Feb 6, 2011 ... “Fasting, Feasting, Seeing, Creating”. Rev. Diane Dulin. Isaiah 58:1-4, 9b-12. The
Genesis Enigma, Andrew Parker. It's an old favorite, but ...
February 6, 2011
“Fasting, Feasting, Seeing, Creating”
Rev. Diane Dulin
Isaiah 58:1-4, 9b-12 The Genesis Enigma, Andrew Parker
It’s an old favorite, but bears retelling. The story goes that Frank wakes up one Sunday morning with an urgent desire NOT to go to church. His mother tries several times to get him out of bed, but he just won’t budge. She reminds, she cajoles, she nags. Finally Frank tells his mother WHY he doesn’t want to go. “I just don’t like church,” he whines. “It’s boring. I don’t want to get dressed up. And that place is full of people who don’t like me. Why should I go??” To which Frank’s mother finally loses her temper and hollers, “You HAVE to go to church, Frank. You KNOW it’s the right thing to do. Frank, you’re the minister. Now get up and get going!”
It might sound strange to hear me say this, but there are quite a few reasons why you (maybe) could have stayed home today. Coming out to church was an active choice you made, and of course I am happy that you made that choice. But you actually had some decent rationales that may have worked for why you could have stayed away. First, this place of packed full of hypocrites. We talk the talk but we don’t always walk the walk. Second, it might not be one of the best sermons I ever preached. Take my word for it: you just never know how good the sermon really will be. Also, the sacrament of communion will be part of this service. Especially if you are new, you might feel a bit anxious about whether you should participate, or how we actually ‘do’ the sacrament in this church. Should you stand or sit? Come forward or not? Dip the bread in the chalice, or take your own sip from the cup? Cross yourself or say amen? For a newcomer, that’s a lot of choices; that’s a lot of ways to get it wrong. Or, maybe this place isn’t packed full of hypocrites! Maybe staying home today would have been your way of saying you don’t feel worthy to seek God among upstanding, have-their-act-together people like us. Of course, this is a holy day all across America, transcending denominational lines of all types. Prayers will be said this day in living rooms. People planning to settle down into the sofa for a long session of huge men ramming into each other might have decided to go to the gym and get in some exercise prior to their long couch sit. Very solid, very health-conscious choice.
Or, maybe you spent last night as a volunteer at the SOS homeless shelter. If you did, you certainly deserved the extra rest.
Of course, some of these rationales for staying away are more impressive than others. If we each had to rank them according to how valid we think they are, we would probably all put them in a different order. But I’ll tell you why I started imagining this list. This list of reasons for staying away from church occurred to me when I read in my preacher’s commentary the following comment about our OT lesson from Isaiah: “The preacher who dares to preach as Isaiah preached, will tell those who come to church that if they are not there to give themselves to God, then they should have stayed at home.” Wow. Note to self in margin of commentary: Ouch. That sounds pretty stern. Not sure how that is going to go over. I think I’m going to leave you hanging for a few minutes. I will let you ponder that expert advice I was given, about what to say to the good people who get up, put themselves together, and come to church! But first I want to talk about another inscrutable subject: soft-bodied trilobites, and how they found themselves on the receiving end of the ‘big bang’ of the first eyesight on planet earth. Now, for those of you who know more about science than I do (and I promise you, that includes just about everyone), please bear with me. I am not talking science here, so much as I am talking theology. In our Tuesday morning theology book group, we are currently reading Andrew Parker’s book about the evolution of life on earth, and how it may or may not correspond to the order of creation outlined in Genesis chapter 1. I hasten to say that Parker is not a ‘creationist’ in the sense we use that word these days, as in “creationism versus evolution.” Parker is a reputable evolutionary biologist whose loyalty is to science, not scripture. At the same time, his book is about the rough but notable parallel between the chronological order in which science says the earth was formed and life appeared on earth, and the chronological order of this same sequence according to the first chapter of Genesis. My point right now has to do with the evolution of eyesight, which is Parker’s main area of interest. The Bible says a lot about the coming of light into darkness, and the value of sight. Many of Jesus’ stories and sermons were addressed, in his words, to “those with eyes to see,” which we take to mean, those with open and receptive minds and hearts. Parker points out that eyesight involves not just one evolutionary development, but several complex processes. It starts with the perception of light and dark; then gains the optic nerves to focus on specific things; and finally involves the biological circuitry needed so that visual information allows a brain to tell the body how to react.
Back when Darwin was developing his theory of evolution, he was confounded by the complexity of all these aspects of sight coming together in precisely the right way. He called the eye “an organ of extreme perfection and complication.” Darwin wrote that, to him, it seemed “almost absurd that the human eye could have been formed by natural selection.” But Andrew Parker takes the process way back to the beginning. He writes about the very first form of animal life to experience eyesight. Enter to center stage: the soft-bodied trilobite. I hate to break it to you, but according to Parker, that primitive life form that first developed an eye was a slug. So, for the people who get depressed thinking we are somehow related to primates, I have just one thing to say. This is not going to be easy for you. Soft-bodies trilobites are a masterpiece of God, and it appears they have a lot to do with you and me. But here is my point. The important thing about eyesight theologically, is that it is part of God’s process of creation. Even more critical from our point of view, the development of eyesight is what made creation move quickly in the direction of consciousness. One creatures began to see, (even soft bodies trilobite beings!) … that is when they were faced with a million important choices about what to do about what they saw. Once there was eyesight, life on earth started to develop its connection to perceiving, responding, acting, and choosing.
Which brings us back to the choice we have all made today. You and I decided to be here. I am glad we made that choice. And now that we are here, we are rewarded by the challenging words of Isaiah, who helps us use this time for something real. He points out to us that our worship this morning is a waste of our time, and really a bit of an insult to God, if we do it out of habit, or because of superstition, or to be seen by others, or to make God bend to our will. My commentary suggests our one purpose should be to give ourselves to God. Not a bad point! Isaiah is even more specific. Being here in worship places us in the position to allow God’s creating energy to continue forming and yes, creating each one of us, as well as creating the church we become when we are here together in worship and mission. Isaiah forces us to consider what our deepest motives are in seeking God. Speaking through the prophet, God actually sounds rather sarcastic when saying, “Day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, AS IF they were a nation that practiced righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me ‘righteous’ judgments; they ‘delight’ to draw near ….” And yet God speaks of their prayers with some evident disdain: The people whine to God: “Why do we fast, but you do not see us? Why do we humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” The blindness which the people accuse God of suffering is really, of course, their own distorted image in a mirror. It is their own self-inflicted inability
to see the truth about worship. Their idea of worship is to find just the right words or choreography to use, to make God give them what they want. But that’s just not how it works. God is not our puppet. However, although Isaiah says we should not offer our worship in order to make God give us stuff, the prophet does, in fact, make promises on behalf of God: IF you remove the yoke (of oppression) among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil; IF you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted … THEN (listen for the language of creation) your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. THEN (listen for the language of healing and discipleship) the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong … THEN (here comes some more creation language) you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. And FINALLY (with words which for me can only thunder God’s hopes for the people of the ancient land of Egypt this day): “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” Yes, I know made a rather long leap just then. I may have perpetrated some sermonic whiplash. Suddenly I’m talking about the headlines. Suddenly I’m talking about Egypt. But isn’t it true that God creates not only life forms and plants and animals and people … but God also works through them, to play a role in creating communities and nations and societies? May God work through the people of that ancient land of Egypt to bring peace and justice, to bring freedom and healing. God even works through people and through the Spirit of Jesus Christ to create churches. And despite all the reasons we had NOT to come together today, in the most honest worship we can muster … despite all those reasons, we ARE here. And here, we humbly ask God to make use of this time for our good and for the good of the world. Let the church say Amen.
