Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - August 31, 2025

20:20 Thank you all, and thank you for having me. As we approach the word this morning, let us pray. Holy and gracious God, we thank you for the gift of this day, for your word proclaimed in spoken words, in song, in conversation. God as we approach your word in scripture we ask that you send your spirit to move through this place to move over us so that we may receive the word you would have for us and now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God our rock and our redeemer Amen So we are hanging out in the Old Testament this morning. Our first reading comes out of Isaiah chapter 43.

21:18 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he formed you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Our second reading is from Genesis chapter 1 and then a little bit out of chapter 2. Listen to these familiar words perhaps with new attention.

22:17 Let's try that again. When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. and there was evening and there was morning the first day and God said let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters so God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome and it was so God called the dome sky and there was evening and there was morning the second day and God said let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear and it was so God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and God saw that it was good.

23:41 Then God said, let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with a seed in it. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with seed in it. And God saw that it was good. and there was evening and there was morning the third day. We're going to jump ahead. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude and on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done and rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation.

24:37 Friends, this is the word of God for us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Well, good morning. That was pretty good. Good morning. It is truly a joy and privilege to be with you today. I bring greetings from my colleagues and friends at Princeton Theological Seminary. A special thanks to Chris for hosting me and Stephanie for making all the arrangements. Now this theme you all have been exploring this summer, water in the desert, seems especially apt for this time, goodness for this week. But water, water is tricky. It is both necessary and powerful, life-giving and dangerous. And in Genesis 1, specifically the first verses that we read, there is a lot of water in that story.

25:39 After creating day and night on day one, God separates the waters above from the waters below on day two. On day three, God then calls the water of the earth together to make space for land. And jumping ahead, the part we didn't read, on the fifth day, God fills those waters with fish and sea creatures. It is those waters that nurture plant and animal life and nourish the garden in which the first humans are placed. As a child who grew up in church, I remember learning this story for the first time in Sunday school. My teacher had a big felt board on an easel. Do we remember these? Yes. And all of us kids were seated on the floor in front of it. And every child got a flat figure, a piece of the creation story, a sun, a moon, water, land, a fish, a tree, an elephant, you get the idea. And then as the teacher read the story from Genesis chapter 1, each of us had the honor of standing up and putting our item on the board as directed or sometimes physically guided by the teacher.

26:48 Each one of us brought our pieces forward until in the end we had this perfect, surprisingly neat, put-together image of the earth, the sea, and the sky. Everything was in its place. The animals, the fish, the stars, the water, even the Adam and Eve figures, complete with fig leaves, of course. They were placed on the land with some flowers around them. Everything was organized. Everything in its place. And I thought that this, this is God's good creation. But that lovely picture on a felt board is not the world we live in, is it? Even though we might wish it were. Things don't fit neatly into place. Everything is not in order.

27:45 We live in a world that is scarred by literal and metaphorical storms. chaotic waters that seem to roar and foam in stark contrast to the harmonious waters described in Genesis chapter 1. Literally the waters are chaotic and unruly with rivers and oceans overflowing their banks flooding houses and schools hospitals and churches and even summer camps. We recognize and grieve the deadly and devastating power of water, whether in Texas or North Carolina or Louisiana, as we remember the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina this week.

28:31 Churning waters and raging storms overturn boats and erode shorelines. Frozen water contained in glaciers melt with the warming earth, causing sea levels to rise. It seems that the water is chaotic and disorderly and not staying in its place. And not only are the literal waters wreaking havoc, we are living amid chaotic, unsettling, and deadly metaphorical storms. The ongoing reality of gun violence seems to permeate our lives, whether with shootings in our city or incidents of mass violence across the country. We feel the anger, the frustration, the grief, and the helplessness when such senseless violence terrorizes communities or children at school, even in prayer, as happened in Minneapolis this week. It feels like another wave crashing on the shore, another community ripped apart, devastated, traumatized by violence.

