Sermon from September

I began last Sunday with a denial that may have been a disappointment. In reflecting with you on the mystery and majesty of God’s creation I will have very little to say about the biological theory of evolution. Evangelical Christianity’s long debate about evolution has diverted our attention from the many-splendored doctrine of creation. We can do better than that, and by God’s grace I intend to try.

That means that we consider the biblical testimony about God’s creative achievement, and then we allow that testimony to interact with our experience in the laboratory, the environment, the bedroom, and in that most mysterious of all contexts, the human spirit. If all goes well, it will often lead us to worship the God who created this universe and everything in it.

A Christian doctrine of creation builds on four foundational statements. First, the mind, will and power of God account for the existence of the universe and everything in it. Both theology and the natural sciences offer insight into what the creation tells us about the God who made it.

Second, the heavens and the earth serve as the setting in which God seeks to be united in covenant love with mankind. Third, the creation is good. Fourth, people talk about nature as a victim of human folly or a threat to human life, or they may talk about it as a machine or a mother. We Christians view nature as God’s creation. Where other people say, “nature,” we say, “creation.” When we say, “nature,” we mean, “creation.”

Today, I want to take two of those foundational statements and probe them more deeply. First, we believe that the mind, will and power of God account for the existence of the universe. Second, we believe that the heavens and the earth serve as the setting in which God seeks to be united in covenant love with mankind. At a later week, we will explore some profound implications of what it means to believe that creation is good.

Christ and Creation
The Bible opens with this declaration of faith: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We believe that the mind, will and power of God account for the universe and everything in it. The New Testament of course affirms that declaration of faith but expands it in unexpected ways. The easiest way to get at this is to read the relevant New Testament passages.

Hebrews 1:1-2 says, In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. It gets more interesting in Colossians 1:16-17.

The Apostle Paul said of Jesus, For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Mark your place here; we’ll come back to it.)

Finally, we have John 1:1-3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

We have often heard people ask in recent years, “Do Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in the same God?” The appropriate answer, it seems to me, is both yes and no. In so far as all three believe that there is only one God, then the answer has to be yes. They can only be referring to the same Being. Thanks to Christianity, Judaism and Islam, most of the human race today believes that there is only one God; whereas for many millennia most of the human race believed that there were many gods.

However, insofar as all three understand God differently, then the answer clearly is no. Islam insists fiercely that there is only one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. Christianity and Judaism both reject that understanding of the one God. Christianity and Judaism, so much alike in many ways, part company over Jesus Christ, and you can see why from the startling statements we just read. Using the passages from John and Colossians, let’s explore the Christian doctrine further.

John 1:1 says the Word was God. Verse 3 says of the Word, through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Verse 14: The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We know Him as Jesus Christ. Now look at John 1:18. No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, and whom we know as Jesus Christ, has made him known.

Through him, says verse three, all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In some way the person we call Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior was present and active in the creation of the universe. In His person the mind, will and power of the Creator lived among us, and He made known to us the God who created all things. As soon as Christians make statements like that, it is obvious that our understanding of God diverges from that of Judaism and Islam. Colossians 1:16-17 says the same as John 1 but goes further.

The Apostle Paul wrote of Jesus Christ in both verses that all things were created by him. He goes further in verse 16: all things were created by him and for him. All created things are Christ’s possession and serve Christ’s purpose. Hebrews 1:2 said something similar of Jesus: God appointed Him heir of all things.

Now, look at verse 17. Paul says of Jesus that He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He sustains what He created. By the way that contradicts Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and their Deist mentors. Deism is a theological position that says a divine being created the universe and everything in it, and then left it to run on its own, like some giant machine.

Thomas Hobbes, a political philosopher, was also a Deist. His blunt view was “that God is essentially a retired constitutional monarch, having a certain role as a cosmic figurehead but divorced from any involvement in the day-to-day affairs of the universe” (McGrath, Nature, 182). Christian orthodoxy rejects the idea that God wound the universe up like a clock and left it to run until it runs down. In Christ all things hold together. He sustains what He created. It will end when He is ready for it to end.

So, where does all this leave our Christian doctrine of creation? We begin with the foundational statement that the mind, will and power of God account for the universe and everything in it. But under the impact of Jesus Christ, Christians go further and say that in some way the one whom we call Jesus Christ was present and active at creation, that all creation is His possession and serves His purpose, and that as long as the universe lasts He will sustain it. From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. – Romans 11:36.

