Wonderful Creations

September 8, 2019 Psalm 139 Year C Wonderful Creations 13th Sunday after Pentecost Children’s Time Let the children take turns to look at themselves in a mirror as they pass it around. What parts are you thankful for? God created each of us to be just as we are. God created each part of ourselves to work together as a whole. Thank God for all of us – our face, body talents, personality - gift from God. 3. Give the children pots of bubbles to blow over the baby being dedicated or handfuls of flower petals to throw over the baby and the baby’s family. Explain that, as they blow the bubbles or scatter the petals, they are to pray a silent prayer for the baby or think of a special blessing (give them an example of a blessing to spark their creativity) for the baby. You can do this outside after the service if it isn’t appropriate to blow bubbles in your church. A sheet on the floor can catch drips from bubbles or the flower petals for easier cleanup. If your tradition includes question/s to the congregation asking them to take responsibility for the child, add a question addressed especially to the children and youth of the congregation, e.g. “Will you be a big kid friend (or big brother/sister in Christ) to NAME? Will you look out for him/her? Will you show him/her how to live like Jesus?” Scripture will be read from United Methodist Hymnal - #854 Stewardship moment – Brian McIntyre is the ministry director for Shine FM – he was with us last week. He tells the story of a father who took his son to McDonalds. He bought a large helping of fries and set it in front of his son to eat. He watched his son eat the fries. And decided to grab a fry to eat for himself. The son immediately grabbed the container, and said dad, no get your own fries. These are mine. That is our relationship with God. God provides for us, but when God asked us for that one fry – we grab ahold of the container and say that this is ours – when everything that we have was given by God. Stewarship lesson is that we can share what we have with God as a way of saying thank you. Our chance to give God one fry – excited to give . When we think of God, we think of God as King, as a ruler, as a old man with a white beard. But how many of us think of God as President of the knitting circle. I recently saw a picture of God as a old man sitting down knitting. Psalm 139 says that God knit each of us as a wonderful creation. James Limburg wrote that he has a mother-in-law who has knit Norwegian sweaters for each of the six members of his family. They are beautiful and warm, able to keep out both the cold and the rain. Limburg watched as she knit those sweaters. The process is very complicated, keeping the pattern straight, getting the design just right. But as Limburg points out: “It is complicated to knit a Norwegian sweater. But it is much more complicated to knit a Nowegian! Or an African, or an American.”2 No wonder David exclaims: “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are complicated, sophisticated, welldesigned creatures. Fearfully and wonderfully made—I guess! God the knitter does some kind of knitting. I’ve seen a Frank and Ernest cartoon where the title characters are leaving church wearing less than spectacular clothes. And one says to the other: “The way I understand it, though our clothes may be plain, we have famous-maker bodies.” Yes we do—thanks to the love of God the Knitter. This psalm has one of the most important messages of the bible. Because even though God loves to sit with his friends and knit wonderful creations – God is still the most powerful force in the universe. God is omnipotent, - all powerful, but also God is omniscient – all knowing. God knows everything there is to know. Have you ever been around a know it all – sometimes it can be aggravating to be with someone who thinks they know everything. But God is the real thing – does know everything. God knows everything about everything – since God created everything. But the most important thing that God knows is you and me – God knitted each of us by hand, one by one – God knows every little detail about us. How many hairs we have have on our head, our fears, our hopes , our talents, our future. Everything. Sometimes we may not know those details about ourselves, but God knows. The lesson of Psalm 139 is that God is all powerful, God is all knowing, God is also all present – omnipresent. At the beginning of the serving line in front of the apples at a church picnic, an adult had written a big sign that said: "God is watching, take only one." Well, at the end of the line, next to the chocolate chip cookies, a little boy had written a little sign that said: "Take as many as you want, God is busy watching the apples." The truth is, God is busy watching everyone and everything. I heard about a skeptic who was trying to persuade a little boy that there was no God. He said, "Son, you show me where God is, and I will give you an apple." The little boy replied, "Mister, you show me where God is not, and I'll give you a whole box of apples." In his presence, God is omnipresent. The good news for us according to psalm 139 is that there is nothing that we can go through in life or death that God is not there for us – to support us. One day while out for a walk, he came to a beautiful estate. He saw a little girl (about five or six years old) come running out an iron gate. She closed the gate behind her. Suddenly, she realized that she had locked herself out. She began to cry and beat on the gate hysterically. Quickly, her mother came running to the little girl. She opened the gate, took the little girl in her arms, carried her back inside and comforted her saying, “Everything is all right, honey. You know I wouldn’t leave you out here all alone. You know how much I love you. You knew I would come, didn’t you?” As Rufus Jones saw that young mother coming to rescue her daughter, he remembered that God is like that… and that no matter what the situation is… even at the place of death, “He is there for us”… and Rufus Jones said: “In that moment, I saw with my spirit that there was love behind my shut gate also.” God is there to support us, to lead us, but most importantly to invite us to the knitting circle. No matter who we are – man or woman, whether we know how to knit or not – God still wants us to be a part of the knitting circle. Each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made – Saint Augustine once said, "People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars—and they pass by themselves without wondering."1 More wondrous than the stars that twinkle, the sun that shines, the moon that glows, the lightning that strikes, the thunder that roars, the snow that falls, or the ice that freezes, is what you can see in the mirror. This is a wonderful day – as we celebrate the love of God in the life of these five young men – excited about what God does in their lives, and what they do for our community as they grow together. As they are reminded that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Made to make a difference in the world. With an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God on their side. They have been invited to join the knitters circle. Each of us have been invited to that sacred circle – God can knit, so can we. A friend recently told me about a popular pastime among some of the young women who attend her daughter’s college. Experienced knitters, they will go to a thrift store and look for a sweater that is past its prime and unravel the yarn to make something new. The practice is known as “frogging,” from the words “rip it, rip it.” In the process, something old and shopworn sees new life in unexpected forms. I thought of frogging when I recently reread Psalm 139, that beautiful paean to the intricate ways in which God has fashioned the human form. The Psalm contains one of my favorite Bible verses: “For you yourself created my inmost parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” It’s always nice to find a proof-text that nicely fits your life, and so I enjoy the fact that here, beyond any doubt, we have conclusive proof that God is a knitter. Now there’s a verse that makes knitters like me happy. Let us all take our place in the knitters circle – the church. Let us pray……Amen. Additional illustrations. Her name is Pascale. She is five years old. She is a very important part of our church family. She is here in the 8:30 service most every Sunday morning. One evening recently, Pascale was watching television with her mom and dad. Suddenly, a news flash showed President Bush walking to a meeting. The President was surrounded by a group of men in dark suits. Pascale asked her parents: “Who are those men with the President? Why are they with him?” Her parents answered: “They are members of the secret service. They go with the President everywhere he goes. They travel with him always. They protect him and take care of him and keep him safe at all times.” And Pascale said: “That’s what Jesus does for me!” Read more at https://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/2006/01/the-god-who-knits.aspx#Xx4Z3QMhd0gsFUhP.99