Today we begin the Season of Creation in union with many other denominations including the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and United Churches. For the first time we begin this season with a new feast day; the Feast of the Creator.

The theme for the Season of Creation this year is “Living Water” from Ezekiel’s powerful biblical vision of hope and ecological healing. Set amid exile and loss, the image of living water flowing from God’s sanctuary reveals divine healing that renews land, water, biodiversity and human responsibility towards the whole creation. And what an amazing creation it is:

We live on a planet where whales sing songs that travel for miles.

Where trees can recognise their own offspring and protect them underground.

Where dolphins give each other names.

Where lightening can create glass in the sand,

Where horses can read human emotions.

Where rain has a smell before it even arrives and where the ocean can glow in the dark.

A planet where the stars we see might not even exist anymore (Joseph Oxley)

Today’s reading from Proverbs tells us that the Lord created the world in wisdom. God didn’t create the world willy nilly. God’s wisdom was intentional, creating every single aspect with love and purpose, a passionate artist, a master builder.

God’s wisdom permeates every part of creation. Everything is shaped by God’s wise hand: the seas and the springs that abound with water, the mountains, the earth and land, and the sky above, all reflect the wisdom of the Creator.

And if God created the world in wisdom, then we can trust God with our lives for we too were created in wisdom, with passion and purpose. Since God is our wise Creator, she knows what is best for us. If we have a longing and ache in our heart that is not fulfilled, we trust him with it. We ask them for what we need and we trust their response.

In creation God’s joy is shared with the world.  Wisdom speaks in Proverbs: “I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in her inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” We have the language of personification here.

God’s joy in the persons of the Trinity spilled out into the creation of the world. God didn’t create the world because he was needy or because she was lonely: the three persons of the Trinity enjoyed fellowship with one another. They created the world from the overflow of their joy.

How do you perceive God? scripture tells us that our God is full of joy. Our God is infinitely wise and infinitely happy in their wisdom. In the creation of the world, they explode with joy.

Can you see their joy in the world around you? In the unfolding autumn colors, in the waves of the Pacific Ocean, in the glorious sunrises and sunsets. God wants us to share in this joyful creation.

Ezekiel’s vision of “Living Water”, sets the theme for this year’s Season of Creation, inviting us to see God’s life-giving grace and sacramental presence flowing into places of desolation, renewing both creation and human community. In a world facing severe ecological crisis, the oceans and the rivers call us in the name of the Creator, to examine our practices and consider the ways that we misuse our water resources. A reality that is currently before us is the enormous amount and number of resources, including water, required for proposed AI (artificial intelligence) data centres, while many on the planet do not have access to clean water just for daily living.

Our faith tells us that justice for creation can’t be separated from justice for people, especially those most impacted by climate change. The Season of Creation invites us to let God’s living water reshape our communities into spaces of healing, equity, and hope, both tangible and eternal.

Who is this Creator, this master artist? In the prologue of John’s Gospel we hear that in the beginning was the Logos, the Word of God, the principle of divine reason and creative order, identified by John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him. What has come into being through him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

So, God created all things with purpose including each of us here at St. Matthias. We might ask ourselves, “what does this season ask of us?” Following the Season of Creation, we will come to the end of the church year, and the leadership team will be leading you in a discussion to consider our response and engagement with the needs of the world and our mission to serve as well as we can.

In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful season, take time to appreciate the sunrises and the sunsets, to sit by the ocean and reflect, and to enjoy this wonderful world that the Creator made for our joy and delight. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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