God Believes In You

• Psalm 8 - read this passage online here »
• James 1:2-8, 16-18 - read this passage online here »

We could begin this new year by asking one another what we believe about God. That’s one of those questions people talk about whether they are in church -- or not. And it is an important conversation to engage in whether in our own minds or with others. What do we believe about God? But at the beginning of 2011, I want to turn the issue around and ask: “What does God believe about us?’

That question intrigues me because what God believes about us as human beings influences how God acts toward us. Belief and action are two sides of the same process and not separate entities. We too act as we do because of what we believe.

For instance, I believe my children are worthwhile. Therefore, they are worth my investment in their lives – investments of time, love, care, interest and discipline – and much more. One way I did that was to help them financially through university. Another way is to be available to them when they are in difficulty. When they were in school, I used to remind them that, if they found themselves in an awkward circumstance they knew they shouldn’t be in or did not want to be in, they could always blame their dad to help them get out of it. They could say I was really strict and they needed to get home right away -- or else! Sometimes they took advantage of my offer and sometimes they did not. [smile]

How God acts toward us depends upon what God believes about us. So what does God believe about us as human beings?

Psalm 8 is a significant place to begin. Verse 3 in The Message Bible set us up to consider where we humans fit into the immensity of creation in God’s eyes:

“I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your hand-made sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings.”

Creation is immense and God, the grand Artist, made it all. And yet, even though God’s handiwork is cosmic and majestic, God both notices and pays attention to us humans. That is what so captivated the psalmist. Here’s verse 4 in The Message Bible:

“Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, why do you bother with us [,God]? Why take a second look our way?”

While the immensity contrasts with seeming insignificance, the clear implication is that God does take the time and effort to look our way – and even be involved in our lives. Humans seem so inconsequential beside this incomparable and vast creation. Who among us has not stood under the stars in awe and wondered about our place in this incredible universe? We might continue to wonder if it were not for what the psalmist tells us in this psalm about the place and the task of human beings. And here are some reasons why God believes we are worth his love/the bother and the concern.

In the first instance, the place of humans among everything God has made is “just shy of God’s own Being” -- as one commentator puts it [John Goldingay]. Yes, that is exactly what the psalmist says in verse 5. It fascinates me that the psalmist did not say humans are “a little higher than animals.” That’s what many today might say. Instead, he says humans are actually “a little lower than God.” In a sermon, Rev. Jay Kessler described it this way:

Virtually every one of us in this room is the result of an educational system that has, drip by drip, like dropping water on stone, made an impression on our lives as to who we are. Very few of us, naturally speaking, think of ourselves as a little lower than [God] {the angels}.

We almost all think of ourselves as a little higher than the animals. That is, we have in our mind a mental picture of something we've seen in any natural history museum: an ascendancy of primates, little jumping creatures, eventually humped over with knuckles dragging, and finally standing erect. When we see the final "naked ape" embarrassingly like us, we say, "This is my heritage. This is where I came from." We think of ourselves as a little higher than the animals.

I wouldn't debate the fact [said Kessler] that as human beings we are mammals. We carry on the mammalian kind of processes: ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation, respiration, excretion, secretion, motion, sensitivity, and reproduction. We do these things without consciously thinking about them, just like all the other animals.

[However,] the central statement of Scripture about [humankind] is that we have been ... infused by God with a nature that is not a little higher than the animals, but one that is ... a little lower than [God]{the angels}.

My friends, we are not an accidental by-product of an accidental evolutionary process. And we are not something. We are someone. We humans are a deliberate creation by God – however God did that.

Because we are someone in God’s eyes, verse 5 also says that God crowned humans with "glory" and "honour." Imagine that. God gives us glory and honour! The imagery here is significant. Crown refers here to humanity’s authority over other created life. Another way to express this is to say: “God, you gave humans power to rule over all created life and you gave humans splendour and honour.” Surely the psalmist is thinking back to the beginnings of life in Genesis 1 and 2 where we human beings were made so as to reflect God’s image and God’s loving purposes for God’s creation. This is a place of wonderful responsibility.

Because we are someone in God’s eyes, verses 6 through 9 of Psalm 8 tell us that human beings have been assigned the task of ruling over everything in God’s creation: sheep and cattle, all creatures of the world, the birds and the creatures in the seas. God believes in us enough to give us this remarkable assignment with serious responsibilities for caring wisely for other living creatures on this planet.

No matter how human beings have failed in their assignment up to this point, the task still remains today. As followers of Jesus, we are not alone – we have never been alone – in the task God has called us to accomplish. The author of the Letter to Hebrews in Chapter 2:6-9, shows us, by quoting these same verses from Psalm 8, how we are connected to our task through Jesus, our Lord:

“What are human beings, O God, that you should think of them; mere human beings, that you should care for them? You made them for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honour, and made them rulers over all things.’

