Pastor S Notes for 1St Sunday in Creation, C Date: 9/1/13

Pastor’s Notes for 1st Sunday in Creation, CDate: 9/1/13

Theme: Ocean, Currents of Baptism

Bible Ref’s: Job 38:1-18; Psalm 104:1-9, 24-26, 31; Ephesians 1:3-10; and Luke 5:1-11.

Prayer of the Day

God, our Creator, as we reflect on the mysteries of the ocean and lakes, we celebrate the wondrous design of these aquatic worlds that surround us. Help us to discern how we have polluted our oceans and lakes, and to empathize with the groaning of creation. Teach us to know the presence of God in the tides and currents of the seven seas. Teach us to care for our inland lakes and waterways. We pray in the name of the Wisdom of God, the creative force that designs and governs all creation. Amen.

Brief Sermon Outline: “Baptism Rocks!”

Focus Statement: God’s outpouring of love in baptism is our rock of promise, our gemstone of hope.

1. I came across some philosophical wisdom lately in a book I’ve been reading by Larry Rasmussen called “Earth-honoring faith.” He talks in there re: how what we do shapes who we are—that our character & our identity are formed & informed by how we act. This is called “virtue ethics.”

2. But it’s also an educational philosophy that Meghan and I saw featured in a CNN special Black in America. Educators & parents were focused on countering society’s low expectations of kids in poverty & minorities by holding out for them great expectations of what they could be. In one Minneapolis charter school, a banner read: “Smart is not what you are. Smart is what you get.”

3. As Aristotle put it, “we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” (p. 134) What holds for virtuous acts, however, is also true for sinful acts—that our character & identity are formed (or rather, deformed) by the sins we invariably commit— sins against God, sins against humanity, sins against the community of everything God has made.

4. As a consequence of this philosophical/theological truth re: ourselves—that the power of sin over-whelms any virtue we might possess—(& a point of particular Christian hope and inspiration) God acted on our behalf in J.C. to free us from the sin that binds us; God acted compassionately on our behalf to reconcile and restore us to the community of all things living & non-living; God acted boldly, decisively on our behalf to establish our identity beyond any doubt as beloved creatures of a God whose power and glory are surpassed only by God’s grace and mercy.

5. This is why baptism rocks for us Christians. At the font by water & the Word we earthlings (in all our virtuous yet sinful humanity) are plunged into the death of J.C. & by virtue of the H.S., reborn to new/eternal life. God’s outpouring of love in baptism is our rock of promise,gemstone of hope.

6. The baptism rocks you drew out of the font are intended to be a reminder of your identity as earth/water creations formed/transformed by God’s love, indelibly marked w/ the cross of Christ forever.

7. Rasmussen is also a Bonhoeffer scholar. He makes frequent reference in his book to Bonhoeffer’s commitment to this-worldly Christianity—that the calling of Christians isn’t to escape this world, but to love it, to save it. We don’t save what we don’t love (p.85): it’s true of God, it’s true of us.We be-come loving by doing loving acts, we become Jesus’ disciples by practicing marks of discipleship

8. What this means is that we learn to cultivate an empathy/compassion for all that God has made by doing what Jesus did. We celebrate the beauty, blessings & joys of creation, but also identify w/ its afflictions, its miseries & degradation. Being joined to the resurrected life of Jesus in baptism, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, acts thru us by faith in the Son of God who loves us & gave himself for us. (Gal. 2:20) Or to borrow words from MLK’s “I have a dream” speech, we are called and encouraged by faith to “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

9. As we begin today to celebrate a Season of Creation, I think it’s important for us to clarify what we are saying to the world re: why we care so much for creation: that it’s not just an add-on to our faith, not just a favorite or popular issue to make us appear relevant to young people or environ-mentalists or politicians. We care for creation b/c that’s what Jesus did, that’s what Christians do.

10. What we’re saying by including a Season of Creation in the church year is that all creation falls w/in the scope of “who is my neighbor;” that Christ died not only for humans, to forgive us our sins, but to gather up & reconcile all things in the triune economy of God, in the mission & Spirit of J.C.

11. You’ll notice that each rock has a cross painted on it. The color of the cross on your baptism rock corresponds to each of the seven marks of discipleship we’ve been talking about: black (prayer), purple (worship), red (Bible study), white (serving), green (nurturing relationships), brown (giving), blue (inviting others). Each Sunday, you can keep your baptism rock, or exchange it for another. But take it as a calling and encouragement to practice that mark of discipleship in your daily life.

