We jump into the story of creation today from Hebrews 11.3 and Psalm 8. It’s common to wedge the Bible’s creation stories into conversation about the intersection of faith and science. This morning we locate the stories in their original context, clashing with the narratives that shaped the lives of people in the Ancient Near East. If the accounts of creation in scripture don’t give us God’s step-by-step recipe for creating a world, what good are they? In short, our creation story is less about process and more about purpose. And it turns out God’s purposes in creation give us a competing picture of human identity and destiny that have undermined empires for thousands of years.