A worried mother wondered where her daughter was on the rainy school day afternoon. She should have been home by now. The rain was heavy, the thunder loud, and the lightning was bright.
Finally, after a few anxious minutes she decided to put her coat on and look for her late child. Out the door and down the street toward the school she went. As she turned the far corner of their street she spotted her daughter, walking slowly and smiling largely, toward home.
The daughter spotted her mom and ran to her grinning from ear to ear. "Where have you been? Don’t you know that it is lightning and you could be killed?" said the anxious mother. "But, mom," replied the wide-eyed little girl, "isn’t this neat? The puddles, the rain, the boom-booms, and besides, God is taking my picture!"
The creation of God, the work of God, is a thing of wonder. But, how often do we stop and simply step back and look around us and saying, "Amazing!" On this Labor Day weekend and on this Communion Sunday, we are stopping to say, "Wow, isn’t it amazing?" For both God’s work of creation and His work of redemption should give us pause for thanksgiving.
This is Labor Day weekend and we are celebrating the value of work. I know that for some of us this has been a challenging year regarding work. Some have had little or no work and others have had work that did not seem to end. Let us be thankful for the work that we have and ask God to help us to work as for the Lord.
As we spend a few moments on work, I want us all to participate in a little project that you can do while listening to me. Along the center aisle are some containers of crayons and some paper. Please take 1 or 2 crayons and a sheet of paper and pass the rest on through your pew.
Your assignment for this morning is to draw a picture of your current job. If you are retired draw a picture of the job your retired from. Stick figures are fine. Maybe you just want to draw a symbol of your work. If you work with computers, draw a picture of a computer. If you are a student, that is your job, draw something related to being a student – your school or a book or your locker.
Don’t worry about how it looks. That is not the point. I am not going to ask you to share your drawings. As you leave today you will be handed a refrigerator magnet so that you can put your drawing on your refrigerator at home. Unfortunately I only have 36 magnets and so we will limit it to 1 or 2 per family. There is a reason for this assignment that I will share in few moments.
Our text for this morning is an important one. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
As we read the rest of Genesis 1, we are given the story of how God created the world. I have my creation globes with me and as I place them in front of us I would have us think about the creativity and the orderliness of His process. (Place the globes on the communion table.)
In His act of creating this world, there was a defined pattern and notice as you read through the rest of chapter 1, how it all comes together. This world was not created in a haphazard and random way. It was created in an orderly fashion with a purpose and place behind each period of creation.
On this day, we need to be reminded that God’s good work surrounds us, includes us, and is in us.
One of my favorite hymns is "This Is My Father’s World." "This is my Father’s world and to my listening ears, all nature sings and around me rings, the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas His hand the wonders wrought." There is good theology in that verse. The hymn writer reminds us of the greatness and grandeur of creation which surrounds us and points to God.
This verse is a religious statement; a theological statement about the creation of our world. It is not a scientific statement. It is a statement about who created the world. We know that this verse and this passage of scripture, has been the subject of much debate in the past 140 years with the advent of the theory of evolution that began with the work of Charles Darwin. However, I came across this interesting story, which I believe to be true, which also ties in with our theme of work and labor.
CW Hale Amos has written, "From reliable testimony, it may be assumed that Charles Darwin returned to the faith of his early manhood.
[A member of English royalty,] Lady Hope visited him one afternoon in England. He was almost bedridden for some months before he died. And sitting up in bed, he held an open Bible. "What are you reading?" asked Lady Hope. "The Royal Book, I call it. Isn’t it grand?" Darwin answered.
Lady Hope mentioned about creation and the early chapters of Genesis. Darwin seemed distressed and a look of agony came over his face as he said: "I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything, and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion out of them."
Then he added: "I have a summerhouse in the garden. I want you to speak to the people there tomorrow afternoon." "What shall I speak about?" Lady Hope asked. "Christ Jesus," he replied in clear emphatic voice, adding in a lower tone, "and His salvation. Is not that the best theme? And I want you to sing some hymns with them." Then he added in farewell: "If you take the meeting at three o’clock, this window will be open and you will know that I am joining in with the singing."
Charles Darwin spent many years observing and recording his observations about the created order of God. He drew some conclusion that others took and made into the dominant scientific theory of the past century. But was his work ultimately in vain? Did it really matter as he came to the end of his life?
