Community Church Sermons
Year B
September 23, 2012
Seventeenth Sunday
after Pentecost
The Promises of Worship
Genesis
2:1-3
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
Senior
Pastor
Life can sometimes be a great big mess.
You can be cruising along without a worry in the world and then – bang – something happens, and all of a sudden your world is thrown into turmoil.
My friend Russ left a very good job for a better job. The new job was exciting and very interesting to Russ. As always, he threw himself into it 110%. Went into the office early. Left the office late. A more dedicated, talented and loyal employee you’ll never find.
Then early one morning just a few months after starting the new job, Russ came into the office and couldn’t log onto his computer. Something was wrong. A short while later, he learned this better job that he’d left a good job for had been eliminated. He was out of work. Just like that.
At lunch a few days later, Russ told me, “Everything was going along so well, and then all of a sudden…”
Life can get messed up.
But I’m not telling you anything you don’t know already. You’ve been there, done that, and probably have the tee-shirt. Your happy marriage exploded. Your kid made a terrible mistake. The doctor gave you bad news. You woke up one morning and realized you are not 19 anymore, but 99-going-on-100 and your kids want to take away your car keys and say you can’t live on your own anymore.
Do you remember what a clear blue beautiful day it was that Tuesday morning? The world made sense and life was good. But precisely at 8:46 am, everything fell apart when American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centers. It was September 11, 2001 and all of a sudden, we found ourselves in a mess that still has chaotic consequences to this very day.
And there are other memorable days, too, when life spun out of control. The day your loved one died. The day Alzheimer’s came into your family. The day you lost your job. The day your wealth was wiped out. The day you fell into a deep depression and couldn’t get yourself out. The day you realized you’re not going to live forever.
All of us know what it’s like to be in a mess.
Today’s scripture readings covered the whole first chapter of Genesis and a few verses of the second. Many people miss out on the richness of Genesis because they insist on using 20th and 21st century filters through which to see a story written for people living sometime around 550 B.C. They try to inject Genesis 1 into the modern debates about how the world came to be and whether the Bible is scientifically accurate about the beginnings of the universe and should be read literally.
You can do whatever you want with the debate about creationism vs. evolution. Feel free! But whatever you do, don’t miss the point of the story.
Genesis 1 is about a bunch of people who are in the biggest mess of their lives. It is a word of hope spoken to people living in the land of chaos. People like you. And me. Genesis 1 is an ancient story, but it contains a message that is as relevant and up-to-date as this morning’s newspaper.
You see, the Jewish people living in the late 500’s B.C. had experienced their own national 9/11 tragedy. Babylonian armies had come sweeping in from the east, conquering all of Judah and laying siege to Jerusalem. The Jewish people fought valiantly to defend their nation, but to no avail. It took about three weeks for the Babylonians to breach the massive walls of the Holy City. They poured into Jerusalem, killing thousands. The great walls of the city were reduced to rubble. The magnificent Temple of God was destroyed. Even the trees in the surrounding countryside were chopped down and burned so Jerusalem could never be rebuilt again. And the survivors – men, women and children - were forced to travel along their own version of the Cherokee Trail of Tears as they were force-marched into captivity in the land of Babylon which is – by the way – modern day Iraq.
Imagine for a moment what it would have been like if the Pearl Harbor attacks had resulted in America’s defeat by the Japanese – or if 9/11 had led to our being taken to prisoner-of-war camps somewhere in Afghanistan. If you can imagine such a tragic turn of events for yourself, then perhaps you can begin to understand the horrifying experience of these Jewish captives so far away from home in Babylon.
They hoped for rescue, but rescue never came. They hoped they’d wake up and discover it was just a nightmare. But the nightmare didn’t end. Days of exile turned into weeks and weeks into months and months into years. They were in the biggest mess of their lives and there was no way out.
Sound like your life at times?
Thirty years go by. But then – sometime around 550 B.C. – someone among the exiled Jewish people wrote a song. It was probably a priest, or a group of priests. The song wasn’t really original. It was a takeoff on a very ancient Babylonian song called the Enuma Elish. But this new song was very different. It was a song of hope for a people facing the biggest mess of their lives.
Here’s how the song begins, as literally as we can render it from the Hebrew:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth had
become chaos and one big mess…”
That’s the literal translation of the Hebrew words – “chaos…one big mess.” Sound like your kid’s bedroom? More importantly, does this sound like YOUR life at times? Or maybe right now? The Jewish captives heard this song and realized it was a song about them and their life in captivity.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth
had become chaos and one big mess…”
But, do you hear what the song is saying?
“The world – your world - may be in utter chaos, BUT GOD IS STILL GOD! And this God is creating new things out of your chaos!”
This is a word of hope for a people who thought there WAS no hope!
And then the song continues – again, literally: “And the breath of God was blowing over the face of the raging waters.”
Genesis 1 is a song of hope for people like you and me when our lives are messed up and our world is catastrophically chaotic. And the very first sign of hope Genesis gives us is the declaration that even when chaos comes, God is still God, God is still with us, and the breath of God is blowing upon our MESS.
