The Work of God's Fingers

Genesis 2: 4– 25

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

 In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground;  but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground—  then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.  And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches.  The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;  and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.  The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush.  The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”  So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.  The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.  So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

this one shall be called Woman,

for out of Man this one was taken.”

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.  

Psalm 8

O LORD, our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouths of babes and infants

you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,

to silence the enemy and the avenger.

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?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,

all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Mark 3: 1-6

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.  And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”  Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.  He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.  

======================================= 

Isn’t Psalm 8 beautiful?  That Psalm we just read responsively?

When I consider the work of your fingers – the moon and stars and heavens – the big, big picture of your universe –

Who are we in your sight?

What is humanity that you are mindful of us?

Why is it that you care for us – mere mortals on this round speck of earth, out in the midst of all your heavens?

Yet –

You have made humanity just a little lower than God, than angels, than divine beings.

You have crowned humanity with glory and honor. Those are divine crowns, crowns that we would normally reserve for you.

Is this what you mean when you say we are created in your image, in the image of God? That we have crowns of glory and honor?

But that’s not all. We also have dominion – both rights and responsibilities, as a sovereign would - over all the works of your hands. Participating with you, we tend the soil, we care for the animals and the birds and the fish and the crawly things. You have expectations for us that come along with those crowns of glory and honor.

We share and participate in God’s ongoing work of creation – and also in the stewardship of the earth and of humanity.

It’s a shared responsibility: it is NOT everyone for themselves – it is NOT a life built on figuring out how to make it alone.

It’s a three – way participation – God, humanity, and creation. And God’s fingerprints are all over all of humanity, and all of creation.

In Genesis 1 we heard that humans are made in the image of God.

In Genesis 2, which we heard this morning, God basically sits down on the ground, gathers up some dirt or clay, and shapes us out of it.  We are created out of dust into the image of God.

I can almost imagine God there, like an artist doing a self-portrait, creating a likeness, but not the real thing; siting there with a mirror, looking up from time to time to gaze into it and to capture the nuances and minute details of the image of God, in order to translate them just right into this lump of clay.

Have you ever tried to make something look like it does it’s supposed to look, using Play-Doh or modeling clay? I don’t know about you, but I find it incredibly hard to make clay turn into something recognizable, other than maybe a badly shaped bowl, or maybe a snake….

Take a moment and close your eyes, and try to imagine this scene – God shaping dust or dirt or clay into a man in the image of God. What does this man, and later this woman, look like in your minds’ eye?

Can you see skin color, or hair color, or size, or shape, or the nose, or ears, or smile?

When I try to do this, in my imagination, it tends to look like someone with similarities to me – or maybe a 20-something version of me!

Created in the image of God. The work of God’s fingers. Not just our looks, but our character. Our hearts. Created in the image of God’s heart. Our minds in the image of God’s mind.

This means that when we look at one another, we see the image of God reflected in one another. Take a look now at the person sitting next to you, in front of you, behind you. All in the image of God. God creates us with attention to minute details. And we are all different. There is no one “perfect” image of God – we all are. All our diversities, all those things we might see as flaws in ourselves – they’re not flaws. They are part of who we are as children of God, made in the image of God.

Some of you had the same privilege I had, of getting to know Ruth Eraybar during the short time that she was part of our community, after moving here from Elkhart, Indiana, and before returning to the loving arms of her creator God. Ruth had meningioma, a disease that creates benign brain tumors. When we first met her, when she first came to worship with us, her face had already been reshaped as a result of the tumors and the treatments she had endured. She looked nothing like she had just two years before. Starting from my first visit with her, she had some challenging spiritual questions. At one point early on, she took off her glasses, and put her face right up close to mine, and said, “Is this the image of God?”

The answer for Ruth is yes. The answer is yes for all of us who feel too inadequate or too flawed or too unworthy of behaving like the human beings that God created us to be, those mortals that God breathed God-life into, breathed the Holy Spirit into.

Because God takes on our suffering as well.  God takes on our suffering and our sin in the person of Jesus Christ, in the life and death and resurrection of Christ. God redeems our suffering and our sin, once and for all time. There is no part of our lives that God does not participate in, does not walk with us through, does not offer the healing that comes from faith, hope, and love, through the work of the Holy Spirit, as it’s  shown in the love and care of others. There is no situation where someone in the community cannot reach out, to be the image of God for someone else in need.

God suffers when we suffer.

God grieves when we grieve.

God longs for us to turn back to God, to live our lives as if we understood that we are God’s children, we all are God’s children, part of God’s family. All of us.

The refugee crisis happening in the European Union is the worst the world has seen since World War II. It’s been going on for months, but this past week the world was shocked into mutual horror and grief by one photograph of one small child on the shore, by the story of his family, by the seeming hopelessness of it all.

While governments are taking and remaking official stands which limit the number and type of refugees they are willing to take in, people all over the world are recognizing this as a humanitarian crisis, and are assembling to offer help in a myriad of ways – collecting and providing food, water, diapers and formula, funding travel costs to sponsor families to relocate to Iceland and Canada, including taking them into their homes, as well as donating to organizations that are directly helping, including Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, among many others. Many who have stepped forward to help have quoted the Word of God as their basis, remembering and proclaiming how God’s people were refugees and exiles, forced over and over from their homes to escape oppression and terrorism. The Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before his arrest, was a meal specifically to remember God’s providence in rescuing and saving the people of Israel. And as we participate with Christ in that meal today, we also remember not only the times of oppression, but also a time of life-saving redemption in Him.

When Jesus put the question to the people in the synagogue – is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill? He was challenging their humanity, putting it right up against the law. And their response – was silence.

Mark’s gospel says “he looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart”. He has the man stretch out his withered hand, and it is restored right then and there.

Jesus shows us what matters. Jesus knows their hearts, knows that they will use this action against him, this action they are taking on the Sabbath will ultimately lead to them killing him; that they will do whatever it takes to try to eliminate him. He is not deterred. He restores the man to wholeness, Sabbath or no Sabbath.

The Lord God has made us just a little lower than God, than the angels. God has given us all the rights and responsibilities of being God’s children, participants in the stewardship of humanity and of creation. Christ has come and saved us already from death, and has told us not to be afraid of what could happen in our lives – but to follow him, to feed his sheep, to trust in him and him alone.

When we look at the faces of those in need, which is all of us, really – do we see the image of God? Or do we default to judgment based on what we think is right? When Jesus looks at our hearts, will he see hardness, or hearts that are breaking open with love and sorrow for the plight of our brothers and sisters? Will he see conditional love, only for those who we determine are “like us”, “part of our tribe”? Or will he see us responding in self-giving love, behaving like human beings, in ways small or large, without letting fear or distrust have the upper hand, the final word?

Let us pray.

Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Living God, soften our hearts. Give us the grace and courage to be your people, to recognize your image in the faces of others, down the street or on the other side of the world. Give us the generosity and kindness to reach out our hands and let them be your hands, to allow others to experience your touch of healing through our words, through our actions, through our self-giving love. Let us welcome others to this table, and let us go out from this table nourished and ready to serve you.

We ask this and we do this, all in the name of Jesus Christ who gave everything for us and for our salvation.

Amen.

First Things First

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

Gen. 1:1   In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,  2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.  3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  4 And God saw that the light was good; and God 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.

Gen. 1:6   And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”  7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.  8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Gen. 1:9   And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.  10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.  11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so.  12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.  13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Gen. 1:14   And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,  15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.  16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.  17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth,  18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.  19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Gen. 1:20   And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”  21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.  22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”  23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Gen. 1:24   And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so.  25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:26    Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

27      So God created humankind in his image,

                  in the image of God he created them;

                  male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.  30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.  31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Gen. 2:1   Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.  2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.  3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

Psalm 19 

1       The heavens are telling the glory of God;

                  and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

2       Day to day pours forth speech,

                  and night to night declares knowledge.

