The God of Creation

It’s a special day for us – our 40^th wedding anniversary – and thanks to Helen for those words. And at our Church Meeting on Thursday we shared the news that Felicity and I will be retiring next July and moving to Bridgend. It was good to share in prayer for us and for the church family – and have that sense of going forward together.

In the first service we had here in Highbury I chose All things bright and beautiful and our then Director of Music, Derek, explained why our hymn book had missed out one of the verses – it was so out of date and no longer relevant. It was the one that one of the verses couldn’t be sung anymore as children no longer played in meadows. That really upset Felicity and me because we had just moved from the Shropshire villages of Pontesbury and Minsterley where Dave and Phil would play in the fields right by our house. We felt a bit bad moving when they were 8 and 5 from all their friends.

I guess you always feel bad moving on – and we will too – but that’s the great thing about family and church family too  – that we’re always there for each other – and that’s what counts more than anything else.

But today I didn’t actually choose it for that reason.

In the summer we had a great few days with Lake in a remote farmhouse in the mountains above Bala. On the Saturday Lake was setting off with Dave and Rebecca for Cornwall so we had to be back in good time. We could have chosen the A5 and the motorway but it was going to be incredibly busy and in all likelihood slow. So we took the road over the mountains to Welshpool, Craven Arms, Ludlow and home.

 And the mountains were covered in heather – and were stunning. They really were purple headed mountains.  Breathtaking views that filled you with wonder and awe

So, with the verse our new hymn book also misses out added in …

137 All things bright and beautiful

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

All creatures great and small

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small.

Andrea’s fossil – walking the dogs

And all the creepy crawly things in the garden … not least in my cabbage!

Picking things in the garden – and there are insects – worms, bees, butterflies

Reading: Matthew 18:10-14

“See that you don't despise any of these little ones.

Their angels in heaven, I tell you,

are always in the presence of my Father in heaven.

“What do you think a man does who has 100 sheep

and one of them gets lost?

He will leave the other 99 grazing on the hillside

and go and look for the lost sheep.

When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one sheep

than over the 99 that did not get lost.

In just the same way your Father in heaven

does not want any of these little ones to be lost.

A Hy-Spirit song

Activities for all over 3

I want you to think of two things – think of a really stunning building that you’ve seen – and think of a really stunning view – the kind of building and the kind of view that makes you say, Wow, that’s amazing!

Pause to share with people around you

I just want you to hold on to those two thoughts.

On Sunday, September 23^rd I was up again fairly early.

How, you might ask, do I know that I was up early on Sunday 23^rd September. Well it was the first time I had done it … and it’s something I have done ever since for special events I have been to and lots of holidays. It’s in my journal.

The first entry was Wednesday 29^th August, 1973.

9-26 Depart Leicester, Arr London St Pancras at 10-55. St Pancras to Victoria, arrived at Victoria 11-30 to find all gates to the station lockd – crowds sitting and lounging on pavements outside station: bomb scare! Good start, but it turned out only to be a hoax. 11-45 gates to station opened, met Paul.

Troubled times in London then.

College friend, Paul, and I were catching the boat train to link up with the Orient Express that was to take us to Istanbul and down the Turkish coast to Kusadasi, back to Izmir and over to  Athens.

It was in Athens, on Sunday, Setpember 23^rd that I was up again fairly early. We had breakfast in a really nice sandwich bar, then to St Paul’s Anglican church for a service with a strange sermon that seemed to go round in circles without really getting anywhere.

Reading a journal is fascinating because you spot things that have been part of you ever since – and I don’t mean preaching sermons that go round in circles without really getting anywhere.

From the service to a square for an orange – Athens has some really nice squares.

I don’t think my journal will ever get published.  But everything really was very nice! Not least the letters I received from Mum and Dad and from my then girlfriend – in the days before texting we used the Post restante at the major post offices – Those really were the days. And lovely to re-read those letters.

From there towards the Acropolis and past to what we thought was the Areopagus, where we read Paul’s sermon to the Athenians.

And this is what we read.

Reading: Acts 17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,

“For we too are his offspring.”

Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’

Back to my Journal.

