Genesis 1:1- 2:4a
Before I read this beautiful poem on the creation of life, I want to ask you a question. We all know that God created the world in seven days. My question to you is how many of the seven stanzas, seven days, has something to do with water? Hear with new ears the story of how God formed everything out of nothing.
If you were counting, then 4 out of the seven days God created, included water. That is 57% of the days make reference to water. On day 2, God created a dome in the midst of the water to separate the earth from the sky. Day three is collecting the water so that earth can be discovered beneath. There are two others, but I think you get the idea. But 57% water is not completely accurate. God did not create on the seventh day, rather seeing all that was very good and seeing all that was created, God rested. So that leaves water being the foundation of 66% of the active creation story. But I can’t leave this focus on water and creation without pointing out that on the fifth day God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creature” before any living creature was made. I love to read this passage because it helps with the understanding that creation, God and evolution do not have to be at odds. From the beginning, this is how the inspired word of God declared the world to come into being. Yet the very first activity after making heaven and earth was for God to command the swarms of creatures to emerge from the waters. Life comes from water, life comes from God. The beauty of God’s command is that science says exactly the same thing. Swarms of living creatures is exactly how I would describe the first microorganism of life. Then later animals of the world came into being and then ultimately humans. So, if we don’t get too caught up on the linear and chronological time, did you note “these are the generations of heaven and earth”, the creation idea and the evolution idea fit quite well. Not only do creation and evolution work together, it is amazing that this poem, this hymn, that originated in its final form over 2,500 years ago, could divide time into a week of seven days that coincides with the lunar and Roman and finally the Gregorian calendars.
When all is said and done, believing in Creation is a faith question. Is my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, capable of creating all that we know to be out of nothing? Does God the Father of Jesus Christ have the power to not only raise a Savior from the dead, but also to create all that exists? Do you worship a God with that unlimited ability? Because the God that did all of this, certainly is able to assist you in your life and your walk with the Lord. But if we relegate the creation account to a nice ancient story then we have lessened the greatness of God. The God I worship truly is great, loving and powerful! God created life then, creates life now, and will create life forever.
On this Trinity Sunday, water also reflects the majesty and power of God three in one. Water the substance that of life takes on three distinct forms interacting with the world: steam, water and ice. Each form has its own way of being. Just consider trying to drink steam, your throat would be burned and your thirst unquenched. Or try to pour solid ice, you would have to let it melt to take on a different form. We need God in different forms as well. I depend upon the strength and power of God the Father and Creator. I am comforted by having a brother in Jesus who emptied himself of his divine nature to become like us, made up mostly of water. Being like us, Jesus understands our pains, knows our joys, relates to us and in his mercy, saves us from our sin. As we spoke about last week, the Holy Spirit occupies a unique place in our world moving in and through situations to be an agent of change, as well as a listening presence. Our trinitarian God makes all of that happen.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus commands his followers to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through the waters of baptism, we are made children of the living God, joining as members of God’s body, the church. Waters played a key role in creation and the waters of baptism brings us into our covenantal relationship with God three-in-one. Harkening back to the creation story, Jesus says, “All authority in Heaven and one earth is given to me.” Then Jesus command his followers, and us, to make disciples. Disciples need to absorb the word just like a tree absorbs water. Without water the tree dies, and without God’s word, true discipleship dies. That is why we are starting a weekly Bible discussion about the upcoming scripture for the Sunday sermon. My hope is to make your questions and thoughts about a passage inform the sermon, making preaching more collaborative. We will start our 6-week pilot program on Wednesday June 28th at 1pm. Come to one or come to all. I hope you will join us!
Making disciples also means sharing our faith, inviting a friend to church, letting someone know you are praying for them, making your own spiritual nourishment a priority. Give yourself the opportunity to absorb God’s word and be shaped by the powerful living water. Jesus did not say, “Go and make church goers.” He said make disciples, followers of Jesus Christ. Sit at the feet of the Master and absorb all that Christ has to offer and allow him to shape your life. For when you do you will rest in what I like to call the three great commands. How appropriate for Trinity Sunday. Of course, what I mean is that when we live in God’s word, when discipleship is the goal, then we live and breathe the two great commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. If those two commandments become a way of life, then the third commandment to make disciples flows as naturally as water flows to the ocean. Fear of sharing our faith is like a damn to that water. Tear down that damn and let the living water flow!
God is fluid in three forms, but constant in our lives. Yet how we understand God, how we make sense out of the world certainly is not constant. Adult Education is reading A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLarin looking at how our understanding of the world, faith and ourselves is changing. Now some might say that creation is one way of looking at the world, a faithful way, and others would say evolution is the scientific way. But McLarin is seeing our time as one of major transition, much like moving from the medieval time to modern times. As you know, the century of moving to modernity saw the creation of the printing press, Columbus discovering the new world, Da Vinci creating the Mona Lisa and David and Luther sparking the Reformation with his 95 theses. McLarin argues with space travel, science, changes in technology, and politics we are in a post-modern world. He is inviting us to see how these changes affect how we are as a church. More to the point, how we make disciples today and how we understand scripture and the world. If this has piqued your interest we will be returning to the book in the fall and you can read A New Kind of Christian over the summer and join us for class.
McLarin argues we need to meet the challenge of making disciples with new means grounded in faith and the Spirit, but not necessarily in the way we came to faith. A college student, hearing a lecture on this shift to postmodern world and faith puts it this way, “Everywhere in my life except church I think I am postmodern. But when I go anyplace religious or Christian, I just sort of switch into my parent’s way of thinking” (p. 44). We need to trust God, Creator, Savior and Wisdom, to guide us into a new path for being the church. With so much of creation and ourselves based in water, he speaks of the church as a ship sailing according the Spirit of God. He also wonders if in this new postmodern era we might need a new ship. He writes, “I want you to invest your lives not in keeping the old ship afloat but in designing and building and sailing a new ship for new adventures in a new time in history, as intrepid followers of Jesus Christ” (p. 38).
Where is God leading St. Andrew to sail and are we following the winds of the Holy Spirit? Amen.