3       There is no speech, nor are there words;

                  their voice is not heard;

4       yet their voice goes out through all the earth,

                  and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,

5       which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,

                  and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

6       Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

                  and its circuit to the end of them;

                  and nothing is hid from its heat.

Psa. 19:7       The law of the LORD is perfect,

                  reviving the soul;

         the decrees of the LORD are sure,

                  making wise the simple;

8       the precepts of the LORD are right,

                  rejoicing the heart;

         the commandment of the LORD is clear,

                  enlightening the eyes;

9       the fear of the LORD is pure,

                  enduring forever;

         the ordinances of the LORD are true

                  and righteous altogether.

10      More to be desired are they than gold,

                  even much fine gold;

         sweeter also than honey,

                  and drippings of the honeycomb.

Psa. 19:11    Moreover by them is your servant warned;

                  in keeping them there is great reward.

12      But who can detect their errors?

                  Clear me from hidden faults.

13     Keep back your servant also from the insolent;

                  do not let them have dominion over me.

         Then I shall be blameless,

                  and innocent of great transgression.

Psa. 19:14      Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

                  be acceptable to you,

                  O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Matthew 6: 25-34 

Matt. 6:25   “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,  29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’  32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matt. 6:34   “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. 

=============================================

What is your reaction when Jesus says to us today,

·      Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life?

·      What immediate responses come to your mind?

·      How prepared are you to obey this command?

When I looked up the Greek word that is translated as “worry”, I found that it is more closely translated as “be anxious for”.

Do not be anxious for your life…

Talk about counter-cultural.

Being an adult is mostly about being anxious and worried, isn’t it? And increasingly, it is imposed upon our children as well, at earlier and earlier ages, right?

We have worries about work, and school, and worries about home and family life.

We have worries about the world – about the economy, about a friend who’s facing a major illness, about the car needing repair, about the wildfires in Washington and Oregon.

Where do all these worries and anxieties come from?

·      Many arise out of the circumstances of our real lives.

·      Many are initiated by media – the news depends on worry and fear, it seems, to draw us in and make sure we tune in at 11 pm and 7 am and whenever we feel compelled to know what the next awful thing is that is happening.

·      Marketing and advertising contributes greatly to our worries and anxieties – because profits of companies depend on the sale of products and services to resolve worries we didn’t even know we had until the ad told us we ought to be worried about it.

And here comes Jesus with another teaching that seems next to impossible for us to accept. Is it any easier to hear him say “do not worry about your life” than it is to accept him saying “I am the bread of life – unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no claim in me”, the passages we have studied over the past few weeks? Why is it so hard to accept these teachings? And if we continue worrying about these things, is that the same thing as turning away from Jesus?

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that this lesson from Jesus is paired up with the first chapter of Genesis, the story of creation, of God providing all that we have in this world. We can see the connection in the way that Jesus says, consider the lilies of the field, or look at the sparrow – if God feeds and clothes them, why should we expect any less? But it doesn’t take long for us to go back into our earlier reaction – easy for you to say, Jesus. I am not a lily, and I am not a sparrow. Life doesn’t work that way for me, or for any of the human beings I know. We have responsibilities, and things to worry about that lilies and sparrows don’t even begin to understand.

