A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

Creator as Life Giver

Genesis 1:26-31, Preached by Tom Lacey at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, July 30, 2006

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that the "accident of evolution" had created. "What majestic trees! What a powerful river! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself. As he walked alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look and saw a 7-foot grizzly charging towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He ran even faster, so scared tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run faster still. He tripped and fell to the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up, but saw the bear... right on top of him... reaching for him with the left paw and raising his right paw with its three inch long claws to smash him. At that instant the atheist cried out "Oh my God...!" Suddenly, time stopped. The bear froze in motion. The forest was still. Even the river ceased to move. A brilliant ray of light emerged from the sky and a powerful voice spoke to him, "You have denied my existence for all these years; you teach others that I do not exist and you believe life is a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament?"

The atheist blinked directly into the light. "It would be hypocritical of me to become a Christian after all these years, then could you make the bear a Christian instead?" "Very well," said the voice from above. The bright light disappeared. The river ran again. The forest became alive once more with the gentle sounds of nature. The bear stirred. Slowly, he lowered his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head and graciously spoke: "Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful."

Life is a gift, and this gift comes directly from God because God is life. We are alive because the Creator offered the first fruit of his being. He created life in others, in us. You did not ask for life. You could not request it. But we received it because God is good. So, consider this: that whatever we obtain in life, and whatever we lose, God has shared immeasurably the first essence of himself. This is why we say that life is good because it comes from God and God is good.

What we want to see this morning is that there are three kinds of life, according to scripture. There is the life we receive from God, the breath of our being. There is the life that we mold by means of our values and choices, the moral character of our existence. And there is the life we make, where we accomplish and fulfill our life’s goal and purpose. In the Greek, these three aspects of living are seen in three different words. The word zoe, as in zoology, refers to the gift of life that comes from God, and is God. It’s the breath of God that God breathed in Adam and breathes in us. The word bios, as in biology, refers to both the duration of life and the manner of life, meaning life in regard to its moral conduct. The third word is psuche, as in psychology, means the seat of personality, the individual life. We often confuse one with the other, the gift of life, zoe, with the drive to make one’s life, psuche. Struggle with career and finances, marriage and love life, healthy in body or mind, and the miracle of merely being alive loses its luster. Some question the value of living if what is valuable isn’t obtained. When we battle desperately and lose the battle, suicide becomes a seemingly viable option. The gift is discarded. Don’t get mixed up in that mix up. Give glory to God for the amazing gift of life even when you are not getting any glory in this life. God is taking you down a different path than you expected, but the Lord knows the way. Reevaluate what has been of value to you, and hold to the life that is true life.

A happy eight-year-old boy found he was experiencing pain in his hand and foot. Soon his hand began to curl in on itself, and then his foot. His mother took him to the doctor. He had a rare disease that we know little about and even less to prevent its dreadful disabling of this bright boy’s body. He and his mother grew sad and angry. For months, they were depressed, and he didn’t go to school, as much from pain as from embarrassment. But one day, he and his mom were talking, and do you know what this wise little boy said? He said, “Well, at least, I’ve got my brain.” And with that, they both grew in wisdom and appreciation. Lift up your life. See what you’ve got, not what’s missing. Hang onto the miracle of life because it’s the greatest miracle of all.

Our scripture this morning is the high point of God’s creation. Some great things have happened. There is light where there was once only the void. There are the heavens and the earth and there is the sun and the stars and even living creatures to crawl on land, fly in the air and swim in the waters, and God blessed all of it. So finally we reach the crowning achievement: the creation of humankind who will bear the image of God, created according to God’s likeness. There are two things that we learn from this. First, we learn who we are. You and I are God’s crowning creational glory because we are formed with the inherent virtue of such a closeness to God that we look like and act on behalf of God. No other creature’s got our resume. Now I don’t think we physically look like God, especially since the creator doesn’t have a physical body, but is pure spirit. But we rather look like God in the rights and responsibilities placed upon us. We intellectually and spiritually move like God through life. We engage others at a level that other animals cannot. In us, God formed a being he could interact with, place demands on, have expectations of, create community with, hold to judgment, bless with forgiveness, love and long for.

