Yah CandyWell
Shema, Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echod, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And Wind, the Spirit of God, moved over churning chaos. And God SAID “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And all that God said, it was SO. And God looked at all that he had Created, and it was very good indeed.
Israel worships Adonai the Lord as the one true God and Creator of all that is, King of the Universe. And for that matter, so do we Christians, excepting perhaps only that we bless that same One True Creating God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And the Nicene, our creed of Christian orthodoxy, with the incompetency of any human committee effort to describe and define God, dares to box who God is by what God has done, nice try. Another of our creeds, called the Creed of St Athanasius, you will find it in the Book of Common Prayer at page 864, has it right, that
God is Incomprehensible:
the Father Incomprehensible,
the Son Incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit Incomprehensible; and goes on to assert yet they are not three Incomprehensibles, but one Incomprehensible.
In the 18 days since Hurricane Michael I have read over and again online, the trite little proverb that “God does not lay on us more than we can bear,” what pious rubbish, even theological blasphemy. I do not know where that absurdity started, but it was not the Bible; and even if you do manage to find it there so you can prooftext me, it will have been written by some human sadly trying to excuse and rationalize the God of Creation (who is old enough and big enough to justify himself, indeed does so at the end of the Job drama).
God is not some phony Wizard of Oz flashing lights and pulling levers and making scary noises. God does not send hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, lightning strikes or tsunamis to hurt us or test us. God does not lay those things on us. And counter to that silly proverb of theological heresy, Acts of Nature that lawyers may call “Acts of God” may and do indeed bring far more than we can bear. God is not playing games that we cannot win.
Those features that, to us, may seem evil in the nature of things, are part, along with clouds that give us brilliant sunsets, ice ages that produce glaciers carving out Grand Canyons, tectonic plates that raise up Rocky Mountains, flooding rains and rising rivers that create fertile plains - all part of wild and wonderful nature that is the essence of Creation, how Creation began, how Creation was formed and evolved, how Creation continues working today and will do as long as Earth Abides.
If we believe our God steers hurricanes, and directs lightning strikes, and can be prayed into “Rain, Rain go away, come again some other day,” our God is Too Small. Creation thunders and booms, and sometimes we are in the way, having placed ourselves in creation’s path as creation moves to give life to the Earth, before Adam and Eve ever came into the Garden. God is not laying on us trials to bear; don’t go there, don’t speak nonsense.
In the Bible there are two creation stories, Genesis One about God Transcendent who, speaking from eternity, says “Let there be,” and it is so, before anyone thought to rename the Word “The Big Bang.”
And Genesis Two about God Immanent, God with us who walks in the Garden in the cool of the evening; leans over and scoops up a handful of earth, clay perhaps, forms a mud doll, Ah-Dah-Mah, an Earthling, blows on it, breathing life into it, and here we are, God putting us in charge as stewards of the Earth.
The two Creation stories seem contradictory because they come from different stages of human experience with God, J a campfire story to chortle over, those evenings in the Wilderness, and P a sophisticated theologian and Temple priest; but for both, the essence is the same: that God made us for himself, that we are special to God who loves us and demands certain things of us, broadly laid out in our Baptismal Covenant with God, calling us as disciples to “becoming” what God is as shown in Jesus.
God is personal, proved when “Love came down at Christmas,” came to show and tell us about God, that God is Love, and so are we also to be Love.
Bishop Charles Duvall loved to tell stories, Bible stories. Every year he developed a Bible story to tell as he visited congregations of the diocese. I remember the year Bishop Duvall told the story of Job, that as he began, he said Job is a stage play, not to be taken literally but an ancient drama meant to help people understand
I love the story of Job, even with its crudities: Satan ridiculing God’s love for Job. God falling for Satan’s trickery, God letting Satan treat Job with unconscionable cruelty. God’s egotistical arrogance when he comes to speak with Job (who do you think you are, judging me, the Great I AM), God justifying Himself and humiliating Job who has suffered so. I do not like those things, though they do seal the theology of Job’s drama that Bishop Duvall called a stage play.
So here we are, part of Creation devastated by Michael, a hurricane with tornado force winds, one of the most powerful, destructive, evil storms on record to strike the continental United States. What are we to make of it theologically? That ahDAMah, we humans, are newcomers to Creation and its nature. That we put ourselves in nature’s path. We build. We make our communities in beautiful places that we know are dangerous. We live and love and have our Beings where nature comes ashore from time to time, sometimes viciously, and seemingly evil. May we blame God? Yes, of course, of course we may, yes we may blame God. After all, in our religion, it’s Creation as God spoke it. God gets the praise for its beauty, God can d-well take the rap for its nature, for the way it works when evil strikes and we are hurt. But we know how Creation works, and here we are, and we have to live someplace; and no matter where we settle to live and love, Earth is hazardous and life is risky. And we are more Folly than Wisdom, we take chances to make life richer and more beautiful, and sometimes the nature of Creation takes us by surprise and comes ashore.
Even so, God loves us. In Heilsgeschichte, our Holy History, God loves us one and all,. God loves us, every one. Hallelujah.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength - - and you shall love your neighbor as Jesus loves you.
+++++++++
Sermon Sunday, Proper 25B, October 28, 2018, the Rev. Tom Weller, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida. Text: the Job drama.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And Wind, the Spirit of God, moved over churning chaos. And God SAID “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And all that God said, it was SO. And God looked at all that he had Created, and it was very good indeed.
