Genesis 1:1-2:4a 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Matthew 28:16-20 Psalm 8

We like to use the phrase “reading again for the first time” regarding scripture that is very familiar – so familiar that we need to remind ourselves to read as if it were for the first time, searching for a new revelation in the familiar passage.

Our first lesson for today – the account of Creation is a good example.  What’s new in the account as we read it again for the first time?

There is the magnificence.  Just think of God’s power to create from nothing, taking control of the light and darkness, naming the light Day and the dark Night, the dry land Earth and the gathered waters Seas – much like naming our children.  Think of the intricacy of every tiny creature:  the tiniest “No-see-um” bugs that drive us crazy with itchiness, the small acorn that becomes an enormous resplendent oak tree bearing thousands of new acorns, the complex interconnectedness of our bodily systems of digestion and respiration and circulation.  Who could invent such things?

Who could invent the beauty of a mountain vista or the music of the wind in the trees or a sunset – different every single day?  Magnificent.

And, in the Creation account, there is the recognition of the blessing of being created in the image of God, granted our place in this magnificent creation as God’s people.  “Be fruitful and multiply,” says God to humankind, “fill the earth and subdue it.” Over fish and fowl, plant yielding seed and fruit bearing trees, every beast, everything that has breath of life – over all things in God’s creation, humankind is to have dominance.  We are amazingly blessed – we of humankind, created in the image of God.

Yet, reading again for the first time, we notice that God includes no warnings about our great responsibility as keepers of these many blessings of God’s magnificent creation.  Nope, God just hands us the car keys and says, “Go for it.”  Surely, God knew how reckless we would be, yet God bestowed us with this magnificent blessing; and, with great blessing comes great responsibility, responsibility that forever requires God’s guidance.

An obsession of my safer-at-home period has been my butterfly habitat.  How arrogant to think God cannot make monarch butterflies without my help.  Weeks ago, tiny white specks appeared on my one young stem of milkweed.  Out of the attic came the mesh tent into which was placed the sprig of egg-covered milkweed.  Slowly, the tiny white specks hatched into itty bitty caterpillars – eight in all, each visibly growing daily into fat two-inch striped caterpillars, eagerly consuming all the milkweed I struggle to provide this early in the growing season.  As of now, four of the caterpillars have become snug chrysalises – one of those just within the last hour – hanging from the top of the tent, looking like tiny green peppers; one other turned black and disintegrated; one has a mis-shaped chrysalis, which is cause for concern; the other two have been lazy slouches –lying around consuming the green leaves at horrendous speed.

All in all, my efforts to help God make monarch butterflies can be confounding.  Did I do something wrong that caused the one young caterpillar to turn black and dissolve without being able to make its chrysalis?  And, what’s wrong with the slow ones.  Did they need more moisture?  Did they get too chilled in the cool night air?  Why are they so far behind the others?  I can’t help feeling I have not fulfilled my responsibility of providing proper sanctuary from the wild world that threatens their extinction.

But, neither am I worthy of praise for this sacred process of metamorphosis or the bright orange beauties that will emerge successfully one day soon.  All praise to God for these beautiful fragile creatures who feed on the toxic milkweed and are, thus, defensively toxic to predators – God’s magnificent interconnected creation that provides for the monarch’s protection and the blessing of their beauty.  All glory to God.

All glory to God as we are blessed to be created in the image of God and to have bestowed upon us the great blessings over which, we are reminded in today’s lesson, we have dominance.  Great blessing – great responsibility for all humankind.

The psalmist, upon considering the magnificence of the heavens and the works of God’s fingers – the moon and stars in their courses, asks of God, ‘What is man that you should be mindful of him?’[Psalm 8:4-5a] And yet, ‘You give him mastery over the works of your hands; you put all things under his feet.’ [Psalm 8:7] The magnificence of God’s creation, the blessing of humankind created in God’s image, the responsibility to safe-guard God’s creation.

Sometime soon, we will come together once again to praise and glorify God as God intends for us.  Too long without worship and praise to God, we begin to feel that we are worthy of the glory that rightly belongs to God; we betray our responsibility as masters over the works of God’s hands.

With great blessings comes great responsibility.

Matthew concludes his Gospel with another familiar passage that requires our reading again for the first time – Jesus’ words that summarize our responsibility, our dominant place as God’s people in creation.  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”  Go make disciples among those who are downtrodden by the physical and economic effects of the pandemic; Go make disciples among those who are victimized as the result of racial prejudice; Go make disciples among the bigots and the hypocrites who exploit injustice; Go make disciples among the many in our world who truly want to improve the wellbeing of creation but are thwarted by our political divisiveness.

Hear Paul’s words: “Live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

On this Trinity Sunday – the fourth principal feast celebrated in physical isolation – In the name of Jesus Christ, go make disciples of all nations.  With God’s help, take up your responsibility as disciples of all creation, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.