[The Scripture] says that God made them “rulers over all things”; this clearly includes everything. We do not, however, see human beings ruling over all things now. But we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, so that through God’s grace he should die for everyone. We see him now crowned with glory and honour because of the death he suffered.”

This is the task God gave to humans on Earth: to rule the Earth on behalf of God as those given glory and honour by God to do so. But God has not appointed humans to rule by exploiting this Earth and other human beings. In fact, throughout Scripture, God is clear we are not to destroy the Earth or oppress or take advantage of one another. God’s intention is that our rule should involve compassion and care for this Earth and all its creatures, including all humanity. Unfortunately, humans seem to possess an inner inclination toward exploitation and destruction. That’s why we need to be connected to Jesus who came to help us through the Holy Spirit to overcome that inner tendency to abuse others and to damage ourselves – in other words, to sin. But think of it: God believes human beings are capable of governing God's good world on his behalf, especially through Jesus Christ!

What more does God believe about us as human beings? James 1:2-4 gives us another insight. God believes we are capable of handling the tests and challenges of life that inevitably come our way. And who does not believe there will not be adversity and struggle for us in 2011? Here is the passage again from The Good News Translation:

My brothers and sisters, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, [that is mature and well-developed in your faith and response to life].

We are capable because the faith in God and in Jesus that is within us shows its self in the way we handle the troubles and difficulties of our human condition. Our ability to succeed despite the troubles and difficulties we face does not come from thinking we can handle these circumstances on our own or in our own strength. Rather our willingness to exercise our faith and hope in God results in our being able to endure the challenges we are going through. Our willingness to trust that God is with us through anything and everything (whether we feel God’s presence or not), means we will come out the other end of the tunnel as people who have become more mature and developed in our faith. And if we are not sure what to do when we find ourselves in challenging circumstances, God expects us to pray to him and ask for help and for the wisdom we need. God loves to help, says James. Here’s how The Message Bible puts it:

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

God believes we are capable of trusting him -- that he loves to help us, that we can be bold in our asking for assistance and that we can believe -- without reservations -- God is there for us even when the trouble is not removed from our lives.

God also believes we are capable of doing what is good. Micah was one of those Old Testament prophets who, in the words of Eugene Peterson, was “charged with keeping people alive to God and alert to listening to the voice of God” [Introduction to Micah in the Message Bible]. Hear what Micah said in Chapter 6, verse 8:

The LORD has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.

A 2009 article in the Chicago Tribune newspaper [Barbara Mahany, "Cooking Up Compassion," Chicago Tribune (9-20-09), section 6] told the story of Bettye Tucker, a Christian cook who works the night shift at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She has been doing her job for 43 years -- 28 of them on the night shift. She sees a steady stream of parents in her job, many of them frightened and weary. On one particular night in September 2009, Miss Bettye (as she is referred to by all who know her) served food to a mother whose three-year-old had fallen out of a second-storey window that morning, another mother whose 17-year-old was battling a rare form of leukemia and a third mother whose 18-year-old had endured seven hours of brain surgery. Their stories broke the heart of Miss Bettye and, as one co-worker said: “That's why she feeds every last one of them as if they had walked right into the 'too-small' kitchen of [the] South Side brick bungalow [where she lives]." A member of the hospital's housekeeping crew added this about Miss Bettye: "You need someone to bring you life, and she brings it in the middle of the night."

A picture of Miss Bettye that accompanied the article shows a woman with a beautiful smile. It's hard to imagine how much that smile would mean to a suffering parent or child. She says, "When I ask, 'How you doin' today?' and they say it's not a good day, I say, 'Don't lose hope.' When the nurses tell me it's a bad night, I say: 'I understand it's a bad night. But guess what? I am here for you. I'm going to get you through the night.'"

Another picture shows Bettye sitting down, head bowed, over a meal. "I'm a praying lady," she says in the article. "I pray every night, for every room and every person in the hospital. I start with the basement, and I go up, floor by floor, room by room. I pray for the children, I pray for the families, I pray for the nurses and the doctors. … I say, every night while I'm driving in on the expressway, 'Oh, Lord, I don't know what I'll face tonight, but I pray you'll guide me through.'"

The reporter who wrote the article offered these words about Miss Bettye: "[It] just might be, that divine helping on the side is the most essential item on Miss Bettye's menu. The one she stirs in every broth, and every whisper. The ingredient that makes her the perpetual light shining in the all-night kitchen."

God believes we are capable of doing what is good – of showing the constant love and compassion of someone like Miss Bettye.

God believes in us. God acts in amazing mercy, in understanding compassion, in generous forgiveness and in constant love toward us. And James 1:18, as stated in The Message Bible, reminds us:

“[God] brought us to life using the true Word [that is, Jesus the Lord], showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.”

That is who we are! That is who you and I are – in God’s eyes! May this be so – may we believe this to be so -- in your eyes and mine.

Rev. Chris Miller

January 2, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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