The Big Picture -
Based On Creation
Bible Reading:
Genesis 1: 1
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
If I wanted to get under your skin,
If I wanted to see blood pressure rise in a whole chunk of folk here, ears go red, and run a serious risk of a barrage of rotten fruit..... or worse,
all I’d need to do is show and begin to extol the virtues of a chart something like this:
For those of you who can’t make it out, it’s a chart depicting evolutionary theory about the development of primates, including humans.
"Arrrrrrrr.... " would be the response.
And, quite rightly, many of you would react to an understanding of the development of the earth and its inhabitants in a way that cuts God out of the picture; that sees everything develop in a come by chance manner. You’d roar to the Bible and head straight to the beginning - Genesis, and the account of Creation.
"Don’t ascribe to chance what was deliberately made by the holy, powerful Creator!" you’d say. Virtually all of Christianity would join with you in saying this.
And I’m glad that this is what you’d say.
On the other hand, if I’d find myself preaching to a typical cross-section of Canadian Christians, present company excepted of course,
and if I wanted to watch their eyes glaze over rather quickly, their feet begin to shuffle, glances at the watch increase, and minds wander to how to spend the rest of Canada Day, I’d choose to show a slide something like this:
Recognize it?
It is, of course, the universal symbol for recycling.
And based on where most energy is expended, time is consumed, and efforts concentrated, the typical Canadian Christian response to flipping up a slide of this recycling symbol would be -
"Why would you ever want to display or talk about something like this in church?"
The answer to that question forms the heart of this, the second in our series on Christian worldview.
Last week we said that when you begin to talk about what matters most, what is of value and what is not, where our priorities ought to lie and what is disposable - what you are talking about is Worldview
The worldview of a community works as a sort of filter that directs and affects what the eyes see, how the heart responds, and what the mind processes.
- quietly at work, shaping and directing everything.
The way you build relationships and form family units
How you provide health care
Loyalty to the state, and politics
Art
Education
As I mention "worldview", how about an overview; a big picture look at things?
Like this, perhaps:
It’s a shot taken from Apollo 17 - big picture of the little blue planet. And there we live - puts things in a bit of perspective
I want to suggest that when we consider a Christian worldview, here’s where we need to begin. And, at the end of the day, here is where we need to end up.
A Christian worldview, I’d like to suggest, is NOT, first of all, about prayer.
A Christian worldview does NOT have as its ultimate objective escaping away from earthly experience in order to strum harps and sing alto in a heavenly choir.
And it doesn’t revolve around a central focus on bible study, or worship.
A Christian worldview begins and ends on earth;
living on earth, concerned for earth.
To understand such a statement, please read with me the very opening words of God’s great Word, His letter of direction and revelation to us - Genesis 1.
See where it all starts?
"In the beginning God created......."
That’s ground zero.
What follows are the very familiar words about creating the outer heavens and space, the atmosphere and oceans, the dry lands in days 1,2, and 3 and then populating these spaces in days 4,5 and 6.
Careful, artful creation.
Psalm 33 celebrates it:
by the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
He puts the deep into storehouses.
And Psalm 95:
In His hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
This is the starting gate, the foundation for all that follows in God’s revelation.
It forms the opening words of John’s gospel -
John 1: 1-4 - "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 mad. In him was life, and that life was the light of men."
And what is it that we confess here, week after week?
Think of the Apostles’ Creed. Remember the opening words?
I believe in God the Father Almighty......
Maker of heaven and earth....
That’s the front side of a Christian worldview.
And where is the ending? What is the ultimate goal of it all?
Go with me to look at the concluding chapter of Scripture, Revelation 22 - after the whole story of scripture is finished; the work of Christ, the cross and resurrection is complete, the saints are gathered – where, then, at that point, do we find ourselves? Where does Scripture land?
When you begin to read the passage it has a rather familiar ring to it. One that echos Genesis 1. Rather than everything ending up in heaven, which is what most people have as a spiritual reflex reaction, fact of the matter is that everything ends up right back on earth.
True, it’s in a city, rather than a rural garden.
But the tree of life is there.
All is pure.
God is on earth, rubbing shoulders with humanity.
Everything between these opening and closing pages is about the journey to get from one to the other. At the centre of that journey stands the coming of Christ, His sacrifice, the cross, the resurrection. The focus of scripture, make no doubt about that is on the redeeming work of our Saviour. It is about sin being conquered.
But please, please, please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that sin is something that only affects our life as human beings - our moral choices, the state of our bodies, and whether we head to heaven or hell.
Sin is that corrupting force of evil that affects absolutely everything, everywhere.
Romans 8 tells us, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
Genesis 1 speaks of thorns and thistles springing up from ground that previously was easy to work and productive.
The beauty, intricacy and diversity that God created into the cosmos was distorted, shackled down and damaged by sin’s corrupting force.
Salvation is about those shackles being broken, the damage healed and the distortions removed. It is about sin being shattered and reversed.
For that Jesus came.
For our souls and the eternal existence of our bodies.
But also for that little blue third rock from the sun.
And the other objects that fill universe space with it.
All along the way of Salvation hstory God’s constant care and rule continue in the world. Though sin distorts, it cannot fully wrestle control of creation away from the God of life. He retains the final word for Himself. He continues to reflect Himself, His greatness, His creative and artistic genius, His faithful care in creation. Which is where hymns like this find their origin:
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Instinctively, there is something deep inside virtually all believers which is aware of this. Yet, on a conscious level, far too many believers have lost touch with it.
We know that the world is important - and that God’s act of creating it, carefully and deliberately in a divine and powerful manner, is something not to be ignored or tampered with.
So we become irate when others suggest that everything is a product of chance biological encounter, a lucky accident of DNA soup.
But - and here’s today’s question - does that desire to honour God as Creator, to acknowledge that the very soil where we place our feet, the flowers we smell, and the birds singing outside our front door are made by Him and precious to Him -- does that desire to honour God as Creator show itself in how we conduct our daily affairs and set our lifestyle patterns?
The recycle emblem - a symbol of a desire to preserve and protect our world and its fragile environment - does it ring true? Is it important?
Putting aside for the moment what we’d say as a stock response, how would people judge our lives by their actions in this regard?
The earth is a jewel in the eyes of God.
He made it.
He cares about it.
He is in the business of redeeming it.
.......Are we?
Someone once said:
Earth is crammed with heaven.
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes—
-- The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, quoted in "Reflections," Christianity Today," (7-31-00)
The cosmos is not merely some by-product; some sort of low grade after-thought; something that we push out of the way as we strive to get to the heart of living as a child of God.
The creation of the Cosmos by God is where it all begins.
The re-creation of the Cosmos by God is where it will all end.
And between these two endposts, ambassadors of God live in it, develop it, and strive to protect it with that view......
......that
worldview.
So when we hear that the estimated number of plant and animal species which became extinct between 1980 and 1990 is
- well......... can you guess what the number is?
100,000......... it gives us pain.
And when industry or government push certain environmental policies and practices we, as responsible citizens placed in this democracy, amabassadors of the Sovereign Lord, speak prophetically for the Creator.
And when we buy our cars, build our houses and sort our garbage we do it with as caretakers and stewards first...... consumers second.
A recent Gallup poll assessed the attitude of Americans toward the environmental movement.
83 % said that environmental concerns are important.
55% said current environmental problems are serious
66% said these issues affect how they vote
- Gallup poll, conducted April 3-9, 2000, with 1,004 national adults
But based on the way Americans consume and dispose, gobble and pollute, you’d never know it. North Americans, with 5% of the world’s population, grab for themselves some 87% of the food, clothing, shelter resources, and luxury.
We could condemn.
But are we any different?
Sin, as much as it has damaged creation, has damaged our ability to live true, obedient lives of response.
So thanks be to God that the power of His Son is greater than the power of Sin.
Thanks be to God that for every moment when our polluting actions were disjointed from a Christian worldview of creation, there IS forgiveness.
Thanks be to God that as we strive to straighten our actions to fall into step with the Scripture’s view of the world, His Spirit answers our prayers for help, empowering, directing, encouraging.
Thanks be to God for second.... and third chances.
If we give our lives in faith to Jesus Christ, confess that we too have been part of the grab-as-can-grab attitude in the world, that we too have been less than faithful in our service of the Master
By His marvellously great and totally undeserved grace, we have a new lease on life, and a new opportunity for service!
And it is in this grace that we are able to function once more as ambassadors of the Lord..... also to the environment.
The project is not lost.
The outcome is certain, and in His hands.
And we - by a great divine miracle, become agents of change, of healing, of careful use and restoration, towards that certain outcome.
