Sermon
But now, this is what the Lord, He who
created you O Jacob, He who formed you O Israel, says – Fear not for I have
redeemed you, I have summoned you by name you are mine, when you pass through
the waters I will be with you…………..
Creation. Hardly a year goes
by, but we read in the papers, or see a brief clip on the news of some argument
or controversy about the creation of the world.
Every now and then, we hear of
on a teacher in the
For example:
For
example, in 1994 a High school biology teacher, in
brought
a court case against his school district,
because he objected to the text book the school used because it
mentioned Charles Darwin,
the
Court, however, found it quite
reasonable to ask science teachers to teach from a scientific textbook in the biology class.
Or
again, In 2000, in the state of
Every few months, it seems,
mostly in the
Which is unfortunate, because
it means that for many Christians,
the creation of the world is a
subject to stay away from. Yet, the creative power of God is one of the great
supporting beams of the Bible….. let’s spend a few moments following this
through
There
are those magnificent words in the opening verses of the Bible:
In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, when the earth was
formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep….. the Spirit
hovered over the waters, God said “let
there be light…..” and there was light…………….
But for many sincere
Christians,
this whole subject is one with
more heat than light,
a subject to stay away from.
But when we look at the Bible,
isn’t it fascinating that we find
much more in the Old
Testament, about God’s creative power,
now ?
If we listen to the Word in
the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah proclaims that
that God has created, the
world at the beginning,
but goes on to declare how God
is still active, in creative power,
and how God in creative power
had created
So we read in Isaiah 40:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or
with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens ? Who has held the dust of
the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in
a balance ? Lift your eyes and look to the heavens ! Who created all these ? He
who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because
of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
In wonderful, majestic Words,
Isaiah declares the strength and might of God, the maker of heaven and earth, but
he goes on:
But now, this is what the Lord, He who created you O
Jacob, He who formed you O Israel, says – Fear not for I have redeemed you, I
have summoned you by name you are mine, when you pass through the waters I will
be with you…………..
So the message of the prophet
Isaiah is this: that God, who created heaven and earth in power and might, is
still acting in power to protect and save His people………….
Look at God’s creative
power………..hear the echoes of the first verse of Genesis,
In
the beginning,
God
called a slave people, a people without shape or direction,
a
people living and working under the dark power of imperial
to
be His own,
Through
His servant Moses, God brings these slaves out from slavery, breaks their
chains, their shackles, their fetters, frees them from the tyranny of endless
work.
and
leads them out:
And
more than this, in His covenant with them, gives them the law, worship, and a
land to call home…………
like
the stars, He knows each one of them by name……….
God,
declares the prophet Isaiah, created
in
faithfulness and love commits himself to this frail, inadequate, often
ungrateful people
calls
them into being, into life
as
a people they would not exist, unless God had called them into life
rooted
and grounded in God,
drawing
on the life giving waters that he gives,
God in creative power has
created
But He is still active, in
creative power
is still moving in power to
protect and save His people………….
that’s the message of Isaiah
Here’s how the prophet Isaiah expresses it in a sparkling fresh
picture of new life......
The
poor and needy search for water, but there is none, their tongues are parched
with thirst.......
But
I the Lord will answer them, I the God of
I
will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys.
I
will turn the desert into pools of water,
and
the parched ground into springs
I
will put in the desert the cedar, and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive
I
will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together
so
that people may see and know
may
consider and understand,
that
the hand of the Lord has done this,
that
the Holy One of
This
is our God, who by His spirit, still cleanses, refreshes and blesses us
Who
creates new life among us
His
dry and thirsty people,
And
the Bible declares – that God still moves in special ways, in special creative
power,
in
Jesus,
On
the day of Pentecost, we read of how this happened in the Book of Acts,
the
Holy Spirit came sweeping down in creative power on the believers waiting in
that house in
Peter
said to them
‘let me tell you what this
means....... this is what the prophet spoke about........
God
says I will pour out my Spirit on everyone.............
As
in the first verse of Genesis, here is the Spirit of God,
the
Spirit of God moving in power,
creating
new life, shaping and ordering this new thing the church:
Last week, you will remember, we heard in
the gospel of Matthew how, in that lonely spot by the sea of Galilee, looking
up into heaven, Jesus gave thanks and blessed the bread held in His hands –
and
it was enough to feed those thousands gathered there,
Because
at that moment, in Jesus, the creative power of the living God, was loose upon
the earth, shaping and creating the bread of life, shaping, ordering, feeding
this great crowd………
so
that the hungry, the lonely, the lost could eat of bread in such abundance that
the gospel records there were twelve baskets full of bread left over.
Jesus,
in the creative power of His Father feeds, and nourishes the crowd, fills their
emptiness.
Do
we not hear a profound Word about the
Church here ?
Do
we not hear a profound Word for
ourselves here, as hungry women and men ?
That
as we gather, like they did on the lakeside,
Jesus
is among us, at the very centre and
heart of life
in
Him, is all the creative power of the living God,
shaping
ordering and creating us anew,
He
has the bread of life for us………….
and
in such abundance
that
there is enough for us all, and for the whole world over…………..
Let
us come then, whether hungry, or lost or lonely,
whether
filled, but looking for the bread of life, that lasts,
And
find in Him, as He has promised,
Food
for our souls,
Food
for our souls
AMEN