26^th March 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 9 March 2014

Lessons - Genesis 1:26-31; Psalm 8: Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 6:25-30.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very
good.' (Gen 1:31a).

'We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.' (Nicene Creed)

To those of us who have sung 'all things bright and beautiful, the Lord God made them all' from childhood it seems obvious to us - if not to atheists and agnostics - that the world has been created by a Supreme Being. What is not so obvious is that everything in creation is 'very good'.

In thinking about what it means to believe in God the Creator, we must clear our heads of misconceptions.

Believing in the Creator has nothing whatsoever to do with believing in 'Creationism'. Nor is it disproved by 'evolution'. Believing that God created the world 6000 years ago or that it happened millions of years ago is beside the point. Believing in 'the Maker of heaven and earth . . .'
who 'brought all things into being through Christ' is to have confidence in the glorious purpose for which all things exist.

That 'glorious purpose' is not discovered simply by looking around the created world. The evidence, at best, is ambiguous. Sunsets are glorious.
Suffering and evil are not. As we look at nature and human nature, we may well conclude, as many people do, that:

* God is fickle (Greeks / Romans);

* though God is good, the Devil is of equal or greater power (Manicheans);

* God is an impersonal 'Architect' or 'Watchmaker' who gets things moving and then leaves us alone (Deists);

* God is so otherworldly that he is not interested is the material world (Gnostics);

* 'God' is simply part of the natural world (Pantheists).

Against such beliefs, the Creed follows Scripture (e.g., Genesis 1, Psalm
8) in affirming that everything in the universe has come into being and is continually sustained by an act of Divine love that we cannot deduce from our everyday experience. Unlike the creation stories of pagan societies in which the world comes into being due to violent conflict between the gods, Christians believe in One God, the loving 'Father' who is 'Almighty' in goodness and mercy.

How on earth did our forebears come to believe that everything - 'visible'
and 'invisible' - was created by One God 'out of nothing'? Why did they not conclude that it all comes from the collision of random events?

The answer is not to be found in nature but in a particular history. The Hebrews, who were nobodies in Egypt, experienced the unique presence of God's goodness and grace in their history. They had been created 'out of nothing' to glorify God in the presence of peoples who worshipped many gods or themselves.

Christians then saw the glory of Israel's Creator in Christ. They believed that, in him, 'they had encountered the beginning - the very source and energy of creation. Looking into the face of Christ they had seen the blueprint of reality, an outline of God's good plan for the whole creation' (B Myers, Insights Oct 2013 p35).

The affirmation of faith in the Creator freed people to see the world in a completely different light. It is not a place where the gods battle each other for supremacy. We do not have to fear that investigating the world will arouse the anger of local spirits. We do not have to escape from the evil world into a safe spiritual haven. Because the world is the arena in which God's awe-inspiring love is active, its beauty can be enjoyed and explored using all our bodily senses and mental faculties. Scientists and theologians have much in common!

We can now see that the Creed is not, as some people think, a rigid, narrow or outdated theological formula that tries to explain away the mystery of God. In fact, 'it takes a stand on behalf of the whole creation' (ibid B Meyers). Without the assurance that the material world has been created good, modern science would have been impossible. Sickness and deformity would have been regarded as Fate.

Therefore it is liberating to know that 'the world is created, its origin is in God. It does not come from itself, it is not the accidental linking of cells, it is not absurd. It has meaning, it has an origin and a purpose and everything within it is connected to transcendent divine wisdom.' (A Schmemann, I Believe 1991 p62.)

The world is not here by chance but has been brought into being to fulfil the loving purposes of God. It is very good because, as Jonathan Edwards said, it is the place that God has created to communicate and share the divine happiness with us (cited in D Willis, Clues to the Nicene Creed
2005 p49).

Moreover, 'God was not only the cause of its existence in the beginning, but is also the continuing source of its life and the final goal of its existence.' (Confessing the One Faith, World Council of Churches 1991
p35.) God continues to participate in his creation as it moves towards its glorious consummation that is his ultimate purpose for all things.

If God saw that creation was 'very good' and we believe in the continuing involvement of the good Creator in creation, what are we to make of the presence of dark forces in the world? (Sin and suffering are not 'good'.) The question is most urgent for Christians and Jews.

Reflections by D Willis on the 2nd Century theologian Irenaeus are most helpful in this regard. He said that we have been created with potentialities but, by virtue of our God-given freedom, are not yet perfect. Sin harms that capacity. Grace restores it. The future renewal of the creation will perfect it. We have been created to grow forward to the fulfilment of our humanity as it has been embodied in Christ. Our creation in the image of God is the start of a journey to wholeness (D Willis p51 footnote 11).

There is no 'satisfactory explanation' for the presence of evil. However, we can say that, as God has created everything 'out of nothing' for the purpose of communicating and participating in his glory, then everything that exists - from start to finish - plays a part in his eternal purposes.

This does not mean that God approves of what is 'very bad'. Such things destroy righteousness, love, mercy, joy, goodness, truth and more, which are the Creator's purpose for us all. But it does mean that whatever we encounter in life - good and bad - is part of a privileged-and-demanding pilgrimage to which those who believe are summoned!

Thus, believing in God as Creator commits us to oppose actions and policies that trample on people's God-given dignity. There is much in the world that is hostile to God's very good creation! Today there is deep and widespread contempt for those who believe that humankind is responsible to the Creator for how we live together. More and more people fervently believe that we create our own reality and are answerable only to ourselves here and now, not to 'the One' who has created us and all things for an eternal purpose.

In thinking about what it means to believe in God as Creator, it is essential that we hold in tension the past, the present and the future.
Then we shall see that the whole purpose of creation - from start to finish - is indeed 'very good'. Because God has created good things 'out of nothing' - e.g., the covenant community (Israel), all things in heaven and on earth, health to those who suffer and forgiveness to sinners (Jesus), and the resurrection of the crucified Christ from the dead - we can gladly believe in God's overarching purpose.

Believing in God as Creator has this future dimension, without which it would be both heartless (to those who experience unspeakable suffering) and blasphemous (to the God of love). Paul puts it well when he acknowledges the reality of hope amid the severity of present suffering.
In glorifying God as the Creator of all things, he believed that, because the Creator's will has been uniquely enfleshed in Jesus, no matter how dark life may be, the universe and humankind has a grace-shaped future (Romans 8:18ff).

That is, the grand purpose of creation shall reach its glorious climax when the whole creation in all its physical and spiritual dimensions - visible and invisible - is perfected by the One who brought it into being in order to share with us his love and goodness.

Thus we can say that God's creative purpose for the world (as the shape of the Nicene Creed makes clear) is known in the healing and hope-filled work of his triune love. God the Father is the Creator ex nihilo, God the Son is the one through whom all things were created for us and our salvation, and God the Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life. In this way - which cannot be seen by observing nature - the overflow of God's triune love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is so gloriously displayed.

May we, then, confidently believe in God as Creator and know that God rejoices in his handiwork. He invites us all to participate in the creation with thanksgiving and a hope-fuelled commitment to the transformation of the creation - the renewal of heaven and earth.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is the minister of St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.