In You we Live

clockwork world -> HS as Rhythm of Life

There’s a story that is used quite often as an argument for Intelligent Design of the universe.

Imagine that you are walking down the road one day, and you find on the footpath an old-fashioned pocket watch. You pick it up, examine it, you see the beauty, the function, the intricate clockwork design. Would you imagine that this device had appeared by chance, or would you assume that it had been made by an intelligent creator with a will and a purpose?

The answer is obvious, and on one level it is a compelling argument. Like you, I could not imagine how something as intricate as a clockwork watch could simply occur by chance.

But I also have a huge problem with this analogy. You see, this watch has been made, and then discarded on the side of the road, by accident or design. It has been wound up, and it is running down, but the creator is absent and disinterested.

This is the direct opposite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God did not create us, and then abandon us. God is neither absent nor disinterested in His creation, nor in our lives.

Throughout the history of creation God has spoken, and intervened, and gotten his fingers into the soil of our everyday lives. In Jesus, God even became one of us, one with us. And, as Brent reminded us last week, even when Jesus ascended into heaven, he did not give up being human as well as divine. The love of God for all of creation stretches not only into the heart of our lives, but also into the heart of God’s very being.

God will not give up on us.

God is not absent, even in the darkest and most difficult times. We may ask why he allows our suffering and our travails, and at times we may feel like He is a long way off, but the great hope of the Gospel is that God is right there with us, even when we cannot see it. Hope is not hope at all if it only exists in the good times.

I believe that the great lie that is told to us is that God is neither present, nor interested in our lives. And the parable of the watchmaker, while it contains truth, also reinforces that lie.

I’d rather tell a more hope-filled story about God’s love for creation, and God’s love for us, his children.

You see, I believe that every moment is a miracle, every day is a gift.

Back at the beginning of it all, God breathed, and there was light and there was life. Creation is not some top, spinning off on its own. The universe is not some clockwork machine, slowly winding down towards stillness and death. Our lives are not meaningless chatter in the noise of quantum mechanics. We are, because God wills us to be. Every breath we take began in the Breath of God. God is the creator and sustainer of all things.

Right throughout the story of scripture, and right throughout every moment of our lives, the breathing of the Holy Spirit is the background rhythm of all life. Every sunrise, every heartbeat, every intricate design is sustained by the loving will of God.

Today in the Church, we celebrate the day of Pentecost - the day that the background melody burst into song.

The HS knits us together as the Body of Christ

church is not just building, not even just the people on our own, but the active work of HS in our midst is constantly knitting us together, this is the church - the Holy Spirit breathing in us, and the church turning our hearts and our faces toward him.

This gives us the freedom to to worship him in spirit and in truth. When we are oriented toward the work of the Spirit in our midst, then we can recognise the value of the sacred spaces where form the habit of drawing near to God, without making an idol of them. We we turn our hearts and minds towards the work of the Spirit in our midst, then we can grow together as the Body of Christ without becoming an insular, self-serving club.

The orientation is important, when we turn towards him we notice and participate in the warmth of his love that always surrounds us. When we turn away, it’s so easy to isolate ourselves from the love of God. Believing in the great lie of his absence from our lives can become a self-fulfilling prophecy that is cold comfort at best.

When I was little I sometimes felt like the world was against me. My mother would respond with an old rhyme - “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I’m going down the garden to eat worms.” We can talk ourselves into being isolated from God, and isolated from one another. Our self-isolation becomes all too real.

In today’s reading, Paul is helping the church in Corinth to turn their faces towards the work of the Spirit in their midst.

HS is nothing new

Active thoughout OT, active in the early church, active on our midst

eg. Numbers 11:24–30

Gifts & fruit

not exhaustive list

we are called to participate. Dance of God.

Fruit about living, gifts about sharing

Finish with prayer of invitation