Israel worships Adonai the Lord as the one true God and Creator of all that is, King of the Universe. And for that matter, so do we Christians, excepting perhaps only that we bless that same One True Creating God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And the Nicene, our creed of Christian orthodoxy, with the incompetency of any human committee effort to describe and define God, dares to box who God is by what God has done, nice try. Another of our creeds, called the Creed of St Athanasius, you will find it in the Book of Common Prayer at page 864, has it right, that
God is Incomprehensible:
the Father Incomprehensible,
the Son Incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit Incomprehensible; and goes on to assert yet they are not three Incomprehensibles, but one Incomprehensible.
In the 18 days since Hurricane Michael I have read over and again online, the trite little proverb that “God does not lay on us more than we can bear,” what pious rubbish, even theological blasphemy. I do not know where that absurdity started, but it was not the Bible; and even if you do manage to find it there so you can prooftext me, it will have been written by some human sadly trying to excuse and rationalize the God of Creation (who is old enough and big enough to justify himself, indeed does so at the end of the Job drama).
God is not some phony Wizard of Oz flashing lights and pulling levers and making scary noises. God does not send hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, lightning strikes or tsunamis to hurt us or test us. God does not lay those things on us. And counter to that silly proverb of theological heresy, Acts of Nature that lawyers may call “Acts of God” may and do indeed bring far more than we can bear. God is not playing games that we cannot win.
Those features that, to us, may seem evil in the nature of things, are part, along with clouds that give us brilliant sunsets, ice ages that produce glaciers carving out Grand Canyons, tectonic plates that raise up Rocky Mountains, flooding rains and rising rivers that create fertile plains - all part of wild and wonderful nature that is the essence of Creation, how Creation began, how Creation was formed and evolved, how Creation continues working today and will do as long as Earth Abides.
If we believe our God steers hurricanes, and directs lightning strikes, and can be prayed into “Rain, Rain go away, come again some other day,” our God is Too Small. Creation thunders and booms, and sometimes we are in the way, having placed ourselves in creation’s path as creation moves to give life to the Earth, before Adam and Eve ever came into the Garden. God is not laying on us trials to bear; don’t go there, don’t speak nonsense.
In the Bible there are two creation stories, Genesis One about God Transcendent who, speaking from eternity, says “Let there be,” and it is so, before anyone thought to rename the Word “The Big Bang.”
And Genesis Two about God Immanent, God with us who walks in the Garden in the cool of the evening; leans over and scoops up a handful of earth, clay perhaps, forms a mud doll, Ah-Dah-Mah, an Earthling, blows on it, breathing life into it, and here we are, God putting us in charge as stewards of the Earth.
The two Creation stories seem contradictory because they come from different stages of human experience with God, J a campfire story to chortle over, those evenings in the Wilderness, and P a sophisticated theologian and Temple priest; but for both, the essence is the same: that God made us for himself, that we are special to God who loves us and demands certain things of us, broadly laid out in our Baptismal Covenant with God, calling us as disciples to “becoming” what God is as shown in Jesus.
God is personal, proved when “Love came down at Christmas,” came to show and tell us about God, that God is Love, and so are we also to be Love.
Bishop Charles Duvall loved to tell stories, Bible stories. Every year he developed a Bible story to tell as he visited congregations of the diocese. I remember the year Bishop Duvall told the story of Job, that as he began, he said Job is a stage play, not to be taken literally but an ancient drama meant to help people understand
- That terrible things happen in life, regardless of, like Job, how good we are.
- That, contrary to what people thought, when bad things happen, it is not God punishing us for sins.
- That, as we see at the end of the Job drama, God knows us and loves us and wants only the best for us.
- That we need not try to justify God, Who fully justifies Himself and is satisfied.
I love the story of Job, even with its crudities: Satan ridiculing God’s love for Job. God falling for Satan’s trickery, God letting Satan treat Job with unconscionable cruelty. God’s egotistical arrogance when he comes to speak with Job (who do you think you are, judging me, the Great I AM), God justifying Himself and humiliating Job who has suffered so. I do not like those things, though they do seal the theology of Job’s drama that Bishop Duvall called a stage play.
So here we are, part of Creation devastated by Michael, a hurricane with tornado force winds, one of the most powerful, destructive, evil storms on record to strike the continental United States. What are we to make of it theologically? That ahDAMah, we humans, are newcomers to Creation and its nature. That we put ourselves in nature’s path. We build. We make our communities in beautiful places that we know are dangerous. We live and love and have our Beings where nature comes ashore from time to time, sometimes viciously, and seemingly evil. May we blame God? Yes, of course, of course we may, yes we may blame God. After all, in our religion, it’s Creation as God spoke it. God gets the praise for its beauty, God can d-well take the rap for its nature, for the way it works when evil strikes and we are hurt. But we know how Creation works, and here we are, and we have to live someplace; and no matter where we settle to live and love, Earth is hazardous and life is risky. And we are more Folly than Wisdom, we take chances to make life richer and more beautiful, and sometimes the nature of Creation takes us by surprise and comes ashore.
Even so, God loves us. In Heilsgeschichte, our Holy History, God loves us one and all,. God loves us, every one. Hallelujah.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength - - and you shall love your neighbor as Jesus loves you.
+++++++++
Sermon Sunday, Proper 25B, October 28, 2018, the Rev. Tom Weller, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida. Text: the Job drama.