{"id":2631,"date":"2019-02-24T18:55:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T18:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=2631"},"modified":"2019-03-04T15:33:36","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T15:33:36","slug":"sermon-24th-february-2019-evening","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-24th-february-2019-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 24th February 2019 – evening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd Sunday before Lent – evening <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 24th February 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2 before Lent – evening
\nGen 1. 1-23
\nMatt. 6. 25 \u2013end<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The story of the beginning of Time and of Creation itself, is meant to tell us something about our present and future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThat may seem like a bold\nclaim, but let me try to explain a bit more…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nYou may be surprised to hear\nthat the first chapter of Genesis as we have it now \u2013 as we have\nheard it tonight, was one of the later parts of the Hebrew Scripture\nto be written, maybe only some 500 \u2013 600 years before Christ lived,\nalthough it includes much earlier material that circulated as oral\ntradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nHow can we know this? \u2013 Well\nit is the result of much scholarly research and analysis of the\nlanguage and vocabulary used \u2013 not something that we can really go\ninto tonight, but we can try to understand why it was written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWhen a people are facing\npossible annihilation, it is difficult to live in the present,\nbecause it is being taken away from us, so the only possible strategy\nto try and make sense of what is happening, is to look to the past or\nthe future in our imagination. We can imagine the future in hope for\nsomething new to emerge. Or we can look back, to a remote past, and\nask why things happened as they did and what light from a real or\nimagined past can shed light on the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThat is roughly what happened\nfrom the year 587BC \u2013 the only really significant date in Jewish\nhistory that we can be certain about. That was the year that\nJerusalem was first besieged, then razed to the ground and its\nprominent citizens deported to Babylon. It was then that people asked\nquestions about the past, about beginnings, in the hope that it could\nbe seen where things went wrong, and some sense could be made of the\ncatastrophe that had overtaken them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo a group of scholarly\npriests set about assembling material from their oral traditions and\nembellishing them and reflecting upon them to try and show what they\nbelieved God was trying to show them. They were definitely not trying\nto depict the way creation takes place. The were explaining the\npresent world to their audience and affirming that, contrary to all\nappearances, it is still in God\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe story tells us that God\ncreated, and that it is good. Because it is good, it is a source of\njoy and beauty. In the church we have tended to over concentrate on\nthe fallenness of humanity. But modern scientists like David\nAttenborough and Brian Cox have done much to remind us of the\nawesome, sublime and even spiritual nature of the natural world\naround us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo God created a universe that\nwas good, but it did not reflect God\u2019s image and was not able to\nrespond to him. Only that which is free and responsive is able to\nreflect its Creator. God\u2019s creation also means that men and women\nare drawn into God\u2019s plan and entrusted with the care and\nstewardship of his creation \u2013it is an awesome responsibility! But\nour relationship with God is \u2018good\u2019 and secure as long as we know\nGod as God, and the world as God\u2019s creation (not ours!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo for the people in exile,\nhow did the finely tuned relationship between God and his\nvice-regents, the kings and shepherds of Israel, fare against the\nstory of creation? How was the freedom and stewardship entrusted to\nhumankind carried out by God\u2019s people? If anything was to be\nlearned and salvaged after the exile, it was along such lines that\nhope would be reborn. And for us, this story is never more relevant\nthan when the future of the planet is threatened by our exploitative\nand selfish lifestyles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nDavid Attenborough \u2013 who has\ndone so much to alert us to the damage that we are doing through\npollution and depletion of the planet\u2019s natural resources for\nself-healing, was once asked whether he ever entertained the\npossibility of God. His response was to compare it to looking into a\ntermite mound, and seeing them all hard at work, building tracks,\ncarrying items purposefully to and fro, in some highly organized\nactivity \u2013 quite oblivious to the human standing staring at them.\nBecause they lacked the sensory equipment to do so. I can just\nimagine, (said Attenborough) that we cannot see God, because we\ncannot see.\u201d There are times when our natural capacities fail us.\nThe work of science and the scientists can help us to see the glory\nof creation, but only the word of God (in its broadest sense) can\nhelp us to see God. And to appreciate how relevant it all is to our\nlives here and now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sermons index 2nd Sunday before Lent – evening Sunday 24th February 2019 2 before Lent – evening Gen 1. 1-23 Matt. 6. 25 \u2013end Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs The story of the beginning of Time and of Creation itself, is meant to tell us something about our present and future. That may seem like a … <\/p>\n

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