Dear bloggists, apologies to any of you who are Ministers within the Eastern Baptist Association as you will have received this from me in an email last week but I am recycling it for bloggists who are either Ministers in the Association but haven’t read it or aren’t and won’t have received it… and maybe it won’t hurt to be reminded of it if you have read it before…

I love the opening bars to Also Sprach Zarathustra, otherwise known as the theme to 2001 A Space Odyssey. It starts with a long ominous tone… on top of which the horn section boldly plays a series of ascending notes that finish with a flurry.

Baaaarr, Baaaarr, Baaaaaaaarr, Baraaarr!

The timpani drums start to sound

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam

The drums seem to herald the repeat of the horns, which finish on a higher note

Baaaarr, Baaaarr, Baaaaaaaarr, Baraaarr!

Back come the timpani

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam

And the horns take us on the same ascending journey, but this time rising to a powerful higher crescendo that then leads into a triumphant fanfare.

Baaaarr, Baaaarr, Baaaaaaaar, Baraaar! Bar, bar bar, bar, bar bar bar, bar bar bar, baaar, baaar, baaaaaar!

Or something like that! Whether or not you know the music my attempt to describe it is rather lacking. It may give you a sense of what is happening but it does not give you the full experience that the music itself gives when you listen to it with the volume turned up to 11!

I think that piece of music should play automatically when we start to read Genesis 1:1-5:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³ And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he 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.

Those opening sentences of the Bible are a bit like my attempt to describe Also Sprach Zarathustra. They clearly do not do the cosmic events justice. But they do give us a sense of what was happening. And most of all they tell us that “In the beginning God…” May you know that at the beginning of a new year for you and your church / ministry: in the beginning God. Before all else and above all else, God. Before sermons and Church Meeting agendas and Deacons and plans and time management and joys and sorrows and all that life entails, God.

May all your beginnings begin with God.

Be blessed, be a blessing