Zion, Torrance / Knox, Port Carling
DATE: 12 September, 2021
SERMON:
Creation,
Incarnation and
the Divine Yes
WELCOME
G M. Thank you for
admitting (or
entrusting) me to
the front of the
chancel this morning,
along with my brother Stan Hunter who is happy to meet up with Sarah again and will
sing the introit. In Glynis’s absence, we are following more or leher order of service,
and the theme she would be taking. This is my chance to share something about these
B S we have been doing and to which Glynis has been faithful to follow up on
Sundays. She has been leading the Monday group, and having us apply the question
time to personal faith and experience; this is followed by prayer for individual needs.
In the Thursday group I have been first of all interested to place the given text in its
historical, geographical contexts in order to learn and understand more about where
these Bible texts come from.
It’s certainly courageous on Glynis’ part to keep 2 groups of people going solidly right
through the summer for 31 weeks and then to preach to more people who are not
connected to the studies on the same topics, as perhaps some of you people are
missing the more normal lectionary progression through the year. You know that the
book she has us reading, titled The Story, presents the Bible kind of like an historical
novel. It does not invent anything, but by the texts the author has chosen, it wants to
make the Bible hopefully readable from the beg to the end like a chronological epic.
Well, for 21 weeks we have been in the Old Testament and again, by the choices of
texts, The Story seems to stress the never-ending battles involving violence and the
disobedience of God’s people. That’s why we hear every Sunday Glynis repeating that
through all that God remained faithful. Anyway, finally this week we get into the NT
and thus, in this 2nd week of September, the challenge falls to me to preach the
Christmas story. I could, but I am not going to. The chapter starts with John 1: in the
beginning, the word was made flesh, and goes on to tell the manger, the shepherds
and the wisemen. I am going to take up those events in the larger, indeed, universal,
cosmic context of Creation, Incarnation, and the Divine YES. Don’t let it frighten you, I
will attempt to make it like Stephen Hawking’s book “A brief history of time”.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Monday evening 7pm via Zoom ~ ‘The Story’ study group meets
Thursday evening 7:30 pm via Zoom ~ the Bible study group meets
Given your editorial on quantum physics, is the
strapline now “facts are relatively sacred” or “facts
are sacred but relative”?
I am thankful for the presence of Ann, from the Monday group, here this morning to
support me.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Please join me in the call to worship, in the words in bold.
As the season changes and light decreases,
we are thankful God has brought us to this day.
We come together to learn, to praise, to pray.
We welcome one another, on the benches beside, in front and behind us.
As harvests tell of providence and bounty
We come trusting in the love of God for us, for our families, for this country,
for all humankind and for all of creation.
In Jesus, in the story of his birth, through his life, his death and his resurrection, we
know that God is with us always.
Every day is Christmas for those who love and serve Him. Amen.
INTROIT
Stan Hunter and Sarah: “She walked in the summer”
She walked in the summer through the heat on the hill.
She hurried as one who went with a will.
She danced in the sunlight when the day was done.
Her heart knew no evening who carried the sun.
Fresh as a flower at the first ray of dawn,
she came to her cousin whose morning was gone.
There leaped a little child in the ancient womb
and there leaped a little hope in every ancient tomb.
Hail, little sister, who heralds the spring.
Hail, brave mother of whom prophets sing.
Hail to the moment beneath your breast.
May all generations call you blessed.
When you walk in the summer through the heat on the hill,
when you’re wound with the wind and one with Her will,
be brave with the burden you are blessed to bear,
for it’s Christ that you carry everywhere.
PRAYER OF ADORATION & CONFESSION
AMEN
BP 111, verses 1-5
*SHARING THE PEACE In Christ and through Christ our sins are forgiven.
May the peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with us all.
*BP 111, verse 6.
*HYMN 273
*PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING & LORD’S PRAYER
as we repeat the prayer Jesus taught us saying: Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the
kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. AMEN
Our first scripture reading in Proverbs evokes the wonderful Xn myth of
the cosmic Christ, Christ as the Wisdom with which God created.
Our reading from Paul to the Corinthians says that Jesus is the Yes by
which God affirms all his promises to the world and to us.
In the gospel of Luke, we read one of many passages where Jesus
intimates his own self-understanding, his conception of his relationship
to God, his sonship and his earthly life’s purpose.
SCRIPTURE
Proverbs 8:
11 I, Wisdom, am better than jewels; nothing you want can compare with me.
12 I, Wisdom, have insight; I have knowledge and sound judgment.
22 “The LORD created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago.
