Sermon 8th September 2024 – 16th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: James 2:1-17 – Caring for creation through Hope
The theme of our Creation Sunday service is to hope and to act. Hope is
an interesting word depending on the context that we use it. We hope our footy
team is going to win the Grand Final. We hope that the weather is going to be
fine this weekend. We hope that interest rates will come down soon. In this
context Hope is uncertain. It may or may not happen.
In the Christian context Hope is different. St Paul talks about hope
many times – Christian Hope – and in particular he says: We rejoice in our
sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
which has been given to us. Christian hope, as Paul says, will not disappoint
us. And that’s because Christian hope is not uncertain.
Yet we live in a world where many look to the first type of hope. We
hope that if we do things we will achieve a certain outcome but we can never be
sure if it will work. When we act without God, in anything we do, hope becomes
uncertain. As we focus on Creation today we see this uncertain hope at play in
the world. If we reduce our carbon footprint – if we reduce our pollution – if
we cease fossil fuels and switch to renewables – we hope that by a certain year
in the future we will reduce our temperature and repair our climate. But we
have no assurance of that – we hope to be able to achieve that. It doesn’t mean
we shouldn’t do things to reduce pollution such as recycling as much as we can
and reducing waste. But we should not think we don’t need hope in God to
achieve our care for the world.
So, as Christians, we also include our love and care for the planet in
our prayers as we pray to the one whom the wind and the waves must obey. The
one who was able to end famine with his Word. But God also ended famine in
practical ways when he had Joseph acted by storing food for 7 years to provide
for 7 years of famine in Egypt.
So there are practical things we can do with God’s help and guidance. And
our motivation is not because we believe WE can save the planet but because of
our love for one another. God is the creator so we must always look to him.
The world without hope says there are only certain amount of years left
because of humans.
But, remember what Jesus says about the end of the world- no one knows
the day nor the hour – it will come as a thief in the night. So our motivation
is our love for our neighbour and our hope in God. We see that in James today: If
a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their
bodily needs, what is the good of that? So, we don’t just hope that our
neighbour is able to find the necessities of life but we act. And we know – if
we feed him that will attend to his hunger.
What James describes is
how we see a lot of our world responding to the problems in God’s creation. We
see people rallying – they hold up traffic – they disrupt businesses – they
vandalise property that they disagree with.
They sit at home on
their phones or computer and use social media to attack others. Many of the
things they are fighting for – world hunger – homelessness – pollution – could
be solved if we could act by loving another as James asks us to. You do well if
you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love
your neighbour as yourself.
Change in the world
does not come by pointing out what others are doing wrong but by setting an
example of loving one another. As Jesus once said in a parable: For I was
hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes
and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you
came to visit me. And this action came so naturally that the people being
thanked had no idea they were doing it.
When we love one
another it’s not a chore. We will act out of faith as care for one another. The
righteous answered, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty
and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you
in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison
and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
At present, to many
people, the future of our creation looks hopeless. The comforting thing about
Christian hope is that it thrives on hopelessness. Remember what Paul said – we
rejoice in our suffering which produces hope. Or look at the woman in our
Gospel reading. Her situation seemed hopeless. Her daughter was in a terrible
situation and the one that she had hoped would be able to heal her said “NO”. She
begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the
children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw
it to the dogs.” But she never gave up hope: She answered him, “Sir, even the
dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For
saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home,
found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Or the man in the next miracle story whose plight seemed hopeless: They
brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; They were
astounded beyond measure, saying about Jesus, “He has done everything well; he even makes
the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
Or when Jesus opened the eyes of a blind man. The
blind man says to Jesus’ critics: Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a
man born blind. Jesus brought hope where there was no hope. So where will we
put our hope for the future of Creation? In the hands of humans or in the
Creator? God purposely created us in his image so we could care for his
creation as his representative and he has called on us to act as his
representative:
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created
them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.” And let us remember that ruling means caring – not
dominating. Subduing means protecting not oppressing.
God loves this world so much that he sent Jesus – not to condemn the but
to save the world through him. And it is this act love of God and neighbour
that will protect God’s beautiful creation.
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