Creation Praises the Creator

The scriptures include Psalm 148, and John 13:31-35.  It was preached on May 19, 2019 at Lake City Presbyterian Church, Lake City, SC and at Florence Communities Vespers service that afternoon..

Creation Praises the Creator

 

Psalm 148 is a psalm of praise, specifically,

          creation praising the Creator.

All creation praising God;

          lifting their voices in a symphony of praise.

Praise the Lord!

Praising God with joy!

This is a Hallelujah Psalm…

          an invitation to all creation:

                    Mountains and all hills,

 fruit trees and all cedars!

and all creatures:

          Wild animals and all cattle,
                    creeping things and flying birds!

All are invited to join in praising the Lord!

From the heavens, a heavenly choir:

          Praise him, all his angels;
          praise him, all his host!

From the earth, all creation:

          Praise the Lord from the earth…

           his glory is above earth and heaven.

All people of the earth join in:

          Kings of the earth and all peoples,
          princes and all rulers of the earth!

Young men and women alike,

old and young together!

Earth, heaven, sky, sea, creation, creatures, people…

          all together in a symphony of praise!

All creation praises the Creator!

This psalm brings up a couple questions for me,

          if you take the people, the angels,

and the heavenly hosts out of the picture,

what is left? 

nature and animals,

trees and hills,

heaven and earth.

So how does the wind, the rain, animals, and trees praise God?

What is creation’s relation to God and

God’s relationship to creation?

What can we learn from those relationships?

Let’s start trying to answer these questions

by looking at the relationship between God and creation…

The hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful is

a hymn about creation and providence:

each little flower that opens,

each little bird that sings,

the purple headed-mountain,

the river running by,

the cold wind in the winter,

the pleasant summer sun,

the Lord God made them all.

In Genesis, there is the beginning…

          In the beginning

when God created the heavens and the earth…

          And God said, “Let there be…

                   light,

sky,

land,

seas,

vegetation,

living creatures of sky, sea, and land,

and humankind.

God proclaimed creation good;

          creation must respond with praise for its Creator.  

As we recall animals in the Bible, we see their purposes:

          the animals on the ark to preserve creation,

          the whale in which Jonah resided for 3 days,

          the donkey who carried Mary to Bethlehem

and the one Jesus rode upon as he entered Jerusalem.

In the book Prayers from the Ark, we hear the dove’s prayer…

          The ark waits, Lord,

                   the ark waits on Your will,

                   and the sign of Your peace.

          I am the dove, simple

as the sweetness that comes from You.

          The ark waits, Lord;

                    it has endured.

Let me carry t a sprig of hope and joy,

                    and put, at the heart of its forsakenness,

                    this, in which Your love clothes me,

                    Grace immaculate.                   Amen[i].

How is creation to answer the call to praise?

          Let them praise the name of the Lord,
          for he commanded, and they were created.

So how does creation fulfill its obligation to praise God?

They fulfill the command of God by being what

they are meant to be.

Creation is part of God’s plan and purpose;

Biblical scholar James Mays states…

“The creation and the creatures

 praise in their very being and doing,

by existing and filling their assigned place.”

So, this leads us to the big question…

          What can we learn from those relationships?

God and creation and creation to other creation.

Our relationships with God are important;

God also commands us to love each other,

 as God loves us.

I want to share with you a devotional poem

from the book Alters Under the Sky,

Devotional Readings for Outdoor Days;

the author of the poem is unknown.

In every patch of timber, you

will always find a tree or two

that would have fallen long ago,

borne down by wind or age or snow,

had not another neighbor tree

held out its arms in sympathy

and caught the tree that storm had hurled

to earth.  So, neighbors, is this world.

In every patch of timber stand

Samaritans of forest land,

the birch, the maple, oak and pine,

the fir, the cedar, all in line!

In every wood unseen, unknown,

they bear their burden of their own

and bear as well another form,

some neighbor stricken in the storm.

