Day 3: Barefoot Walking

Slide Day 3 – The third week of our look at Celtic Christianity, as guided by Philip Newell’s The Book of Creation. (pp. 33-47)..

The focus for day 3 is looking at how God is a generous God.

The Celts see this generosity displayed through a connection between the gift of creation and the gift of God’s grace.

Emerging with this chapter of Newell’s The book of Creation, are themes echoed on the approaching Earth Day as well as themes lifted up in the national movement for pay raises.

There are challenges as we would hope and expect.

What I love about being in a community of faith is that we don’t have to shy away from challenges, but instead can listen with our own ears and share from our own perspectives what we are hearing.

There is a three level movement in this sermon.

The first is our connection with Creation.

The second, considering how this connection with creation results in the way we treat one another.

And the third, how the gift of creation relates to the gift of grace.

Let’s see what moves in us...

First: Our connection with Creation.

As many of you know, Trasie and I spent 7 brown and cold springs in the high desert of New Mexico before moving back to our home of Georgia…,

it's so wonderful to be back in the south for Spring

Greening all around. plants bursting forth!

The colors on the flowering trees!

breathe in the freshness—as long as you don’t have allergies

[SLIDE TWO VIDEO: IN case our experience of this spring has been damped a bit by recent rain, I came across a brief time lapse video of Nature bursting into Spring…

check it out.  ]

I absolutely love it.

Creation: God’s word spoken! as we see in Genesis.

What does it mean for us that God Spoke everything into being? Do we believe this?

“All things have come into being through the Word,” says the gospel of John.

The celts affirm all things at heart are a birth or embodiment of God’s word- Christ.

On day three seeds planted deep within the earth--fruit-bearing life hidden within…burst forth.

A clear sign of an abundance of growth and potential.

Born of God, “God saw all the life springing forth from the ground, and said,

It’s all good.’

Goodness is not just a characteristic…

goodness is the very source of life.

Goodness is the essence of life

Our lives and all of creation come from that which is good;

and therefore in essence are good as well.  

Everything and every person in essence is good?

Day 7 - Chill...Be still and Know That I am God

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42;
Genesis 2:1-3

Theme: Stillness and Rest.
Prayer:

Thanks be to Thee, O God, that I have risen today,
To the rising of this life itself;
May it be to Thine own glory, O God of every gift,
And to the glory of my soul likewise.

O great God, aid Thou my soul
With the aiding of Thine own mercy;
Even as I clothe my body with wool,
Cover Thou my soul with the shadow of Thy wing.

Help me to avoid every sin,
And the source of every sin to forsake;
And as the mist scatters on the crest of the hills,
May each ill haze clear from my soul, O God.


On Day 7 God Rested.
On Day 7 God Rested.

Sounds like a pretty good idea.  
Could any of you use some rest?

What do you envision when you think of God resting?

A day on the golf course?
Did it include a morning in church?
Maybe God went to one of any of the recently created beach shores?
Back then there would have been no developments, no vendors, just pure sand, silent breezes, and crashing waves.
What picture do you have of God resting?

Day 4 - Harmony

Scripture: Genesis 1:14-19
Theme: This morning’s sermon considers the Celtic practice of venerating the lights of the sky; and how such a practice might lead to a deeper self understanding of ourselves and of God.

I think the first song Ruby memorized was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...much thanks to Dora, believe it or not, for that one.

Fascination, joy, appreciation, awe,
celebration of the lights of the sky: the sun, moon and the stars,
This is what Day 4 of creation in Genesis is all about.

“The unbridled wind of God’s creativity gives birth...now to the lights of the skies.  
The sun, moon, and stars, in their harmonies of movement and light, are further theophanies or [ways in which God is revealed].
Shining out of the darkness of space they express something of the inexpressible.  
“there is no speech, nor are their words,’ says the Psalmist,
‘yet their voice goes out through all the earth.’  (p. 51)

We are on week four of our look at Celtic Christianity as guided by a Minister in the CHurch of Scotland: Philip Newell.
On Day 4:
The sun by day and the moon and stars by night declare the mystery of God.

And the simple question that Newell asks is: What is it that they are saying?

Hmm: Have you ever wondered what the sun and moon are saying?

Like all that has been created, they have been spoken into being by God’s Word.
To not listen to them is ignore the self-disclosure of God. (p.52)

What do the sun and moon say?

    For this answer Newell looks to the Celtic tradition.
And there, Newell takes us in the direction of human sexuality!  

For the Love of Creation for the Love of God- Genesis 1

Genesis 1 - 2:3

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe

What better way to begin a story, than with the story of Creation; full of intrigue and majesty, Genesis Chapter one has not been without scrutiny and controversy.  By no choice of its own, it is been brought in to do battle against disciples of Charles Darwin?  It has caused many to wonder, “Did God’ create the world in a literal seven days, or can we explain it away by saying a day is like a thousand days to God.”

I once had an intelligent Christian pastor suggest that God put dinosaur bones in the earth at creation, that’s why we dig them up. Not because they actually existed billions of years ago.  We have vivid imaginations.

Let us use our imaginations, and rather than reduce this Creation story to popular spheres of debate, instead open our hearts to new ways of understanding it within its original context as well as our world today.  

Throughout time, every civilization that’s ever existed has had a story of how it all began. We’ve always wanted to know, where did we come from?  Why are we here? So, what does our Ancient Sacred story tell us about who we are and who God is?

Readers you may take your places. (Readers space themselves in 7 designated places in the sanctuary to represent the seven days as space in the temple.

Enter into God’s cosmic temple.  (The following is from William P. Brown’s, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder)

In seven days God created.  Structurally, these seven days take on a certain symmetry

Day 1 - light;   Day 4 - Lights

Day 2 - Sky and waters; Day 5 - birds and marine life

Day 3- Land vegetation; Day 6 - land animals, humans, food.

And Day seven, The day God declares creation holy.  the day God rests.  

As creation unfolds daily, it becomes constructed in the very model of the ancient Hebrew temple.  The first six days establish the architectural boundaries of sacred space. The last day inhabits, as it were the most holy space- God rests in the holy of holies in the temple.  a portico, a nave, and a the place of the holy of holies. “What took Solomn seven years to complete, God took only seven days, and on a cosmic scale!”  

Seven. God "saw" and pronounced creation "good" seven times;

"earth" or "land" the same word in Hebrew appears 21 times (7x3) "God" is repeated 35 times.

Verse 1 has seven words in Hebrew. Verse 2 - 14. The total number of words from genesis 1:1-2:3 is 469 in Hebrew. 7x67. How many times are we to forgive. 7x 70. times.  the perfectly odd integer. Seven connotes a ritual sense of completion or fulfillment.

The readers will alternate days in Spanish and then English.  You may follow along in your pew bibles on page 1.