Home of Parrish W. Jones

(NOTE: This sermon was delivered at First Presbyterian Church, Windber, PA with the use of a video projector and manyslides. Only a few can be reproduced here.)

The Old Testament book of Genesis reads: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." In these simple words, the author/storyteller speaks of the awe of heavenly creation.

We cannot tell for sure but for some 30 million years that Homo Erectus, our precursors, and then Homo Sapiens, that’s us, have roamed the earth it appears that we have contemplated the heavens above with its starry vacuousness at night and the bright blue skies of day which alternate with the vast greyness of the storm and wondered: "What’s out there?"

"Let there be light," says God, "And there was light." There were the starry heavens above and the sun and the moon. Little did anyone think then or even until very recently that we may one day look back from the starry landscape to appreciate the beautiful light in the heavens we call earth. Yet, that is just what happened in the 1950’s and 1960’s and continues to this day.

In those earliest days I heard people worry: "Will going to the moon take away the last speck of mystery in life? Will we lose faith because we have conquered the heavens above as we have the earth below. Yet, as Astronaut Edgar Mitchell viewed his first Earthrise, he said, "Suddenly from behind the rim of the moon in long slow motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . Home." [Edgar Mitchell as quoted in Kevin W. Kelly, ed., The Home Planet (Reading MA: Addison Wesly, 1988), photographs 42-45)]

Seeing these beautiful photographs, hearing the words of these scientists as they speak of their experience has failed to create a crisis of faith, but to enrich our sense of mystery. These photos and videos of earth from space have a rich sublimity that speaks the mysteries of the ages. Instead of being demystified, we are mystified. But sadly we are not mystified enough, for we have begun to ignore the Home about which Edgar Mitchell speaks.

It seems our storyteller in Genesis was also awestruck by the oceans, rivers, lakes and streams, the majestic mountains, and expansive plains and deserts, the vast variety of flora and fauna which accompanied him at home. God spoke to the waters and turned them into lakes and streams, rivers and estuaries, seas and oceans. And God gave birth to the atmosphere that surrounds us and gave birth to the living organisms which gave balance and gave birth to the stability and sustenance of the earth and gave birth to such a teeming variety of things that despite cataclysm after cataclysm, life has gone on, renewed and regenerated by the crisis.

The more I read about biology and evolution (I just completed a book on the Microcosmos) the more I am amazed at how close the storyteller of Genesis got it. The order is almost perfect. He could never have fathomed the detail. It has been three millennia since he told these stories and perhaps as long since they were first put on anything like paper for future generations to read. But here it is. One can only be amazed that such an ancient one as this could recognize the spectacular interrelationships of the things on earth.

We too have been entranced by this bounty. All of us have gone and been amazed and intrigued by the wild animals in the woods, the exotic animals of the zoos, and occasionally, we take time to contemplate the wonders of the plants and animals which surround us at our home within this home.

Yet, the things which we can see are only a superficial glance at God’s spectacular whole. There are things beneath the surface, unavailable to the human eye without the aid of microscope which make our life possible. So dependent on these little microscopic things are we that God gave birth to literally zillions of different ones.

Some of them we call bacteria and viruses. We try our best to wash them away because common wisdom has taught us that all bacteria and viruses are unhealthy. Yet, without these swarms of living things which we cannot see we will die. An humbling truth is that these creatures survived billions of years before us and will likely survive billions of years after humans cease to exist. But you and I are as dependent on these little critters as we are on the food we eat. Micro-organisms of all kinds inhabit out bodies, our soils, the food we eat, and the air we breath. Without them we will die. Some are people killers but most of these creatures some 99+% of them are life givers.

They make it possible for plants to absorb nutrients into their systems so plants can

• produce food for other animals and for us;
• provide shelter for all manner of animals and other plants;
• hold the soil so it does not run off;
• provide the materials for our homes, businesses, and recreation.

They are the foundation of digestion in all animals. Without bacteria and other micro-organisms we could put food into our bodies, but we could not absorb the nutrients. Bacteria live in our mouths, our stomachs, our lungs, our intestines. Just as our bodies are largely made of water, the vacuous cavities of our bodies are filled with micro-organisms. In fact, nearly every cell structure in our bodies can be linked to micro-organisms which have existed millions of years prior to the birth of humanity.

We are given to not paying much attention anymore to the intricate webs of life because for most of us, food is given by supermarkets. Our fears are not that farmers will quit growing food but that our local grocer will close her or his doors. Then where will the food come from. Where it always has—the hand of God through the vitality of nature and the labor of farmers and farm hands.

I believe that God did not just give us this spectacular universe for our physical sustenance, but also that we might wonder and be given to asking, "How can it be?" To speak in awe as did the Psalmist:

God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.

Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
    toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk
    and silence the atheist babble.

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
    your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
    Why do you bother with us?
    Why take a second look our way?

Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
    bright with Eden's dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
    repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
    even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
    whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord,
    your name echoes around the world.

[Eugene H. Peterson, trans. The Message:The New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. (Colorado Springs, Navpress, 1995)]