13th Sunday After Pentecost
Let there be Light adapted from Genesis 1:1-5
“In the beginning the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep. God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.
And, God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Calling of the Waters adapted from Genesis 1:6-8
And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And, it was so.
God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Forming of the Earth adapted from Genesis 1:9-13
And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together God called the Sea. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let plants grow upon the earth: plants with seeds, and all kinds of fruit. And, plants grew upon the earth: plants with seeds, and all kinds of fruit.
And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
Sun, Moon, and Stars adapted from Genesis 1:14-19
And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’
And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
Creatures of the Earth adapted from Genesis 1:20-25
And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’
So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature in the sea, and every winged bird. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
Hebrew Bible Reading adapted from Genesis 1:24-31
And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind. And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth.
So, God created humankind in God’s image,
in the image of God, God created them;
male and female, God created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed and every kind of fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that had been made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Charge & Benediction adapted from Genesis 2:1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because that was the day that God rested from all the work that had been done in creation.
Hovering over the Chaos
I love the national parks. Ever since I was little, they’ve had a special place in my heart. The national parks are magical places filled with waterfalls and wild animals, giant trees and trees that have turned to stone, rivers to raft on and to fish in for a delicious trout dinner. The church where I grew up would do a group trip to Yosemite every summer, over a dozen families all going to the park at the same time, exploring the park during the day, and meeting up for a potluck dinner, s’mores, and singing at night. It was such a special time.
But, after what I think was six years in a row of going to Yosemite, my parents decided they wanted to try something new. So, my dad bought an RV, and we went to the Grand Canyon. Words and even pictures cannot do justice to the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. But, what I remember most is picking pinecones off of the pinion trees there, getting out the pine nuts, and eating them. Over the years we went to Yellowstone and Glacier, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Sequoia, Petrified Forest, and others, exploring the natural wonder that’s right in our backyard.
It’s easy to see God’s immense power when you’re gazing up at the largest tree in the world, or when your raft is plummeting down a class-4 rapid. These natural places are God’s work, untouched by human hands. They are God’s creation in much the same way that we are, and I think part of that sense of awe that we feel when we’re in those places is that kinship that we share.
It was a stroke of both genius and good fortune when President Woodrow Wilson established the National Park system over a hundred years ago in 1916. He understood that these places were important, that people needed to see them. And, he created a system that would protect them not only for future generations of Americans, but for all of humanity.
Our National Parks are some of the most beautiful and unique places in the world, and it’s unfortunate that not everyone sees them that way. When the National Park Service staff was reduced by over a thousand people in February as part of a plan to cut federal spending, it was a huge blow. And, the reasoning for this doesn’t even make any sense, because while we spend about $3.5 billion annually to support our national parks, they bring in over $55 billion in revenue, every year. Every dollar that we invest in our National Park Service, generates $4 in economic value.
August 25 was the 109th birthday of the National Park Service. There was a gathering that day, at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond California to protest this defunding, and other actions that have threatened our national park system in the last seven months. It’s just part of the general chaos that we’ve grown accustomed to, as of late.
Genesis 1 starts with chaos. There is no order, there are no patterns, there are no rules or laws. Nothing means anything. But then, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And, God saw that the light was good.” This refrain repeats throughout the chapter. God called together the seas, and saw that it was good. God brought forth vegetation, and saw that it was good. God made the Sun, Moon, and stars, and saw that it was good. God created the animals, and saw that it was good. God looked at everything that had been made, and saw that indeed, it was very good. This is one of the key ideas from this chapter. That creation is good…that it reflects God’s goodness, and was designed to take care of us.
I know everything feels a little chaotic right now. People are scared and confused; they don’t know what to do. Sometimes there’s a sense of hopelessness. How do we fight back against something that’s so big? Something without any logic to it? Something that just doesn’t make any sense. We have to trust that God is hovering over the chaos, working to form it into something good. We need to remind people of God’s power, and we need to remember it ourselves. Things are not hopeless. They might be a little desperate, but they are not hopeless. We are not alone in the chaos, even if it sometimes feels like we are. We just need to look at the world around us, to see proof of God’s majesty in the mountains and the sky, in the thunderclouds and the lightning, on the plains and in the rivers. Our natural spaces are important, because they are one of the best ways for us to be near our Creator, to help us remember that we are not alone.
I’ve shared this story before, but I want to share it again, because it fits so well with what we’re talking about today. During my first spring break when I was in seminary, I took a pretty big group of friends and family to visit Death Valley National Park in California. One of my favorite memories of that trip was the night that we all decided to have a communion service by the light of the campfire. This is the kind of thing that happens when six seminarians go camping together. Two of my classmates were from South Korea, and one was from the Dominican Republic. My parents are from the Philippines; they both speak Tagalog, and my dad also speaks Mandarin Chinese. And, between all of us, there were even more languages that we had studied at some point in our lives. So, we thought it would be neat if we could speak the words over communion in as many languages as possible, with each person who was able, contributing their voice to the service.
We spent the day writing out all of the different versions that we would need that night; there’s surprisingly good cell phone service in Death Valley. When night fell, we gathered around the campfire, and we prepared the bread and the juice, and we celebrated communion together, in English, Korean, Tagalog, Bicol, French, Spanish, German, Greek, and Mandarin Chinese. It was beautiful. It was magical. It was God coming to be with us in the wilderness. Even my nephew, who didn’t really go to church, said that it was really cool, and he hoped that we could do it again, someday.
Two nights and three days are not enough to see everything in Death Valley. There’s a big salt flat, sand dunes, canyons, huge craggy mountains with different colored stripes of rock, formed and bent and broken by the Earth’s geologic processes. It’s so stark, and hot, and dry, but it is so beautiful. And, you can’t be there, surrounded by all of that vast eerie openness, the hot, dry, whistling wind, and not feel God’s presence.
God is with us in so many ways, in the beauty that surrounds us, in the small miracles of our everyday lives. The chaos that’s happening around us right now might seem relentless and unending, but it is temporary. God can and will work the chaos into something good. And, we can point out the goodness in the world to our neighbors who need reassurance that God is with us. And, we can look to it ourselves. Remember that God is with you, and that the chaos will not last.
Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
