"Creation Sunday" - Back to Basics

 

Sermon. St Nicholas’,  Ashill, 23 February 2025.

Second Sunday Before Lent (Year of Luke).

 

Genesis 2.4b-9; 15-end

Revelation 4

Luke 8.22-25

 

Someone once said:

the secret to doing well in a leadership role is this:

it’s about lowering people’s expectations at an acceptable rate.

[Gentle laughter.]

I didn’t know how you’d react to that.

Some people laugh, thinking it’s a joke.

Some people grimace, thinking it’s horrible cynicism.

You….!

Well, in truth, the person who said it meant it both kindly and seriously.

I think it can be taken seriously.

Let us name it.

I, as your new priest-in-charge, will not meet everyone’s expectations.

This is because some expectations will be just plain unrealistic

(won’t be serious about where the church in the world is today);

some will be in principle realistic, but will clash with my own frailties

(which I cannot just wish away);

And, most obviously, the expectations of some will conflict with the expectations of others.  

In one respect, I am bound to fail.

The parishes –

that’s both you, but really more the non-church-folk we are here to serve –

the parishes will want a “parson”, someone who shows up to village stuff.

But! But there are four parishes, and I am half-time.

It is built-in that I will disappoint.

(“Baked-in”, I suppose we now say.)

And, when it comes to other ways I will disappoint…

No! Don’t worry.

I am not proposing to give a longer list of my inadequacies.

I have named the point.

Expectations are high, not because I inspire admiration (I don’t),   

but because there is bound to be relief and excitement,

that there is a priest here again.

And, for all that relief and excitement,

there will be times when we will just have to bumble along together.

 

I am choosing to – I am daring – to say this out-loud, now,

not to focus on the negative,  

but because the theme of our readings (and set prayers)

today can help us focus,

focus on where we truly can place all of our hope, and all of our trust.

 

So, let us take a step back, where are we, today?

Well, today is one of quite a few Sundays actually

which might be called Creation Sunday.

I’ll take another step back.

Did you know that our cycle of readings

– our three-year cycle of readings –

is an “ecumenical matter” (as somebody once said).

It’s a cycle we share with Roman Catholics, and quite a few others.

But not this Sunday. 

This Sunday we divert from the path, and do our own thing.

It is not because we want to be cussed.

It is because we think it is good and wise to have this pattern:

year in, year out, we have:

a kind of Creation Sunday,

then a kind of Transfiguration Sunday

(remembering Jesus when his face was lit up and glorified),

and then… then we are into Lent.

Creation. Transfiguration. Lent.

Year in, year out.

 

So, you see, today is an excellent day to say:

don’t put your trust or hope in me;

put your trust and hope in the Gd, Gd, Creator.  

 

In our first reading, from Genesis, we are:

“In the day that Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”

We are right back at the foundation of creation.

We are led to imagine a creation

still new, pristine, perfectly beautiful, and naturally full of life and love.

This isn’t a tale about life long ago (however many millennia ago).

This is a statement about what God wills for this creation. Now.

This is a statement

about how we creatures can trust in Gd. Now.

 

If we doubt that, let us look to the second reading, from Revelation,

where we are given the picture of creation put right.

“[T]here in heaven a door stood open!”

and creatures manage to fulfil their destiny:

they worship the Creator:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honour and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they existed and were created.”

You see:

it is by Gd’s will that we exist and are created.  

This isn’t a tale about what might perhaps happen one day.

This is a statement

about how we creatures can trust and worship Gd.

Gd will draw us to worship. Now.

 

And so to our Gospel.

A short story of a storm, a gale, of raging waves,

a gale which Jesus calms.

Which leads the disciples to ask:

“Who is this, that he commands even the winds and the water,

and they obey him?”

 

Just hear these words again:

Jesus “rebuked the wind and the raging waves;

they ceased and there was a calm.”

They ceased and there was a calm.

We who know the whole story here see Jesus,

not in the power of the storm, but in the gentleness of the calm,

as the Lord of Creation.

This isn’t a tale about someone performing

some magic trick or some piece of theatre, back then.

This is statement about

how we can trust in God Creator and the Lord of Creation. Now.

 

So, if we will it, we are

“[i]n the day that Lord God made the earth and the heavens”.

If we will it, we can say, just like the highest of the archangels:

God, Creator,  “[y]ou are worthy… to receive glory and honour and power”.

If we will it,

we can at least begin to enter into

the calm that the Lord Jesus brings.

 

This Creation Sunday is a good day – perhaps the best day –

for us to focus - to refocus on how we can have “great expectations”.

My hope and my prayer, today,

is that we will increase our expectations at an acceptable rate.

But I mean our expectations from Gd Creator.  

Not, of course that Gd will magic all our problems away.

We can be blunt: that is not Gd’s way.

But this expectation can grow and grow:

that Gd will meet us where we need – really need – to meet Gd.

God will meet us where we need – really need – to meet Gd. Now.

It’s my own privilege and joy to be called to be part of that with you.

I look forward to us all helping each other.

Amen.