Psalm 90; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; November 19, 2023; Stewardship/Commitment Sunday
“Lord, you have been our dwelling, from past to coming age the same;
the Mountains rise to greet your face, the earth proclaims the Maker’s name.”
- Psalm 90: from Hal H. Hopson’s adaptation for song.
——
Friends, help me finish the phrase:
Diamonds are… forever.
Diamonds are…a girl’s best friend.
Diamonds are…accidental passengers.
Wait, what?
You see, the other night I was watching this documentary about fascinating facts of our Earth. And as you know by now, I love documentaries. Well, this one wasn’t the most provocative, but what it had to say about diamonds was indeed fascinating. As most of us know already, diamonds are old, and diamonds are precious. But did you know that diamonds are typically dated anywhere from 90-million years old to 3.5 billion years old!? Billion. The documentary went on to explain that without tectonic plate shift and old continental formations, diamonds perhaps would remain undiscovered to this day. But because of those forces of creation, in addition to volcanic eruptions and pipes bursting beneath our crust, diamonds have “accidently” gone on a journey through time and matter as magma forced its way upward through the darkness towards the surface and carrying with it diamonds along the way.
Now, I don’t pretend to know exactly what I’m talking about here, as I’m just a clergyman cosplaying as a geologist today. But while the real geologist indeed called diamonds “accidental passengers,” he also said that in addition to being modern reminders of love as worn and represented on many of our fingers, that diamonds, these precious stones, are also ancient reminders of our Earth’s creative processes… and to that I thought, creation and love, those are two things I don’t have to pretend to be a geologist to talk about!
For since the beginning of time, God has created, and has done so out of love. And in the beginning, God set forth actions in motion that lead to love made manifest in our image, in the incarnation of God made flesh, in Jesus Christ. And in Jesus Christ, all of us have found our dwelling place, and have been fashioned into children of Jesus’ light; who even when living in darkness, are yet called to surface as lights shining ourselves, like diamonds reflecting the light of him who first went before us. Amen!
I do wonder though if maybe like diamonds we are “accidental passengers,” considering how often we screw everything up, and seem hell bent on hating and destroying this Earth and the creation we’ve been given by God as a gift out of love. Perhaps, I wonder, after watching another week filled with wars and ugly politics, if God first intended the world to exist in mere water and cloud form, in tree and star, in sand and rock, and, in all those beautiful natural things alone… “the Mountains rise to greet your face” our choir just sang from Psalm 90. “The Mountains rise…” Perhaps then, I wonder, maybe God’s first idea of creation had nothing to do with us at all, hence why it took over four billion years for us to finally appear (we have only occupied the last .007% of this worlds’ history!).
Maybe then, in God’s infinite and unknowable wisdom that gave birth to the process of evolution, a chain of events was set off that spun off in new and creative ways; such that when humans finally appeared, God said, “hmm, well isn’t that interesting, I guess I’ll love these creatures too!” … but then shortly after seeing how these creatures/us humans treated and killed each other, and how we ravaged what God had created and oversaw for 4 billion years prior, God said “on second thought, forget these people, these accidental passengers… drowned in a flood they go.” Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps…
You turn us back to dust,
and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’
For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past,
or like a watch in the night.
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place
in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
- Psalm 90:3-4; 1-2
Before the mountains were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting you are our God. Accident or not then, we, who screw everything up, are in the beginning and in the end, God’s own. For we are from the earth, the very ground, water, bacteria, and dust from which God first created. And by some miracle of grace, and movement of the Spirit, we have found God’s favor; and ever since the day we came to be, miraculously God has been patient with us, polishing us, pushing us to rise like magma through our hardened crusts, so to burst through the surfaces of our hateful and destructive sin, outward from darkness and into God’s creative and love-filled light.
“Our mornings may you fill with love, and show your grace when day is past;
that all our lids may favor find, till we shall be with you at last.”
- Psalm 90, from Hal H. Hopson’s adaptation for song.
You see then, my friends, God’s story is a love story. A narrative written in forgiveness, patience, and grace. Not because we are perfect creatures, nor even that we were ever meant to be here in the first place. But that along the way of time and upon our journey, God saw us and found in us something that God could love. Such that even when life goes south, or fully under; or even when generations fade, and our memory forgets, God even then promises to remain faithful to us. To bear with us, and wear us, like a diamond on a ring.
No matter then today if you are asleep or awake, withering or flourishing, falling flat on your face or standing tall, you are all still God’s. Such that even if one day, be it tomorrow or a thousand years from now all of your pledges have run dry and this building is no more, even then, we will still be okay! Why? For the Lord is our dwelling place; and that dwelling place exists forever, from generation to generation, from everlasting to everlasting.
And so, my friends, as God’s chosen and elected creatures, we have been brought into a mutual agreement, a vow, and a covenant to be stewards of this earth and all else which God has created, before, during, and after us. And so it is our calling to tend to the Earth, and to tend to God’s people, and to tend to the bridegroom of Christ, which is the church.
Finally then, the same way that Christ was sent to polish us up as humans, so too have we been called to polish up Christ’s church for generations to come. With our gifts. With our energy, our time, our talents, our resources. Such that even in the darkness’ of our sin, with all of our wars, hate, and destructive habits, this place, and the light of his gospel, yet may shine and sparkle in the midst of it all, forever, like diamonds.
Amen.