This story gives us pause for reflection about the work that we do. Is the work that we do of ultimate value? Is it contributing to the work of God in this world? Are we living out our commitment to Jesus Christ in our work? Work was given to us from the very beginning of creation as we read in Genesis 2:15 where God placed Adam in the Garden to tend it and take care of it.
Work is a part of the created order. But, do we see our work as an extension of our commitment to the work of God?
Not only are we surrounded by God’s great work however; we are also included in it. As we read through Genesis 1, we come to the place, where after all the rest of creation is in place, God creates humankind. I like what it says in verse 26 of Genesis 1: "Then God said, "Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves."
God said this! He was not finished with creation. He had one more addition to this marvelous and vast created order. People - you and me. We are a part of the created order. God’s good work includes us.
Why, why did God create us? What is our purpose in the grand order of creation? To have a relationship with the Creator!
Our tradition, our history has held the idea of creeds with contempt. As you read the early history of our church, our leaders believe creeds to be manmade items that had no value. I agree that creeds in and of themselves have no power to change us like the word of God, but there is in one creed a very important statement that reminds us of just how critical and how valuable we are in God’s good work.
I believe that it is a part of the Westminster Articles of Confession that were created in 17th century England. It is in the form of a question, "What is the chief end of man?" The correct answer, "To glorify God."
Of all the creation, humankind was created to have a relationship with God, the creator. We are a key part of God’s good work. We have a unique place in God’s good work but we also have an important place as well. We are here to bring order to creation and to commune with God.
What does this say about our work? We have a Divine mandate to bring order and harmony to God’s created order and to have a relationship with Him. How well have we done our work? Not very well, have we? Our self-centered and sinful ways have done a number on our environment and our relationships with God and one another.
And as we move further into Genesis, we find that the consequences of the choice that the first humans made spread, like Darwin’s ideas, like wildfire. And God came to a critical decision point. In Genesis 6:5 and 6 we read, "Now the Lord observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them." So God decided to wipe out the human race. "I am sorry that I ever made them.” we read in verse 7.
But, then came verse 8. "But Noah found favor with the Lord." God sees in Noah something worth redeeming, worth taking back and He decides to keep Noah and his family and wipe out the rest of the human race. So, God "hires," if you will, Noah, for a very important job. The construction of the Ark to save the human race.
We read in verse 9 of chapter 6 that Noah was a righteous man who enjoyed a close relationship with God. What do you want to bet that because of Noah’s character he was also a good worker? And God gave him a task that would require a lot of time and a steady and faithful work ethic.
I would suggest to us that Noah did a good job because first of all the Ark floated and stayed afloat but also because his character almost guaranteed that he would finish what he started. God used one of us at a very important moment in human history. We are a part of God’s good work.
But, God’s good work is also in us. With the choices of Adam and Eve everything changed. The beauty and perfection of the world was defaced. Sin entered the world. Life and lives became a mess. God had to do something and among His first responses was the near extinction of the human race. Then came the covenant, the agreement with Israel and the Mosaic Law given by God as a foreshadowing of the second covenant that we will remember in a few moments with communion.
God’s good work turned inward. He began to focus on making it possible for us to once again have the right kind of relationship with Him. And as the centuries of human history passed, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, came to earth and finished the plan of God’s good work of redemption for us and in us. And we take time this day to remember that good work by taking stock of our lives and the kind of life that we have lived and are living. Is God’s good work of redemption a central and current part of your life? How is your relationship with God? Is it strong and vital? Is it up-to-date? Can you, can others see the God’s good work in you?
How’s the drawing coming? We need to wrap-up and as we do so, I want you to take a look at the picture you have sketched about the ideal job. What makes it ideal? The hours? The salary? The location?
As I said earlier you will get a magnet to take home and place your drawing on the refrigerator. I want you to look at that drawing everyday this week and ask yourself this question: “How is my work a part of God’s good work?” As you reflect on this question take sometime to think about how you represent God “on-the-job.”
Paul wrote, in Philippians 1:6, "And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." He also wrote in Romans 8:21 "All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay."
God’s good work continues right now. He has not stopped working around us, with us and in us. As we give thanks to God for the work that we have, let us give thanks and praise to God for His good work through Jesus Christ. Amen.
