Pastor’s Notes for 6th Sunday in Creation, C Date: 10/6/13Theme: World Communion; The Coming of the Son of ManBible Ref’s: Jeremiah 51:15-19; Psalm 98; Colossians 1:3-10; and John 3:11-17.

Prayer of the DayGod, our Creator, who has intricately and beautifully interwoven all things into the immense tapestry of creation, give us eyes to behold its beauty, give us sensitivity to its intricate design and overall patterns. Where rips and tears and overuse have marred its integrity, help us to mend and to restore the fabric of your creation as Christ calls and equips all of us to do. We pray in the name of Christ who reconciles and renews all things in creation. Amen.

Brief Sermon Outline: “Big Picture Faith”Focus Statement: The gospel of God’s Trinitarian love for the world, that’s the big picture of our faith.

1. We’ve been six weeks on a journey together through the Season of Creation. We started our journey out from baptism, where we each picked out baptism rocks to carry with us. You may remember, these baptism rocks were a reminder of our identity as creatures made of water/earth.

2. But also, creatures marked with the redeeming cross of Christ forever. And that redemption in Christ manifests itself in particular religious practices: prayer, worship, learning, serving, nurturing, giving and inviting—each symbolized by a different color of the cross on our baptism rocks.

3. We’ve also charted our journey thru the Season of Creation with our Children’s Sermons and this giant flannel board—each Sunday bringing some other aspect of God’s good creation redeemed by Christ and worthy of our care: lakes & oceans & animals, the climate including storms, the cosmos, bears & moths. Which all brings us to this culminating World Communion Sunday.

4. You can think of World Communion Sunday as Big Picture Sunday, where we expand our vision to realize that Jesus coming down from heaven, incarnating flesh/blood to become a part of creation, was for purposes much broader than love for humans alone, but God’s love for the whole creation.

5. That’s what we’re talking about with World Communion, that all things inter-relate, and that the healing and wholeness we experience through baptism & communion are instances of God’s love permeating all the commons of air, earth, fire & water, God’s love Incarnate making all things new.

6. John comprehended this Big Picture vision: “For God so loved the world [the cosmos] that he gave his only Son…Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved thru him.” This is Big Picture, mind-blowing stuff we’re talking about.

7. And it effects how we view salvation, how we view the importance of the sacraments, how we view our identity and who our neighbor is, how we view Christ’s Spirit moving and active in the world.

8. It transforms our thinking about all the spiritual disciplines: when and where we pray, how all the earth makes a joyful noise to the Lord in worship. In October, we’re focusing on nurturing relation-ships—and of course, we’re not limiting ourselves just to God and one another, but to all things.

9. In Buddhist thought, it’s called the inter-being of all things. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Be aware of the contact between your feet & the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth w/ your feet. We have caused a lot of damage to the Earth. Now it is time for us to take good care of her. We bring our peace and calm to the surface of the Earth and share the lesson of love. We walk in that spirit.”

10. This awareness of God’s loving Spirit moving in the world, of Christ walking closely and lovingly beside us, of our being intricately woven by our Creator out of the commons of air, earth, fire and water—all of this was a Trinitarian mystery that early Christians simply heard & called the gospel.

11. It’s why we call ourselves the Evangelical (or gospel-centered) Lutheran Church in America. The gospel of God’s Trinitarian love for the world as Creator/Redeemer/Sanctifier, that’s the big picture revelation out of which we live, move & have our being. Light of the gospel keeps us wide awake.

12. <sing the tune> “Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?” Is that the tune people have been singing about you? Or are you hearing the gospel of God’s Trinitarian love permeating the universe: “God is Maker…God is Savior…God is Spirit…” Such are the simple declarations of a Big Picture Faith!

Hymn of the Day: “God Creator” (to the tune of “Are You Sleeping” in the book “Earth and All Stars: Hymns and Songs for Young and Old” by Herbert F. Brokering, AFP ©2003, p.153 )(See Sermon Notes below.)

Children’s Sermon <Today is the culminating Sunday in the Season of Creation, illustrated by the giant flannel board scene with oceans/lakes, animals, storms, planets/stars, moths/bears, and today a big glorious sun shining down on it all. The sun represents for us the love of God touching all things. Also, we have six banners that show the progression through the Sundays.>

Pastor: Good World Communion Sunday morning to you all! <explain all the parts of the flannel board picture and the banners that reflect what we’ve been celebrating during our Season of Creation> On this final Sunday of the Season, I wanted to teach you a song, “God Creator.” <to simplify the teaching, have the kids echo the appropriate lines and you sing the rest.>

Let’s pray: God our Maker, Savior and Spirit, we thank you for all the ways you love us and all your creation. Help us to always see your big picture with the eyes of faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The Word(Jeremiah 51:15-19) It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. 16 When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and he brings out the wind from his storehouses. 17 Everyone is stupid and without knowledge; goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols; for their images are false, and there is no breath in them. 18 They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. 19 Not like these is the LORD, the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.

( Psalm 98) A Psalm. 1 O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm

have gotten him victory. 2 The LORD has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the

earth have seen the victory of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. 5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD. 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. 8 Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy 9 at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with

righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

(Colossians 1:3-10)In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day

we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

(John 3:11-17) “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16   “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17   “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Sermon Notes

This awareness of God’s loving Spirit moving in the world, of Christ walking closely and lovingly beside us, of our being intricately woven by our Creator out of the commons of air, earth, fire and water—all of this was a Trinitarian mystery that early Christians simply heard and called __________.

HYMN OF THE DAY: “God Creator” (to the tune of “Are You Sleeping?”) 1.      God Creator, God Creator          made the night, made the light,          made each constellation,          stars for every nation,          day and night, day and night 2.      God is Savior, God is Savior,          brings us love from above,          brings us all salvation,          hope for every station.          God is love, God is love. 3.      God is Maker, God is Maker,          made us all, gave us all          winter and its snowing,          spring and river flowing,          summer, fall; summer, fall. 4.      God is Spirit, God is Spirit,          breath of life, breath of life,          makes the spirit holy,          comes to high and lowly.          God is life, God is life.                                                          Herbert F. Brokering, 1998, © 2003 Augsburg Fortress

The Marks of Discipleship

All are comprehended and re-imagined in the triune life of God as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier of the world.