CREATION SUNDAY SERMON
I would like to read to you this morning a poem from the volume known as “carmina gad-elica” – which includes a large selection of folk poems from the western isles of scotland.

this poem which i am going to read to you from the collection is appropriate on this creation sunday, for it gives glory to God for his work of creation, and the author asks God’s blessing on his whole being.

I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou art the eternal Father of life;
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou art the eternal Father of love.
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou art the eternal Father of the saints;
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou art the eternal Father of each one.
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou art the eternal Father of all humanity;
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou art the eternal Father of the world.
I believe, O Lord and God of the peoples,
That Thou art the creator of the high heavens,
That Thou art the creator of the skies above,
That Thou art the creator of the oceans below.
I believe, O Lord and God of the peoples,
That Thou art He Who created my soul
and set its warp.
Who created my body from dust and from ashes,
Who gave to my body breath,
andto my soul its possession.
Father, bless to me my body,
Father, bless to me my soul,
Father, bless to me my life,
Father, bless to me my belief.
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This poem is indeed a strong expression of faith.
And I believe it is an expression of faith we can also share.
and share whatever our idea of the actual length of time
that God’s creation has taken to reach this point.
Because the glory of all that we see and don’t see with our eyes belongs to God.
No part of God’s creation is an accident.
The creation of man is certainly not an accident.
The complexity of man himself is amazing:-
In a Christian article on
The Human Genome Project Decoding the Mystery of Man

i was amazed by the following comments from the article :-

“Although the universe is thought to have 100 billion galaxies with an estimated 200 billion stars each, some scientists acknowledge that each human body appears as complex and amazingly designed as the universe itself. The human brain has 100 billion neurons, with untold trillions of connections and patterns of endless wiring sequences.
We are unconscious of the incomprehensible complexity of our own creation. We are not aware of what goes on in our cells as our genome tells our cells to assemble amino acids into proteins, proteins to make cell walls, and cell walls to split and divide. We go about our lives unaware of the constant stream of virtual miracles that keep us alive, alert and functioning.”

We are indeed amazing. Just on the biological and chemical level
we are amazing. But that is only part of who we are. We are spiritual beings as well, as the poem said:-
“Who gave to my body breath,
and to my soul its possession.”

We should indeed give God the glory for the creation of our souls and bodies, and for all that he has provided for us in his creation.
And we should realise that it is out of his great love that he has created the Cosmos and created us.
As a God of love, creation was an act of overflowing love.
It is as if God was so overflowing in love that he could not not create – As Meister Eckhart the medieval theologian put it – “his love was so overflowing that it propelled God to billow, boil and overflow into creation. Since God loves equally and—like the
center of the circle—is equally close to all things, God also pours God’s self equally into all of creation.”
I think this is a wonderful thought concerning the overflowing love and presence of God in creating. God’s love is so great that he is passionately, intimately and deeply connected with his work of creation – i love that thought of Eckhart’s that i quoted – that God pours God’s self equally into all creation. That is an amazing thought. There is indeed a deep intimacy between God and his creation.

We need to remind ourselves more and more that God created because he loves. And we are the pinnacle of his creation on earth.
God has given us amazing gifts and abilities. We have been given the responsibility to care for his creation.

But we know that we have not truly cared.

We hear often about how climate change is caused by man over exploiting the earth’s resources.

We know what should be done to stop abusing the earth’s resources. But we don’t stop.

There have been climate conferences held periodically to direct us in a better way as nations, but even the weak promises made at these conferences to follow the right path are not kept.

We are stewards of God’s creation, but in recent decades we have become bad stewards of His creation.

This is because we have forgotten God, and forgotten what is of true worth, and thought only of our own selfish needs as mankind.
But by being selfish we might very well end up destroying ourselves.

Sadly as bad stewards of his creation we can destroy what he has so beautifully created.
We can destroy the beauty of this world.
We can destroy the trees and wild animals.
We can destroy the delicate balance of life in many
parts of the world – because of greed.

However, on this creation Sunday may we not forget our Creator.
Indeed may we rejoice in his creation, even in its fallen state.
May we not forget our place as God’s stewards of his creation.
And may we learn to use the earth’s resources more wisely and truly care for all of life on this beautiful planet.