Pentecost 2: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; John 16:12-15
May 30, 2010
He was born in the state of Vermont where he became a blacksmith. When his business played out he moved to Illinois and re-established his blacksmith shop. He listened to farmers complaining about how hard it was to plow the thick muddy prairie soils. Every few feet they had to stop to scrape the gummy dirt sticking to the cast iron plowshares. The work was back breaking and took forever.
The young blacksmith saw an opportunity and set his mind on finding a solution to this problem. He came up with the idea of a steel share that would scour itself clean as it sliced and turned the heavy black soil. His invention proved to be revolutionary in transforming agriculture and opening the prairies to large scale settlement. It played a huge role in transforming the Midwest into the breadbasket of the world we know today.
The young man's name, of course, was John Deere and the rest is history as they say. Yet, he was not the first to apply his mind to make an invention that would be a fruitful blessing to the life of the world as a whole. He stands in a long line of innovators that includes Bill Gates and computer software, Ford and assembly line production, the Wright brothers and the airplane, Thomas Edison and the light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone, Johann Gutenberg and the printing press, and many, many others stretching back to the unknown beginnings of civilization itself to the inventions of language, written script, and let's don't forget the wheel. Where would we be today without these inventions? It's hard to imagine life without them.
We are heirs to a long line of human progress. Some would stop right there and emphasize the great potential that lies within every person who had ever lived. And this would be good. But when we put this in the context of the biblical narrative we can also see how human progress was God's idea first even before anything was created and how human progress isn't possible apart from God.
Proverbs tells us that before God created anything, before he created the earth or sky, sun or moon, before the mountains were shaped and the hills, before any plants or animals, the very first thing God created was WISDOM. As God fashioned what we see, WISDOM was there in the depths of everything.
The gospel of John tells us something similar. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What came into being in the Word was life, and this life was the light of all people."(John 1:1-4)
Before anything was created, before there was any written language, the WORD of God already existed. This WORD is called the logos in Greek. The English word logic comes from this. It means REASON and the capacity to reason. God created the world with wisdom and logic. Then John goes on to proclaim that the WORD, the wisdom and logic of God became flesh in a person, Jesus of Nazareth.
The story of creation in Genesis 1 tells us that human beings were created "in the image of God" and that God commanded for us: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over every living thing." The Psalmist meditates on 'What are human beings that God is mindful of them, that God cares for them?" and then declares: 'Yet you have made them a little lower than yourself, and crowned them with glory and honor and given them dominion over all the works of your hands – the animals, the fields, birds and fish, everything.'
These scriptures show that creation was and is a good thing, that our creation as human beings was good too. And most importantly they show that God has an abiding interest in creation as well. God created for a purpose and made us like himself in part so that we might be creators too. He gave us a mind to think, to conceive ideas, to imagine new possibilities, to devise plans and take initiative. He equipped us to be inventors, builders and like the young man from Vermont, problem solvers.
It could well be said then that human progress is the result of all the talents with which God equipped us to understand the world around us and the freedom we have been given to shape the world in constructive ways so that life could be a blessing rather than a curse. Clearly from the biblical record God has great hopes and expectations for his creation and that we should value the gifts mind, body, soul and use them in accordance with God's WISDOM and PURPOSE.
All of this is so important to teach the young. We are not just animals composed of molecules and DNA. God created us to be something more than biological organisms. We have a higher purpose than mere survival. We have mind, spirit and soul to rise above our animal instincts and create a world where love is supreme, where the well being of all is the highest priority and people can dwell together in peace.
Of course, human sin has stained our world in terrible ways and corrupted it. With every advance in human progress has come those who would use their knowledge and technical abilities in order to manipulate, abuse and destroy others. But God does not give up on his creation just because we are flawed. If God gave up, then this would mean that his creation was all a mistake and a failure. But God does not fail. If the world is flawed then the solution is not to let it self-destruct, but to intervene within it and save it.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (Jn 3:16-17)
"I came that you may have life and have it abundantly," Jesus says in John 10. And God's interest in creation doesn't end with the earthly life of Jesus. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…"(Jn 16:12-13) God keeps on speaking to us through the Spirit guiding us into a fuller understanding of God's truth.
God's goal in Jesus Christ then is to save HIS creation and restore its potential for goodness, truth and fruitfulness. Jesus was a problem solver. Everywhere he walked he offered encouragement and hope to plow under and scour away the sorrows, regrets and mistakes of the past. He planted new seeds of life. He touched the blind and they could see. The lame and they walked. He healed the sick. He set the possessed free from inner demons of fear, anger, distrust, and hate. He overcame the ways of death with life and restored outcasts and sinners to the family of God. Everyone Jesus touched was reborn as child of God to fulfill the potential for which they were created.
Yes, when we look at the heavens above, the moon and the stars, we too might wonder what is anyone in relation to all this. But in truth God has created us just a little lower than himself and crowns us with glory and honor and entrusts the work of his hands to us. God has high expectations. The gift of faith in Jesus Christ is to believe that 'God is for us and not against us.' God loves his creation and is committed to helping us to succeed and not fail.
As we look around at our children and youth gathered here today, imagine what they will be doing 10, 15 and 20 years ahead. If trained in Christ they will not be "problems" but "problem solvers" using their minds and spirits to find cures for disease. They will be a mighty force to broaden understanding in the world and make peace. They will lift up the poor, care for the needy and be witnesses for justice.
"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God," Jesus proclaims in the sermon on the mount. "Ask and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened." These are the virtues of problem solvers who use mind, body and soul to do God's work.
It's so easy to take this for granted. When bad things happen and we get caught in circumstances that are overwhelming, hope and belief in self and in God can be lost. Sometimes we can be so focused on what's wrong though that we neglect the good we should do. Jesus came to turn life around and show a better way. He came not to condemn, but to forgive, not to destroy but to give life. He came to make us whole and to do God's will here on earth as it is in heaven.
The church exists to build up the potential of God's people by the WISDOM and LOGIC of God. Jesus came in order to solve the problem of sin. And depending on our response, we either continue to be part of the problem or we are part of the solution.
Salvation is not just what happens after death. It is discovering the life for which we were made as children of God created in his image so that like Deere's steel plow we can turn over the debris of the old creation and plant the seeds of God's new creation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This morning I invite you to accept the challenge of following Jesus. To receive God's forgiveness and dedicating ourselves in Christ to be his problem solvers and the first fruits of God's new creation.