12. Our identity and calling as baptized creations of God will remain a touchstone for us throughout our Season of Creation. I invite you to keep your baptism rock with you for a week, perhaps a month, even throughout your earthly lives. Allow it to serve as a reminder of your identity in Christ: earth and water reborn as a child of God, restored to the beloved community of all things, marked with the cross of Christ forever. But consider, too, how Christ’s Spirit calls us, challenges us, to hew out of the world’s mountains of despair gemstones of hope: black onyxes of prayer, purple topazes of worship, garnets of learning, pearls of serving, emeralds of nurturing, brown agates of giving, blue sapphires of inviting. “Wise is not what you are. Wise is what you get.”

Hymn of the Day: “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me” (LBW #334)

Children’s Sermon

Pastor: Good morning, kids. I guess this is the last Sunday of summer before we head back to school. Did you all have a nice summer? <Respond to their summertime stories>

Well, we’ve started a new season of the church year today called the Season of Creation—What do you think this season of the church year is about? <take the kids’ answers> That’s right, it’s a time when we remember God as the Creator of all things, but also that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to save the world (not just humans) from sin.

We celebrate a different part of creation each week. Today, we’re celebrating oceans and lakes—actually, all the water on our planet. Next week is “Animal Sunday,” then “Storm Sunday,” then “Cosmos Sunday,” then a special Sunday we’re calling “Earthkeeping Sunday” (I’ll tell you more about that later), and finally “World Communion Sunday.”

That’s a lot of creation to think about, isn’t it? So I’m going to need your help in reminding me and everyone else in the church what’s happening each Sunday, and to do that, Mr. McClellan and Mrs. Bjerklie and Mrs. Lindrud got us started on this wonderful project. <Show them the giant flannel board and explain how they will contribute to creating the “big picture” of God’s creation.>

Next Sunday is when Sunday School will be starting up again. And as a small part of that, we’re going to ask the teachers to help you create whatever it is we need to go up on the board to tell the story for the next Sunday coming up. But for now, please help me put on this big ocean, a river and this small lake, as a reminder of God’s gift of water to the world.

Let’s pray: Almighty Father, Creator of heaven and earth, we thank you for creating such a beautiful planet for us to share and live in with all your creatures. We are sorry when we have hurt your creatures. Teach us to love the world like Jesus did. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

The Word

(Job 38:1-18)

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: 2 "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. 4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements-- surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? 8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? -- 9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11 and said, `Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped'? 12 "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? 14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment. 15 Light is withheld from the wicked, and their uplifted arm is broken. 16 "Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.

(Psalm 104:1-9, 24-26, 31)

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty,

2 wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent,

3 you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind,

4 you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.

5 You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.

6 You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

7 At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.

8 They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them.

9 You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.

24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.

26 There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever;may the LORD rejoice in his works—

(Ephesians 1:3-10)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

(Luke 5:1-11)

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Sermon Notes

Including a Season of Creation in the church year affirms that all of creation falls within the scope of “who is my neighbor;” that Christ died not only for humans, to forgive us our sins, but to gather up and reconcile all things within the triune life of God, in the eternal mission and Spirit of Jesus Christ.

This is a deep mystery of faith: how we are born from the salt water of our mother’s womb, intricately woven from the materials of earth air, fire and water, brought forth from the depths of the sea and swaddled in the garment of the clouds. All this our baptism creatively and wonderfully comprehends to be our source and our destiny.

To this, Larry Rasmussen adds, “Christian baptism symbolizes washing away the past in order to enter or reenter a new life in God. The baptismal life is a daily dying and rising (Paul), a pattern of renewal, with baptism and “being born of water and the Spirit” (John) a portal to the fullness of life.” (in Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 276)

And so, ecumenically, we celebrate… Time for Creation --

From1 September- the first day of the Orthodox church year - to4 October- the feast of Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment, in the Catholic tradition - churches are called to become involved in the Time for Creation. Life, justice and peace are intimately related to creation. Creation is indeed life threatened; there is an urgent need for eco-justice and peace with the earth. This year, during Time for Creation, we suggest you join the preparations for the WCC 10th Assembly, praying “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”. *

* The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness & service for a just & peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, by the end of 2012 the WCC had 345 member churches representing more than 500 million Christians from Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican & other traditions in over 110 countries. The WCC works cooper-atively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.

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begin with a “Season of Creation”

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