Creation Sunday - Fearfully and wonderfully made

One of the things that the church is pretty good at is arguing – discussions at the General Synod of the Church of England, however gracious they were, highlighted this problem and of course, the Church in Wales has certainly not been exempt from it either…

Today in the Church in Wales is designated as Creation Sunday – and whilst many people will hold different views about creation and about how it all happened, today we are called to celebrate the wonder of creation and our place within it…. 

The long creation reading (Gen.1:1-2:3) reminds us of the wonderful gifts that God has prepared for us all in his creation. a world of beauty, a world of challenges certainly, but a world crammed full of resources and gifts to be used by all his people.

It is a world where men and women are created equally in God’s own image – where every man and every woman has a right to enjoy the resources we are given. In a world where more and more opinions are being expressed about looking after ourselves first, or at least people who look like us or act like us, this is a call to get back to God – to recognise we are made in his image… With all of our differences, we are created in God’s image… 

And when God was completing this work of creation we’re told that he thought it was good and then he rested, satisfied with his work – content with his creation… And the story from then on is of God continuing to build a relationship with his creation, a relationship damaged over and over again by people’s actions – but over and over again, he was there, full of love for his people… 

In the psalm (136:1-9,23-26) again we focused on creation and the need to give thanks for God’s mercy which endures for ever. Our treatment of creation and our respect, concern and love for others, is part of our thanksgiving to God for the life and opportunities he gives to us. Saying thank you is good and important - but living out our thanks is even more important. 

There’s a great story about a man coming up to the traffic lights. The lights turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the junction, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating.  The woman behind howeverwas furious and beeped her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the junction, dropping her mobile phone and makeup.  As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. 

The officer ordered her to exit her car and took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell in the police station. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.   He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, shouting at the man in front of you and using all that bad language and I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the “Christian Fish” emblem on the back of the car and the rosary hanging in the car ,  the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, so naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car."

If we don’t act as people who have had our lives completely transformed by the love of God and if we don’t act as if we’re thankful for it, then why should anyone take notice ?

In his letter to the Romans (8:18-25) Paul spoke of the suffering he was having but that his current suffering was nothing compared to the glory he was seeing in God… He talked of a future hope but he didn’t limit his thoughts to a future hope. Hope in the future offers hope now – it offers inspiration, it offers comfort and peace. 

As Christians sharing good news we are to be hope in the world – hope for our families, for our neighbours and friends, but hope also for everyone… God didn’t draw lines on maps marking out countries and races of people, he created us all in his image… What hurts someone thousands of miles away should hurt us too…

And then we think of the gospel reading (Matt.6:25-34) which at first sight seems to suggest we shouldn’t worry about anything because God will look after people in the end. And read in isolation perhaps that is what this passage is saying – and I have no doubt we certainly can be confident of God’s care and protection and his love always. 

But I think it says more because read in conjunction with the rest of the Bible which stresses the equality of humanity, which stresses the need to love one another as God loves us, it is clear that we are to be agents helping people not to worry. 

By sharing a message of hope and peace, we are saying ‘don’t worry’ – and our words are great, and those who encourage and comfort have wonderful gifts, but we also need to be doers.

There’s a story which I may have told before of a young child who went to bed and had a bad dream one night – her mother comforted her and put her back to bed, and then went to leave the bedroom. 

The little girl asked her mother to stay but the mother told her daughter not to worry about being alone because God was always with her, and the daughter replied, ‘I know that, but I want someone with skin on as well’. 

God is always enough and God always provides but God didn’t create us in isolation – he created us to be relational, to be people who connect with one another and sometimes it is good just to know the comfort of another person. 

Creation is for us to enjoy and for all to enjoy – as we care for the needs of others we are crying out a message of justice, hope, peace and love for all. The message begins from each of us and how we live but the message can stretch many miles and over many continents.

Our readings today challenge us to recapture the spirit of creation – God looking at us and thinking this is good, and him seeing us celebrating that it is good – looking like we’re people of celebration and hope, not people who love to argue…

And we think of Paul writing to the Romans and it’s hardly fair to just limit it to the passage we heard because chapter 8 is full of hope and encouragement and passion about what new life with Jesus really means… We live in the world but we also must be distinctive in the world – not weird as some Christians seem to be, but distinctive in our trust in Jesus and our love for his people… 

So we celebrate creation, we thank God for it and show that thanks in our lives not just with our words. We recognise that created in God’s image we were created as an enormous family to care for one another regardless of our differences, and then in our gospel reading Jesus says don’t worry about tomorrow… It isn’t a glib sort of promise that everything will be alright in the end, but a guarantee that he is there and he will walk with us through any pain, any joy, any experience at all… 

To finish I’ll read some verses from the wonderful psalm 139, taken from the Message Bible which remind us of God’s presence and God’s care and his gift of creation:

God, investigate my life… I’m an open book to you; Even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too -  your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful -  I can't take it all in! 

Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon, You'd find me in a minute -  you're already there waiting!

….I thank you, God - you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration - what a creation!  AMEN