23I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began.
24I was born before the oceans, when there were no springs of water.
25I was born before the mountains, before the hills were set in place,
26before God made the earth and its fields or even the first handful of soil.
27 I was there when he set the sky in place, when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,
28when he placed the clouds in the sky, when he opened the springs of the ocean
29and ordered the waters of the sea to rise no further than he said.
I was there when he laid the earth's foundations.
30I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence—
31happy with the world and pleased with the human race.
Musical phrase
2 Corinthians 1:
3Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help
comes! 4He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the
same help that we ourselves have received from God.
12We are proud that our conscience assures us that our lives in this world, and especially our relations with you, have
been ruled by God-given frankness and sincerity, by the power of God's grace and not by human wisdom.
13-14We write to you only what you can read and understand. But even though you now understand us only in part, I
hope that you will come to understand us completely, so that in the Day of our Lord Jesus you can be as proud of us as
we shall be of you.
20 for it is he who is the “Yes” to all of God's promises. This is why through Jesus Christ our “Amen” is said to the glory
of God. 21It is God himself who makes us, together with you, sure of our life in union with Christ; it is God himself who
has set us apart, 22who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts
as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
Musical phrase

Luke 10:
17The seventy-two men came back in great joy. “Lord,” they said, “even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a
command in your name!”
18Jesus answered them, “I saw Satan fall like l22 “My Father has given me all things. No one knows who the Son is
except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him.”
23Then Jesus turned to the disciples and said to them privately, “How fortunate you are to see the things you see! 24I
tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but
they did not.”
Message
When you go outside on a moonless, starry night, and you look up into
the outer regions of space, well, there are some nights when you can
clearly see the well-known constellations of stars; that’s nice; other
times, like in the wee hours this past Friday, into the Milky Way you can
observe countless stars like grains of sand. And then what is your first
thought? Some say it makes you yourself feel small. The word that comes
to me is knowledge - of so much that I don’t know that I can only wonder,
so much that astro-physicists know and so much the ancient astronomers
and seafarers already knew, through much observation, I guess. If
you’ve ever slept “a la belle etoile,” as the French has it, in the beauty
of stars, lying practically on the sand of an open desert far away from
any urbanization, as you watch the sky turning past you, you can sense
as did ancient peoples, that you are a part of the whole cosmos. And
when you sense the cosmos without knowing the cosmos, you are passing
from knowledge into mysticism which is the domain of wisdom.
So I came back up the path to the cottage, about 4 a.m., asking
myself, What does all that knowledge of stars have to do with Jesus, son
of Mary, son of Joseph? Well, we also call him the Son of God. And that
is where we leave knowledge and pass into the domain of cosmic
wisdom. And at that point we can start to think about the Incarnation.
Behind the beautiful Xmas stories, there lies the core, unique Xn
belief in the Incarnation. Oh, of course there are many ideas to which
ancient and modern people have related it. You might even hear some
New Age person confuse it with reincarnation, that popular belief that
stems in western society from the fear of nothingness and the loss of
identity, so gives people the hope that after death their own soul will
experience rebirth and continue somehow, somewhere, in the world, that
for all its defaults, is so difficult to let go of.
If you study ancient civilizations, you might hear incarnation
confused with metempsychosis, by which is meant not the rebirth of a
soul, but its transmigration from one human or animal to another.
- The incarnation is not apotheosis, another word from ancient
civilizations meaning the elevation of a human being to divine honours.
We speak of people who became saints and of our own sanctification.
The Orthodox church speaks of the process of Xns becoming more and
more divine; but this must not be confused with the movement in the
other direction, of the divine becoming human.
- The Incarnation of Jesus is not adoptianism, an early Xn heresy
according to which at his baptism Jesus would have been adopted by
God the Father, reflected in the words “ THis is my Son in whom I am
well pleased”. That in fact was a current idea for ancient kingship, that
at his coronation, the king became son of the god through adoption.
- Other folk in the early Xn era tried to explain that Jesus was not really
born in the flesh at all, that was just a sort of appearance. He really was
only spirit. This was called docetism, Jesus only seeming to be human.
only seeming to really die on the cross, which eliminated any problem
with the resurrection.
- Incarnation does not refer to a sort of all-pervasiveness of the divine as
in animism, or that of many gods, as in Hinduism. If Brahma is all
pervasive, he is more like the Holy Spirit for us.