Reading Paul’s sermon on the top [of the Areopagus] it was easy to imagine the situation with the breath-taking views of mountains [all around Athens] and the sea [glistening in the distance] and then the Parthenon [in all its splendour] on the neighbouring hill.

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands …”

This really is something that has stayed with me.

Seeing the incredible architecture now – in ruins. What it must have been like then!  Nothing to compare with it.

And Paul arriving in Athens has his breath taken away by the incredible architecture. It really is impressive.

But then lift your eyes around and see the stunning beauty of nature – and it’s even more amazing.

The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

That still amazes me – and draws me to the wonder of the God of creation. I am stirred by magnificent architecture and then think how much more wonderful the God of creation.

Paul draws on the ancient stories that come alive in every generation from the Hebrew Scriptures and the great poets known so well by those Athenians and reflects on the way built into our very being as humans is that search for God, questing after something beyond …

From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,

That draws me.

I wonder at the awesome nature of God in creation.

For me even as there is an instinct that reaches out and searches for God – this God of creation reaches out to us just where we are, as we are.

Paul goes on to focus on Jesus and the story of Jesus –

For me searching after the God of creation and meaning in  life only gets me so far.

But I want then to focus on Jesus – and all he means too.

And then that takes me further.

Jesus opens up a sense of God as the God of love who asks of us to adopt a lifestyle filled with love for one another, love for our neighbours and love for God.

In the Gospels the message Jesus preached and the message he asked us to share begins

Repent and believe in the good news.

Repent – a word much misunderstood. Not just say sorry for all we have done – much stronger than that. Have a whole new way of thinking.

A way of thinking that builds life on a commitment to love in the way God has loved us through Christ Jesus his son.

That’s a way of life to commit to.

Forty years ago, 17^th September was of course a Saturday.

Interestingly, on Sunday September 18^th 1977 I was up at the crack of dawn (well nearly!) for an excellent breakfast and then out to Ashbourne and to Church.

But maybe the journal I kept of that holiday I’ll keep for another occasion.

What we are going to do is to sing one of our two wedding hymns. Still a hymn that’s a favourite of ours.  And it has made it into the new hymn book we have recently acquired.

497 Almighty Father, of all things that be

1 Almighty Father of all things that be,

our life, our work, we consecrate to Thee,

whose heavens declare Thy glory from above,

whose earth below is witness to Thy love.

2 For well we know this weary soilèd earth

is yet Thine own by right of its new birth,

since that great cross upreared on Calvary

redeemed it from its fault and shame to Thee.

3 Thine still the changeful beauty of the hills,

the purple valleys flecked with silver rills,

the ocean glistening neath the golden rays;

they all are Thine, and voiceless speak Thy praise.

4 Thou dost the strength to worker's arm impart;

from Thee the skilled musician's mystic art,

the grace of poet's pen or painter's hand,

to teach the loveliness of sea and land.

5 Then grant us, Lord, in all things Thee to own,

to dwell within the shadow of Thy throne,

to speak and work, to think, and live, and move,

reflecting Thine own nature, which is love:

6 That so, by Christ redeemed from sin and shame,

and hallowed by Thy Spirit's cleansing flame,

ourselves, our work, and all our powers may be

a sacrifice acceptable to Thee.

Ernest Dugmore (1843–1925)

Prayer and worship with Hy-Spirit

Prayers of Concern

659 Put peace into each other’s hands

The Lord’s Supper

We remain seated to sing as a prayer from a 16^th century book of hours one of those prayers I recall from my childhood, one I often choose to finish communion with  and one that has always meant the world to me – a prayer for each of us.  …

538 God be in my head

God be in my head, and in my understanding;

God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;

God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;

God be in my heart, and in my thinking;

God be at mine end, and at my departing.

Book of Hours (1514)

Words of Blessing

“See that you don't despise any of these little ones.

Their angels in heaven, I tell you,

are always in the presence of my Father in heaven.

“What do you think a man does who has 100 sheep

and one of them gets lost?

He will leave the other 99 grazing on the hillside and go and look for the lost sheep.13When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one sheep than over the 99 that did not get lost.14In just the same way yourFather in heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost.