The Heavens Are Telling What?

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

September 13, 2009

Text: Psalm 19

“With a spirit of wonder, awe, and deep reverence, the psalmist celebrates God’s glory revealed through creation and God’s goodness made manifest through Torah. Then, with candor and humility, the psalmist addresses God directly, and closes with an expression of profound confidence, ‘O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.’” (Carol Dempsey, OP, page 57 in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4, 2009)

The Grand Canyon did not have to say anything to impress me. I walked up to the rim and looked over and out. Its sheer being there in silence made me speechless. No superlatives came to mind which did it justice.

Driving north out of Middlebury, Vermont one October night we saw the northern lights. And though the sky did not speak, the heavens were telling the glory of God.

We got out of the car in Cloudcroft, New Mexico several summers ago and there was no distant sound, no engines, only the muted sounds of a few people chatting at a distance. It was chilly and in the distance we could see the White Sands, where the temperature was about 100 degrees. The sounds of silence spoke God’s glory.

On a hot summer morning, a scissor-tailed flycatcher hovered above a mesquite tree as elegantly as a ballerina poised to descend, deftly capturing in its beak a dragon fly which happened along.

Sitting on the porch yesterday morning, watching it rain, a marvelous sight in itself, I was startled by a night hawk which swooped low at eye level, one last scouting run before sun up.

You each have your own stories to tell of the heavens and the firmament, the earth. Whether we are looking at the vastness of the cosmos or in a microscope, we mortals are fascinated by the sheer “being-ness” of creation.

The heavens and the earth pour forth speech, and yet there are no words! The sun comes forth like a bridegroom----now there is an image! I have not seen a groom come out of a tent, but I have seen them come out of the “holding pen” (which we have renamed the vestry!) and their face would be shining as their bride came down the aisle. (Sometimes the radiance of the groom’s face has been accentuated by his having played golf in the sun the last two days with his friends.)

Heavens and earth are not always friendly to us fragile beings, of course. Too hot, not enough water, winds, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and creatures which seem to have our worst interests at heart, beginning with mosquitoes!

And yet the natural world (so called) astonishes us. Our environment, our island-home, and all that swirls around us in the cosmos evoke our wonder.

For our ancient ancestors, those earliest Hebrews, the created order was not regarded as an accident. “In the beginning God created….” So when the psalmist sings of the heavens speaking to us, he or she is witnessing to a belief in the Creator God. All that he sees with his eyes, smells with his nose, touches with his hands and feet, tastes with his lips and hears with his ears----even that which he imagines with his mind----all is the gift of the One who is the ground of all being and all becoming.

“I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,” we say in our creed. And no matter how far we have come in our explanation of the “how” of creation, we yet believe that the “who” of creation can be known. In a modern rendition of the creed, we have acknowledges that God “has created and is creating,” which states in short form that the cosmos itself has a history-----but that God is the One who sustains this ongoing process.

And if we hear and see God’s glory in created things, this is all the more reason we must acknowledge and accept our role as farmers, as stewards of the creation. When in Genesis we are given dominion over all other creatures, it comes with a moral responsibility. We, among all creatures, can plan ahead, can foresee consequences, can give our descendents a vote in the preservation of this envelope we call our habitat.

Jesus’ teaching and example do not wipe out the Old Covenant, but fulfills it. Our salvation by God through Jesus does not liberate us from responsibility for tending to God’s garden; our salvation accentuates it. Salvation, being in a faith relationship with God, is a proximate end: we are washed of our sins in order to take care of things. Love of God is inseparable from loving care of God’s creation, to the extent that we have the power and wisdom to do so.

As glorious as creation is, the jury is still out. For knowing that God is great is not enough to get us through life. We cannot trust a Creator unless we know that that Creator is good, is for us.

If creation speaks of God’s glory, the “law,” the Torah tells of God’s goodness.

Torah is not a word we Christians use much. We usually translate the Hebrew into “law.” But this translation misses the point. “The Torah is God’s gracious bestowal on the faith-community of a means whereby life may be joyously lived.” (Texts for Preaching, Year B, page 215) Torah is like the sun, steady and life-giving.

Yes, the Old Testament is full of laws, ordinances and precepts and commandments. And we Christians have overdone our rejection of  the most constricting and seemingly unfair among them. But the heart of the Torah is found in simple commands which, though we sometimes wish they were more complicated, are really quite clear.

Take the Shema, a passage from Deuteronomy 6:

“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

When Jesus was asked what it the greatest commandment, he picks up this passage and adds to it another from Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And then he adds, “On these two depend all the law and the prophets.”

The psalmist speaks as if the Torah is “an active, effective, powerful agent, which can effect change……Torah is a live force that can create newness in the world.” (Texts for Preaching, page 508)

The torah is perfect, reviving the soul,
 sure, making wise the simple
 right, rejoicing the heart,
 pure, enlightening the eyes.
 And the Torah is clean and true,
 enduring forever.

More to be desired than fine gold, sweeter than honey!

How can this be so? Law never looks as welcome as a marvelous sunset!

Faithfulness to the Torah is a “way of being in the world that holds God dear. This way means that we rest in the presence of God, converse with God through meditative engagement with Scriptures, and ultimately translate our faith into action.” (Ruth L. Boling, Feasting, page 60)

“When life is liberated from competing loyalties, when one has a clear sense of priority…..which [is consistent] with one’s true identity, without shame, guilt or anxiety, then freedom, energy and power are given… When we accept our role and identity as God’s creatures and live in trustful response to the gift of God, we can enact all the glorious liberty of an unencumbered creature, beloved and empowered by the Creator.”(ditto)

Our Torah has grown. It includes for us the commandments and example of Jesus and the first churches’ teachings and proclamation, the whole New Testament as well as the First Testament.

So what is the command for us from this psalm?

Get out of our cubicles and away from our screens often to take in the wonders of our creation. Remember the song and video from Sesame Street?

 “Inchworm, inchworm, measuring the marigolds, seems to me you’d stop and see how beautiful they are.”

Behold God’s glory every day. Our belief in God as creator is not an abstract idea but a statement based on our experience. With eyes of the heart, we hear and see God in the silence of nature.

Meditatively read our Torah. Listen for God’s word in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. The Holy Spirit can meet us and nourish, critique and guide us through this disciplined reception.

Consider that we are living in the presence of God each moment of our lives, the one whom we have come to know and love as our rock and our redeemer. God is present with us in actual life.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”