Matthew 28:16-20
His Face, Everywhere
Sometimes it seems most of my Facebook feeds
Are full of rants and diatribes and screeds
That, I admit, all have their point that we
Must pay attention, and not fail to see
Injustice wheresoever it might lie,
Not be complacent, ills of the world deny.
And yet, I also know that I need more
Than simply outrage over sin abhorred.
Be angry, yes, but then never forget
The time they worshiped, and some doubted, yet
He told them that despite the wrong they'd known,
Authority o'er all was his alone;
Which means his way, his grace, his love, his face
Can never be supplanted or replaced
By anyone or anything; so sing,
Since his enduring life is one sure thing.
Scott L. Barton
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to
which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some
doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am
with you always, to the end of the age.”
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Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Creation Boiled Down
First, when chaos reigns and life is ruined,
There will always be light;
Second, when we find ourselves lost and at sea,
There is yet air to breathe;
Third, when we are flailing around thinking there is no
tomorrow,
There are still grounds for planting trees and tilling
gardens;
Fourth, when we are completely under the weather,
The sun and the moon will rise;
Fifth, when we feel like a fish out of water, with bird
brains,
We really don't have to be everything to everybody;
Sixth, when we think it's all about us,
There are countless other creatures, but we're made to
create;
Seventh, when we think we have to work until we drop,
Even God said, "I've gotta get out of the office."
Man, that's good!
Scott L. Barton
(NB: Walter Brueggemann used the line about getting out of
the office in a talk I heard many years ago. The last line of the poem is how a
colleague, Jim Cortelyou, ended his mini-meditation one morning long ago as all
the canoes of an Adirondack Canoe Expedition rafted up for morning devotions.
Since then, I've wondered if Jim ("Les Voyageurs") was thinking at
the time of James Weldon Johnson's sermon on Creation in God's Trombones.)
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while
a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the
darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there
was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the
waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome
and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were
above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening
and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered
together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God
called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called
Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth
vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that
bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth
vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing
fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening
and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to
separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and
for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light
upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light
to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set
them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day
and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw
that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living
creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So
God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of
every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind.
And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of
every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every
kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and
the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every
kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image,
according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild
animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the
earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created
them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living
thing that moves upon the earth.”
God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed
that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit;
you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every
bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that
has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was
so.
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very
good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their
multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and
he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed
the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work
that he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when
they were created.
Thank you! Can I use your creation poem for my sermon on Sunday?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Kerry. I'm glad it might be of use!
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