The car in front of mine was carrying a puzzling bumper sticker. In large, readable print, it said, [hold up sign] “PBPWMGIFWMY”. Whatever could that mean? And what language was that? Polish, maybe? Swahili? Hindi? Serbo-Croatian? I inched a little closer, because there was something smaller on the lower half of the bumper sticker. It was a “translation” of PBPWMGIFWMY. It said, [hold up second sign] “Please be patient with me; God isn’t finished with me yet.”
I guess a lot of us could make that plea. God isn’t finished with us yet. I sympathized with the fellow driving that car, even though he did try my patience, since he took so literally the sign that said, “Speed Limit 25”. Preachers are not generally known for obeying that one, and I had to be reminded of the virtue of patience. God isn’t finished with him yet, nor with me. There’s more work to be done.
But I have a question. This thing of the work to be done on my life or yours: is that God’s work, or our work, or somebody else’s work? If there’s a lot of building that needs to be done, whose job is that: God’s job, or my job, or your job, or whose? If there’s a lot of maturing that your life or my life needs, just who needs to take hold of doing that? Can I just ask the Lord to keep on working on me? That sounds good. We always nod our heads in agreement when somebody says, “God will be the only one who can change that person”. Or maybe even when we say, “Only God can do in me what needs to be done.” Whose work is it to build us into strong, real, human beings? God’s work, with which He has not finished? Or whose work?
On this Labor Day Sunday, as our minds are turned toward the meaning of work, I want to guide you in an experience with the single most important Scripture passage about work. It’s all about God the worker. God the laborer. Genesis tells us about God’s work in creation. And from it we can learn not only about how God works, but also about how we can work.
This will not be a conventional sermon. It’s going to be more like an experience, a happening. It’s going to involve your using your creative imagination, as we find our way through God’s creative work. The Biblical story of the seven days of creation will guide us; but you and I and our music and the signs and symbols on this table will teach us today’s word. And that word is: It is finished. God’s work, please be patient with me; God isn’t finished with me yet. But – and here’s the puzzle -- at the same time, it is finished.
FIRST DAY WORK: SEPARATING
God began His work by the act of separating. He separated the earth and its waters from the formless void. He separated light from darkness. God began His work by separating what He would do from what He would not do.
Genesis 1:1-5
God began His work by the act of separating. He separated the earth and its waters from the formless void. He separated light from darkness. The evening and the morning were the first day, as God separated what He would do from what He would not do. God chose priorities. God established His strategy. This is His world. And He will shape it according to His purposes. Separation. This the Father’s world.
This Is My Father’s World (43)
The work that must begin in us is also a work of separation. The place to begin, if we would be built up, is to separate what will be done from what will not be done.
Will you close your eyes? Clear your minds, be ready to let your imaginations take over. Imagine a large vat of soupy mud. Gobs of greasy goo. Yuck. Water and earth are mingled together. Some of the earth looks like red clay; some of it like grains of white sand. Some of the earth is rich, black loam; some of it sparkles with mineral fragments. And the colors! How many colors do you see? Red and yellow, black and white; and green; and brown. All stirred together. Now imagine: you are dipping your hands into this mixture. You want to separate the clay from the sand; you want to move the loam here and the minerals there. But how can you? These elements flow from one place to the next; they filter through your fingers. They will not stay put. How can you separate them?
And the colors. Are your eyes still closed? See these in your mind’s eyes. Splotches of liquid red and yellow; small pools of black and white. Dollops of green and dabs of brown. But they are mingling, aren’t they? Your vat of stuff is churning, and these colors are mingling. You are putting your hands in to prevent the mixture. You are trying to hold each color in its separate place. Are you succeeding? Can you do it?
Keep your eyes closed. Your life is in a churning vat, isn’t it? It’s got various soils in it: home and work, family and friends, business and recreation. Your life is in a bubbling cauldron, isn’t it? It’s got various colors and textures: spiritual and secular, holy and unholy, love and hate, secure and insecure, strong and weak. Can you separate these things? Can you, by coming into this house, for this hour, put all the tumult of the world out of your mind? Can you do the work of separation?
You may open your eyes now. In fact, you must open your eyes now. God begins His work of creation with an act of separation. You and I must begin the work of building our lives with an act of separation. We come here, to this house and to this table, and we fix our eyes on things that are not of this earth. We listen to sounds that are not like the Top Forty sounds. We surround ourselves with people who are in some measure different from the people of the street. We separate from the things that create confusion, just as God reached into the formless nothing and began to make something.
If you want to be made into something new, you’ve come to the right place. You’ve made a good beginning. We have to make a decision to separate from the things that confuse us.
