St. Andrew’s Pictou, May 22^nd 2005; TRINITY Sunday

 

A Broken Circle

 

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

 

There is a theory that evrytime you tell a story, you save a person’s life.

 

There is a life saving story at the beginning of Genesis: (Genesis means “beginning”) an ancient Hebrew story of how the world was created by God. The story says that out of a formless dark void, a wind from God came and created the world as we know it.

 

God began with light. “And God saw that the light was good.” Vs 4a

 

God separated the light and the dark, and so we have day and night, the sky, the earth, and the seas.

“And God saw that it was good.” Vs 10b

 

God created vegetation, fruits, plants and trees.

“And God saw that it was good.” Vs 12b

 

Then God created the stars and the seasons; the sun and the moon.

“And God saw that it was good.” Vs 18b

 

Next God created creatures in the seas, and birds for the air.

“And God saw that it was good.” Vs 21b

 

God created the living creatures of the earth, wild animals of every kind; everything that creeps on the earth.

“And God saw that it was good.” Vs 25b

 

Then the story has God saying an amazing thing: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” Vs 26

 

You might have heard this many times, but on this Trinity Sunday, did you notice that our text refers to God in the plural? “Let us make.” God didn’t say, “I” God said, “us” in “our” image.

 

After making it clear how humanity was blessed by creation, God went on to say, “And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Vs 30b, 31

 

In our day to day conversations, a new word has emerged into prominence. That word is, “perfect.” You give a piece of information, and the other person says with great enthusiasm, “Perfect!”

 

But when the great Jehovah makes awesome things like light, Jehovah says, it is “good,” not “perfect,” but “good.” In making people, Jehovah even says that we were “very good.”

 

There are just two things that I want you to take from this passage for today’s message:

1 The purpose of Genesis is to establish the unique relationship that God has with humanity, and

2 that Creation, humanity included, is “good;” not “perfect,” but “good.”

 

The two points are fundamentally related.

 

If you add an “o” to the word God, you have the word, “good.”

 

Now something that is good is something that would benefit you; something that would enhance your welfare. We even use the word to describe what we own, (all of our earthly goods.)

 

We use the word good to mean permanence, as in forever: “This stone marker will stand here for good.”

 

We use the word to denote a positive gain, “I walked out of there $10.00 to the good.”

 

The bottom line here is that good is a relational word.

 

When something positively impacts us we say, “This is good.”

 

“Perfect” on the other hand, means without a flaw, exact, precise, or complete. “Perfect” then, is not a relational word. In fact, we understand that it means, “set apart,” by being perfect.

 

You could have a perfect diamond, but you couldn’t have a perfect relationship, because it would have to be freeze framed to be perfect.

 

The Bible says that you and I can be good, but we could never be perfect, because we were not made or according to the Bible, intended to be perfect.

 

The passage we read from Matthew has a very short story, but one of great significance for us as Christians and for our mission in the church. This passage is known as “the great commission;” Jesus’ final words for his disciples, you and I as to what our calling and duty is as Christians.

 

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

The Great Commission; simple, clear and direct. Many take it literally and miss one important word at the beginning of the passage.

 

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee…” The operative word is, “eleven.”

 

They used to be 12 disciples. The Holy number here is 12!

 

There were 12 tribes of Israel.

There were twelve princes in Genesis. (17:20)

Jacob had 12 sons. (35:22)

There were 12 wells of water in Exodus. (15:27)

Joshua took 12 stones. (Josh 4:9)

Solomon had 12 officers. (1 Kings 4:7)

The woman had a flow of blood for 12 years. (Matt 9:20)

After the feeding of the 5,000 there were 12 baskets of food left over. (Mt 14:20)

The woman that faced the dragon in Revelation has a crown with 12 stars. (Rev. 12:1)

The New Jerusalem in Revelation had 12 gates, with twelve angels, inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes. The wall of the city had twelve foundations and on them the 12 names of the 12 apostles. There were 12 jewels on each of the gates, each gate was a pearl: 12 pearls.

(Rev 21)

 

The Holy number here is 12. 11 is an imperfect number!

 

With the betrayal of Judas: the circle has been broken!

 

Jesus Christ founded his church on imperfection. The Holy 12 had been reduced by betrayal. Some of those 11 weren’t even great fishermen, yet Jesus sent those 11 out to do God’s work, to turn the world upside down, not because they were the perfect people for the job, but because they were good men with all their imperfections.

 

The church of Jesus Christ is imperfect. The minister is imperfect, so is the session and the board, so is the presbytery that met for four and a half hours last Tuesday evening.

 

The government is imperfect. The Royal Family is imperfect.

 

God works through and with our imperfection.

 

Probably one of the greatest examples of how God powerfully does his work through imperfection began in a kitchen with three imperfect human beings who were alcoholics in the 1930’s. With the power of God they became the first of countless 1,000’s of men and women who overcame their alcoholism. God worked in and through their imperfection to bring AA into being.

 

God did not create AA by using three sober and educated doctors, nor did God use three PhD’s, or three great theologians, or three great politicians, but God healed hundred’s of thousands of members of humanity with three individuals who would have been called back then… “drunks.”

 

The whole notion of how God uses imperfection may be found in the book: The Spirituality of Imperfection; Storytelling and the Journey to Wholeness. It is full of healing stories of the dialogue of God using our imperfection for the good.

 

So if you feel that you are imperfect, inadequate, not up to scratch, deficient, and lacking, you are an example of God’s first rate material for greatness and creativity.

 

If you think that you are below average and have lots of flaws, God can use you to change the world for the better!

 

You don’t even have to do it alone. “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. AMEN”

 

Rev. Alan Stewart