July 20, Psalms of Nature Outdoor
Worship, Church Picnic, Brigham County Park, Blue Mounds
Lesson: Psalm 19
Sermon Title: Listen to the Heavens
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Q: How many evolutionists does it
take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one, but it takes eight
million years.
XXX
Q: How many evolutionists does it
take to change a light bulb?
A: There’s no evidence that the
change is due to evolution. What use would a mutation that produced part of a
filament be?
XXX
Q: How many evolutionists does it
take to change a light bulb?
A: Evolution can only produce
different shapes of light bulbs; it can never change it into an animal.
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INTRODUCTION:
I.
In
the film Grand Canyon an Mack
breaks out of a traffic jam and attempts to bypass it.
A.
His
route takes him along streets that are progressively darker and more deserted.
1.
The
man's fancy sports car stalls.
2.
He
calls for a tow truck.
3.
Before
it can get there he is surrounded by 5 young street toughs
a.
They
threaten him.
b.
They
want his car and his valuables.
B.
The
tow truck shows up and the Simon begins to hook up the disabled car.
1.
The
Otis protests.
2.
The
Simon takes the Otis aside and tries to reason with him.
Man, he says, world ain't s'pposed to work like this. Maybe you don't know that, but this ain't the way it's s'pposed
to be. I'm s'pposed to be able to do my
job without askin' you if I can. And
that dude is s'pposed to be able to wait in his car without you rippn' him off. Everything is s'pposed to be different that
what it is here.
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MAIN BODY
I.
In
ain't supposed to be this way.
1.
A
little ditty about monkeys, author unknown:
Three
monkeys sat in a coconut tree,
Discussing things that are said to be;
Said one to the other, “Now listen you two,
There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true:
That
man descended from our noble race,
Why,
the very idea is a profound disgrace!
“No
monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved
her babies, and ruined her life;
And you’ve never known a mother monk,
To
leave her babies with others to bunk,
Or pass
them on from one to the other,
Till
they scarcely know who is their mother.
“And
another thing you’ll never see,
A monkey build a fence ‘round a coconut tree,
And let
the coconuts go to waste,
Forbidding
all other monkeys to taste;
Why, if
I put a fence around a tree,
Starvation
will force you to steal from me!
“Here’s another thing a monkey won’t do:
Go out
at night and get in a stew,
Or use
a gun, a club or a knife,
To take some other monkey’s life!
Yes,
man descended, the wicked cuss,
But, brother, he didn’t descend from us!”
2.
This
is the way that is often is.
B.
What
we see is something so vastly different as to create pessimism and despair.
1.
Young
toughs do surround a car and threaten bodily harm.
2.
Streams
are fouled
3.
The
air is polluted.
4.
Disaster
and disease strike without apparent cause or pattern.
5.
It
is easy to become discouraged, depressed or cynical.
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II.
We
have a vision of the world is supposed to be.
A.
We
acknowledge our need of God
1.
Theologian
Karl Rahner cites Bertolt Brecht who tells this story in his Stories of Mr. Keuner: “Someone asked
Mr. Keuner whether God existed.
Mr. Keuner said: ‘I suggest that
you consider whether your behavior would change depending on the answer to this
question. If it would not change then we can forget the question. If it would
change then I can help you at least to the point of saying that you have
already decided: You need a God.’”
2.
Here
is the basis of need.
B.
We
do need a God.
III.
The
world ought to be as God designed and intended it to be as revealed in the 19th
Psalm.
A.
There
ought to be a graceful transformation of creation and humanity.
B.
This
includes
1.
peace
that enriches and completes justice.
2.
Mutual
respect.
3.
Goodwill
4.
Deliberate
and widespread attention to the public good.
IV.
There
is a constant need to renew one's vision.
A.
If
the earth were only a few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field
somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it.
People would walk around it,
marveling at its big pools of water, and the water flowing between the pools.
People would marvel at the bumps
on it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin layer of gas
surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas.
People would marvel at all the
creatures in the water. The people would declare it as sacred because it was
the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt.
The ball would be the greatest
wonder known, and people would come to pray to it, to be healed, to gain
knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it could be.
People would love it, and defend
it with their lives because they would somehow know that their lives, their own
roundness, could be nothing without it.
If the earth were only a few feet
in diameter.
—Author unknown.
B.
This
was the need of the Psalmist.
C.
There
is a constant need to renew one's vision of one's self, God and the world.
D.
As
the Psalmist discovered this can be done in nature as well as in the sanctuary
of God, in the house of God, in the church.
1.
Gerard
Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was an English poet whose work expresses an intense
response to the natural world. In 1877, he was ordained in the Jesuit order and
served as a parish priest and teacher and college professor. Many of his poems
celebrate the beauty of the world around him -- and are in a sense modern
psalms of wonder -- poetic prayers, if you like:
"Glory be to God for dappled
things --
For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal, chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced -- fold, fallow and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim
He fathers forth whose beauty is past change;
Praise him."
--Gerard Manley Hopkins,
"Pied Beauty," Mentor Book of Major British Poets, edited by Oscar
Williams (New York: New American Library, 1963), 351.
E.
It
is here that we understand that we are the children of God
1.
We
are the recipients of all the promises God has to offer.
a.
The
second part of the Psalm, verses 7-11, heralds the perfection of God in his
word.
(1)
7The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
(2)
the
decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
(3)
8the precepts of the LORD are
right, rejoicing the heart;
(4)
the
commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
(5)
9the fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
(6)
the
ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
b.
He
reminds is in verses 10 and 11 that the word is greatly to be desired.
(1)
10More to be desired are they than
gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the
honeycomb.
(2)
11Moreover by them is your servant
warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
c.
The
Psalmist in verses 12-14 concludes with a prayer and a request.
(1)
12But who can detect their errors?
(2)
Clear
me from hidden faults.
(3)
13Keep back your servant also from
the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me.
(4)
Then
I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
(5)
14Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
F.
No
matter what happens to us, nothing external to ourselves can change that.
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CONCLUSION: