Springwood Presbyterian Church: Whitsett, NC

Psalm 8                                                  5-30-10

Called as Partners

“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight….”  Now that you’ve heard the children talk about their experiences with the wonders of the night sky, I wonder if you adults used to watch for the first star, or lie on your back in the grass on clear nights to count the stars, and fall asleep before you got to 100.  Maybe you still do.  What a marvelous sight, all those lights in the sky.

With the Hubble telescope and photographs from the many flights into space in the past 50 years, we’ve learned a lot about stars and planets—but I hope, not so much as to take away the mystery and your awe at the universe—the mystery and your awe for the Creator.

As mysterious and amazing as deep space is, far more mysterious and amazing is God’s creation of human beings—of us: made in the very image of God, and, made to be God’s partners in the care of God’s world.

We are all made in God’s image, but there are many who cannot believe that, because they don’t feel loved, because they suffer hunger in wealthy nations, because they do not see God’s hand in their lives.

We are terribly aware of the ways we and our fellow humans have failed to take care of God’s creation: the deaths of miners in Kentucky due to human neglect—the terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 men and has now despoiled huge areas of the sea—wars that kill and maim thousands and lay waste to the land.  Yet God doesn’t give up on us becoming what God created us to be: stewards of creation.

“Stewardship” is a more accurate word than “dominion.”  The word “dominion” sounds as if we have the power of dictators to use and abuse everything under our control.  And unfortunately, we’ve often treated this good earth as if it’s our personal treasury, from which we can take whatever we can—or our personal trash pile to throw away anything we don’t want or have used up.  We’ve treated fellow human beings as less than we.

But when we remember that God is above all —that God created it all, including us—that God cares for each mosquito and amoeba and human being, then, perhaps, we’ll understand “dominion” differently.  We’ll see dominion as protecting and sustaining creation: loving the earth and its creatures as well as God does, even when some of those creatures are unlikeable fellow human beings.  We’ll use the earth’s resources carefully and frugally—take only what we need and leave plenty for others-- restore or replace anything we might destroy.   We’ll also see ourselves in a different light: not as individuals concerned mainly with what affects us and our nearest and dearest directly; but, because we are made in God’s own image, we’ll recognize we have responsibilities outside ourselves and our own families.  We’re created and called to be partners with God. 

Marc Gellman (“Does God Have a Big Toe” pp. 1-3) has written a children’s story about the time God created the earth:

Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels, and a huge swirling glob of rocks, and water with no place to go.  The angels asked God, “Why don’t you clean up this mess?”

So God collected rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in clumps and said, “Some of the clumps of rock will be planets, and some will be stars, and some of these rocks will be … just rocks.”

Then God collected water from the huge swirling glob and put it together in pools of water and said, “Some of these pools of water will be oceans, and some will become clouds, and some of this water will be … just water.”

Then the angels said, “Well, God, it’s neater now, but is it finished?”  And God answered, “NOPE!”

On some of the rocks God placed growing things, and creeping things, and things that only God knows what they are, and when God had done this, the angels asked God, “Is the world finished now?”  And God answered, “NOPE!”

God made a man and a woman from some of the water and dust, and said to them, “I am tired now.  Please finish up the world for me … really, it’s almost done.”  But the man and woman said, “We can’t finish the world alone!  You have the plans and we are too little.”

“You are big enough,” God answered them.  “But I agree to this.  If you keep trying to finish the world, I will be your partner.”

The man and woman asked, “What’s a partner?” and God answered, “A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone.  If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you.  On the days you think I am not doing enough, and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days, we are still partners and we must not stop trying to finish the world.  That’s the deal.”  And they all agreed to that deal.

Then the angels asked God, “Is the world finished yet?”  And God answered, “I don’t know.  Go ask my partners.”

David Purpel, emeritus professor of education at UNC-G, died last week.  Several of his students remarked on his habit of quizzing prospective students about why they wanted to take his class.  One of his questions always was, “How will this class help you relieve suffering in the world?”  As an educator, Dr. Purpel sought to be a steward of the minds and hearts of his students.  On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember the men and women whose military service is a stewardship of freedoms.

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Sing “Called as Partners”  #343 (PH)

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Please take a couple of minutes now to write on the blank piece of paper in your bulletin at least 5 ways in the past week you were God’s partner--a steward of God’s creation; or, if you prefer, 5 ways in the coming week you intend to be: by the way you lovingly care for another person made in God’s image—or tend a garden (yours or someone else’s)—or send a check to help the displaced in Haiti--recycle instead of adding to the landfill—clean the church in preparation for Homecoming—pray for the sick, the lonely, the grieving--stop a war (OK—that’s more than most of us can do, but we can work to be reconciled with someone we have a difficult relationship with, or pray for and encourage harmony between others) …. 

If it will help you to do so, talk later about your list with a friend or family member.  But it’s mostly to be a reminder to you that you are God’s partner in taking care of the earth and all that’s in it—that you matter to God—that what you do matters to God and to others and even to the health of the earth itself—that you are as much a marvel and a wonder as the stars, the sun, the moon, the planets in the sky that give us such joy to see. 

And, if you ever are feeling down about yourself—if you ever feel God has forgotten you, then read this psalm again, and know that God is mindful of you, because you matter greatly to God.  God created you to be a little lower than God—crowned with glory and honor and wants you to work beside God, doing the work of creation and re-creation.  God loves you and values you dearly.  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!