Looking Forward to September 2, 2018 -- We Look at Creation

This is the first Sunday of the month and so we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion.

For the next four weeks we will be looking at issues around the Care of Creation from a faith perspective.

The Scripture Reading for this week is Genesis 1:1-2:3 (the Priestly hymn to Creation)

The Sermon title is God’s Gift, Our Work

Early Thoughts: It is a song of praise to the Creator, that first chapter of our Scripture story. It is not a science text. It is not a history lesson. It is a song of praise and thanksgiving, and then ends with a charge to the humans created at the end of the song.

At the end of the cycle, as humans are created they are given the task of filling the earth and "subduing" it. Humans, the ones created in God's image, are given dominion over the created earth. It is a weighty task. And I would suggest we have not done well with it.

Even more so I would suggest that, despite the amount of environmental awareness in our media today, we are getting worse with each generation. Some would say that is because we are addicted to things that use energy (both in creation and use) and that those of us in the West [maybe especially in North America] have become addicted to an unsustainable standard of living the we call normal. There is truth there. I am sure I use far more energy and resources now than a person of my age and social position did 30 years ago. But I think there is something deeper. I think that many of us have become, to varying degrees, isolated from the environment. And so we have less appreciation of the gift and less of a drive to take on the work of caring for it.

I think we need to re-develop a connectedness with the creation and the Creator. After all it has always been a tenet of Christian (and Jewish I believe) theology that while God is revealed in the Scriptures and in Christ, God is also revealed in the creation. And so to learn all we can about God we need to connect with creation. It is my belief that if we truly connect with the world around us it changes our priorities and thus our actions.

What do you think?
--Gord