This sermon was preached at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Holliston, MA on July 15, 2014.
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
Today, as we celebrate our Triune God, the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, we read about the story of how the world was created.
I started thinking about this, in light of the words from
our confession for today:
We put ourselves first and others last.
What we think will make us happy
Leaves us longing for more.
And I thought, what if this story of creation, was
reversed. What if, instead of existing as a perfect, loving communion already,
our God was in need of companionship, and so created humans.
Or, in other words, I thought of how the story would go
if it was up to us humans, and here it is:
God was bored and lazing around, and thought, I need to
be productive and not bored. I need some companionship. So, in order to produce
some companions, God rested up for a while, so that maximum productivity could
be ensured, because being bored, and doing nothing was not good.
So, after God had rested for a while, God made some
companions he called people. And, to ensure peak productivity, God gave the
humans the people the means to reproduce themselves. Now God knew that he would
never be bored, and he was just about to rest, when he noticed something was
not good.
The people, were getting hungry, and they had nothing to
eat, and so they started fighting and trying to eat each other. Just as fast as
the humans could reproduce themselves, they stopped living, and when they were
living, they weren’t very good companions for God. This was not good.
So, God decided to make something besides that the humans
could eat besides themselves. God made some animals, like cattle, all the way
down to creepy crawly things. But, though these animals could reproduce, they
needed to eat too. So, while the people were eating the animals, the animals also
started eating each other, and everything was dying just as quickly as it had
before. In addition, because there weren’t enough of them, the people started
fighting over who got to eat the animals. The people weren’t good companions
for God, because they spent all their time trying to get food, and, the people
who didn’t have enough asked God for something to eat, and the people who had
it all asked God not to take any away. This was not good.
So, God made more animals, innovative animals. But no one
could eat the birds because they kept flying all the time, as they had nothing
to land on, and they didn’t want to be eaten. And the special gills God gave
the other creatures just didn’t work at all. And there wasn’t enough, and the
people continued to fight, and were not good companions at all. This was not
good.
So, God thought a little bit and decided that one problem
was that no one could see where they were going. So God, made a star that gave
a little brightness, which helped some, but then people started complaining
because some had more of the brightness then others. And so God made more
stars, and even made a moon, that gave more brightness, but the people still
complained.
So, God made a star that was really close to the humans,
and it was very bright, and hot, but now everyone had too much brightness.
Everyone was cranky and mad and sunburned. This was not good.
God didn’t know what to do next, so God made some food for the animals to eat, so that there would be more animals for the people to eat. God made plants, and they were good for not only the animals, but also the people to eat. But they were scarce, because the bright star wilted them. Besides, the people were so accustomed to eating the animals, especially the ones that made bacon, that they didn’t want to eat the plants. This led God to solve many problems by making water, which fed the plants, gave the creatures with gills a place to live, and even helped the animals and people to quench a thirst they didn’t know they had.
But there were still problems. Not everyone could live
next to the water that made the plants grow, which, in turn, made more bacon. As
a result, even though there was more, there still wasn’t enough. Plus, some
people used the plants called trees to make shaded places for themselves and
their animals, while others were wilted, parched, and hungry, because they had
no shade from the bright star, no water or plants, and no food. And the people
weren’t good companions, some died of hunger, and many more died fighting over
the food, and water. This was not good.
Next, God developed a distribution program, and made a
sky. The water from the seas would go up into the sky, and make clouds, and
then fall down on the people who didn’t live close to the water. But the people
who had a lot of animals, wanted more, and they needed more barns for the
animals, and more food for them. So they kept cutting down all trees, and
growing just the plants the animals could eat. Because of this, the water
didn’t stay where it fell, on the people far from the water, but ran to the
people who already had enough. The people weren’t good companions, because they
kept fighting, and taking the things God had made for everyone to share, for
themselves. This was not good.
By this time, God decided that both he and the people
could use some rest. So God, took the blazing star away for a little while.
This way, the people wouldn’t be able to see very well, and they would stop
trying to get more food and just rest. But by this time, the people had learned
that the trees could burn, and give them light whenever they wanted. They used
this fire light to keep on trying to get food, some just a little to feed their
starving bellies, others to get so much that they would never run out. And even
though the people had everything they could ever want, they kept fighting and
working, never resting. They were always cranky, and not good companions. This was
not good.
And so God, took away the light. Everything died. This
was really not good.
Thankfully, this is not the real story, the GOOD STORY,
the Good News story.
What is good, is that God has given us the Good News of
the real creation story. The story where God has created all things, and given
them to us to care for, to be stewards of, so that we don’t just reproduce, but
so that we can be fruitful, and multiply, along with all that God has created.
The Good News is that even as we continue to sinfully
live in a world of scarcity, a world where we fight and hoard rather than
share, God comes to us in Jesus Christ, and feeds us with abundant life that
never runs out. The life that we share with others, because God has first
shared it with us.
The Good News, is that this life is for everyone, and
God; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sends us out to sow the seeds of this
life, the merciful seeds of peace, justice, and love to all people.
The Good News is that God has looked upon all of creation
and said, “It is good!” May we find rest in this promise, and joy in living it
out.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen
