God’s New Creation
The Rev. Sandy Selby –
7th Sunday of Easter (Rogation Day) – May
20, 2007
Texts – Deuteronomy 11:10-17 and Romans
8:18-25
Today we celebrate “Rogation Day,” one of the great
festivals of the church year at
Rogation Day, from the Latin rogare--meaning “to ask”--was established early in Church history as
a day on which to ask, with prayer and fasting, for God to forgive transgressions
and provide a bountiful harvest. By the 6th century the three days
prior to Ascension Day were established as “Rogation Days,” for which the
collects and readings reflect on humankind’s stewardship of God’s creation and
ask for God’s blessing on our work in the world—whether that work is
agricultural or otherwise. While we at
The reading from Deuteronomy, quoting one of Moses’
sermons about God’s covenant with
In our age of technology and urbanization it can be easy
for us to feel removed from the cycles and forces of nature. Rogation Day
reminds us that while God may have given humankind a privileged place in the
order of creation, we do not rightfully stand apart from it. Indeed, the mounting
evidence for global warming and our role in causing it, along with recent news
accounts of fire in Florida and California, tornadoes in Kansas, and flooding
in the Midwest, remind us that we forget our intimate connection with nature at
our peril.
The story of the advance of civilization has been the
story of humankind’s attempts to tame nature—building dams to harness energy
and irrigate the land, and taking numerous species of animals to the brink of
extinction while providing ourselves with light, food, warmth, and fashion.
Theologians and scientists, politicians and citizens have struggled with what
it means to have dominion over the earth.
Paul’s
letter to the Romans, from which we read this morning, is in part an exposition
on the Genesis story of the sin of Adam and Eve—the sin of disobedience against
God that has been manifested and repeated throughout history in a long string
of transgressions of person against person and humankind against nature. Against
the corruption and decay of the old creation Paul places before us a vision of
the new creation. This cosmic vision of salvation is not just about you and me
getting right with God but about our participation in the renewal and
transformation of the world and all therein. The death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ ushers in this transformation, for it is in Christ, Scripture
tells us, that God will in “the fullness of time, gather up all things,
things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:10).
I
don’t know about you, but my take on the state of the world is that God has a
whole lot of “gathering up” to do, for in many ways we have made a mess of
God’s creation. Theologians tend to speak of the “atonement”—the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ—as an event in which humankind was reconciled
with God once and for all. But we may also think of the atonement (literally “at-one-ment” with God) as a process
that began with the death and resurrection of Jesus and will reach its
consummation when “God (will) reconcile
to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven” (
In Romans Paul writes of the “new exodus” on which we
have embarked, having been freed by our baptism from the bondage of sin and
death. Like the ancient Hebrews we experience suffering during our journey
through the wilderness and long for the promised fulfillment. Paul makes clear
that we share that longing with all creation when he says: “For the creation
itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom
of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been
groaning in labor pains until now, and not only the creation, but we
ourselves.”
We live now in the tension between the old creation which
we have made a mess of and the new creation that God is working to bring about
through us. The “labor pains” are all around us in cries for justice and an end
to poverty, for peace among the nations, and for responsible stewardship of our
environment.
The Bible is clear that the new creation is reached not by
relegating the present one to the trash heap, but by transforming it. We are
called to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ by promoting justice,
freedom, and peace and by protecting and restoring the beauty of God’s
creation. In this work God empowers us through the Holy Spirit to be partners
with God in co-creating a future in which we will finally share, with all
things in heaven and on earth, in the glory of God.
On
Rogation Day we are reminded that the beauty of creation is not something to be
exploited for our own gain, but rather something that we are charged with
bringing to new birth as a sign of hope for what the Holy Spirit will yet do in
transforming the world. In this we can be guided by the beauty and simplicity
of nature which--if we stop, look and listen--gives us glimpses of the peace which
passes all understanding. In the words of the poet Wendell Berry: