The following was written based upon Psalm 104:24-34, 35b. I was given the opportunity to prepare a ‘sermon’ based upon those passages from the Bible. This is my submission.
All the Differences Are Equality
Part I
Sapporo Art Park - Sapporo Hokkaido Japan 2006
By hiding God, by setting ourselves us as the one to decide what is great and what deserves more of our love and respect we may not realize how our life diminishes. If we fail to understand our true relationship with the things around us, if we fail to see that we have an equality in good that is not based upon our intellect or our skills we start to disconnect from and devalue those very things in our life. And in fact we are saying that we think we are better than even God, because we know what is worthy and what is not.
As an example we only need to look at the effects of abandoning healthy eating habits, or our callus disregard for the environment. I am sure we all have seen examples of couples who over time take their spouse for granted and the relationship begins to change, possibly even fall apart. God is found not only in the things, the material objects he has created, God is also found in the relationship among those things. We are capable of either diminishing or enhancing his presence.
In closing I would like to look at the last passage from this Psalm, the one that says let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. I suppose there are numerous ways of looking at this, but the way I view it is that through our actions we can illuminate a path for others to follow. God calls us to not only do good and be good for ourselves but to also minister with our lives and actions our faith in him. I read this as a plea that God help us to be better able to lead those who do not understand the greatness of life to a fuller understanding of it’s joy and beauty.
Just as we teach our children to say please and than you, we can teach others the appreciation for the gifts in life. When I can look at that clerk who is ringing up my purchases in Wal-Mart, when I can look that clerk in the eye, and say to them from the bottom of my heart, thank you. When I can do that without any expectation of any reciprocating response, I believe that I am giving them the gift of the love of God.
We can choose to elevate or we can choose to hold down, we can damn people to the earth or we can raise them to heaven by our actions to them. That person who may be doing a menial job is doing something that is making my life possible. Without their effort we cannot exist, if we did not exist could we praise God? If it weren’t for the carpenter who built our church, who may or may not believe in God, without them could we gather today to express our love of God?
We have the power to bury, to deny, to ground into the earth with our heal those we ignore, or those we disagree with, or those who are not like us, but we also have the power to celebrate, praise, cherish and lift up to heaven. Let God and the love of God motivate us in all aspects of our thoughts and deeds. God resides in our lifting up not in the heal of our shoe used to trample upon.
As we sit and ponder the word, the meaning, and the spirit of the text, the joy of God, let us determine each of us to go forward and not only see God in all things, but to be God in all things. Let us each choose to renew our effort to live the life that God has given in such a way that none will doubt the presence of the divine.
