Pastor Ruth Foss
Suncook UMC
April 11, 2010
Psalm 8:3-9 NIV
Matthew 12:16-21 NIV
Deuteronomy 11:13-17 Message Bible
If you . . . Then I’ll. . .
Creation . . . I just love how God has orchestrated the world around us. Just take a look around. It is majestic. Look at how God has created the mountains. They are breath taking. Look at the way God kind of puts the world to sleep during winter, giving it rest, and then in spring, it burst forth in song. It leaves me awe struck at times. I remember when Ray and I went on our honeymoon in St. Lucia. We would get up early in the morning, before the sun rose, and sit on the beach and watch the new day dawn. It was breath taking. It was as if God was painting a picture as we watched. We would stand up and give the sun and sky a standing ovation when it was done. It was beautiful.
In the Psalm we heard this morning; we hear how David felt about the world around him. We heard how he was in awe about how God has made humankind “ruler” over His works. I can relate to what David was saying. When I think about how God has put us in charge of what he created, I am humbled at the thought. God created something so beautiful and thinks we are special enough to take care of it for Him. It humbles me at the thought. But somewhere along the line, humankind has forgotten about the awesome task we have.
Let us pray. . .
Loving God, we thank you for your Spirit that dwells among us. We thank you that you speak to us with that same Spirit. We pray that your Spirit would be with us this morning as we hear the word you have for us this day. May that same Spirit help us to be not just hearers but doers of your word. We pray for hearts that are open to your guidance as we journey in this world you have given us. Speak Lord . . . your ambassadors are listening . . .
Humankind seems to have chosen to stop looking at creation's beauty and be awestruck at God’s handy work. Instead, humankind has chosen to look at the world around us as a commodity to be bought, sold, and exploited for humankinds own self interest. This reminds me of the parable of the “Rich Fool” the parable goes like this . . .
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Now humankind is wondering “why there are so many eco problems, why is there climate change, why the world around them seems to be groaning in pain, why hasn’t God done something about what is happening to His creation, why doesn’t God just step in a fix it”. But there are also some who are thinking, “what is my part in the eco problem, what can I do to stop the devastation of the world around, where do I begin”.
Today, to try and answer some of these questions, we are starting a sermon series. It’s based on a study called “God’s Renewed Creation: call to hope and action.” It’s based on the Pastoral Letter from the Council of Bishops of the UMC. We will look at God’s holy vision for humankind, our call to practice social and environmental holiness, and how we are to live and act in hope for the world around us. You see . . . there needs to be a change in the way we see the world and what our responsibility is to it. In order to make a change, humankind needs to realize that the change needs to come from within and if there is no change within there can be no change in our outward action.
OK . . . let’s get started. One question that humankind may be asking is “why doesn’t God do something about the problems with the world?” Well . . . we read some of what God says about the world in Deuteronomy. We will be looking at chapter 13 verses 13-17 this morning. It reads (And I’m reading from the Message Bible this morning):
13-15 From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he'll take charge of sending the rain at the right time, both autumn and spring rains, so that you'll be able to harvest your grain, your grapes, your olives. He'll make sure there's plenty of grass for your animals. You'll have plenty to eat.
16-17 But be vigilant, lest you be seduced away and end up serving and worshiping other gods and God erupts in anger and shuts down Heaven so there's no rain and nothing grows in the fields, and in no time at all you're starved out—not a trace of you left on the good land that God is giving you.
One of the reasons is that humankind has forgotten its first passion; it has forgotten who made the world we survey. God has promised to bless the earth on which we walk, to bless the people that walk upon it, but humankind, in its infinite wisdom, has walked away from this covenant. God is not the one who broke the “deal”, humankind has. In this passage, God says if you . . . then I will, but if you don’t . . . I will. Just look at the way we treat the earth and our fellow human beings. It’s a no wonder God has not stepped in.
Humankind has been seduced by greed and envy, humankind has turned its back on the commandments that God has given us (you know . . . love the Lord your God with all your mind, with all your strength and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself). Humankind has made other gods that they believe in, gods like money, power, possession and the like. (I am the Lord your God, put no other gods before me). In order to make the changes on the outside the change has to begin on the inside. Matthew 12:35 tells us, The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
Beloved . . . it’s time for a change. If we as human beings do not make that change I dread to think about what will happen to human beings. If we don’t get back to the basics in life, life as we know it will cease to exist. We were put on this earth to “tend the garden”. That has been our job from the beginning. We need to treasure the world around us. It’s the only one we have and once it’s gone . . . We need to tend not just the garden on the outside but also the garden on the inside, our hearts. (For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.) My prayer is that as we go through this series . . . we will all take a look and examine our own hearts and find where our true treasure lies.
AMEN
April 11, 2010
Deuteronomy 11:13-17
Psalm 8:3-9
Matthew 12:35
Luke 12:13-21, Parable of the Rich Fool
Unison Prayer from the Worship Sourcebook
Worship Theme: “God’s Creation”
and sermon, “If you . . . I will. . . ”
by Pastor Ruth L. Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
the first 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 11, 2010
First Sunday After Easter
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