt 24v37, of Abraham in Matt 22v32 and Lot and the destruction of Sodom in Lk 17v28. Always, there is nothing in the text to suggest that Jesus does not regard each of these episodes as absolute historical fact, even lifting up a bronze snake on a pole to obtain healing, an event you can see commemorated on the side of Parkland ambulances.

One attempt was to say that the bible taught spiritual or religious truth and that science taught material or physical truth. At worst, this left Christian belief detached from so called real life and even at best reminds us of J.K.Rowling’s description of the magick in the Harry Potter books “ Magic, at least as I’ve described it isn’t true but I wish it was.”

There are several considerably better bridges. Some say that the biblical account refers to days as epochs of time as we might say the day of the steam engine or in Diefenbacker’s day. Psalm 19 is a strong supporter of this view, clearly teaching the God’s time is not our time and that a 'day' may cross centuries.

Others take the modern creation story, “Energy begat mass begat atoms begat life begat gophers which were intelligent enough to eat all the dinosaur eggs and become us” as being equivalent to any other primitive creation myth. The warnings of 2 Timothy 3 and 2Thess support this view strongly.

Again, consider Acts3v15, where Peter refers to Jesus as “ The author of Life whom God raised from the dead.” a phrase also used in 1Cor14 and Hebrews12v2. Let’s take Miss Rawlings and Harry Potter again. We know from certain and numerous reports that all the Harry Potter stories were written in the last ten years in Scotland. However, Harry Potter and every other character at Hogwart’s school know that the school is 700 years old. To say that Grphyndawr, one of the school teams founded by an ancient wizard, in fact originated in the buffet of a train between London and Scotland very recently would invite both ridicule and failed final exams, if you chanced to say it in Hogwart's school.

Phil 2v12 exhorts us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, and I do not commend any of the three views particularly above any other, because I do not find that scripture does so. However, it is vitally important that we are completely and without reservation convinced that God is our creator and that of the world we live in. This is a central belief of all Christians, repeated week by week in the creeds. If you find yourself drifting into disbelief, you will likely still come to church but find the sermons boring , and prayer and bible reading hard and unrewarding.

Jesus therefore gave us a command in the sermon on the mount(Matt6v26) and in his last week in Jerusalem (Lk21v28) to look at and notice the world of nature. He tells us to look at birds, at ravens and sparrows, at lilies and fig trees. We will not long look at the creation of God through believing eyes before we begin to praise Him and to realize that all this ids not just a happy accident.

You may find in the forest at Okema, trees with many yellow green leaves and a single strip of yellow green plastic. The world asserts that the leaves just happened, but the strip of plastic shows intelligent life –actually it shows where our new nature trail goes. The good news says, your intelligence inspired by God made the cabins and the dock, but I made the forest, the lake, dragonflies, bats and birds for your enjoyment and so that you may not feel lonely, unloved and abandoned, and that you may know there is a God of love and power.

So tonight as you go home look up for we are due to have a meteorite shower, and consider the junkos and the owls, the northern lights and the hoar frost as your special Christmas present., and then take time to read more of His word of the other things that God began to do.