Matthew 28:18-20
Listen and Watch Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, June 7, 2020
This Holy Trinity Sunday we have the account of both creation and re-creation. In Genesis, God makes the universe and all that fills it. He creates humanity in the image of Triune God. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit re-create humanity in the image of the risen Christ. We could easily do a sermon series that lasts a full calendar year just on the image of God. Rabbis and Christian scholars have discussed this for thousands of years. It’s helpful to know where all agree: human beings are special in the eyes of God. He has given us the responsibility of stewardship of his creation. It is radical truth: what we do either has a beneficial or detrimental effect on our entire planet. How could Moses have known that the human race could transform the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the earth we till. God says, “Let them have dominion—let them be caretakers—stewards…of the sea…the air…the earth.”
God has entrusted us—creatures made of the dust of the earth—with the care and well-being of this planet! And to the extent that we love one another and the world he created, we reflect God, his love for us, and his care for the cosmos. All we had to do was enjoy the gift of God’s creation and work to sustain this rich garden of paradise. But we chose to steal and take what was not ours to take. Our first parents turned against one another and threw one another under the bus. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. God held them all accountable. We stewards of creation began to live as outcasts and assailants of this beautiful world.
Human history is the story of our not caretaking but exploiting the God-given resources he has blessed us with. It is the story of one war and conflict after another between nations, peoples, communities, and even family members. We have not treated one another with God-given dignity or the belief that we are not just created equal but in the image of God.
God never stopped loving the world he had made. He never rested from his sustaining the universe by the Word of his power. God knew all along that what we need is not self-improvement or a good kick in the pants. We need a Savior. And so God the Father sent his Son of eternity’s past to be conceived by the Holy Spirit. In the wisdom and power of Triune God, he knows we need re-creation. And so Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth is mine. Therefore I am sending my Body, my Bride the Church. She will go out to baptize in the Triune Name and make disciples of mind and heart by my life-transforming Word.” He is the Lamb of God in Revelation that says, “I make all things new” (21:5).
What will a post-CoVid19 world look like? How do we pick up the shards of glass, dreams, and lives shattered by the sin of apathy, greed, racism, and brutality? Do we point at one another? Or do we begin where God begins—by pointing at ourselves…and then point to the One who has entrusted us with this beautiful world? He reminds us that we are jars of clay but also that we bear the light of the Creator. This is true of each of us no matter our ethnicity, gender, or creed. And as believers in Jesus who died and rose from us, we bear the light of the risen Christ!
God is telling us a new story of re-creation:
In this new beginning, God continues his gaze to the universe he made and to that little planet—the third one from the star we call the sun. It has fallen into formlessness and chaos and darkness once again as it is prone to do. As helicopters hover overhead—so the wind of the Holy Spirit blows grace-ward once again. Undeserving and unearned the Son blows his life giving breath into our nostrils through the Water and the Word and Spirit of Holy Baptism.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he says of us, “Let there be the light of Christ in this royal daughter and son of the most high.” Let the nations be glad and sing for joy over all the earth—every tribe, nation, those speaking every language, and all people groups.” And God saw the light shine through his people into the world. The darkness could not overcome the light because light cannot be put out by darkness. And he said it was good. And then God said, “Let us re-make the Baptized in Christ’s image, according to his likeness, and let them care for the world we have made.” And so God, sent his son and his Spirit into our hearts—which like Christ’s heart was broken for the world—who, like Christ, looked at the tears of those who suffered so many losses. And wept. As Jesus wept, so his people weep.
As Christ humbled himself, we humbled ourselves. As he took ownership of sin and the sin-infested structures and principalities of this present darkness and nailed it to the Cross of Christ, so we proclaim forgiveness by that same Cross. As Christ rose victoriously from the grave, death, and the power of evil, so God raised us and freed us from its power. And by the power of his blood and resurrection destroyed sin, death, and gave us the victory over hell itself. And so God re-created the world through his re-created people. By the strength and light of Christ, people began to truly see, with the eyes of faith, all that God created and said, “It is good. It is very good.”
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