Here is the link to the service sheet. The reflection for Creation Sunday is below the video
service 7 2 21
Reflection for Creation Sunday Colossians 1 15-17
Today is Creation Sunday. As Christians we believe that God pushed the start button of Creation. How this all happens is the work of the scientist but with the core belief that Creation is God’s work and as such is precious, is key for Christians. It should affect how we behave.
The great hymn of praise to Jesus at the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Colossians reminds us that God is in all and that Jesus is God.
Christ is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;
for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created,
things visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers
– all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians1.15-17
We hear the same themes of Creation and Jesus as God in our gospel reading
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. John 1 1-3
This week we have seen a few spring days as January left the building and February gave us hints of the spring to come. On my walks around the parish there have been the natural sculptures of bare branches against the blue sky and the first spring flowers in the gardens. Creation in beautiful and it has been easy to worship the Creator God outside. It won’t be long before the warm weather is here and lockdown begins to be lifted and we can return to life as it was. But should we?
I was at a theology lecture this week where the question was asked ‘what do we want to keep from our lockdown experience and what do we want to lose?’ That is a big question. It applies to national life, church life and our individual lives so there is lots to think about and it will take time. What I took away from that evening was the need to pause, to consider and to reflect on the experience of lockdown, how we got here and only then, look to the future. The temptation will be to try and recreate the old normal and pretend that the last twelve months didn’t happen. This was what happened a hundred years ago when the Spanish flu pandemic was forgotten as people raced into the roaring twenties.
If creation is not chance but the work and intent of the divine then perhaps we need to treat it as something to be wondered and worked with rather than used and abused. Perhaps on this Creation Sunday we need to remember that this world is God’s Creation and not ours. Our role is as good stewards of that creation. As stewards of Creation how do we prevent another pandemic? What conditions of animal husbandry led to crossover of the virus from animal to human and how might that be changed? How might we in our individual and local lives work with the natural world around us, rather than using it and letting others deal with the damage?
These are big questions and what we might do that is work in progress, but pausing to wonder at the beauty of Creation and worshipping the one who made in – Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a good place to start our journey out of lockdown. Let’s press the pause button.
We act because we worship, not worship after acting.
Pause.