29:45 And we begin to question yet again if we will pick our love of weapons over our love of human life. we live amid the storms of international conflict and the unfathomable realities of famine in places like Gaza or Sudan or Yemen we live amid the chaos of political division drowning under the deluge of never-ending news stories policy shifts and court decisions too many of which make us fear the erosion of democracy or the safety of our neighbor or perhaps even ourselves.

30:25 Personally, many of us live amid the storms of rocky relationships, frightening diagnoses, journeys of grief, or caring for children or aging parents. Some of us may even be battling a storm inside, a storm that causes our faith to shake or our trust in people or communities or institutions to falter. Thank you. I don't know about you, but what I wouldn't give for the ordered waters of Genesis 1, the image that fits so neatly on that felt board, how I long for God to look over this creation, this world, this nation, this moment, and be able to honestly call it good. but before we completely dismiss this organized account of Genesis 1 as a fantasy or as a pretty mythical picture of some bygone community's imagination it is worth noting that there is another kind of water in this story yes there is the ordered waters of above and below. There is the water that graciously moves out of the way to make space for land. There is the water that teems with fish and nourishes the plants. But Genesis actually starts with another set of waters. Chaotic waters. Unruly waters. The deep, the te home. As our text reads, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos.

32:16 And darkness covered the face of the deep while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. And what does God do amid and among chaotic waters? God does what only God can do. God speaks. God summons into being. God creates. God creates, or as the Hebrew read, God barahs, something only God does. You see, in the biblical text, animals don't barah, trees don't barah, even humans don't barah. Only God can barah. Only God creates in this way. And God creates amid the deep, among the chaos, alongside the churning waters. You see, God doesn't find the perfect primed property to build on.

33:16 No, God's spirit moves over the chaos, over the waters, over the deep, and it is there, it's there that God chooses to bring forth new life, new hope, unfathomable potentials and possibilities. somewhere between chaotic and ordered waters god creates because this is who god is this is what god does from the beginning when god began to create god's spirit moves over the deep the chaos and summons life and as it turns out this systematic account of genesis 1 is not just about order or an attempt at a methodological or even scientific account of creation. Biblical scholars suggest that this version of the creation story was written for Israelites in exile in the 6th century BCE, for those who had been violently dragged away from their homeland and now resided in a foreign land under foreign rule. You see, this account of creation is not for the put together.

34:30 it was for those who felt rudderless and lost amid the chaos of their time and their political moment. This version was written down to remind those in exile of God's ongoing creative and creating work. As Old Testament scholar of blessed memory Walter Brueggemann suggests, this text is not an abstract statement about the origin of the universe. It is not for general ruminations about the world. This text was and continues to be a ground for faith in God when more immediate historical experience is against it. The affirmation is this. God can be trusted even against contemporary data. because the reality is God is not deterred by chaos.

35:32 God creates amid chaos. And with those Israelites in exile, we are invited to recognize and even join in on those acts of creation when the world seems to be proclaiming nothing but death and destruction or hate and division or hurt and hopelessness. Friends, we are invited to recognize God with us and join in the creative work already begun.

36:00 So back when I was a graduate student in Atlanta, what feels like many moons ago, I would volunteer once a week with a community that hosted and cared for homeless folks in the neighborhood. Every morning they would serve a hot breakfast and provide bag lunches. In addition, they had a phone and a computer with internet access folks could use, as well as a coat closet of donated clothes. I remember one Friday morning in February, walking over from my apartment to the community house. It was raining steadily, but I know it had been pouring most of the night. When I got there about 5.30 in the morning, people were already starting to line up outside, and it was clear all of them were wet, chilled, and miserable from a stormy night on the streets. As I worked my way through the crowd to the door, I could hear them grumbling and jostling, arguing about who got there first. And once we opened the doors and began to serve our neighbors, there were so many folks lined up, we were worried we didn't have enough food.

