Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Carol Swanson.
I am a person of faith in a loving God who has created this universe and is continually involved with all that is in creation from moment to moment. God calls us into relationship, and we are who we are through our many relationships. They range from intimate to those in complex society to those we are unaware of yet affected by. On Sept 7 we heard the creation story in Genesis 1 and there were choices of activities between services. Only a few of you saw the film “Journey of the Universe” as one of the choices, so I want to encourage you to watch it (available on YouTube and there is a link below). It is such a lovely film.
I first saw “Journey of the Universe” at the Parliament of World Religions in 2015 and bought the DVD there. The film tells the story of creation’s continuing evolution through discoveries of science, weaving in poetic metaphor to help us understand the deep inter-relatedness of everything in the universe.
It never mentions God because it is addressed to the whole human family no matter which religion (or none) you follow. Rather it speaks of the Universe as an organic whole with purpose and our place in it. We, and the Universe as well, are invited to be cocreators with the Divine. And as I participate in the current worship series You Are Invited into Relationship and the liturgy written by Pastor Steve Sylvester for it, my mind connects to this film. I’ve copied some of the liturgy below. I hope you take time to watch the film and meditate on the liturgy and be blessed by both.
Confession
Leader: We begin our worship this morning by admitting that we often fail to be the people God creates us to be. God invites us to be part of the wonderful web of life, yet to our own and others’ detriment, we often insulate and isolate ourselves.
(Silence for reflection)
Leader: God of Community,
All: it is true that we respond to your invitation to community by turning from you, by turning on each other, and by turning your wonderful creation into a combination vending machine and garbage dump. Before you, and in the presences of our sisters and brothers, we ask for your forgiveness.
Words of Assurance
Leader: Siblings in Christ, listen and hear. Through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, God invites us to turn from our sin and return to the life God intends for us. I encourage you to put behind you the things God has already forgiven and forgotten, that you may live in community with God, with one another, and with God’s good creation.
All: Amen.
Hymn #771 God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens (sung Sept 7)
God, who stretched the spangled heavens infinite in time and place,
Flung the suns in burning radiance through the silent fields of space:
we, your children in your likeness, share inventive pow’rs with you;
great Creator, still creating, show us what we yet may do.
We have ventured worlds undreamed of since the childhood of our race;
known the ecstasy of winging through untraveled realms of space;
probed the secrets of the atom, yielding unimagined pow’r,
facing us with life’s destruction or our most triumphant hour.
As each far horizon beckons, may it challenge us anew:
children of creative purpose, serving others, hon’ring you.
May our dreams prove rich with promise; each endeavor well begun;
great Creator, give us guidance till our goal and yours are one.
(Text: Catherine Cameron)
Prayer of the Day
Leader: Let us pray,
All: Creator God, we rejoice in the beauty and wonder of your creation and our place in it. We thank you that you are forever pursuing us, continually inviting us to live in community as creatures of a loving God. Amen.