C, Holy Trinity - Psalm 8 "God's Majestic Name"

Standing under an evening sky, with no light pollution from cities, is a wonder to behold.  To see the stars in the sky and know that many of them are so large, it would make our sun appear like a speck of dust, if they were alongside each other, makes the mind boggle.  Yet these massive stars join with all the other heavenly beings, to fill the darkened sky as microscopic pinpricks of light in the heavenly curtain of darkness.  As we stand and see their tiny lights radiating towards us, it blows the mind that the light we see now, has been in transit from that star, for years, lightyears. Arriving just now from the era when God created the heavens and the earth. 

But greater than the night sky is God in his magnitude, but also in the minute detail of something so massive and eternal.  We hear that God’s glory is still bigger!  We join with King David, the Psalmist, in contemplating his eternal question, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You have set your glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 8:1 ESV) David literally says, “O I AM, our ruler!”  The Existing One, is our keeper!  His majesty is immeasurably wide.  But, despite this, David realises we have access to him by simply calling on his name, “Yahweh”, which is “I AM”, I exist!  And furthermore, the glory of his name is greater the heavens!

As a child, on the farm, there were times when I would look at the majestic twilight sky and try to imagine the width and length of eternity.  I stared into the orange light, the cloud tails, and the fading into blue darkness with stars beginning to appear.  No matter what distance I could imagine.  I was in awe that my imaginings, were just that imaginings, only the beginnings, insignificant, terribly shortsighted, and childish.

King David reflects, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” (Psalm 8:2 ESV)

One might think that my childish imaginings are still greater than the cooing and garbled words of babies and infants.  Yet, I am reminded, that before I could imagine and ponder, while I was still an infant totally dependent on my mother, God had set in place strength that stops his enemies or haters, his foes or those who are cramped by him, and the avenger or those who carry a grudge against him.

What is made clear by God to David and us, is that the Almighty, works completely contrary to our intellect and what we imagine to be strength.

It’s at this point David and all of us remember that we’re the babies and infants of Adam.  Imbedded in the way we think, feel, work and reason, is the original sin we’ve inherited from Adam.  This makes me, a child of Adam, ponder the brokenness of my existence in the face of God.  Why would he begin to consider me?  If I am the same as Adam, and the rest of humanity, why shouldn’t his glory write me off and annihilate me?

How often do I regard God as the enemy, when I am suffering, when I don’t get my way, when my actions work against the truth of his word?  Like Adam, I am tempted to see God as the enemy, to see him as a deceiver, and thereby, I am deceived by Satan, the father of lies.  So, standing under the stars, I stand humbly in awe of the privilege of being allowed to live.  My sinful work pales into insignificance compared to the works of God in creation.  I realise how much my sinful being is completely dwarfed by his being, who has created the heavens and the earth, and still preserves everything that exists.

Be it the exquisite minute detail of a flower.  How animals know to migrate at the right time?  The order of the planets revolving around the sun without crashing into each other.  My smallness and my lack of attention to detail is highlighted by God’s extraordinary control of creation.  I am brought back to standing under the stars, not to worship them, but to worship he who made them.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”  (Psalm 8:3–4 ESV)

Why is God mindful of me?  A child of Adam!  It’s right here at this point where all seems lost, we hear that God cares for the son of man.  He cares for the son of Adam, in spite of our weakness, despite our deadly ungodliness.  Saint Paul reminds us, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6&8 ESV)

The Son of Man is Jesus Christ!  We hear from the author of Hebrews, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:8b–9 ESV)

Adam’s disorder, our disorder, has been handed over to Jesus Christ to reorder.  Nothing has been left outside his control.  This Son of Man is the Son of God.  King David says of God, “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:5 ESV)

Indeed, Christ was made low, he was willing to go the opposite way to Adam.  Adam unfaithfully sought to be God.  But Jesus faithfully submitted to God the Father, and although he is God the Son, he was prepared to put aside his Godliness, and became human, for you, for me, for King David. 

This is the love of God the Father and God the Son for humanity.  Jesus Christ became the Son of Man.  He became lower than the heavenly beings, lower than the angels.  He became lower than sinful humanity, to serve and save humanity, because God considers humanity the jewel of his creation.

We were the gold of God’s creation but became fool's gold against God.  But God loves us so much he gave the gold of his divinity in his only Son, who suffer death and broke the crucible of hell.  So, we might have the impurities of foolishness removed from us, so we might be the golden children we were meant to be.

When I stand and look at the stars and know that God is greater than these works of his.  And as I ponder that Jesus who was with the Father in his work of creation, departed his dominion to descend below me to the depts of depravity in my place, then my heart leaps in the knowledge of God’s love for me. 

In knowing God’s love in his forgiveness of you and me, through Jesus’ death, see the greater works of God in his work of salvation!  You and I are his new creation, through Jesus Christ!  You and I are perfectly restored in him!

But the love of God does not end there!  The threefold being of love that God is, is for us.  In Christ we have been grafted into God’s circle of love.  The love of God the Father and God the Son is continued in us with the Holy Spirit who in being sent in love from the Father and the Son, now loves to lead us to the Father and the Son. 

With such love, see that we are restored as the golden pinnacle of God’s creation. 

We hear of God, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:6–8 ESV)

In Jesus Christ our care of creation has been reset, since God has given Jesus’ dominion over the works of his hands. The Holy Spirit now works with us, God’s re-creation, to cover our world with care and prayer in his name.  So that the world knows that Yahweh is the Lord, our Lord, through the majesty, the wideness, of his name in all the earth. Amen. 

