NOTE: This sermon was preached at First Presbyterian Church, Windber PA with the use of a video projector which projected video images of animals in pursuit of other animals. The videos were of a African waterhole with lions, elephants, birds and the like, and also a clip of a struggle for dominace between two bull mooses. You'll need to use your imagination.

Psalm 104:14-23
Job 38:39-41
Romans 8:18-25
2 Corinthians 12:7-9

When we stand back and look, we see the earth as a beautiful place where animals roam , fly and swim, plants grow to maturity, flower and produce seed for the future growth of the planet. Last week we saw the beauty of the earth and talked about how it all works together and shares, if not mutual dependence, at least an intricate web of dependence. We also hear that humans, while certainly the most complex of organisms and as best we know the most intelligent and conscious of all, still is highly dependent not only on the things we can see but also on the zillions of things we cannot see.

However vast and beautiful the universe and the earth, it is not altogether hospitable as our video first implies. The earth is set in space, an oasis like this earthbound oasis in our video. This space while peaceful and non-threatening with the appropriate gear is still not a hospitable place as the smallest mistake can mean disaster and death to humans and other life forms.

On earth not all is well when we examine things closely. Nature can be mean and brutish as John Stuart Mill wrote in the last century. Charles Darwin, the creator of the theory of evolution, said the process was "clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel." The real challenge to human understanding that comes from nature is learning to appreciate and see the beauty in the daily struggle, the apparent cruelty, the danger, and the clumsiness with which it has evolved. Unless we can learn to see the beauty of the fight, we have not dealt faithfully with it.

Consider the words of Job:
    Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
        or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
    when they crouch in their dens,
        or lie in wait in their covert?
    Who provides for the raven its prey,
        when its young ones cry to God,
        and wander about for lack of food? (38:39-41)

God is speaking and question Job who in this case represents humanity as surely as Adam and Eve do. God asks us, "Who are humans? Do humans provide as God does for the prey that satisfies the appetite of the predator? Who provides prey for the birds and the lions when their young cry to God for food?" The answer is implies, "God provides the prey and satisfies the hunger of the predator."

Let us see this struggle as it unfolds for us around the water hole. As we sit down to a meal, I hope we offer thanks to God for the food before us. Seldom will we think that an animal, perhaps several animals and some plants died that we might eat. So we fail to thank God for the chicken, steer, pig, turkey, goat, fish, tomato, potato, carrot, and the like that we are about to eat. We sum up the whole thing with the evasive and all inclusive, "Thanks for the grub." All of us agree that death is a bad and distasteful thing. However, eating is a magnificent and necessary experience. Just as we give thanks to God for our food, the psalmist implies that the wild animals turn to God for their food, "The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God." (Ps. 104:21) Coupled with our text from Job, we may conclude that animals express a spirituality we often miss because we are not looking at nature with such eyes.

Nature, Darwin tells us, is a struggle of the fittest. Fittest does not refer to the strongest but to the most fecund, that is those most adept at reproduction. The more and the faster a species reproduces the more adept they are at survival. Micro-organisms are not so intelligent as they are biologically agile and adaptable. That is why viruses, bacteria, insects and the like outsmart our best scientists. Through reproduction they adapt to changes rapidly, going through thousands of generations before we turn around.

This fecundity is a response to the natural struggle. The natural struggle is a strengthening process in nature. Let us look once more at the wild and the struggle for survival. The bull moose as they fight for dominance. It is likely that one is an intruder trying to claim a territory. In most cases he will be fended off by the home boy but not always. We see the Gazelle taken by the lion. Is there a point to all this? Has God a plan that leads to our concluding with the Apostle Paul that in "all things work together for good for those who love God." (Rom. 8:28). Do all things include the animals and plants, rocks and streams, mountains and prairies?

Indeed! There is, of course, a point to just about everything. We cannot always see it. We may be put off,challenged, disgusted or horrified by it. However, the struggle has a clear purpose in nature just as being born and eating have a purpose. The struggle results in quicker senses, more intelligent avoidance and pursuit. As we will learn more of next week, it leads to an uneasy cooperation. In nature as in sport, there is give and take. As in team sports, individuals make sacrifices for the team, in nature individual members of a species make sacrifices for the species. At times a species will sacrifice itself for a stronger species of its kind. So "yes" "all things" does include the animals, plants, and the rocks and the streams.
From reading the Bible it appears so. God created the heavens and the earth and commanded that it produce swarms of living creatures, plants, and then humans. To the humans God gave the charge of stewardship over all things. In Genesis 2 everything seemed to be working pretty good. What we call Eden was an idyllic place. Men and women apparently had to work and earn their keep, but they were not in conflict. Instead, there was great cooperation. Then the humans decided to take things into their own hands, break down the fence God had put up and things changed radically. From the idyllic Garden humans sin took us to a world of difficulty, danger, toil, and sweat. The results of sin were conflict in the animal kingdom, pain in the natural processes of life like bearing young, sexual oppression, and struggle between humanity and nature.

In Romans 8:18 to 25 we read,

"I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free for its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

We have for too long been inclined to think of salvation as something God brings to humanity. With a new look and greater understanding of the world and by escaping a view of reality and of the universe imposed by the Greek and Roman tradition on Christian theology, we can freshly look at the universe and know the truth of the Gospel that all things are made new through Christ Jesus our Lord who died to liberate us from the consequences of our sin: namely, to liberate the universe from the animal struggle, political and sexual repression, from the bitter struggle of humans against the earth.