For some, that will be a decision to separate from selfish, wrong behavior. You cannot expect a work to be done in you if you want to hang on to drug use, alcohol abuse, indiscriminate sexual behavior, filthy talk. If you have come into this house and you expect to grow, you must separate from these things.
For some, that will be a decision to separate from negative, hateful, harmful family interactions. What garbage families sometimes throw at each other! If you have come into this house, this spiritual family, you may need to separate from a pattern of destructive language and behavior.
Separation. Holiness. Decide now that by the very act of coming to this place and sitting before this table, you will begin God’s work in you.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
SECOND DAY WORK: PROTECTING
Now have you discovered that once you get started on something, no matter what it is, it seems like all kinds of stuff gets thrown at you, and you can’t finish what you set out to do, because so much is coming at you? There was the fellow who went home from work one night, and his wife asked him, “What did you do today?”, and he answered, “Interruptions.” She said, “What? What do you mean, “interruptions”. He said, “Everything I started to do, somebody interrupted with something they wanted done. All day long. Even my interruptions were interrupted.” Isn’t that the way it is with you? And it’s easy to drown in the stuff that comes your way. You feel like you can’t breathe.
So God’s next step in His work was protecting. He held back the waters. He held off the floods. Protecting.
Genesis 1:6-8
Ancient people didn’t know what we know about the solar system or about the stars. They just knew what they saw. And it looked to them as though up above was a great roof of stars, and above the stars, the waters. When it rained, God was opening the windows of heaven and pouring out rain. But think what it would be like if there were no roof! Think what it would be like if God did not protect us, so that we could grow! Think what would happen if God, for a split second, went to sleep on the job and let the waters fall! Disaster! And so the work of God is protection; God is alert. God is on guard. God is worthy of trust. He is worthy of trust, for our Lord is near. He is near all the time. Good all the time, near all the time.
My Lord is Near Me All the Time (59)
The floods do come. The waters threaten to overwhelm us. Tell us, what are some of the things that threaten to overwhelm us? What are some of the things that almost flood us, and we feel as though we are drowning? I want to hear what you feel is the present danger. What is happening to us, some of us, now?
v Financial burdens
v Aging – weariness
v “The street”
v Family conflict – years of negativity
v Besetting sin
Ah, but our God protects us. He holds back the waters, so that they will not drown us. He pushes back the waters of the Red Sea, so that Israel can cross on dry land. He pushes back the waters of the Jordan River, so that His people can cross over into campground. And then He does an astonishing thing: He summons us to the waters of baptism, and asks us to commit ourselves to the waters, dying to the old life and rising to the new life. And He protects us.
God first separated what He would do and what He would not do. Then He works to protect us, so that we will not fail. We will not fail!
And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
THIRD DAY WORK: PLANTING
God is now ready to begin work in earnest. He has made His decisions. He has set up protection for His creation. Now God is ready to plant life. Now God is ready to unveil the precious thing we call life.
Genesis 1:9-13
Life is so fragile. Plants are so tender. Step on one and it is broken beyond repair. Pull one up by the roots and it may never recover. Bruise a tender plant, and it will dry up and wither away. It’s easy to destroy the tender plant.
But God, like a gardener, with infinite loving care, knows that He must plant life and leave it to grow – that He cannot avoid the risk. To grow anything means you take risks. You have a plan, or a dream, but you take risks. Your garden may end up looking nothing like what you planned. You planned a glorious swatch of color, but you got brown spots here and there. You planned a sea of loveliness, but you got weeds choking out the beauty. Yes, you have to take risks to grow anything. But first you must have a vision, a plan, a dream. For a garden, you must have a landscape vision. For a life, you must plant God’s vision.
Be Thou My Vision (60)
I ran home one day this week. I ran home because I felt that my spirit was being crushed. Too many things to do, too many people hurting, too many expectations to fulfill. I could have buried my face in my arms and wept. I might have turned on some silly sitcom and gone into denial. But I didn’t. I ran home. And sat for two hours with someone who has planted her life in mine. Sat and spoke and listened and cried a little, because I just needed somebody who had planted herself in me.
When God came in Jesus Christ, He planted Himself in this world. When God came in Jesus Christ, He made Himself as a root out of dry ground, that had no form or comeliness, that we should desire Him. When God came in Jesus Christ, He came despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When God came, He came and planted Himself right here with us.
And the tenderness of the shoot of Jesus was bruised and broken for us [break bread]. The grain of wheat has fallen into the ground and has died.
The wine of David was spilled [lift cup], here in our midst, by us. The lifestream of His blood was cut off. The work of God was to plant Himself among us and take the risks. Nothing grows unless it is put into risk. Not into a hothouse, but into risk.
