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I grew up as a wee boy in a modest family. We were not rich. We did get by very well. One of the good things my family afforded was the regular resource of the Saturday Evening Post magazine and the monthly National Geographic. When I was about six years old, the the end of World War Two, the Geographic had an image that gave me my early depiction of God. The image was in the shape of a large human body, and that body was totally covered with the depiction of eyes, hundred of eyes. That
image to me was how God saw all of all that there is, how God saw Creation and saw that it is good.

You may have your own early, and your own current image of God.I do not want to disturb them. We are going to be looking at, exploring, the Season of Creation over the next Sundays until 4 October. The theme of this season is, “Living Water”.

The images of this water, flowing, moving, restoring, is presented in the water in the Font and the water depicted at the altar area. Water, the essential ingredient of life. Water, the giver of nourishment
and refreshment. Water, the precious resource that all of Creation depends upon. Water that is the essence of our physical being.

The theme is based on the poem in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (47:9-12). In the depth of despair, in captivity in Babylon, Ezekiel pronounces a new vision of hope and life and love. Instead of the blood of
sacrifice, flowing towards God in the temple, God provides drops of water that become a living stream, flowing out of the temple to bring fullness of life, a new creation, a hope for the future and a gift for the present.

Living water, the River of Life, ever deepening, restoring life even in the salty brine of the Dead Sea. It is the giving of HEALING, RESTORATION, MAKING WHOLE, LIFE RENEWED. The vision is of the Creator’s Garden of Eden in the newness of living in the faith of Jesus’ promise of living water.

Season of Creation to be explored.

Today is the beginning. We start this Sunday with the FEAST OF THE CREATOR. This God whom I saw as an all-seeing all-knowing God in the eyes of the National Geographic pages, this is the God the Creator we
rejoice with, celebrate, and honour today.

This feast day is brand new to our Anglican collection of feast days. Yet this day has been celebrated in the Christian world for over a millenium. The Eastern Orthodox Church since the early centuries has designated the feast of the Creator on the first of September.

An Anglican selection of Biblical readings for this day explore the wonder of Creation as the gift of the Creator and the place of humanity within the realm of the God of all that there is.In Proverbs we read, “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.” Wisdom is speaking, Lady Wisdom is sharing the delight of being present with God in the very beginning – when there were no springs of abounding water – Wisdom was present.

We hear Wisdom say, “I was daily God’s delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” The author of the Letter to the Colossians relates this humanity of
Jesus to the Creator depicted by Wisdom. Christ is “image of the invisible God, the birstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

This Creator who delights in all that is created, also delights in the restoration of life, life everlasting given for all in Jesus the Christ. We are an intricate part of the Creator’s work. The human portion relates to the ever flowing, ever living water of life unfolding day by day.

We humans become part of the gift God the Creator bestows the responsibility of humanity is essential for the life of our Island Home, Planet Earth, and our place in the universe of the heavenly domain, visible and invisible.

“In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God and the Word was God. Al things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life and
the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)

We identify the Word as being Christ. We identify in feminine language the Word as Wisdom. This fullness of knowledge is life itself as meant by the God that I experience and name as I AM.

We could sing the words, “To God be the glory, who great things has done!” We have just sung our recognition of “All creatures of our God and King”…. We will sing, “Thou our Father and our Mother, all who live in love are thine; teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.”

With the Psalmist we need to “Sing a new song. W eneed to rejoice in the Lord.” My vision, and our vision of God needs to flow in living water rebirthing all of Creation.

Fr. Art