Look to Jesus

Years ago, Dennis and I had the opportunity to travel to Cambodia.

It was one of the most amazing trips we had ever been on...

...one of the things that stood out the most to me, though, was the natural beauty.

I remember being awestruck by the greenery and untouched creation in the places we had visited.

Unfortunately, that experience was at the forefront of my mind...

...because when we returned home, we were preparing to move to New York and wanted to start looking for a house.

With this experience fresh on my mind...

...and sharing that desire with the realtor...

We found ourselves buying a home on sixteen acres in Medina.

Now you’re probably wondering, that sounds lovely…

…he got to carry his Cambodia experience into the next chapter of his life...

...why did he say unfortunately...

Just imagine a city boy from Dallas...

...a metro of nearly eight million people...

...and a city Filipino from Manila

...with a metro of more than fourteen million people...

...moving onto sixteen acres with a cornfield on the left...

...and a lettuce field on the right

...and the nearest neighbor a half mile down the road.

We were certainly living our own version of the Beekman Boys and perhaps a comedy of errors.

I had encountered something beautiful in Cambodia, and I wanted to be close to that kind of beauty again...

I wonder if you’ve ever had an experience like that, where...

...a landscape...

...an animal...

...a garden...

...the ocean...

...or some encounter with the created world that caused you to stop dead in your tracks and take in the beauty of creation?

St. Matthew begins his account of the gospel with the genealogy of Jesus, which seems like a natural place to start...

However, St. John begins his gospel by inviting us to look further back.

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

John intentionally takes our imagination back to Genesis...

...to the beginning of Creation itself.

...and then John makes this claim about the One we come to know as Jesus Christ.

“Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.”

Before Jesus teaches a parable, heals anyone, or before the cross or empty tomb, John wants us to know something about him...

Christ belongs to the story of Creation from the very beginning.

...and that means Creation isn’t merely the backdrop upon which God’s real story with humanity takes place.

In fact, take a moment and feel the floor beneath your feet...

...take a breath...

...notice the air filling your lungs...

...think about the water you drank this morning...

...recall an animal you love...

...picture a place whose beauty has caused you to stop and stare...

Now hear John’s words again...

“Everything came into being through the Word.”

The ground beneath us.

The air within us.

The water that sustains us.

The creatures around us.

Even you… even me...

...all of it...

When we look to Jesus, we discover that all Creation has always belonged within the story of God’s love.

...and John’s Gospel will take that claim even further.

The Word through whom everything came into being does not remain distant from what God has made.

“The Word became flesh.”

The One through whom creation came into being becomes part of the Creation God loves.

Theologian Elizabeth Johnson describes this in Ask the Beasts as a kind of “Deep incarnation.”

...in Jesus Christ, God’s Word joins the material, creaturely world and enters into solidarity with it.

...and if we want to know what that love looks like, look to Jesus.

Jesus touches bodies...

Jesus heals bodies...

Jesus feeds hungry bodies...

Jesus sits at tables and shares meals.

God’s love does not float somewhere above the material world...

In Jesus Christ, God’s love takes flesh...

...and that changes not only how we see Creation...

It changes how we understand our place within it.

John reminds us that we aren’t the Creator. We are among the “everything” that came into being.

Our other John… John Wesley, that is...

...described part of the imago Dei, the image of God in humanity, as the political image of God.

By "political," Wesley wasn’t talking about Republicans or Democrats...

...he was talking about our relationship and responsibility toward the rest of Creation.

Wesley believed humanity was created to be a conduit of God’s blessing to the rest of Creation.

God’s grace comes to us, restores God’s image within us, and forms us increasingly in the likeness of Jesus Christ...

...toward love, tenderness, humility, and compassion.

...and perhaps those holy tempers are meant to shape not only how we treat one another...

...but how we inhabit God’s creation.

That’s why I am grateful for the little butterfly garden Diane and Melanie have cultivated outside our church...

In the hustle and bustle of ministry...

...surrounded by luxury high-rises and pavement...

...there is a little patch of Creation bursting with life.

It’s a joy to take a pause and get out there to see it...

... it's not such a joy when I forget to grab my keys and get locked out...

...but even in that moment—experiencing Creation redirects my temper...

...from frustration with my own absentmindedness toward wonder...

...wonder at a world that is so much bigger than whatever has me frustrated at that moment.

Perhaps that is part of the lesson John is teaching us...

...before we talk about everything we’re supposed to do for Creation...

...we need to learn to see Creation differently.

To see something that belongs to God...

To see something that God loves...

...and then to allow grace to make us people through whom that love can flow.

In just a few moments we’ll come to Christ’s table.

Earlier we noticed the ground beneath our feet...

...the air within our lungs...

...the water that sustains us...

...and now God meets us through still more gifts of Creation...

...bread from the earth...

...and fruit from the vine...

Through these gifts of Creation, Christ meets us with extravagant grace.

...and the grace we encounter in Jesus Christ is not simply to come to us...

...but by the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s grace flows through us toward all that God loves.

Friends, take a moment to visit our butterfly garden...

...take a moment to notice a tree—some colors are already turning vibrant orange and red...

...look into the eyes of an animal you love...

...stand somewhere beautiful for a moment without needing to accomplish anything at all...

...and just look...

...and remember...

All creation has always belonged within the story of God’s love.

How do we know?

We look to Jesus.

In the name of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.