"So Abraham called that place 'The Lord will provide';…"

"The Lord will provide." "The Lord will provide." these were words we just heard read from the book of Genesis. In this story about Abraham and his son Isaac, the Lord provided a ram to Abraham to be sacrificed to God in lieu of the sacrifice of his son Isaac. This indeed was a loving act by God in a very strange story. This was a story in which God tested the faith of Abraham to see if he was willing to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac to show his absolute faith in God. Abraham and Isaac were both called to show their faith in a way that would somehow allow God to provide a caring way out of this terrible situation. And surely God did provide a way with the ram that was good for Abraham as well as for Isaac.

In reflecting on these words I began to think beyond what God provided to Abraham and Isaac in this story. I thought about what God has provided to the people of the world today as well as to our ancestors in the past. I thought about what God has provided to all to show his unbounded love for us, just as he showed that love to Abraham and Isaac. I thought about what God has provided to show the magnificence of his creativity. I thought about how God has provided to us a beautiful Earthly home here set in the vastness of all of his creation. I thought about what God has provided to reinforce my beliefs about God as the source of all being, the source of all creation, and the source of all love. I also thought about those things that God has not provided to us.

And as I reflected on these things, I remembered a recent article in the National Geographic magazine. In this article a new theory was put forth that expands our thinking about the extent of God's creation as well as the makeup of this creation. Cosmologists, expanding on the work of Einstein and his theory of relativity, have developed this new theory. The most astonishing elements of this new theory are as follows:

• There is strong speculation that ours is not the only universe. The big bang that created everything we know of space and time in our universe could be just one of an infinite number of beginnings, yielding a never-ending sequence of universes.
• Not all of these universes are thought to be alike. Our universe glows with galaxies; others are thought to contain more dimensions, be of different forms of matter, be of different shapes and sizes and even with different laws of physics.
• Since the 1920's astronomers have thought that the expansion of our universe was slowing down. But recent observations of distant stars reveal that the stretching of space is speeding up. Today we live in the best of times, under a sky full of stars. Those skys will grow ever darker here as space-time expands in the millions of years ahead.

And moving past these new thoughts about the vastness of God's creation, we are now also beginning to better understand the smallest elements of God's creation at the level of molecules, atoms, protons, electrons, neutrons, and even tinier particles. We are beginning to realize that all living things are made up of the same kind of stuff with the DNA differences being very minute between the most diverse of the Earth's creatures. These discoveries are revealing to us that we are essentially one and that we are in this world together to deal with the good and bad together. Failure to recognize this fact may have dire consequences for some or all of God's creatures here.

But what does all this new knowledge mean as we move on from thinking about the Earth as being the center of the universe, from believing that the oceans are flat, and thinking that heaven is a place way up in the sky where God resides. For me all this new knowledge enables me to better see the wonder of God's creation as well as the genius of our God who is the source of this creation. For me I see a beautiful and evolving creation that has been provided by God in love for our use and for habitation by all the creatures of that creation.

But there is a problem here. All is not and has not been well from the beginning in the creation of the Earth by God. It seems that from the earliest times of our ancestors' existence here there has been disharmony between human beings themselves as well as disharmony between human beings and the Earth. Some examples of this early disharmony are described for us in the ancient texts of the Bible. There is the story about Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden because of their failure to listen to the guidance of God about the use of this Garden. There is the story of Cain killing his brother Abel because of his jealousy of his brother. There is the story about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their failure to provide hospitality to strangers. For me these stories do not reflect the loving nature of the God that I see. But they are certainly early examples of the disharmony on Earth that people were concerned about in those ancient days.

In my view this disharmony on the Earth has continued and has even increased in our day. In our day we have nuclear weapons, great world wars, extreme prejudices among people, continuing abuse of children, lies, gossip, unhappy marriages, illness and the loss of loved ones. We have companies who poison our water, air, and our soil, as well as companies whom exploit and deplete the natural resources of the Earth at the expense of future generations.

But I also see a God who has acted and is still acting out of love for us to provide ways out of our dilemmas here. I see a God, who thousands of years ago, began to send prophets to the people of Israel to show them how to live more in harmony with themselves and with others.

When these prophets did not get the job done, God sent his son Jesus to us to show us more fully how to live in love and harmony with all others. This Jesus, in whom God was especially present, revealed to all that love is the unique answer for dealing with the problems that have plagued humanity and our Earthly home throughout the ages. And finally God has given to each of us the same Holy Spirit that was present in Jesus so that we can continue mightily the good work begun here by the prophets and by Jesus himself.

In reflecting on all of these things, then, what is it that God has not provided to help make the Earth the kind of place that we would like for it to be? In my view it is us. Of course each of us is a creation of God as we have evolved magnificently over our thousands of years here on the Earth. But the world will not be changed for the better unless each of us uses our God given talents in ways that address the vast array of problems that are so visible here. The world will not heal itself. It will take innumerable, continuing, and loving actions, both large and small, from each person each day on the Earth to bring about the healing that we need so much.

For me all of this is summed up so well by these magnificent words from the great man, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi said, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world". What changes do each of you wish to see made in the world and how do you think you can help bring about those changes?

AMEN