Man in the Image of God
Now, let’s move on to a second foundational statement about creation. We believe that the heavens and the earth serve as the setting in which God seeks to be united in covenant love with mankind. Knowing what we know about the size of the universe, someone might hear that statement and think it to be small-minded and selfish. Within our galaxy our solar system is a speck. Within deep space our galaxy is a speck. To treat all that magnificence as nothing more than the setting for the human drama seems like a retreat into pre-scientific arrogance and ignorance. So, why do we say it? The answer takes us to the justly celebrated text of Genesis 1:26-27.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. The unique nature of man justifies the view that heaven and earth serve as the setting for the drama between God and man. Of all God created on earth only poetry-writing, atom-splitting, history-making man bears the image of God. What exactly does it mean to bear the image of God?

If you look at yourself in a mirror, the image really looks like you, but it can’t do anything of its own free will. On the other hand, when you bear a child, not only will people say, “She looks just like her mother;” or “He’s the spitting image of his father,” but that flesh-and-blood image will most definitely have the capacity to act of its own free will. When God looks at man, He sees His image in flesh and blood. He can recognize in us His mind, will and power. To bear the image of God means that God implanted in man some measure of His mind, will and power by which He created the world. That likeness makes it possible for God to be united in covenant love with mankind. But how does it make it possible? Let’s be more precise.

First, this likeness gives us the ability to know and love our Creator. We can see this in the powerful test of Genesis 2:16-17. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Genesis gives no reason for the test, except that God commanded it. It anticipates Jesus’ great saying, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). God was saying to Adam in effect, “Is your love for me such that my command to abstain from this one tree is good enough for you?”

Some people object that death was the result of disobedience. How could such large consequences flow from one small act? We may complain, but isn’t life like that? You knew you should have pulled off on the side of the road to make that cell phone call, but you didn’t. You took your eye off the road for a split second, and your life and the life of others will never be the same again. That one hour of sexual indiscretion seemed like nothing; yet the consequences are huge. You only turned away for a moment, and when you looked back, the child was already under water in the pool. We measure choices in nano-seconds; we measure consequences in lifetimes. And choices rise from what we love. The God who created us in His image gave us that power to love so that we might return His love.

Here is a second reason that being in the image of God makes it possible for God to be united in covenant love with man. This likeness gives us the ability to govern the earth God made. Genesis 1:26 is pointed about our mandate to govern the earth. God says of newly created humanity, “Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Stewardship of the earth comes very early in man’s relationship to God.

Ruling inanimate earth and its animal kingdoms implies three powers in man. One is the ability to understand them and to master the techniques of ruling them (that is the mind of God in man); A second is the courage and determination to undertake a program to establish human sovereignty over this part of God’s creation (this is the will of God in man); and a third is the ability to carry out that program effectively (this is the power of God in man).

Third, God can be united in covenant love with humanity, because He has united humanity in the image of God. This shared dignity makes it possible for humanity to respond to Him in communal solidarity. It is also why every human being deserves to be taken seriously: every human being bears the divine image. Whatever divisions occur through custom, language, economics, education or race do not erase this image.

There is a fourth reason that being in the image of God makes it possible for God to be united in covenant love with mankind. We call it freedom, or freedom of the will. It is so unique and powerful that I will dedicate next Sunday’s sermon to it.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
A Christian doctrine of creation builds on four foundational statements. First, the mind, will and power of God account for the universe and everything in it. The one whom we call Jesus Christ was present and active in the act of creation; all creation is His possession and serves His purpose; and as long as the universe lasts He will sustain it.

Second, the heavens and the earth serve as the setting in which God seeks to be united in covenant love with mankind. Humans hold this exalted place, because God made them in His image. God implanted in man some measure of His mind, will and power by which He created the world. Because of this we can know and love God, we can govern part of His creation, and we can respond to Him in communal solidarity.

Third, creation is good. Fourth, Christians view nature as God’s creation. Where others say, “nature,” we say, “creation.” When we say, “nature,” we mean, “creation.”

    In the Valley of the Elwy

    I remember a house where all were good
    To me, God knows, deserving no such thing:
    Comforting smell breathed at very entering,
    Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood.
    That cordial air made those kind people a hood
    All over, as a bevy of eggs the mother wing
    Will, or mild nights the new morsels of spring.
    Why, it seemed of course, seemed of right it should.
    Lovely the woods, waters, meadows, combes, vales,
    All the air things wear that build this world of Wales;
    Only the inmate does not correspond:
    God, lover of souls, swaying considerate scales,
    Complete thy creature dear O where it fails,
    Being mighty a master, being a father and fond.
    -Gerard Manley Hopkins