Creation out of Chaos

I preached a sermon this past Sunday on God's power to call creation out of chaos. It was timely (if I can say so about my own preaching) since last Sunday our music director resigned in between services (and then told people that I fired her. *sigh*). Our secretary's husband has been in the ICU for two weeks. Meanwhile individuals are struggling with illness, grief, and all the other things that create chaos in our lives.

There are moments in time when life hits you like a huge wave in the ocean. The wave comes in and knocks you off your feet, plunging you under the water. If you didn't catch your breath before the wave hit, you feel your lungs burning as you try to figure out which way is up as the water swirls around you. The fear of all that is outside of your control makes you sink like a stone. Sometimes these moments go away on their own; the wave makes its way to shore and allows you to emerge, shaken but not injured. Sometimes it takes someone or something to call you out of the chaos. It takes a voice moving over the water calling your name, calming your fear and showing you which way is up. It takes a hand that dares to reach beneath the waves to pull you out of chaos and into a place where you can finally catch your breath.

Of course the baptized have been in this place before. We have already been plunged into the depths of watery darkness, sent to die in the midst of the world's sin and chaos. Yet, even as we were swirling in the water, we heard a voice call our name and experienced a Spirit moving over the face of the water. A hand reached down into the deep and raised us up again -- a new creation. And the one who did this once has promised to do it again and again and again. God will always call creation out of chaos.