Sermon - Chaos Turned to Peace

Preached January 13, 2008 at The First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC.

Psalm 29
Matthew 3:13-17

Dedicated to my uncle Cliff Flick; and always to the glory of God.

There were three friends who met together for lunch. One was a doctor, one an architect, and one an economist. After a bit they began a friendly argument about whose profession was the oldest.
The doctor said “When God made the very first humans, he took a rib from Adam to create Eve, which is clearly a medical procedure.”
“Aha,” said the architect. “If we’re going back to the beginning then it’s no question, because before God made people God designed and created a world for them to live in, just like an architect.”
“I’m afraid I’ve still got you both beat,” said the third. “My profession is still the oldest.”
“How can that be?” his friends objected. “Before the creation of people and the earth there was only chaos.”
“Well,” said the economist. “Who do you think invented that?”

“In the beginning,” says the creation story in the book of Genesis, “when God made the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). I need to tell you that for us in the 21st century to hear this story we need to hear it with ancient ears, and they would have known that the waters represent nothing less than chaos. In the beginning, there was no land, no life, no light, only the swirling waters of chaos. The voice of God brought order to chaos. On the first day: light. On the second day, God created a dome called sky to separate the waters below from the waters above. Remember this is an ancient text from a time when they viewed the world as a surface here with a domed sky holding back the sea above, from which the rains came. On the third day, God gathered the rest of the waters together in once place and made land to appear. When we hear it with ancient ears, the creation story is about God arriving to a formless void of chaos, all water, and putting the chaos in it’s place. This is a story about God turning chaos to order, that we might live in peace.

In the middle east, in that area near the fertile crescent from which our sacred scriptures come, the sea was chaos because what you feared most was the flood. A flood in that flattened land would wipe out all you had grown and stored up for yourself. Too much water coming down from the great sea above, too much water welling up around you – that was chaos. For our experience, we need only to remember the streets of New Orleans, the escape holes in rooftops, the disaster in the Superdome. Chaos.

When we understand that the sea is chaos it changes the way the Bible speaks to us. Throughout the psalms, God is praised for holding back the flood. In the story of Noah we learn that when there was a flood, it was because God chose it and God ended it. People shared the story of Jesus calming the storm not just because it’s a great story, but because it told them that Jesus was Lord if Jesus could silence the sea. In the book of Revelation, when God creates a new heaven and a new earth, it says that the sea is no more. If we didn’t know what that meant, then those of us who love the ocean would be very sad about a future with no beaches to walk. It only makes sense when we remember that the sea is chaos. In the new earth that God will make, the sea is no more, because chaos, pain, and tears are no more.

Do you hear the good news of these ancient scriptures? Can you hear them telling us of the good God has done for them? Not just telling us, but calling to us; they want us to continue the song of praise that has long faded from their lips.

In the psalm we heard this morning, the psalmist tells the good news of God’s power over chaos. He says “the voice of the Lord is over the waters.” “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”

Can we join that prayer? Is the Lord still enthroned over the waters, the flood of chaos? What do you think? Does the world seem to have order to you, or are we bobbing along in the chaos, trying to keep our heads above for as long as we can? It is not difficult to make the case that chaos is the rule in this world.
-One person is born to prosperity and another is born into a refugee camp.
-One person discovers by chance a blood clot that is treated in time while another person who was healthy got regular check-ups, dies young of an aggressive tumor no one saw coming.
-One soldier comes home safely from a third tour in Iraq, while another loses her legs in just her first week in country.
-One day everything goes your way, and the next day you can hardly come up to breathe. It feels like it’s raining and it’s never going to stop. Chaos.

All of that is true. But still we proclaim that the Lord is enthroned over the chaos. Hear the words of the psalmist again: “May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”

I believe that God gives us strength, and turns our chaos to peace.
- Someone is born to a refugee camp, but those inspired with the strength of God’s justice are providing relief, are helping to relocate and house those who have fled their homes. In the past six weeks, our denomination the United Church of Christ held a campaign to raise over $100,000 to provide humanitarian assistance to some of the 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced by the war to camps in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, to provide food, water, health care and education.
- Someone is dying, but those who are filled with the strength of God’s compassion are caring for the sick in the way that Mother Teresa would wrap her arms around those who were dying in the streets of Calcutta, pledging that even if she could not prolong their lives, she could make sure that they did not die alone, that they died with the loving embrace of God, just as many of you have done for one whom you loved.
- Someone is caught in the violence of war, but those inspired by the strength of the prince of peace are working for a better way to make our world secure and its people free - working to care for those who suffer the most senseless acts of war, those whose bodies or spirits are broken.

God gives us strength, not to magically bring an end to all the chaos of disease, violence, and injustice, but to have strength in the midst of the storm, bringing order, and making peace.

God’s spirit hovered over the waters of chaos and brought them into order, and then, years later, the spirit of God descended from the heavens over Jesus, who was baptized in the Jordan River. The spirit of God came again in him to turn chaos into peace, and I believe that in the same way, the spirit of God comes again in us. The mysterious grace in baptism tells me that God’s voice says to each of us as God said to Jesus: This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased. With the spirit of God as our strength, we will see the chaos of our lives turned to peace.