Creekside Church Sermon of August 22, 1999 at the outdoor worship service at Ox Bow Park "The Glory of Nature" Matthew 6:25-34	Rev. David Bibbee
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By far what amazed them most was the farm. The farmer showed them how to dig potatoes. They were surprised to learn that potatoes grow underground and that you have to retrieve them with a fork, and that they are not found in plastic bags at the grocery. A trip to a dairy farm and a hands on milking demonstration made them feel sorry for the farmer who couldn't just go to the store and buy milk in a plastic jug.

But the response which encapsulated the city children's response to all they had seen came as their bus traveled down an Elkhart County road at day's end. As they rode past corn fields and pastures, cows and horses, and hogs and sheep and animals they had never seen outside a book, Grady Snyder told me that a boy fell to his knees in the aisle, lifted his eyes upward and declared, "Lord, we have seen miracles today!"

Living in an asphalt jungle filled with the constant drone of traffic, the roar of jets in the thick-with-smog air, the open spaces, and the quiet and creatures in the country seemed absolutely miraculous. It's the kind of grateful gratitude we should express each day at the glories of God that surround us. That is why it is good to get out of our familiar Sunday setting, blinded by the walls and colored windows which won't let us see outside.

One of the most beautiful churches I've seen is in Wisconsin. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The front of the church is an enormous window, and worshippers look upon the chancel against the background of a lush forest. This would be an effective worship aid sufficient to cause me to break forth in shouts of praise. We are not exactly worshipping in the wilderness today, still, it's enough to inspire the singing of beautiful harmonies before the beautiful harmony we see around us.

Preachers ought to take a break from sober sermons on sin and suffering and the behaviors we need to assume to correct the world's wrongs. We need to give more thanks every day for God's handiwork as did the psalmist who cried, "Praise the Lord from the earth, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, winds that obey his commands. Praise him, hills and mountains, fruit trees and forests, animals tame and wild, reptiles and birds." (Psalms 147)

Every day our prayers should include the praise that God uttered over his creation..."It is good!" Humus and humans. It's good. A simple grain of sand. The beauty of a single snowflake. The complexity of the atom. The marvel and mystery and the goodness of it all.

Before the glory of nature, even atheists cannot resist saying thanks that sends a tremor through the solid certainty that God does not exist. When Averey Brook was a child, she spent her summers in the New England countryside. She spent hours on end in forest and fields teeming with life. Averey's parents were atheists who schooled their daughter to be the same. But Averey had a strange sensation in response to the world she observed. If there was no God, there had to be a name for the presence she felt, so she called it "X", for excelsior. She was wise enough to know that it would be a terrible thing to live in such a beautiful world and have no one to thank.

We all have had the urge well up within us to sing for joy to God for the blessings of creation. As we just sang, "The heavens are telling the glory of God, and all creation is shouting for joy, come dance in the forest, come play in the field, and sing, sing to the glory of the Lord." But as wonderful as it is, nature can only tell us so much about God. It points to the existence of God, but has little to say about who God is and what God desires of us.

Nature can't reveal God as a loving father who counts each person precious, and has for each a purpose. It cannot counsel us on how we ought to live. It doesn't compel us to take a stance on moral issues. It won't call us to commitment or compel us to turn our lives over to God, or urge us to minister to the sufferings of others. This is the work of scripture and spirit and sacrament. Creation sustains us. We need to enjoy it, respect it, and protect it, but not worship it.

Worship is reserved for the One who is over nature and under God. Whenever we are moved to spontaneous praise at the raw beauty of creation, we should sing a verse to ourselves, "Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, O thou of God and Mary's son, thee will I cherish, thee will I honor, thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown." Jesus observed the world around him and used what he saw as a window to help us see God.

This is an age of anxiousness and fear, and what does Jesus tell us to do? "Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest, yet God takes care of them. Look at the lilies. They don't toil or spin, but let me tell you, King Solomon dressed to the nines couldn't compare to their beauty. And since God cares so much for these little things, if he knows when a tiny sparrow falls to the ground, think how much God cares for you." If only the wonder of this knowledge could take hold of us more, then our praise for sunflowers and sunsets would lead us to a deeper understanding of God that Jesus reveals.

We need to remember that nature isn't all beauty and harmony. It's a jungle out there. All along the food chain creatures devour each other. Walter Wangerin observes that most spiders have little love in them. Most are widows. She devours her spouse, suitors and visitors. She bundles her eggs with a stunned insect and leaves them on their own. She can't digest food so she injects her prey with juices that break down organs and tissue so she can eat them like soup.

If we lived only by the laws of nature, if our actions were governed by doing only what comes naturally, if we lived by "the survival of the fittest", what a life it would be. But we live by the word of Jesus who is above nature-who calls us to do unnatural things like loving our enemies, responding to cruelty with kindness, giving ourselves away and caring for the sick and the weak. In nature, all life is subject to death and decay, because of Jesus, the dead will be raised. The perishable will put on the imperishable. In Romans 8 Paul says, "Creation itself will be set free from the bondage to decay...the whole creation has been groaning in travail and we ourselves as we await our adoption as sons and daughters and the redemption of our bodies. In this hope we are saved.

So let's not neglect praise God for creation and all it's beauty and complexity. Let's praise Jesus who helps us see it in a new way.

There is a spider that behaves in an uncommon manner. She's not a mother who leaves her eggs to chance. She gathers her brood on her back which makes her look grotesque and swollen.

She takes her prey like other spiders to feed her young, but when food is scarce and her net snares no supper, she doesn't allow famine to take her children. She does something amazing. She releases a substance that breaks down the organs and tissues that keep her alive. She dies to become food for her children.

Alongside Jesus, her behavior is hallowed. "I am the bread of life. I'm the living bread which came down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread which I give for the life of the world is my flesh. Take and eat."

If there is any cause to express thanks and praise to God, then surely it is for putting us in such a privileged place in creation and for entrusting its care to us. We owe our praise to Jesus who revealed God's incredible love for us and his desire to give us eternal life. Surely we should thank him for enabling us to see this old world in a whole new way.

The next hymn we will sing underscores the theological truth I'm talking about. But you must sing it right to hear it. Each time I sing, "This Is My Father's World", I hear Marlin Brightbill telling the congregation how the final stanza of verse two should be sung. It is not, "in the rustling grass I hear him pass, he speaks to me everywhere." It's..."he speaks to me everywhere." Everywhere.

Thank you God...for speaking to us in silence, in scripture, in simple things like the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, even in spiders...and always in Jesus.

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