- The Incarnation of Jesus means more than his messiahship, either in
the contemporary political hope of the renewal of Jewish independence
and royalty, or in the Xn sense of the Messiah’s purpose to free us all
from sin.
Indeed, as in my hinting earlier, that myself and certain others got tired
of hearing about battles and disobedience in the OT readings chosen for
The Story, when we come to speak of the meaning of the Incarnation, its
purpose is to deal with this problem created by human sinning. Left to
our own resources, our human flesh, even with the guidance of a moral
code as in the laws of Moses, we could never achieve the requirement of
the law and a good life.
Once my husband Pentti and I were led by some Bedouins and their
adolescent sons up to the top of a high jebel in the Wadi Rum, scenic for
the life of Lawrence of Arabia, in southern Jordan. The view was
stunning but scary as we were very precariously perched on the far side
of a natural bridge 200 m above the colourful sands of the wadi. I felt we
were looking down on creation in the beginning of the world. And there,
in broken English and Arabic we had a deep conversation about Islam.
The boys made an exclamation I have not forgotten, They declared “613
rules in Islam! No one can obey them all!” I’ve not forgotten because it
applies to all religious codes of law. Yet it shouldn’t for us Xns, for whom
Christ’s coming into human life has removed the limiting factor,
liberated humankind, and provided new moral resources through the
Holy Spirit. Through Christ, the divine plan for human redemption was
made operative.
What differentiates the Xn doctrine of the Incarnation is its once in
history aspect and its monotheism. The One and Only Spirit Divine
taking on flesh, the eternal entering history once and for all, (at the
appointed time, as the Bible puts it) concentrated in a single human life -
whether it happened on the 25th of Dec our time or at some other yet
precise date, becomes more and more relevant to life on this planet as
time passes and human knowledge increases; most urgently in modern
times because of the threat knowledge has posed to Wisdom.
You know the evolution of human thought shows through in all we
do; from our view of the world and society to the words in our hymns.
There was a time when sin and redemption from sin was the major focus
of theological and liturgical attention. However, before that, and in the
Bible there was already a more creational theology, the praise of God
Creator, of his goodness shown in the beauty and his greatness shown in
the awesome, frightening aspects of nature. As what we call scientific
knowledge of nature was not so great then, this emphasis was more
mystic. A mystery is a truth we cannot define factually. There have been
ever so many great mystics in the history of the church, many of them
women, and also, for that matter, in the synagogue. Then came along the
age of the Enlightenment. Science came to stand no longer for
knowledge as such, but detailed research into the micro and the macro of
strictly material existence. Theology, which had been called the Queen
of the sciences fell completely off her throne. And emphasis in church
and liturgy on sin and redemption from sin was shoved into the domain
of morals. In the 20th c, the Incarnation came to mean little more than
the sermon on the mount. And when the relevance of that was put into
question, as both the 10 commandments and the sermon on the mount
seemed so extreme and as we all fall short of them, as declared by those
young Arab boys, the very life of Jesus was put into doubt. So Xn
theologians felt they needed to set about on a quest for the historical
Jesus (title of Bultmann). It’s good to know there was really a Jesus of
Nazareth, but now we are beyond that.
For now, reality itself is being redefined. Science has gone so far
that the division between materiality and immateriality or physics and
metaphysics has become a grey area. (Quantum mechanics: you can use
it, but you can’t understand it…..)
Albert Einstein was once asked “what is the most important question
you can ask in life?” He answered, “Is the universe a friendly place or
not?” In that grey area, where researchers play with things like the
Human Genome project and so much of what we eat has been
genetically tinkered with, where we cannot be sure for our benefit or to
the detriment of life overall, knowledge risks to become and is to some
extent the agent of unfriendliness. Scientific knowledge is no longer
scientifically neutral.
The response of much of current theology is to return to, to retrieve,
the ancient understanding that knowledge should have Wisdom as its
overseer. That is why there now is a quest for the cosmic Christ, Christ
as that wisdom in which and through which and with which creation
took place. I can say it more simply: the universe is built, the cells of our
bodies are made, nature feeds uniquely on Christ’s way of self-giving
love and mercy with all the intelligence, indeed, wisdom, that that kind
of love requires.
To Einstein’s question, the biblical and early Xns had a definite
response: Jesus represented the smiling face of God, the benignity of the
universe and all its powers including the invisible angels, their word for
the energies we know exist but don’t see. All the early hymns to the
Cosmic Christ celebrate the power of Jesus Christ over thrones,
dominations, and angels.