When I read these scriptures together, what emerges for me is the abundance of what God has provided for us, and the goodness of it all, and the fact that it should be enough, that it is enough. The creation story, and the Psalm that we read together, speak of the magnificence of this creation that we are part of. In the devotion this week from Brian McLaren’s book, he talks about how God is clearly not boring, “because God’s creation is so amazingly, wonderfully, surprisingly fascinating. “

He says, “The best thing in Genesis is not simply human beings, but the whole creation considered and enjoyed together, as a beautiful, integrated whole, and us a part. The poetry of Genesis describes the “very goodness” that comes at the end of a long process of creation… when all the parts, including us, are working together as one whole. That harmonious whole is so good that the Creator takes a day off, as it were, just to enjoy it. That day of restful enjoyment tells us that the purpose of existence isn’t money or power or fame or security or anything less than this: to participate in the goodness and beauty and aliveness of creation. And so we join the Creator in good and fruitful work… and in delightful enjoyment, play, and rest as well. So here we are, friends. Here we are. Alive!   “

This is to me a great reminder of how the essence of life is not scarcity, but great abundance, and providence, and diversity, all coming from God, all freely given for us.

So why do we keep focusing on scarcity? What is keeping us from experiencing and enjoying and sharing this abundance from God?

A few years ago I read a book called “Money and Faith: The Search for Enough”. Its editor, Michael Schut, wrote an essay in it about economics. I know, who wants to read or to hear about economics, right? But what he wrote has stayed with me, and so I pulled it back out this week.

He talks about two economies operating in the world. One he calls Earth’s Economy. It is the economy that God gave to us. This economy is a circular, closed system, having everything it needs – using energy from the sun, and growing food locally, and allowing the time for waste to be rejuvenated as food once again – composting is the primary example of this. It takes time for the circle to come around, but it’s sustainable based on making that time available. It is an economy that is operating solely off the bounty of Earth’s one-time creation and the continuing re-creation that it offers. Relying on that closed loop system, there is enough for all God’s people to live – provided that we live in community, not individually, not in isolation. Provided that we share with one another, that we care for one another.

How is this different from the way we live? He describes that as the Big Human Economy. This economy operates in a straight line, rather than a circle. It take capital, labor and resources, and produces stuff for consumption, enticing us to consume through advertising and marketing, and allowing the resulting industrial waste to be released, rather than it being the kind of waste that can be returned to the earth as food. In this straight line system, there is not enough to be sustainable, and the waste cannot be used to help re-create more resources for the future. It’s just waste.

This past Monday the Honey-Doers and I discussed today’s Gospel passage, and someone pointed out that Jesus doesn’t say “don’t think about food or clothing or shelter – but he says, don’t make it the top priority”.

Jesus’ words are “strive first for the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you”.

I think that’s an important distinction to make. If we put the kingdom of God, the love of God, and God’s righteousness, God’s justice, at the top of our agendas, then the abundance of creation, and the providence of God to make sure there is enough for us all, through Earth’s economy, comes shining through.  Because human beings are meant to be “persons in community”, and when we seek first the kingdom of God we acknowledge God’s love and God’s justice, given for all people, first and foremost, above all other things.

And this changes us –

         from greedy people, to needy people.

And it changes the world for us –

         from isolation to community.

And it changes our view of creation –

         from scarcity to abundance – to way beyond enough.

My friend Hugh Hollowell runs a ministry of relationship and community for people experiencing homelessness in Raleigh, North Carolina. He posted this yesterday: “We believe that the community contains all the resources necessary to live a full life.” I believe this is true, and I believe that it is what Jesus is calling us to be – a community of believers who are grateful to God for what we have, and who want to reach out and serve others, knowing that in the community are all the resources necessary to live a full life.

So I want to challenge you to think about the world in a different way this coming week. If we are surrounded by images in our daily lives that make us focus on scarcity, and worry, and fear, then let’s shift our gaze this week to capture images of their opposites: abundance, and courage, and trust, and love. I’m asking you to take pictures, to draw pictures, to share stories and experiences from your lives and the lives of those who make up community for you, images that express and portray signs of God’s love, ways that we trust in God, and courage in caring for one another, and abundance in creation. You can bring drawings or paintings or pictures into the church office, or you can email photos to me, or you can post them on the church’s Facebook page. But let’s shift our gaze, because there truly is an abundance of signs of God’s kingdom out there, if we have eyes to see and a heart to embrace them. And it is truly what God created the world to be for all God’s people.