All the Earth is the Lord's
A Sermon in The Other Six Days Series
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
March 5, 2006
Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 24:1-10; Mark 1:9-16
Genesis 9:8-17 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’
Psalm 24
Of David. A Psalm.
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
for he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Selah
Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory.
SelahMark 1:9-15 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
I. BEGINNING
It should not surprise us that air and water are of such importance to people. There are few things that are so obvious that you feel silly for even pointing them out. Without water, we die. Without air, we die quickly. The two are essential to our life.
It should not surprise us that air and water should have always occupied a position of importance in human societies. In ancient Israel—as in modern Israel—water played an important role. Now, Israel is not as dusty and barren as it always winds up being in all those Bible movies—they don’t make those movies in Israel, they make them out in the deserts of Tunisia or some such place where they’re less likely to have to worry about jetliners and buses in the background. But water remains important because there are no real major ground sources. The Jordan, Israel’s major river is muddy and winds down from the Galilee to the Dead Sea. The Mediterranean is, of course, salt water. The land was dependent almost entirely on rain for agriculture. And rain began to be seen as a sign of God’s providence and care.
So, water and air and long been important in human societies. In fact, we see the two things lifted up all the time in the scriptures.
II. THE TEXTS
The scriptures tonight are no exception.
In the text from Genesis we read the very end of the story of the flood. We often think of this story as an isolated story about wickedness and God’s punishment through using a flood. What we don’t often see is that this story is related to the creation account found in the first chapter of Genesis.
The ancient Israelites had a somewhat different conception of the universe than we do now. They pictured it as a flat world covered with a dome of sky—a snowglobe—as Lia described it in our Bible study this past Wednesday. All around that snowglobe was water. The waters of creation that God parted at the creation and placed the firmament—the dome of sky into—to create the world.
The flood takes place when God opens up the windows in the dome—rain—and causes the waters under the earth to rise up. It is more than just weather—it is an undoing of creation. The images are powerful. Water gives life—and water takes life away.
In the Psalm we read earlier, we encounter a Psalm of praise extolling God as creator of the world: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it/ the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas/ and established it on the rivers.” The world itself rests on a foundation of water.
And then there is the Gospel lesson for tonight. It begins with Jesus’ baptism—in water. It continues with his entry into the wilderness for forty days of temptation and testing.
III. WATER AND WIND
But there is something else going on in these passages as well. In the Noah passage, we read of the covenant that God establishes with “all flesh” after the flood subsides. The scripture reads: “And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided…” (Gen. 8:1). The flood subsided because a wind began to blow upon the waters. This, too, takes us back to the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” God undoes the flood the same way that God made the creation in the first place—the divine wind.
In Hebrew, the same word—ruach—means ‘wind’, ‘breath’, and ‘spirit’. The wind that blows across the waters at the creation and at the subsiding of the flood is nothing less than the breath of God—the spirit of God.
That same Spirit that descends upon Jesus at his baptism: another story linked to the creation story of Genesis 1. Another story that has light, water, and spirit/wind. That spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness where he is tested for 40 days and 40 nights.
What we come to understand, is that water and wind are far more important than simply life-giving elements. They are more important than necessary components of agriculture and survival. They are important because they represent God’s creative work—they are signs of the Creation itself.
IV. THE CREATION
The creation is not something we think about very much. We’re used to talking about the “environment”. The term itself is interesting. It means “the natural world, within which people, animals, and plants live” or “all the external factors influencing the life of organisms, such as light or food supply” or “the conditions that surround people and affect the way they live” .
I think that last one is the one that has the most influence “the conditions that surround people and affect the way they live.” That’s a typical understanding of the environment. It’s all the stuff that surrounds people. And most people’s attention to the environment is in direct proportion with how much changes in the environment affect their lives.
George Carlin once noted that very few people really care about the environment—most of them just want a ‘nice place to live’. They couldn’t care less whether the rainforests were being destroyed so long as they had a nice clean neighborhood with lots of bike paths.
It’s cynical, but unfortunately not far from the truth. Even many who
are deeply committed to care of the environment—care of water and air,
those elements so central to our existence—do so because of what it means
for humans.
We talk about clean air and the question of lung cancer, childhood asthma, and
other health hazards comes up. We talk about clean water and we mean water free
of toxins that poison our ground water and agriculture, things that might make
us sick.
All too rarely is there a recognition of the environment as “the Creation”.
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to speak at a Death Penalty forum and articulate the church’s position on the death penalty. In the presentation, I followed the traditional United Methodist way of examining an issue: I looked at Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience—the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” as it is called. When doing my research into the Tradition, I came across a writing of Stanley Hauerwas a noted Christian ethicist who noted that the reason we value human life is not because human life has any inherent sacredness or value.
The Christian prohibition against taking life rests not on the assumption that human life has overriding value but on the conviction that it is not ours to take. The Christian prohibition … derives not from any assumption of the inherent value of life, but rather the understanding that as God’s creatures we have no basis to claim sovereignty over life…. The Christian respect for life is first of all a statement, not about life, but about God. (Quoted in Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, HarperSanFrancisco (1996), p. 454.
In the same way, we have respect for the creation—the land, the sea, the sky—not because these things have any value in and of themselves. We respect them because they are God’s creation and, quite simply, do not belong to us. We are tenants, groundskeepers.
The Christian should care about the well being of the Creation not for our sake. But for the Creation’s sake.
Our caring about the Creation is yet another of the myriad ways we say something to the world about God.
V. ALL THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S
In the Genesis lesson we heard earlier, we read: “God said to Noah, ‘This [the rainbow] is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’” God refers to a covenant with “all flesh”—not merely with human beings. With all flesh, every living thing. As Christians, when we talk about the promises of God, we testify to the fact that God has made promises not to us alone, but to the whole creation.
Theologian Jürgen Moltmann wrote that the “Creation longs for redemption and groans out of its distress.” God has promised redemption to the Creation itself.
The Psalm loudly proclaims “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it…” a reminder that we are not God’s sole possession. We are not the only part of the creation.
VI. END
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. It is a time when we take a spiritual journey
of repentance, reflection, and transformation. It is a time when we rededicate
ourselves through spiritual disciplines. Through prayer, fasting, and charity.
When Jesus went out to begin his 40-day spiritual journey of fasting and prayer,
he went into the wilderness. He went into the creation, where no person was,
but only the wild beasts.
There in the midst of the wilderness, amidst the creation he was tempted. And
there he was waited upon by angels.
As we begin our own journey through the wilderness of Lent, we have the opportunity to reflect on our relationship to the Creation, our stewardship of it, and what it is we say about God when we neglect it.
And this is a time when we explore the mysteries of faith as we move on toward Easter. When we proclaim the suffering of Jesus. When we proclaim his crucifixion. When we proclaim that on the third day he was raised. When we proclaim that God’s redemptive work has begun in Jesus Christ, for you, for me, and for the sake of all creation.
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Copyright © 2006. Mark A. Schaefer
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