And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
FOURTH DAY WORK: TEACHING
We don’t understand. There is mystery here, and we just don’t understand. What is God doing? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What are my goals? We don’t understand. As soon as God creates life, God also creates light. Life and light. They go together. Life and light, life and understanding. We must have light.
Genesis 1:14-19
“To give light upon the earth”. This is always God’s way. First to give us life and then to give us light so that we may see and understand. Our God is the author of truth. He is truth. And how He honors us by trusting us with truth! He Himself is our teacher; He Himself is our guide. He is our light, He is our path. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Our prayer must be that He will always lead us. Our prayer must be that He will guide us into all truth. Let us thank Him in prayer:
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us (61)
Prayer of Thanksgiving – Laura Harris
And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
FIFTH DAY WORK: MULTIPLYING
I hear a rush! I hear the rustle of life! Movement, action, vitality. Bodies. Animals. Creeping things, crawling things, flying things. Bodies. The work of God is to multiply life. To diversify. To give infinite variety. The work of God is to intensify a good beginning into glorious multiplication. Lions and tigers, swallows and hummingbirds, fish and whales, tiny mites and enormous elephants. Let the earth bring forth! Multiply! Diversity! Abundance!
Genesis 1:20-23
But .. but .. whence come fighting and war among you? You want and so you take. You see difference and so you hate. You see that someone has, and you have not, and so you envy. The body is broken. The wholeness of God’s work is destroyed. Someone must knit it together again. Someone must, in His own body, reconcile the divisiveness of this broken world. Someone must do something, so that whether we be male or female, Jew or Greek, bond or free, we may all be one. Someone must do something, so that whether we be old or young, black or white, rich or poor, we may all be one. Someone must do something with His body.
And He did. And He did. [call deacons]
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (144)
Now, by the work of the Cross, we who were many, are one loaf again. We who were at odds are reconciled. We who are diverse, with multiplied gifts, are nevertheless one people, one body.
Be fruitful and multiply … And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
SIXTH DAY WORK: GOVERNING
Old Ben Franklin came out of the Constitutional Convention as the American nation was being born, and commented, “a great nation, if you can keep it”. Indeed. Holding on to what we have accomplished is always the challenge. So many things would destroy, erode, tarnish. That same God who made all creatures great and small appoints a caregiver for His work – a steward, a gamekeeper, a shepherd. And out of His very heart, reaching into the very core of His being, “Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness, male and female .. let us crown creation with a creature astonishingly like God Himself. Let us make .. man.
Genesis 1:24-31
Let us make man, and let us fill His nostrils with the breath of life, His heart with passions, His mind with ideas, His veins with rich blood. Let us make man in all his glory, which means he will also sink into misery. Let us watch him achieve, which means he will also fail. And let us love him, long for him, care for him .. which means that God Himself will suffer for his creature. Will suffer and bleed and die. And God has made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, so that in Him the righteousness of God might be made manifest. So that in Him the work of God might go forward.
At the Cross (139)
See, I have given you … every tree with … its fruit; you shall have them for food. And I shall not share again in the fruit of the vine until I drink it new in the Father’s Kingdom.
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
SABBATH WORK: RESTING
[hold up sign] “PBPWMGIFWMY”. God has been at work, hard at work. God has made me. God has protected me. God has planted me. God has taught me. God has let me live in a world of variety and multiplied opportunity. And God in Jesus Christ has even redeemed my mistakes and governed my mismanagement.
Why then do I feel so incomplete? Why then do I feel like an unfinished work?
Genesis 2:1-3
God has worked. God has labored over us. He has done what He has had to do in order to provide for us. It is now up to us to receive God’s work. It is now up to us to accept what God has done. God has finished. But you and I have not. We have not finished.
We have not finished with our inner work. We must take hold of His truth. We must grasp it and work with it.
And we have not finished our outreach work. We must join with our God to do the work to which He has called us. We have not finished our outreach work, not as long as the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely are here. Not as long as some of His creation is broken. Not as long as men and women and boys and girls are hurt and battered. Not as long as hearts are weary or souls burdened.
I don’t know about this any more. [hold up sign] “PBPWMGIFWMY”. I’m not so confident about this any longer. . [hold up sign] “Please be patient with me; God isn’t finished with me yet.” That could be the lazy person’s way out. All I know is that when I was lost in sin, from the cross I heard Him shout, “It is finished.” All I know is that when I was hopelessly overwhelmed in anxiety, from the cross I heard Him cry, “It is finished.” All I know is that when I was without hope in the world, His gracious voice, His tender voice, whispered to my waiting heart, “It is finished. It is finished.”
Blessed Redeemer (149)
