Glimpses of God's Kingdom - Fifth Sunday of the Season of Creation
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
October 06, 2024
This Sunday is All Creatures Sunday at Grace, as we conclude the Season of Creation. Each week the readings have focused upon creation and our place within it, from forests to rivers to storms to all creatures. We have joined churches around the world encouraging each other to live with hope and courage even in changing times and to seek to heed God’s call to care for all God has made.
Today for the first time in over a decade, I will not be blessing our dog Toby at our Pet Blessing because he is now chasing bunnies in heaven. I thought about “Toby of Blessed Memory” when Jesus tells us we do not need to worry so much, because we can trust
God. Toby trusted us totally. We could travel anywhere with him and he was always just fine as long as his food and water bowls made the trip. Toby got to follow me from the end of Seminary to Reading, Luzerne County, State College and Boalsburg. And he made friends everywhere he went because he just loved people. He loved unconditionally. Sometimes he loved a little too well. He used to be so dedicated to giving kisses that we joked that he couldn’t hold his licker- and the less likely you were to like dogs, the more likely you were to get a big sloppy kiss.
In Reading, our church had an afterschool program in the city with as many as 120 kids coming for a hot meal, and a bag of groceries for the weekend. Our kiddos often traveled with a lot of insecurities in their lives, about food, and safety and being loved.
Many of them had needs for emotional support or individualized education and by about 3:30 in the afternoon as they rolled in, the best of their meds and emotional balance were gone. They had lots of reasons to be sad, or mad or scared and late in the day found it hard to hold it together. They were being lovingly cared for by a host of retirees who had a heart for them but after cooking and setup, by 3:30 in the afternoon they were also finding it hard to keep going. They too had reasons to be sad, mad or scared. Sometimes it was a pretty chaotic world. I decided to bring Toby to be a peaceful and loving presence because he was like the Zen master of dogs. Nothing ever set him off.
What I did not realize was that since many of my kiddos came from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico or Haiti, they came from places where dogs may not be so domesticated. Dogs might bite or be dangerous. What I thought would reduce worries initially made them worse.
It would be easy for me to tell them not to worry, but what they needed to do was see it.
That’s what Jesus is talking about when he tells people not to worry. Consider the birds and lilies. When we see how they are cared for and what they offer, we can believe it’s true for us too. As Toby looked up with these big loving eyes, gently wagged his tail and sat patiently for them to pet him or maybe get a kiss from him, kids moved from being scared, to trusting. Then they’d ask “when is Toby coming back?” “Can you walk him down my street?” He drew them in to a place of trust and love and providing- that’s God and how God uses humble creatures to show us glimpses of the kingdom.
When Toby had had enough of the sometimes overly aggressive loving gestures of the kids he would give me the look, “Mom, it’s time to go.” He remained calm because he trusted me to care for him and not leave him feeling overwhelmed. That’s God too. Toby never said a word but if he did, it would have been to say, “I’m here to help.” Being present, staying present and offering compassion reminded everyone who God was so they could trust they were loved unconditionally and could be at ease with each other.
The lovely thing about Jesus is he is not chiding us for worrying. It is human to be sad, mad or scared sometimes. Jesus names it and we should too. Then we can move from being disregulated or ill at ease into moments where we can trust in God’s love and
providing. We can sense it through each other. The beauty of creation is an expression of God’s desire for all of creation to be well. That’s the place of the peaceable kingdom where the lion lies down with the lamb. Because we all need to feel loved, perhaps most of all when we are acting out in non-loving ways. It may seem hard but it is when we most need Jesus’ reassurance.
There are lots of ways we can encounter this in creation- maybe in seeing the sun came up again today after a long night of the soul. Maybe it is the sound of a bird, or the constancy of the trees. Creation reminds us God is with us and providing for us with
glimpses of the kingdom.
We live in a time when we are finding it hard to trust a lot of the time. We find it hard to trust others and so we often try to grab whatever we need. When we take matters into our own hands, the results are often the opposite of what we most need or long for. Beneath our lack of trust in each other is the real possibility we find it hard to trust God. Back when we all used to use coins as money, it was right there every time we made change, “IN GOD WE TRUST.”
Now, we have to look for those signs elsewhere, but creation gives us the signs that have been there all along. God knows we need flowers and birds and loving dogs or other things in creation to remind us of God’s enormous presence. And creation needs
us. Jesus is calling us to live as those who turn our worries over to God, who may not seem as loud as the noise of what worries or angers or saddens us. But as we grow in perceiving God, we grow in trusting God is there always providing.
It would be easy for me to just tell you not to worry, but what we all need to sense it. God is right here offering this to all of us. So here’s another glimpse of the kingdom. In Western North Carolina the mules of Mountain Mule Packer Ranch can go where our ATV’s and modern technology cannot with loads of food and supplies headed in and people getting out. The mules are slow and steady servants through whom God is at work. Lots of folk donated supplies, lined up with bag after bag and case after case for
the folks in the mountains. Up to 30% have been trapped with no roads since Helene hit. Mules and humans helping each other to see and preserve this world we are given, beyond our fears and the mule owners said it brought tears to their eyes to see God
working through it all. And speaking for the mules they said that not one mule cared what you look like, where you’re from or who anyone votes for in order to help them. Since then goats are also helping and dogs have been brought in to help care for first
responders and the trauma they are facing. Mule, goats, dogs and humans and if you stop and think about how God arranged the world, we are intended to be connected. This whole universe shows us how much God cares and uses creation to heal with compassion. God wants to use us to show one another that glimpses of the kingdom are a whole lot more beautiful and glorious than worlds of worry and mistrust. Let’s seek the kingdom of God and so much more truly will be given.
Sermon Text: Luke 12:22-31
22 (Jesus) said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have
neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! 29 And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part
without written permission.
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