October 4, 2026 "Creation in Christ"
Creation in Christ
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 148
Acts 17:22a-24-28
John 1:1-5
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from Christ our creator. Amen
Today we are celebrating for the first time
a new Festival that is in the process of being added to the church calendar.
This is particularly exciting for liturgy nerds such as myself
because it’s been over a hundred years
since a new festival has been added to the liturgical calendar
(for all you trivia nuts out there that was the festival of Christ the King/ Reign of Christ in 1925).
Also exciting is the ecumenical nature
of the formation of this festival
which has involved churches from the west as well as the east
which since 1054CE have pretty much gone their own ways.
So what is this festival actually about?
It is an opportunity to celebrate, explore, contemplate
Christ’s role in creation,
in the beginning in the present and in the future
and all that goes along with the assertion of our faith
that all things were created through Christ
As I was preparing
I realized that this is something I don’t think I’ve thought a lot about,
for me creation is something I tend to relegate to the first person of the Trinity,
God the father,
and for good reason that’s how the confession of faith in the apostle’s creed is laid out.
The Nicene Creed gets a bit more specific
especially in an attempt
to explain the interrelatedness of the three members of the trinity
and thus confesses that “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the father; through him all things were made.”
Which logically makes sense
if Jesus is eternally with the Father
of course he was part of creation,
but I think that’s where I usually stop,
other than to maybe say yes of course Jesus the Word was present at creation
as the word of God that moved over the waters
and spoke creation into being.
but this festival challenges us to go further
to ask that good Lutheran questions:
what does this mean?
What does this assertion mean for our understanding of God
and our relationship with creation?
What does it mean that God is both the creator of the earth
and the crucified creature of earth?
And what it means,
at least in part,
is that creator and creation are far more interrelated than we usually think,
while we acknowledge that humans are created in the image of God
we often fail to bring that assertion into our relationships with others
let alone the rest of creation
yet there is an argument to be made that all of creation bears the image of God
Thomas Aquinas makes this argument in his Summa Theologica
“Because God’s goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures, that what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided and hence the whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly, and represents it better than any single creature whatever.” (Summa Theologica 1.47.1)
Creation as the expression of the goodness of God
reveals the wide diversity of God
and so perhaps it is even more remarkable
that from the very beginning
God has invited creation to participate in the act of creating,
“Let the earth bring forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation…” God says on the third day
“Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures”
God says on the fifth day
and then blesses the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air
inviting them to continue with creation “be fruitful and multiply”
God repeats this on the sixth day
with the living creatures of the land.
And then God creates a day of rest
because rest will be needed
to sustain the ongoing creating of creation.
And God rests too,
Which makes more sense when we remember
That Christ the Word made flesh is part of creation
Christ who knows intimately the need of creation for rest.
Created in Christ all creation reflects the goodness of God
Even as Christ invites all creation
to participate in the ongoing sustaining of the goodness of God
And in response creation itself praises God
as we heard in our psalm,
the sun, moon, and stars, even the sea monsters praise God,
all creation praises Christ the Word, the source of life,
abundant life that invites praise to the one in whom they (and we)
live and move and have our being
and while creation seem to innately praise God,
we humans (also creation of God)
still seem to fumble about when it comes to looking for God,
as Paul remarks
part of it may be that we don’t expect God to be so close
It’s like a fish in water,
the fish relies on the water in which it swims
for life itself
but (and I’m guessing here)
the fish doesn’t think about the water,
doesn’t consciously notice it all the time.
Or perhaps it’s like us with air
it is always around us sustaining us
and yet we only notice it or think about it
when a breeze whips up
or we go up in elevation and suddenly our breath is harder to catch.
We don’t notice it all the time,
we could because it’s always there.
But we don’t.
It’s the same way with God,
who is always there sustaining us
but who we don’t notice all the time
but we could
that’s why we’re practicing sharing God moments
we are practicing paying attention to God who is always with us
perhaps closer than we expect
Indeed the Word became flesh and lived among us
and many didn't realize it
because they didn't expect God to be so close,
they didn't expect God to invite them to participate in the work of God.
And yet that's what Christ did,
has done from the very beginning,
calls us to continue doing.
Even if we fumble about looking for the God that is right beside us,
in the creation God calls us to sustain even as Christ sustains us.
So what does it mean that all the world is created in Christ?
It means the goodness of God is on display before us
That God is closer to us than we imagine
That God has entrusted care of creation to us
and so our relationship with creation becomes almost sacramental
because caring for all creation is caring for the diverse goodness of God.
And if that seems overwhelming,
We look to creation to show us the way
Creation that lives in praise toward God.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise God in the heights.
2 Praise the Lord, all you angels;
sing praise, all you hosts of heaven.
3 Praise the Lord, sun and moon;
sing praise, all you shining stars.
4 Praise the Lord, heaven of heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
who commanded, and they were created
Amen
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