I think the first step in dealing with the chaos that comes into your life is turning to God. You know, sometimes when bad things happen, people turn and run away from God. But one of the things the Bible teaches is that even when WE turn away from God, God never turns away from US! And God’s desire is to give us hope and assurance that the Spirit is at work in us and around us to create order out of the chaos that has come into our lives.
So if you’re facing chaos today, I want you to know God is WITH you – even if your life is totally messed up!
The next verses of the song tell us that we can actually see this hope at work in creation: look at the world around you! God created order in the universe – nighttime turns to morning, yesterday becomes today, the sun comes out in the daytime, and the moon and stars come out at night. No matter what’s going on in your life right now, tomorrow WILL come – Summer will turn to Fall, as it did yesterday – Fall becomes Winter, Winter gives way to Spring, and Spring will lead to Summer again. This story tells us there is order in the universe that God created and this order is designed to assure us that though our lives may feel out of control, underneath are God’s everlasting arms!
It’s like Bette Midler’s beautiful song, “The Rose.”
When the night
has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the
bitter snows
Lies the seed
That with the sun's love
In the spring
Becomes the rose
That’s a song about YOU and your life! Tomorrow will come!
But listen to what comes next: God creates people in his own image – men and women. And God gives them dominion over creation.
The essence of God’s character in ancient Hebrew thought was that God is completely free. God is the source of freedom. We believe that here in America, too! It’s one of the great distinctives of America and something many have fought to defend and protect and that we always need to defend and protect. To be created in the image of God means that people are also free – free to think, free to speak, free to believe, free to choose, free to make decisions. Freedom is a God-given gift to all people! And then to hear that we have also been given dominion over creation is a wonderful promise! Now this doesn’t mean we have dominion that allows us to do whatever the heck we want with creation. It does not mean we can abuse animals, and irresponsibly exploit the world’s natural resources.
What having dominion DOES mean is that we have some measure of control over the chaos and we have power to make good decisions and take responsible actions within the world around us.
You see, the worst thing you can do when you’re going through hard times is think of yourself as a helpless victim. You might not to be able to control what someone else has done to you, but you CAN control what you do to them. You may not be able to change the diagnosis, but you CAN try to defy the prognosis! You may not be able to change the heart of someone you care about who’s going down the wrong path, but you CAN control YOUR heart and find healthy and responsible ways to deal with them.
Genesis tells us we people have some power – we have the power to make good decisions and deal responsibly with the chaos we’re facing.
So do you see how the song of Genesis 1 goes? It starts in chaos, but God is at work restoring order. God is with us in the mess, and one by one God creates things that anchor us – dry land, seasons, the ecosystems of the earth. And God gives us power to act. These are gifts God gives to people facing the chaos of life.
And then one more beautiful verse from the song. It’s actually found in the opening verses of Chapter 2, but it is the crowning verse of this hymn of creation.
“On
the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh
day, God rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it
holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
(2:2-3)
The song begins with a world in chaos. The song ends with a new and beautifully ordered world created out of that mess. All is well. Life is good. It is VERY GOOD, the song tells us! And God rests.
We call this seventh day “the Sabbath.”
Do you know there is no command in the Bible to go to church? I know I’m giving fodder to anyone who is here today mainly because a parent or spouse dragged them kicking and screaming to church. And I do hope you’ll keep coming to church! Going to church is a GREAT thing to do, not because it earns you merit points, but because of what goes on here.
Do you know what it is?
We come to church for one reason: to “observe the Sabbath.”
A better word would be to “see” the Sabbath.
You see, we come to this moment each week out of the messiness of the days gone by. We come from the chaos that grips our lives. We come with the tears of loss. We come with the pain of failure. We come with the embarrassment and consequences of sin. We come with broken relationships, broken dreams, broken promises, and broken hearts.
We come from the messiness of life, and we step into the Sanctuary to SEE SOMETHING!
The Sabbath!
You see, the Sabbath is the day when all will be well – when your chaos will be overcome and your life will be restored. The Sabbath is the day your problem is resolved, your broken heart is healed, your sins are forgiven, your family is reunited, your enemy becomes your friend, and you see, hear, feel and experience the new world of God’s creation.
When we come to church we are CLAIMING THE FUTURE!
In our worship, we sing about it – we read about it – we pray for it – we preach about it. In our worship we SEE two things – our future – and the God who promises it.
And then strengthened by this experience of claiming the Sabbath, we go back to our lives – no longer to live as victims of the chaos, but as the Spirit-filled children of the living God.
I’m glad you’re here today. I hope you’ll claim your God-promised future before you leave. And I want you to hold onto the promises of our worship today, the promises of that ancient song:
1. Your life may be in chaos, but God is still God and God’s Spirit is at work in you!
2. The world has foundations established by God that tell us every day that God will always be faithful, just as morning will always dawn from night.
3. Messed up people are still God’s people, and God has given you power to make good decisions and to act in ways that can help overcome the chaos you’re in.
4. After you’ve lived out the promises over the next six days, come back here on the seventh and we will claim the future again!
Amen.