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"Our Borrowed Planet" series --
October 19, 2008
GOD, THE RENEWER Genesis 2:4-7 In the Name of Jesus. Amen. 600 million. That's how many breaths it takes to sustain an average human lifetime. We can live longer without food and water than we can without air. Each breath sustains only a few moments of life. Each breath is as important as the next. A small child can drown in as little as an inch of water, because that’s all it takes to destroy her ability to breathe. I, as many of you do, have asthma. I know how frightening it is to suddenly not be able to breathe deeply enough, to feel like you’re suffocating, to realize that if you don’t get help, you will die for lack of air. All of creation depends on clean air. No wonder God's Spirit is described as the mysterious wind that fills us with life and sustains all creation. In our Old Testament reading this morning, we read, “then the Lord God formed a creature (the Hebrew word ha’adam means “creature of the earth”) from the dust of the ground, and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life; and it became a living being.” The Hebrew word translated as “breath” also means wind, as well as spirit. The sentence could as easily and accurately be translated, “the Lord God breathed into the creature’s nostrils the Spirit of God, and it became a living being.” Old Testament biblical theology would suggest that the first breath we take when we are born isn’t simply a mixture of gases, consisting primarily of nitrogen and oxygen. That mixture of gases gets our lungs going, and gets biochemical reactions and responses going which animate our bodies. It is similar to gasoline mixed with air and a spark which gets a car’s engine running – but that chemical reaction doesn’t bring a car to life. It remains a thing. Our biblical ancestors are saying, by way of this creation story, that we become living human beings by virtue of the breath or spirit of God. Let’s look at this from another angle. Have you been “inspired” lately? What does it mean to be inspired? Its primary meaning is to be affected, guided; to be filled with enlivening emotion; to be stimulated to action – by divine influence. From the Latin word in-spī-rā-re, which means “to breathe.” Our God breathes us, “inspires” us, to life the moment we are born. Our God is a constant inspirer through the course of our lives. Perhaps that’s at least part of what St. Paul means when he says in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?” We can easily picture sea creatures breathing through their gills, surrounded by, immersed in, water. But they don’t “see” the water. They don’t know it as “water.” What if we could see ourselves, breathing through our noses – even though we don’t see it -- surrounded by, immersed in, nothing other than the unbounded Spirit of God? The Holy Spirit of God loves to create out of nothing, as the first few verses of Genesis bear witness to. But Scripture also testifies that God loves to renew creation. Don’t we see that in the world of nature every autumn, every spring, every summer? Don’t we see that when, on All Saints Sunday, we not only remember those who have died in Christ since last All Saints Day, but also give thanks for those who have been baptized into Christ since last All Saints Day? And don’t we celebrate that every time we come Baptize someone and declare that child is “reborn a child of God;” every time we come to the Lord’s Supper and receive Christ’s promised renewing presence into our very bodies as we eat and drink bread and wine; as well as through the laying on of hands and healing prayers this morning? The Spirit of God, inspiring/breathing into nature, into us, into the Church of Christ a new creation. So. God the Creator doesn't create and then abandon. Jesus, the Christ, doesn't rescue and then ride off into the sunset. The Holy Spirit didn’t fill the disciples on Pentecost and then just dissipate into the universe. God’s Spirit remains with us always, renewing and sustaining – inspiring! -- all of creation. St. Paul tells us in our second lesson from Romans this morning that it is not only we who are eagerly awaiting Jesus’ coming again, the coming of the fullness of the Kingdom of God, but creation itself groans, as if in childbirth, longing for the day when wholeness is restored to the earth, sky, and seas, and all of God’s creatures. So the question of caring for the creation, once again, becomes less of a political question for us, but more foundationally, a question of faith and the Christian life: How do we work with God to "renew the face of the earth”? How do we cooperate with God to “midwife” the coming of the Kingdom? How do we reverence and respect the wind, the spirit, the breath of God – otherwise known as “air”? We work through the means of politics (which, by the way, simply means, “dealing with the affairs of the people”). From organizing with others in our own church and our community, to joining national or international advocacy organizations, to serving in public office ourselves, as Christians we take our place in God’s world as stewards of the divine breath of God so critical for the life and health of virtually every creature on the planet. Privately, we work in our own corner of the world, trying to personally produce and release as few toxins into the air as possible – not so tough until we look at our love affair and dependence on automobiles and other privately owned vehicles; or what we burn in our outdoor fire pits and indoor fireplaces; or what we throw into the garbage (like styrofoam and plastics) which may later be burned in massive garbage dumps, releasing toxins into our precious air; or what we may enjoy smoking and exhaling into the air which other people are breathing. It really has little to do with being “politically correct,” a term which is usually spoken in sarcasm these days; and everything to do with being children of our inexhaustibly creative God, partners in the mysteries of creation. I hope that one of the things we are beginning to understand through this series on “Our Borrowed Planet” is that stewardship, as far as the Bible goes, does not begin with the “s” sign for money ($). A steward, as we said two weeks ago, is the manager, the guardian, of someone else’s property who is, in the end, accountable to that owner. When given a coin with the picture of Caesar on it, Jesus is asked by the Pharisees who were trying to trap him into saying something treasonous, should Jews pay taxes to the Roman empire which worships Caesar as God? If Jesus said yes, it would be blasphemy – recognizing the divinity of Caesar. If Jesus said no, it would be treason against Rome. Jesus looks at the coin and says “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” At first, we would say he is suggesting we neatly divide the sacred and the secular – pay our taxes to the government, and make a cash offering to God. But when you stop and think for a moment: what doesn’t belong to God? Is it only our money which we are to manage as good stewards? Doesn’t even a government, when all is said and done, belong to God? Jesus is saying, everything belongs to God – even Caesar! We belong to God. Planet earth, our solar system, the whole universe, the very air we breathe – it all belongs to God. Nothing, not even our very selves, belongs exclusively to us. We are privileged managers, guardians, of all that belongs to the Holy One who brought us all to life with a sacred word and a divine breath. We Christians are a hopeful community, seeking to live in ways that proclaim that Christ's loving reign has already begun, is happening right now, both in our lives and in our world. Therefore we commit ourselves to working with the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth…including even the very air we breathe. Amen. Rev. Joan Gunderman, Senior Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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