{"id":1318,"date":"2012-10-09T17:02:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T17:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=789"},"modified":"2012-10-09T17:02:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T17:02:36","slug":"and-god-saw-that-it-was-good-sermon-by-m-zehr-oct-7-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1318","title":{"rendered":"And God saw that it was good – by M Zehr – Oct 7, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

View Archived Sermons
<\/a>Listen to this Sermon<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

Meditation by Marilyn Zehr<\/h3>\n

Thanksgiving & World Communion Sunday\u00a0<\/h3>\n

And God saw that it was good… Psalm 104\u00a0<\/h3>\n

October 7, 2012\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Psalm 104: 24 – 35\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This morning I begin my very brief reflection with a question.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever had a chance to think about or dwell on and be grateful for the reality of God\u2019s wild imagination?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This time of year God\u2019s wild imagination is especially evident in the fruitfulness of creation \u2013 from pumpkins to golden rod, from flaming red leaves to the last tomatoes on the vines, from the blustery cold North winds that remind us that cooler weather is approaching to warm sunny days that entice us to take off our fall sweaters.<\/span><\/p>\n

O Lord, how manifold are your works!\u00a0 In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I have always been fascinated by God\u2019s ways in creation.\u00a0 As a child my mother attests and I remember spending long periods of time watching the behaviour of ants in the driveway, or watching birds create nests out of bits of fluff from the dryer vent, bits of string or twine, small twigs and mud and whatever else they could find. The behaviour of these tiny creatures caused me to wonder about the imagination that brought these creatures and their behaviour into being.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think for a moment about an imagination that could have conceived thousands of bird species, even more animal and plant species, and even particles, waves and maybe even a Higgs Boson if it can actually be observed in current physics experiments using the Hadron Collider.\u00a0 Think for a moment about the kind of wild imagination that is responsible for how all these species and particles and waves behave and interact to form our intricate, fascinating and observable world.\u00a0 Think about the kind of wild imagination that created within birds the ingenuity to build nests out of multiple materials and the kind of wild imagination that created mysteries in the universe that the human mind can barely tap into.<\/span><\/p>\n

And God saw all that God had made and pronounced it good.\u00a0 This is a line we repeated over and over again in our Call to worship today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond the natural world and all that God created in the beginning, I think that God\u2019s wild imagination is also responsible for the creation of the church \u2013 the church as an expression of Christ\u2019s presence in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also then think about the type of imagination that created such a fascinating diversity of church expression.\u00a0 Let\u2019s think for a moment about Roman Catholic worship, Eastern Orthodox worship, Pentecostal worship and Emergent church worship, and good old Mennonite worship.\u00a0 What a striking variety.\u00a0 And even within the Mennonite churches in this country.\u00a0 Not one of them is exactly the same as another in its self-understanding, worship style and cultural expression of its faith.\u00a0 And we haven\u2019t even talked about the diversity of the people that make up the church.\u00a0 Every single person in this building has a unique faith journey – some unique way of experiencing the work of God in their lives – that has brought them to this place at this time to worship in this community and we were privileged to hear about two of those unique journeys this morning and formally welcome them among us.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do we make of all the different bits or an imagination that has created or allowed or encouraged or maybe even desired all these different expressions of personhood and church? Mysteriously all this diversity is the stuff out of which God created the church.\u00a0 Like a bird building a nest out of bits of string and small twigs and a bit of mud and even some dryer vent fluff, mysteriously God has endowed the church with the Spirit it needs to create the different types of nests built with many different types of materials within which we worship, work, play and learn\u00a0 \u2013 and ultimately in all its different expressions somehow we are enabled to be a foretaste of the new creation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And for some reason, I can hear the verse again,<\/span><\/p>\n

And God saw all that God created and God pronounced it very good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 104 reminds us not only of the goodness and beauty of our vast and fascinating and diverse creation but is very clear about God\u2019s ongoing role in that creation.\u00a0 When God opens God\u2019s hands we are filled with good things. When God hides God\u2019s face we are dismayed.\u00a0 When God takes away God\u2019s breath we return to the dust.\u00a0 When God breathes again we are created or re-created and the face of the ground is renewed.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the very breath of God that creates renews and sustains all of creation.\u00a0 It is God\u2019s breath in the power of the Holy Spirit that creates, renews and sustains the church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we share in communion with one another today let\u2019s remember what God\u2019s wild imagination created, renews, sustains and delights in.\u00a0 Whether we consider ourselves a twig or a bit of string, a bit of mud or even some dryer vent fluff, it\u2019s all useful stuff in this household of God we call the church.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And with the Psalmist let us sing to the Lord as long as we live, let us sing praise to our God while we have being. Let\u2019s give thanks for all of who we are as the church on this Thanksgiving and Communion Sunday because God saw all that God created and pronounced it very good.<\/span><\/p>\n

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View Archived SermonsListen to this Sermon Meditation by Marilyn Zehr Thanksgiving & World Communion Sunday\u00a0 And God saw that it was good… Psalm 104\u00a0 October 7, 2012\u00a0 Psalm 104: 24 – 35\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 This morning I begin my very brief reflection with a question.\u00a0 Have you ever had a chance to think about or dwell on and be grateful for the reality of God\u2019s wild imagination?\u00a0 This time of year God\u2019s wild imagination is especially evident in the fruitfulness of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}