Second, and just as importantly, we learn who they are. Who are “they?” Let me put it this way. God didn’t just make some people in his image. Scripture says, “So God created humankind in his image.” That’s everybody, all six billion and counting of us. Always has been this way and always will be. You, created in God’s image. You, created in God’s image. If you’re different, you’re still created in God’s image. If you’re left-handed, you’re still created in God’s image. If you’re white, if you’re red, if you’re Christian, if you’re atheist, if you have an IQ of 200 or only 75, if you had an abortion or didn’t, whether you’re adopted or have both biological parents still in the home you grew up in, it makes no nevermind. God made you in his likeness. This is where your intrinsic, intensive, inherent, and eternal value comes from. This is where the stranger and the alien, legal or illegal, the victim and the criminal, the Muslim, the Arab, the Jew, the Catholic, the Protestant, the Atheist, the homosexual and the heterosexual, the black man, the yellow woman, the white child, all; this is where we all get our worth, our dignity, our soul from. Because we are created in God’s own image, according to his likeness! No human act can negate this divine act. This foundational and fundamental truth freed slaves and gave women the right to vote. It commands us to visit the imprisoned and call for justice for the impoverished. It lifts up to dignity the sick from HIV, and dying from AIDS.  In its face, we see the forward movement of humankind toward peace and justice; when we turn our back on it, war and injustice prey upon us, all of us.

God continues. Now that we are created in the divine image, we are given a vocation, a job, to handle. We are to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the all creatures. This is a moral issue, and so what we do tells the story of what we value. We try our best, don’t we? But it doesn’t always seem to work out exactly right. We tend to be at odds with Mother Nature, and therefore, Father Creator, even in seemingly the most innocent of environmental situations. Imagine the conversation God might have with St. Francis. "Frank,” the Lord is on very informal terms with the kindly saint, “You know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there in the Midwest? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracted butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles." “It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers 'weeds' and went to great extent to kill them and replace them with grass." "Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?" "Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn." "The spring rains and cool weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy." "Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it - sometimes twice a week." "They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?" "Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags." "They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?" "No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away." "Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?" "Yes, sir." "These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work." "You aren't going believe this Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it." "What nonsense! At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life." "You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and have them hauled away." "No! What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and keep the soil moist and loose?" "After throwing away your leaves, they go out and buy something they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.” “And where do they get this mulch?”

“They cut down trees and grind them up.”

Obviously this is almost nothing compared to some of the massive changes we are bringing to God’s creation and our terrestrial home. When God says we are to fill, subdue, and exercise dominion over all this, we still have to keep in mind a certain option: It’s what is permissible, not what’s possible, that is our birthright. If it isn’t good for us, it ain’t from God. God cannot command us to engage in any activity that goes against what is good for us. Just because it’s possible to subdue the whole world and all its flora and fauna by turning the top six inches of earth into a concrete parking lot, for example, doesn’t mean that’s God’s purpose. To subdue and destroy are not the same things. We are permitted to do what is good for us. So keep to the sure path. Don’t exercise all options because many lead away from the green pastures and still waters our shepherd desires for us to have. Stand up for what is good for God’s creation; advocate for our one and only planetary home; labor for sustainable growth in society and the continual and improved health of Mother Earth. This is the first moral choice the Creator gave us after we received life.  

The third aspect of life is what we make of our own. God gives us talents, skills, ambition, and energy to make something of our lives. From their exercise, we receive the deep joy that comes from living a purposeful life. “‘Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition,” the twenty-three-year-old Abraham Lincoln had written in his open letter to the people of Sangamon County during his first bid for public office in the Illinois state legislature. ‘Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other (ambition) so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.’” Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals, p.748.  Mary Lincoln remembers her last ride with Abraham Lincoln. “During the drive he was so gay, that I said to him, laughingly, ‘Dear Husband, you almost startle me by your great cheerfulness,’ he replied, ‘and well I may feel so, Mary, I consider this day, the war, has come to a close….” Rivals, p733 That was Good Friday, April 14th. That night, at 10:12 p.m., while sitting in Ford’s Theatre watching Our American Cousin, Abraham Lincoln was shot. He died the following morning. Mr. Lincoln’s great and good life and the timing of his death at the culmination of his life’s work express how we can shape our lives to fit a purpose the Lord has for us. As scripture says, “…all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Rom 8.28

Attend to the call. Set your mind on God’s purpose. Place your steps in the Lord’s path. And rise to the occasion, for it will come, time and again, when the gift of life is not to be received lightly, when the moral questions must be answered for the good, and when you must let your life work together with God’s will.   

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