Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. August 18, 2013. When I came around the corner I saw the lizard – actually it was a black Crocodile Monitor. The Monitor was very still, perched on the edge of a hollow mallee log, couching, watching, very very still. I moved slowly away, not wanting to disturb it and not far away I found that I was being eyeballed by another creature. This one was a Meerkat! I love Meerkats! Such amazing creatures, so intelligent and caring and sharing and cute! This one was looking straight at me with a questioning, quizzical expression as if to say ’can you work out what is going on here?’ I walked further and my attention was caught by other creatures, and objects and flocks of birds and confronting images. I wasn’t out in the bush. I was in the Museum at the Waterhouse Natural History Art Exhibition. Sometimes in works of art there is a whole scene displayed, a landscape rich in variety and complexity. And just sometimes there is artwork which focuses on a particular individual, animal or person or aspect of a scene or plant or even – as in that exhibition a microscopic parasite! Being struck with awe at the beauty, the fragility, the wonder of the natural world comes from having our eyes and our other senses open. It comes from being encountered BY the world around us. Encounters with pieces, glimpses of the world and also encounters with sweeping landscapes and vast complexity. Encounters like that art exhibition can bring the witness of the wonder and the fragility and the beauty of the world into sharp focus. It is an encounter with God, God who is the source of life. In our reading today from the letter to the Hebrews we heard that “we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses ...”. That opening of the twelfth chapter is one of my favourite passages. The latter part of the eleventh chapter (which we read) sets the scene, noting those who are individual examples of faith. The ‘cloud of witnesses’ is not limited to them though. The words about the ‘cloud’ have been taken to mean the saints and inspirational people and, in fact, the whole vast crowd of the people of God past, present and future! There are so many inspirational people in the shared narrative of the interaction of humanity with God! We get snapshots of some of them when we observe ‘saints days’, and when we read some of the amazing autobiographies and other accounts of inspirational lives, and even week by week (hopefully day by day) when we read in the pages of the bible the stories of the people of God. That opportunity to focus on the individual witness of a particular person is something like the individual witness of one of those aspects of creation in the pieces of artwork which were confronting me. All the rest of the vast landscape is cleared away for a moment and I am able to focus on and individual story, the particular animal or bird or other piece of creation and the unique story which it has to tell. And then, as I step back, as my eyes are opened wider, I become aware of the crowd. The crowd who are the ‘cloud of witnesses’. Does it seem surprising that I should include the inspirational and confrontational and awesome aspects of the natural world in that ‘cloud of witnesses? Even Paul (in Romans 8:22) writes about the witness of the whole of creation to the coming of Jesus – groaning in anticipation. And the opening of Psalms 19 reminds us that ‘the heavens are telling the glory of God’. God is a greenie – but that is a subject for another whole discussion. The natural world does speak to us of God who is the source of all life. The world around us does ‘witness’ to us, and not just by making us think of all that is bright and beautiful, great, small or otherwise. As the verse in Hebrews says – ‘Since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us set aside the sin which clings so closely. A significant part of the witness of the cloud around us is to make us think. Conviction of sin is a particularly religious way of expressing it, but it is about making us think honestly of how we have been living and the recognition of having participated in life-denying thoughts and words and actions. Confrontation is a good thing. Being challenged to think is always a good thing! In one of the pieces of artwork in the exhibition two plastic bags were shown, floating in the sea. There were dark shapes within the bags and the piece was titled ‘Cocoons’. The notes alongside recognised the huge amount of rubbish which pollutes out oceans and asked intriguingly what might have found shelter within these bags? The picture was a confrontation though with the consequences of our ‘throw away’, careless approach to life and its impact on the natural world. When we are confronted in that way it becomes a question of stewardship. Stewardship is not just about money, finances and budgets. The challenge to be good stewards is about being confronted with life as it is lived in all the elements of our decision making capacity, and the challenge to make good decisions, better decisions. It is the invitation to look at what we do and why and how ... and choose to change. It is the invitation to be more life giving, life celebrating, life enhancing in what we think and speak and do. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Witnesses speak to us. That is what a witness does. And the natural world is part of that cloud of witnesses challenging us to think and to change how we live. Environmentalists are great evangelists! “How could you cut down that tree!!! Don’t you realise!! How could you keep polluting? How could you keep killing whales?? Dont you realise the consequences of your actions??” Those are words of challenge, words which confront. Words backed by a depth of meaning and value-rich approach to life. Life is precious. Our world is precious, the world entrusted to us by God. Those who remind us of that ‘entrusting’, challenge and call us to live more deeply. The evangelism to which we are called more obviously – to share the invitation of God to life deeply – is not separate from that environmental challenge – for that is part – yet it is also broader. Evangelism is not just about saying “read the Bible!” It is about being witnesses to life in its fullness and confronting life which is un-creatively or destructively lived. Words of confronting evangelism, words from the cloud of witnesses, might sound something like this: “Have you thought about the impact of your life on others? How can you speak like that to others? How can you treat other people in that way? Dont you realise??? How can you live for yourself, wrapped up in a little world as if our lives were not all interconnected? Dont you realise? How can you spend the finances and other blessings with which your life has been enriched in ways which do not take account of mutual responsibility? Dont you realise?? How can you live cut off from the depth and richness of the presence of God in our world? How can you live with a finite purpose as if these few years were all the span which matters or which is real? Dont you realise? How can you ignore the call to justice, mercy, integrity, wholeness? Dont you realise?” Those words, those questions may even be too confronting. There are gentler ways of saying those things, but like the environmental evangelism they are words backed by a depth of meaning and value-rich approach to life. Life is precious. Our world is precious, the world entrusted to us by God. Life is to be lived with deep positive engagement. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, who challenge us to realise where life is out of kilter, challenge us to be better stewards and they call us to life. Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith. Jesus is the model and the guide and the focus and the doorway through which we peer to see how the creator views creation, to see how the lover of all calls us to love, to see how the source of all that is calls us to deeper existence. Let us engage deeply, be inspired, look to Jesus whose inspiration and encouragement and challenge are offered to us. Let us recognise and heed the cloud of witnesses, and think broadly about who and what they may be. That crocodile monitor is still looking at me ... Paul Mitchell
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 22:00:51 +0000
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