Shall trees be nobler to their kind

than men, who boast the noble mind;

shall there exist within the wood

this great eternal brotherhood

of oak and pine, of hill and fen,

and not within the heart of men?

God grant that men are like to these,

and brothers brotherly as trees.[ii]

This is creation praising its Creator!

Doing what God meant it to do; fulfilling God’s purpose.

How are you and I to answer the call to praise?

By being who God made us to be,

 by living an abundant life, and

by finding joy with creation and with each other,

we too praise God!

We embrace our God given gifts,

          using the talents our Creator gave us;

We embody Jesus’ teachings and become disciples,

          taking action as individuals and as a community of faith;

You and I proclaim our faith by our everyday actions

being guided by the Holy Spirit.

Every day we praise God.

Psalm 148 is a psalm calling us to praise every day,

          in all seasons, in all times,

every single day.

We live as Christians, not just on Sunday,    everyday;

          not just in the Christmas or Easter season…every season.

You and I respond in praise because of our faith,

                   because we know God’s grace,

                   because Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer.

You and I respond in praise in love…

                   as God loves us,

                   we reach out to each other in love.

I have one other poem to share with you about

God’s continuing care of creation and

God’s care for you and me;

I Saw God Wash the World by William L. Stidger:

I saw God wash the world last night
with His sweet showers on high,
and then, when morning came, I saw
Him hang it out to dry.

He washed each tiny blade of grass
and every trembling tree;
He flung His showers against the hill,
and swept the billowing sea.

The white rose is a cleaner white,
the red rose is more red,
since God washed every fragrant face
and put them all to bed.

There’s not a bird, there’s not a bee
that wings along the way
but is a cleaner bird and bee
than it was yesterday.

I saw God wash the world last night;

Ah, would He had washed me

as clean of all my dust and dirt

as the old white birch tree.[iii]

 

                                                                                      Amen.

 

 

---

[i] Prayers from the Ark and the Creatures Choir by Carmen Bernos De Gasztold, translated by Rumer Godden

 

[ii] Alters Under the Sky, Devotional Readings for Outdoor Days (1942) by Dorothy Wells Pease

[iii] I Saw God Wash the World (1934) by William L. Stidger

Go!

With less than 24 hours notice to supply preach, I edited and updated a previous sermon.  The scriptures include Psalm 121, Genesis 12:1-4a, and Romans 4:1-5,13-17.  It was preached on May 12, 2019 at Lake City Presbyterian Church, Lake City, SC.


Go!

Go! That is what God told Abram. Go!

Have you ever had that said to you?

Go! Do! Get moving!

I know I have heard that said to me more than once and usually with a sense of underlying urgency.

“Let’s go or we are going to be late.”

“Do this now because it is due by the end of the day.”

“Get moving, something is about to begin.”

Go!

But when God spoke to Abram, there was a deeper meaning

that just a straight forward command saying Go!

In the Hebrew it has the meaning ‘get up and go’;

So, that still sounds like an imperative, an order,

and it is,

yet there is more…

The command ‘go!’ is followed by promises from God.

Promises God wants to give

and all that is required of Abram is to get up and go.

There are blessings in Abram’s future; freely given blessings.

God is reaching out to him and offering him a future;

This is call and response:

And Abram must respond to God’s call!

How does Abram respond to God’s command to go?

He responds with obedience and faith;

this is the beginning of a journey.

This is not an easy call to responds to:

he is told to leave his country

and his kindred

and his father’s house.

Imagine if someone said that to you. Could you go?

What if it was God saying Go?

In Abram’s world there is uncertainty.  

There is risk.

What dangers may Abram and Sara meet on the road?

How long will the journey take?

What comes next?

Theologian Walter Brueggemann says:

“to stay in safety is to remain barren,

to leave in risk is to have hope”

This journey is about faith and hope;

about a life of faith.

On this journey, Abram is taking a risk of faith

as he is commanded to ‘get up and go’.

This is the beginning of the journey of who

Abram will become –Abraham,

the patriarch of a nation, God’s chosen people.

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

The promises God makes to Abraham are not only for him,

but for his descendants as well.

The promises made by God include descendants, land,

and divine blessing. Divine Blessing!

Abram begins the journey

that will continue into future generations.

Even if the promises are not fulfilled in a present generation,

the promises continue into the next.

There is always a continuation of the hope.

This new beginning is the start of the story of

God’s covenant relationship with the nation of Israel.

Promises are not new.

In Genesis, there are themes of promises, covenants,

and blessings come before and after the call of Abram.

God had hopes for Adam and Eve in the garden.

God makes a covenant with Noah after the flood,

never again to flood the world.

Adam and Eve are creation, Noah is re-creation,

and Abraham

can also be seen as a beginning of something new; God’s hope for humankind.

All of humankind:

God’s blessings are not just for Abraham and his descendants,

God blessings are for all.

I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The promises are inclusive.

And God’s promises continue into the New Testament,

God’s new covenant with humanity;

God’s gift of Christ Jesus.

God’s blessing is for all,

not for only those who follow ‘the law’ ( the Jews)

but for all the nations of the earth (the Gentiles).

According to Paul, Abraham is righteous by faith and

God’s covenant is inclusive.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Paul understands Abraham’s connection to all:

the inclusive promise.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)

Through Abraham, all nations are blessed.

God does the blessing to all;

the families of the earth cannot bless themselves.

Through Christ, there is new life for all;

you and I cannot bless ourselves, save ourselves.

God reaches out to us,

with love and blessings,

with mercy, and grace.

There is a purpose in our journeys,

led by God’s guiding hand.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks the question:

What do you understand by the providence of God?

The answer:

The almighty and ever present power of God

by which God upholds,

as with his hand,

heaven and earth and all creatures,

and so rules them that leaf and blade,

rain and drought, fruitful and lean years,

food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—

all things,

in fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

God is active in life in the world.

God calls to us.

How will you and I respond?

As individuals?

As a community?

As the church?

How has God provided blessings to you and to me in the past?

Blessings of family, friendships, fellowship.

Blessings or work, purpose, discipleship.

Uncountable blessings in everyday life.

Do you see blessings in your life today?

The trust of God’s ongoing providence in your life.

What hope do you and I have of blessings that are yet to come?

It is not about what we want

but what God is calling us to do.

Abraham’s call story is a narrative of hope;

Whatever is to come next is guided by God’s promises.

The ‘I will’ statements of God to Abraham

gives hope of what the future will be.

God’s call to you and to me may not be an easy journey.

Psalm 121 is a psalm about a journey.

Like so many psalms it recalls and gives thanks for help in past;

and prays and trusts for help in the present and future.

There is trust and courage present in the journey.

Psalm 121 is part of three songs of pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Psalm 120 speaks of longing for Jerusalem’s peace;

Psalm 121 is an approach song;

and

Psalm 122 a song of arrival.

As the pilgrims approach Jerusalem:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

God’s protection has brought them within sight of the hills

of Jerusalem.

In his commentary on the Psalms, James Mays says Psalm 121

“speaks of a trust that can sustain the journey of life

and the journey that life is.”

Hope. Faith.

You and I are called to journey, to ‘get up and go’.

That is life.

A life ever changing,

a life where there is risk,

a life full of faith and hope.

A life of promises and blessings given by God.

The promise God gave was not to Abram alone,

but to his descendants;

an inclusive covenant that is a blessing

to all the families of the earth.

Paul reminds us God’s promise is realized through faith;

God’s promise for Jews and Gentiles and all nations.

You and I are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

We can respond to God’s call in our lives.

What is God's call to you and to me?

to reach out and spread God's message of love and grace, and proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior;

to learn and to grow;

to be in community and fellowship;

to care for others;

to love life,

embrace creation,

and live in hope.

So ‘get up and go’!

Go because God is guiding you.

Do because you are a disciple of Christ.

Get moving because the Holy Spirit is at work within you.

Go!