Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sermon - "Staff Members All Are We", by Pastor Ruth L. Foss, Suncook United Methodist Church, Suncook, NH, April 25, 2010

Pastor Ruth Foss
Suncook United Methodist Church
April 25, 2010
Genesis 2:4b-9, 15(The NIV Bible)

“Staff Members All Are We”

A reading from the book of Genesis… Genesis 2:5-9 and 15 from the “NIV Bible”:

Read the Genesis Story
(Here ends the reading of the Word of God; may we blessed in its hearing.)

The Lord be with you
And also with you
Let us pray…

Creator God in Heaven, we thank you for this day that we are gathered together to hear the word you have for us this day. Thank you for Your ancient, eternal Word. We thank you for creation all around us, how you have fashioned it from the beginning, how it sings your praise each new morn. It leaves us awestruck. We pray for your Spirit to fall down upon us here this morning so that we will know your will for our lives. Come Holy Spirit, fill us anew. I pray that Your Word would be heard through me or in spite of me this day. Speak Lord…Your lambs are listening…

Good Morning…last Wednesday was Administrative Professionals Day. Well…me being me, of course, I walked into Rays office and said to him, “It’s Administrative Professionals Day and there are no flowers on my desk yet!” Well we both got a good laugh at that and of course Ray said that I was selling myself short calling myself an administrative assistant only, that I was so much more than that.

But as I read this scripture from Genesis I thought to myself, humankind is like Gods administrative assistants, we are His staff members. God put us on the earth to do the work He has assigned to us. We were created to take care of things for the “Big Boss” while He is out taking care of the more difficult things (like answering prayer…creating more good stuff…and so on). I like how the Pastoral Letter from the Council of Bishops puts it. They state that “Even though things look bleak around us, God’s creative work continues.”(Amen on that because without it, we all would be doomed) There is and interconnectedness between the world around us and everything that exists in, on and around it that we can no longer ignore.

It also made me think about where we, as United Methodist, stand on this issue. OK…today let’s look at where we stand on the subject as United Methodist. To give you a little doctrinal lesson…as United Methodist, we have a set of rules that are put down in the “The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church” (and no there is no quiz at the end of the morning on the Book of Discipline)…and within this book there is what we call our “Social Principles”…these tell us the United Methodist stance on things like the natural world, the nurturing community, the social community, the economic community, the world community and our social creed (OK…lesson done…see that wasn’t so hard was it?)The part of our Social Principles that we are going to look at is the one regarding the natural world.

You see…John Wesley our founder believed that there are three dimensions to humanity’s creation in the image of God: the natural image, the political image, and the moral image. With Wesley, the political image refers to humanity’s calling to care for the earth and the other creatures that inhabit it. Just as God is Ruler over all creation, so humanity is caretaker and “governor” over this world (sort of like an administrative assistant…a staff member). For this task, God gave humanity the natural image made of “reason, will, and freedom”, the abilities to take care of the earth. But somewhere down the line…humanity got things twisted and distorted. They took the words from Genesis…the words to subdue the earth, found in Genesis 1:28 and made it into something that was not the way God had intended it to be. The Artisans’ Masterpiece began to be taken for granted that it would always be there. They were wrong. God’s creation is not disposable it is indispensible to all that lives on this planet we call earth.

So what is it that our social principles tell us about the natural world and our responsibility regarding it? Well…I’m glad you asked that question…Our social principles state:
“All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect. Economic, political, social, and technological developments have increased our human numbers, and lengthened and enriched our lives. However, these developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic extinction of species, massive human suffering, overpopulation, and misuse and over consumption of natural and nonrenewable resources, particularly by industrialized societies. This continued course of action jeopardizes the natural heritage that God has entrusted to all generations. Therefore, let us recognize the responsibility of the church and its members to place a high priority on changes in economic, political, social, and technological lifestyles to support a more ecologically equitable and sustainable world leading to a higher quality of life for all of God’s creation.”

OK Pastor Ruth…can you break it down for us this morning? Why I would be happy to do that for you…thanks for asking…

A. Water, Air, Soil and Minerals – We support and encourage social policies that serve to reduce and control the creation of industrial by products and waste; facilitate the safe processing and disposal of toxic and nuclear waste and move toward eliminating both; and assist in cleanup of polluted air, water and soil, among other things.
B. Energy Resources Utilization – We support and encourage social policies that are directed toward rational and restrained transformation of parts of the nonhuman world into energy for human usage and that deemphasize or eliminate energy producing technologies that endanger present or future human and nonhuman creation.
C. Animal Life – We support regulations that protect the life and health of animals.
D. Global Climate Stewardship – We acknowledge the global impact of humanity’s disregard for God’s creation. We therefore support efforts of all governments to require mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and call on individuals, congregations, businesses, industries and communities to reduce their emissions.

It is all connected…that cause and effect thing going on here. But even though these things are happening God’s creative work still continues, God still invites each of us to participate in the work of renewal. God still cares and wants us to get back to one of the basic reasons while we are here…to tend the garden.

One of the statements in this letter that really made me stop and think about my own life is “We cannot help the world until we change our own way of being in it.” We need a renewing of our mind about the world around us and our interconnectedness within it…we need to begin to see our own part in the destruction of the Garden in which we live. One way to begin is to take that day of rest…to spend time as “creation with Creator”…to be celebrating God and God’s gift to us not just on that day of communing with the Creator but every day that has been gifted to us…by helping others to see the natural order that God has put forth…to spend time in prayer for all that we survey.

This is something we all need to go to God in prayer about. It is not for me to tell you what you need to do but we can all make a difference; we just may need some guidance along the way. Who better to ask for guidance from? We need to go to the Creator to find the answer of how to put the created order back to what it was meant to be. Only on our knees will we be able to begin to rebuild the Garden the earth was meant to be. Only by taking our divinely given “staff member” position to heart will we be able to bring about change in the world in which we live. Time is ticking away fast. How will you respond to the Spirits prompting?

Amen.


April 25, 2010
Genesis 2:4b-9, 15
Psalm 104:1-2, 5, 31, 35b (Call to Worship)
1 Timothy 4:4-5
Hymn, “Shepherd Me, O God”, TFWS #2058 (Psalm 23)
Prayer of Dedication,
(From the National Council of Churches [NCC]
Earth Day Sunday 2002 resource packet,
"Caring for Creation: Making the World Safe for Children.")
Worship Theme: “What is our calling within Creation?”
and sermon, “Staff Members All Are We”
by Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
the third in a series of sermons, based in part on the pastoral letter from the Council of Bishops, “God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action,”
and the study guide, etc., based on this letter:  
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
April 25, 2010
Third Sunday After Easter


All of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage. See all 37,210+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.

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