So knowledge of creation, through the microscope and the
macroscope, needs Wisdom if it wants to serve rather than destroy life;
the Church needs mystic mindfulness in order to return to her core, and
to proclaim by her existence the Wisdom manifested in Christ; and
Nature needs the care that can only come through wisdom and the mystic
mindfulness in which we are always rediscovering our place in creation.
In conclusion, we have two more distinctions to make. the first is
between the teaching of wisdom and its illustration. Philosophy, by its
definition is the love of wisdom, with a small s, or Logic with a big L. I
love philosophy, I love that history of ideas bounding off and echoing
from different thinkers through the ages. Especially nowadays when the
pluralistic nature of reality requires that science cannot ignore
philosophy, for philosophy, contrary to science, has never tried to be
black and white, or categorically exclusive. But that love of philosophy
is a human endeavour. The Incarnation means that Jesus was not a
divine schoolmaster, a teacher of wisdom. When he taught wisdom, he
was not so unlike many others. Incarnation means that Jesus was and is
the divine illustration of teaching, he did and was what he taught, the
divine revelation of the mind of God. The Greek word Logos, for Word,
in Xn terms, is the very mind of God. Logos and Wisdom are sometimes
interchangeable. In our reading in Proverbs, wisdom is the agent of
creation, but in the NT, in the famous prologue in the gospel of John,
Logos fulfils this role.
Overall, the biblical divine Word is Yes. Yes, in Genesis ch 1, each
part of my creation was good, very good. I have been in multilingual
church services where Gen 1 was read, and after each day of creation,
the congregation responded: it was good, very good, muy bueno, molto
bellissimo, sehr gut, oikein hyvaa…
Is there a God who cares about the universe? Yes - our ch in Prov starts
with this: Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.
On the hilltops near the road, at the cross-roads she stands. At the
entrance to the city, by the main gate, she calls” I appeal to you,
humankind.
Is the universe a friendly place? Yes, for in Jesus is the “Yes” to all of
God's promises. This is why through Jesus Christ our “Amen” is said to
the glory of God. 21It is God himself who makes us sure of our life in
union with Christ.
Is the Incarnation a concept we can grasp? Jesus affirmed that even to
the unlearned, and ofttimes more easily to the unlearned, that the Holy
Spirit is a very real presence.
And finally, is it useful? In many places the Bible, both old and new
testaments, we see these in our current B studies, uses the old idea of
trampling underfoot one’s enemies to declare victory. Listen, says Jesus
in a humorous way, I have given you authority, so that you can even
walk on snakes and scorpions while you overcome Evil.
This is the victory of the Creator in which, using Wisdom and in the
power of the HS, we participate day after day. Amen.
HYMN 341
OFFERING (There is currently no offering plate passed around. I generally give
thanks to people for their continued support and note that the offering plate is at the
back, should anyone wish to place an offering in)
OFFERTORY PRAYER & PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Receive O Lord our offerings. May they be the sign of our commitment to your service, for
We give you but your own, our time, our talent, our treasure, through which you say to us
Response “I am for YOU!”
With our gifts, receive our prayers. We intercede for so many people and indeed all of your
creation in suffering today. From political strife, as in Afghanistan; from extreme weather, as
due to fires in western North America; from hunger, loneliness or want, as in our inner cities,
from fear of the spread of disease, fear which is a strong wall dividing people, even families.
Let common sense and wisdom accompany the growing knowledge of all these challenges, so
that people in their very suffering might hear your word:
Response “I am for YOU!”
We pray for the many people who actively work to alleviate suffering: hospital staff,
humanitarian organizations, fire brigades, ecology awareness groups, charities. In particular,
we pray these weeks that our fellow citizens who have the courage to take up political
mandates and to seek election be granted respect as well as the wisdom and inner strength of
conviction in the face of opposition. Help us to do our best in all these areas of need, as well
as in our responses to the personal needs around us. You are the divine Yes, affirming all your
promises, giving us strength and courage for each new day, saying to each and every one of
us
Response “I am for YOU!”
*HYMN 321.
*COMMISSIONING & BENEDICTION
Let us go out from this holy place with courage and joy to serve our
brothers and sisters in Christ, to care for creation and to be a blessing to
the world.
and as we do . . .
May the love, grace and peace of God go with you. AMEN