Tune In!

Sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Genesis 1:1-5 & Psalm 29

We’re up to #6 in our “calendar quotes” sermon series from the UCC Desk Calendar and Plan Book. The quote for today comes from George Washington Carver who said, “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”

Can you just imagine God setting out to create the earth? Visualize, in your mind’s eye, God creating Rainy Lake … the Grand Canyon … the Mississippi River … the Sahara Desert … Old Faithful … the oceans and the glaciers … the moors and the fjords … the polar ice caps … the Red Sea … and all the trees, flowers, animals and people. How utterly amazing!!!

And of course God also created Minnesota … On the sixth day God turned to the Archangel Gabriel and said: 'Today, I am going to create a land called Minnesota. It will be a land of outstanding natural beauty; a land of 10,000 beautiful lakes, each one full of fish. It shall have tall majestic pines, peacefully flowing rivers, landscapes full of trees, tall grass, and eagles, beautiful blue skies, forests full of bear, deer and moose, rich farmland and fair skinned people.' God continued, 'I shall make the land rich in resources so as to make the inhabitants prosper and they shall be known as a most friendly people; people who practice being Minnesota Nice every day.'

‘But Lord,' said Gabriel, 'don't you think you are being too generous to these Minnesotans?'

'No, not really,' replied God 'just wait till you see the winters I am going to give them.' [1]

Yes, even Minnesota winters are an amazing and beautiful gift from God! You can go skiing, snow shoeing, ice fishing, ice skating outdoors or snowmobiling. You can do the Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard Run or keep warm in a coffee shop or carve ice sculptures and make snowmen. And you can look forward to summer and all the wonderful things we enjoy outdoors in nature when the weather’s warm!

I love the image from the quote about nature being God’s broadcasting system! One thing comes through clearly—that God surely must love us very much to have created all this beauty for us to enjoy!

Sadly, though, human beings haven’t tuned in very well. We haven’t taken enough care of our beautiful earth and now we’re beginning to pay the price.

God said, “Let there be light,” but in some large cities smog darkens the sky and the sun’s light has a hard time shining through.
God also created water. Over 70% of our globe is covered by water. Ninety-seven percent of all water on earth is in our oceans. Life on earth began in the oceans 3.1—3.4 billion years ago and then evolved from the ocean to the land millions of years ago. Today, the ocean remains crucial to maintaining life as we know it. The oceans provide necessities such as; most of the oxygen we need to breathe, a reservoir for soaking up almost half of the globe's gaseous carbon pollutants (more than 2 billion tons), a food source that can be managed to help feed the world, the ingredients for many of today's and tomorrow's medicines, making our weather, and it is an essential part of the global economy. [2]

God created the dry land as well and people have turned too much of it into concrete jungles or have changed the use of land from what it was originally created to do or to be. But we have also preserved some of our land and our forests so that it will remain as it was originally created to be. Sometimes we tune in and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we have hunted, fished and trapped too much and whole species of animals have disappeared or are in danger or doing so. Sometimes we catch on in the nick of time and work to save species in danger of extinction.

I’ve said before that from the first chapter of Genesis the most important thing for us to remember—besides the fact that God created—is that GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD. Everything God has made is good. Every time I step out into nature and clear everything else from my over-loaded brain, I am reminded that everything God has created in our world and our universe—and even beyond—is beautiful, glorious, magnificent and good!

In the natural wonders and innate beauty we can find all around us if we just look for it, God is broadcasting to us that life is good, humankind is good, the world is good, and God is good.

In today’s reading of Psalm 29 we are called to recognize that goodness and beauty. We are called to “ascribe to God glory and strength … worship God in holy splendor” because God’s mighty voice called the light, the waters, the land, the growing things, the animals, fish, birds and people into existence. The voice of God, says the Psalmist, is powerful and full of majesty. It “flashes forth flames of fire … shakes the wilderness … causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare.” [3]

And God saw that it was good. If we just tune in, we, too, will see that it can continue to be good if we take responsibility and action.

God speaks to us in wind and flame, in rain and snow, in flood and drought, in beauty and barrenness, in mountains and oceans, rivers and forests, storms and calm. When we listen… when we care… when we work together for the good of ALL creation… when we do tune in… there is hope for the healing and the future of our planet. AMEN.

Endnotes
1. Author unknown; e-mail sent to me by Sherry Wold on 1/10/2009.
2. www.seethesea.org
3. From Psalm 29, NRSV.