37:06 people filed in dripping wet covering the floor with water and that beautiful red mud that can only come from red georgia clay my main job that day was to manage the food line with each new person i tried my best to smile and welcome them wish them a good morning and invite them to grab a plate but most people just grimaced or rolled their eyes at me one guy even snapped at me saying good morning, there ain't nothing good about this morning, buzz off. He didn't say buzz. The small dining room was loud and chaotic, with guests pushing their way through the food line. Dishes and metal trays banged from the small kitchen in the back as volunteers tried to prep food and wash dishes as quickly as possible.

38:02 Arguments broke out in the dining room. Folks pushed past each other in the hallway as they lined up to use the phone and the computer. the air was heavy with exhaustion and frustration and overwhelm. At some point, the coordinator asked if I might try and clean up the front hallway, do my best to mop up the water so that people didn't slip, and maybe so that red mud didn't stain the old linoleum floors. I remember grabbing the mop and the bucket and trudging amid the noise and chaos to the front hall. To be honest, I was over it. I hated the idea of sending these folks back out into the rainy day, but I was also ready for this stressful and terrible morning to be over. Trying to tune out the noise and the voices and the continual sound of dishes banging around in the back, I began to mop the hallway.

39:01 But I quickly grew frustrated because with each push of the mop, it seemed that the river of muddy water would come rushing back in, or a new person would trudge through, adding to the small lake that had formed in the entryway. then I heard it. Over the clutter and the commotion, over the heaviness and the hopelessness, I heard music. I looked into the living room that housed the clothes closet. It was packed with people. Some were there to vie for dry socks or clean pants. Others, I think, were just trying to stay an extra minute in the dry and warm before having to go back out into that soggy, chilly day. And then I saw him, one of our guests, sitting at the piano in the corner, fingers on the keys, eyes closed, with inexplicably glorious music emanating from that out-of-tune instrument.

40:09 and then he modulated into a familiar hymn and in a deep rugged baritone began to sing precious lord take my hand lead me on let me stand i am tired i am weak i am worn through the storm through the night lead me on to the light take my hand precious lord lead me home as the verse unfolded the room got quiet and soon even the dining room stilled as the sound of the him drifted across the hall. And then after only that one verse, the musician stopped. He turned as if to get off the piano bench, and immediately a woman across the room stood up and cried out, what do you think you're doing? We're having church up in here. And with that, she began to lead the room in a hymn sing, the pianist playing along as best he could.

41:24 And then somebody recited their favorite Bible verse, and the next thing you know, we were even being led in prayer by the man who had told me to buzz off earlier that day. And all of the sudden, that bedraggled and drenched group of homeless guests, that cohort of exhausted volunteers turned into a congregation, a church, a choir singing together, God had created community out of chaos, even if for a moment.

42:06 Because friends, that's what God does. That's who God is. God is not absent from or deterred by chaotic waters, by the storms of life, by the spaces that feel uncontained, broken, or even destructive. On the contrary, it is from, amid, among chaotic waters that God creates, that God summons newness that we might not even be able to imagine. and we as people of faith are invited to pay attention to how God is at work among the chaos and we are invited to join in the creative work even when it seems a small melody in the overwhelming cacophony.

43:05 For in the beginning when God began to create The earth was complete chaos. And darkness covered the face of the deep, and wind swirled over the face of the waters, and then God created.

43:26 God is still creating. May we trust. May we notice. And may we join in the song. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you. in response to God's word let us join in the prayer of the day as is printed in your bulletin or is on your screen I invite you to rise in body or spirit and join together creative and creating God we live our days between calm and turbulent waters We are seeking peace amid storms, seeking safety amid rising tides of conflict and change, seeking control when the chaos and uncertainty seems overwhelming.

44:24 And yet, God, we know you are with us. We trust in your capacity to guide us through, to calm the storm, to create order again and again in the midst of chaos. You sustain us with the refreshment of your living water. Sustain us again this day for the journey. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.