Signs of God's Grace: The CreationDr.
James Mayfield
October 26, 2003
Text: Genesis 1 (especially 1:31) & Psalm 8 (especially 8:3-4) What we humans can do is amazing. Some can write symphonies. Others take ordinary food and transform it into delicious meals. Some can unravel the complexities of DNA. Others can design computers that multiply what we are able to do. And some..... Well, you get the point. What we humans are able to do is amazing and deserves to be celebrated. But it is very easy for our celebration of accomplishments to deteriorate into displays of arrogance. It is easy for us to be like the person who has done well in school or business or athletics or whatever and begins to think of himself or herself as being so special he or she believes he or she deserves special treatment. After all, just look at what he has done. Just look at the money she has made, the awards he has been given, the recognition she has received. Who of us has not experienced being so proud of some accomplishment that rather than celebrate in humility, we have strutted around in arrogance? I am reminded of the prologue to a musical revue performed at an ecumenical assembly some years ago. Little man, like a peacock proud, like a strutting rooster crowing aloud, like a neophyte actor certain indeed he's a better actor than the one playing lead. He's grabbing the stage and having his fling at playing the role of the Almighty King. And that, my friends, is a sight to see, and a cause for utter hilarity. He falls over props and lands on his arse and the whole thing becomes a magnificent farce. We humans can do much, and we have done a lot, and the achievements of some are amazing. Yet, the wisdom we read from Psalm 8 is profoundly true - even if we forget it. When I look at your heavens (O God), the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? For the person of faith, the God-ness of God is both mind-boggling and humbling. I am especially aware of the awesomeness of God when I think about the immense size of the universe. I remember when I as a child, being at my grandparents' farm that was in the country miles away from the nearest town. On cloudless nights when there was no moon, I would go outside and look up. The darkness seemed hardly dark because of the brilliance of countless thousands of stars. As I grew older I learned the light that was reaching my eyes from those stars had been traveling through space at the rate of 186,000 miles per second for years, hundreds or even millions of years. Later I learned that even if it were possible for me to travel at the speed of light, it would take me 100,000 years just to move from one side of our galaxy to the other. If I wanted go on to visit the nearest galaxy among the 34 galaxies that make up our neighborhood in the universe, it would take me 160,000 years, traveling at the speed of light. And even then I would only be at the edge, the front porch of the galaxy just next door. To reach the galaxy in our neighborhood that is farthest from earth, I would have to travel 186,000 miles each second of every minute of every day for 200 million years. But then I would just be at the outer edge of our neighborhood. To reach the next neighborhood of galaxies would take me an additional 50 million years traveling at the speed of light. And beyond that, there are God only knows how many thousands or even millions of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Little man, like a peacock proud, like a strutting rooster crowing aloud.... When I am truly in touch with the awesome mystery of the God-ness of God, what is truly amazing to me is that this infinite and only God of all that is knows who I am, knows, intimately knows, each of us and not only knows each of us but cares. And God's care for us is not like a football fan sitting high in the stadium caring about the way his team is playing. This God who is beyond what our little human minds can comprehend cares so much he is involved with us down on the field of play. This is the God we have come to know through Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ we have come to know through the community of faith and through the scriptures -- the scriptures that both grew out of the community of faith and shaped the community of faith. Through the Bible and the community of faith, we have come to know Christ, and Christ has revealed to us not only what it is to be truly human, but also revealed the essence of what God is like. Jesus said God, this awesome God whose Word thundered creation into being and whose providential care is still at work throughout creation, is like a father, the ideal father, who really knows and truly loves each child in the family. This Mysterious Reality we call God is available to us. "Ask and it will be given you;" Jesus said, "seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Jesus also told us that God is like the ideal Father in that God's love is not a sentimental love. It is the profound kind of love that offers what is needed to bring out the best in us. When tender love is needed, God's love comes to us as mercy, and when tough love is what is called for, we experience God's love as judgment. Jesus helped us understand what the prophets of Judah and Israel had tried to tell us. Not only is God not persuaded by our game-playing, phony religiosity, God is upset by it. What pleases God is for us to let go of our selfishness and love others as God in Christ loves us. What pleases God is our offering love to God not only in words but also in what we do and in our willingness to share. These ways of expressing love are not too different from the way small children express their love to their mothers or to their fathers. It is our being so caught up in the joy of knowing God, and so overwhelmed by the love of God that we give of ourselves and give of what we have striving to be our best selves by working to bring out the best in others. In other words, we are to use our time and our money expressing our love for God by loving others as God in Christ has loved us. Jesus made it clear this is what pleases God; this is what makes God smile. As the prophet Micah put it: "See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God." We are to live in blessed humility, aware that the awesome God who created all that is, not only continues to sustain all that is, but also knows each of us intimately. We are to live amazed that although God knows all about us, God's grace knows no limits and continues to reach out to reclaim us regardless of what we did with our yesterdays. We are to live in grateful joy, knowing it is God's redeeming love that transforms us so that we are able to live in harmony with God, and thereby experience the fulfillment God is offering. In this humility, amazement and joy we are to live our lives demonstrating our love of God by loving others as God in Christ has loved us. God, forgive us when we limit you only to what our little brains can comprehend. Help us experience your awesome holiness, and transform us so that we live, using our time and our resources in ways that not only please you but also enable us to experience the fulfillment you are offering. Help us to love others as you in Christ have loved us. Amen. Pastoral
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