C, Pentecost - Acts 2:11b-12, Genesis 11:1-9, John 14:12-14 "What Works"

Acts 2:11b–12 (ESV) “‘We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.’  And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”

The salvation of humanity is about the works of God being heard, accepted, believed and received by humanity.  God has always worked to bring people into common oneness with him.  However, people have not always received the works of God and have sought other ways forward, contrary the work of God in his creation.

However, every person knows within their being, that everything exists and is created for a purpose.  We don’t exist for no reason!  But why we exist is a mystery to many, as God who created the heavens and the earth, is not real, but a myth.  Therefore, the transcendence of God Almighty is reduced to some kind of spiritual force somewhere in the cosmos.  Yet people today are still looking for spiritual meaning.  It has been no different since the beginning of humanity. 

At the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended into heaven, many were gathered for the Jewish harvest festival fifty days after the Passover.  This is the Passover where Jesus was crucified on the cross, buried, and raised from the dead on the third day.  Much had happened in these fifty days since.  We could imagine, if social media was a thing back then, phone screens would have been burning bright with speculation and social memes (short texts, images, or videos) as to what was going on. 

At this first Pentecost, after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, many Jews were gathered in Jerusalem.  Humanity being what it is, we know there would have been the same surge of social intrigue, albeit, without electronic devices!  So, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Apostles with the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the gathered people saw the tongues of fire over their heads, this would have only fed the feeding frenzy of gossip already around.

We know when feeding frenzies occur, the babble that occurs can be confused, to say the least.  It was no different at Pentecost in Jerusalem, some were amazed and surprised, some were perplexed and confused, and some were both.   We hear the Jews from different nations question, “What does this mean?” or more widely, the crowd determined to know, “What is this?  What’s going on? How and why is this occurring?”  Imagine if this happened today, everyone would have their phone cameras rolling, and social media would be abuzz!

Long before Abraham, Isaac, and Israel existed; about two thousand years or so before Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and this confusion at Pentecost, humanity was one.  It was the days after the flood and the descendants of Noah were pondering the dispersal from the location of the Ark.  They were also drifting away from God, having been saved from the flood.

We hear from Genesis eleven, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” (Genesis 11:1–2 ESV)

There was human oneness, many could only dream about today!  They had one will and determination.  Was their will good?  They thought so!

As they moved from the mountains they settled on the plains and said amongst themselves, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:3–4 ESV)

No one is sure exactly where Noah’s Ark landed.  Nevertheless, why leave a mountainous area, venture onto a plain, and then build a tower?  Why not stay on a mountain and build a tower there? Even if they built a tower as tall as the Twin Towers in New York, it would have been only as lofty as the lowest mountains in the area.

Mountains were the place where people met with God.  Yet, the population moved as one, to the plain, away from God, and built a tower to make a name for themselves.  Why they acted in this way could have been for many reasons.  Did they not trust God, or did they not fear God?  We will never know for sure.   What we do know is, it was a collective act against God’s work and creative call, to multiply and fill all the earth.

It seems today we are still seeking to build these towers to make a name for ourselves, to give us a place to which we can look upon what a cooperative community can do.  Our society needs these towers of oneness, to calm the collective confusion and fear, having turned from the eternal power and pleasure of the Creator, our Father in heaven.

But God the Father is the Creator.  As we look up to our best and biggest efforts, he comes down to see what the children of men build.  Where we praise ourselves for our oneness, looking up to things other than God, he comes down to reveal his contempt for our efforts.

So, having come down at Babel, God sees and does his work amongst humanity.  He sees the acts of humanity, he sees their collective cooperation where they say, “Come, let us make bricks! Come, let us build a tower!”  In reply, God says, “Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7 ESV)

Today, God still sees the acts of the human spirit, both individually and communally, and actively withdraws, leaving the human spirit in confusion and its worldly language in a babble like Babel. 

At Pentecost God consolidates what he confused at Babel.  He sends Jesus to bring humanity back together having come down into its chaos to carry it on the cross.  After Jesus’ ascension, God reinstates oneness through the power of the Holy Spirit, who truly brings people together, by connecting them to Jesus Christ.  But, in a chaotic confused world of Babylonian proportions, how does he do this?

Before Jesus died, he promised the Holy Spirit would come and be humanity’s help.  The Holy Spirit helps God’s work to happen in those who don’t reject the Holy Spirit’s help!  Help to do what?

With the promise of the Holy Spirit Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

When you believe, “why Jesus had to die for you, why he had to send the Holy Spirit for you, and why he and the Holy Spirit still continually work for you”, he promises, you will not only do the works he did, but do greater works, now that he is with our Father! 

These works you do, are the works of the Holy Spirit, working within you!  They are the acts of the Holy Spirit, the same acts or works of the Apostles, that the Spirit was working through them in the early church. 

Without the Holy Spirit, without the work of God, our acts are just that, an act!  It matters not how loving these deeds look!  It matters not how good the works appear!  It matters not how unified people believe they are in these acts!  Without the Holy Spirit to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify, those who work without the Holy Spirit, and their works, are just an act!  Many who continue to work their ways and build their Babels, build a Babylonian confusion as high as heaven, to their detriment, and sin against the Holy Spirit. 

Hear what John heard the angel from heaven say, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit.” (Revelation 18:2a ESV)

Then John heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”  (Revelation 18:4–5 ESV)

But when the Holy Spirit acts within, you will know your sin!  Therefore, hear and act in his call to repentance, receive forgiveness of sin, be gathered as one believing this forgiveness through Jesus’ work.  Jesus promises you who allow the Holy Spirit to act within, will truly confess, and witness his forgiveness, to the ends of the earth.  This is the working acts of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.  Amen.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. (Psalm 104:24 ESV) May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, (Psalm 104:31 ESV) within his creation, within his creatures, within us.  Amen.