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Sermon – Wilck’s Lake Service (Nature)
Exodus 3:1-6; Exodus 3:7-14; 4:1-15
Farmville Presbyterian Church
9/7/25
Welcome and Announcements
Introit Day by Day
Welcome to the Woods
Our time in this world is a natural time. We are natural people: created out of nature, given nature to tend, and invited to appreciate nature. Nature is essential to us and worth remembering as people of faith.
Reading Psalm 8
One: O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All: You have set your glory above the heavens.
One: Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
All: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
One: Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
All: You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
One: all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
All: O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
*Hymn #14 For the Beauty of the Earth
Please be seated
Meditation and Prayer
Long before we were a people of cities, we were a people of villages. Before we were a people of villages, we were a people of tents. Before we were a people of tents, we found caves and other natural shelter as our home. For most of the existence of humanity, we have lived in nature. Last week, I mentioned running around in the woods behind my home growing up, even to the point of getting lost. Those were magical days. Later, I spent some of the best years of my life working as a camp counselor at Camp Hanover in Mechanicsville. That natural place was very special to me and to my family. It is where I learned how to build a good fire. Nature there was at the heart of our life and our community. However, it seems that today’s world works so hard to get us out of nature and away from our roots. The emergence of one particular technology really kicked this off. It was not cell phones or today’s internet, not even tv or radio. The technology that changed us forever is air conditioning. Local streets and porches that used to be full of life became empty once people could be indoors and more comfortable. As people spent so much less time outside, so did their children and grandchildren. Our lives have reoriented to be “indoor people.” This comes at a cost along with its gain. We have lost part of our humanity when we cannot remember the last time we just enjoyed sitting out under the clouds or stars and breathed in the fresh air or felt wrapped in a warm breeze. Yes, nature is uncomfortable sometimes and comes with nuisances, but that is also part of God’s creation. We should never shut the door to our natural selves. Join me today as we work to reclaim our place in God’s creation.
Holy God, Creator and Redeemer, you made us from the dust of the earth, but we have often disconnected ourselves from the ground of life. We like pretty sights, but we love profit and gain. We like wildlife and clean air, but we love to develop. The troubles of this day we leave for our children and grandchildren. Nature is our tool rather than our home. Help us to grow in care and respect. Help us to grow in appreciation and joy. Help us to grow in awareness and intentional living. Reconnect us to the gift of this world that you have given us. In the name of the Word, through whom all was created, we pray. Amen.
One of the things that is more obvious when you are outside is the ground under your feet. When we stand, pay special attention to that foundation upon which we stand. Under our shoes is wood; under the wood is dirt and rock. This is the God’s ground under our feet as we stand in God’s faithfulness.
*Assurance of Pardon (unison)
While air fills our lungs and light our eyes, we can remember God’s grace that makes this day and our place in it possible. Our lives, our hopes, and our future are all a gift of freedom in Christ Jesus, in whom we pray. Amen.
*Glory be to the father (gloria patri) Hymn #581
Dwell in the Woods
Time with Children
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture Lesson Luke 1:67-80 (NT, p. 70-1)
67 Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a mighty savior] for us
in the house of his child David,
70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
72 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
and has remembered his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon] us,
79 to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.
Special Music This Is My Father’s World Hymn #370
Meditation Rev. Dr. Peter C. Smith
If anyone could have starred in a nature survival reality television show, it would have been the beloved John the Baptizer. He was good at the wilderness. We just heard his father give an eloquent song presenting his son to us all as God’s agent. In fact, it sounds like he is actually speaking or singing the song directly to John, and after he finishes, John is gone out into the wilderness. Seriously, talk about embracing nature. We could hope that even though John sounds like a child in the song, by the time we come to John leaving to live in the wilderness for the rest of his life until Jesus, that he was something more of an adult. It could also just be the way the Bible is presenting this – in a more dramatic story. The point, though, is that John spent a big part of his life in the wilderness. This was very important for John and for others who were looking to find God: Moses and the Israelites, John here, Jesus, and Paul, just to name a few. John’s life is completely informed by his wilderness living, including his diet and clothes. We could not have had a John without that time of him in nature. Isaiah said it best in chapter 40, verse 3: A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. John is that voice by the time we get to the gospels. The Lord, himself, was coming out of the wilderness. This is critical to the story and how the people saw God at work in the world.
Of course, the wilderness for them was not a forest or field like over here but a desert. There is some green but a lot more brown. Still, deserts can be teeming with life. It is still nature, God-given and God-desired nature – out and away from cities with less people and less busyness.
So why is nature so important?
The Bible seems to think it is an excellent place to encounter God. The early church mothers and fathers made it a point to go live in the wilderness for many years in their quest for greater holiness. St. Jerome, author of the first Latin Bible, was known for living in a cave with a lion, but I’m sure it was a nice lion. You can go out into the fields or forests or waters or deserts and find nothing but irritation and hardship and trouble, but you can also be reconnected to the Spirit of Life in all its diversity. You can be held in the wonder of God in something so small as an interesting flower or insect. You can be transported to a state disconnected from the constant stress and mad rush of this world. I am fully aware that this is not in any way, shape, or form a real campfire, but being here with you in this special way is renewing and pleasant. There is no getting around the fact that we need to be more connected to our natural selves, not less. We need to be more blessed by creation, not less. One of the best places to find God is in God’s creation. In a world starved for God, looking in the right places seems natural. To God be the Glory. Amen.
We Return from the Woods
*Affirmation of Faith – From the Brief Statement of Faith (see insert)
*Hymn #475 Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Pastoral Meditation and Lord’s Prayer (debts and debtors)
Honestly, one of the ways that our hearts especially hurt is when we are cut off from the world around us. Think about how many people out there today live in basements, cells, or cubicles. So much of the world is defined by separation and isolation. This is not why we were created, called into relationship, or given community. This is not why we are relational creatures or have a relational God.
There are absolutely times to be alone and away, but that is no way to live for most of us. As we pray, imagine the world out there, the world you may have seen and remember, and the world that lives in the pictures of your mind and heart. As we pray, we also remember our sisters and brothers who are especially struggling right now. God has answered our prayers, is answering our prayers, and will continue to answer our prayers. With this confidence, we pray….
God of the world, God of life, God of sea and mountain, star and snow, desert and rainforest, prairie and artic, reef and cave. Anywhere your feet have walked, we have followed. This world and all that is in it you have placed in our care, to tend and to protect for your good. Sometimes we have headed that call to greater success than other times. Sometimes we have shown incredible and faithful ingenuity. Other times, we have devalued and degraded the beauty of your work.
We face the same struggles in our lives and the people around us. There is so much need, so much hurt, so much despair, and so much opportunity for good.
Do not let us waste the opportunities. Do not let us trade in our hope, our love, our trust, or our willingness for anything less. Show us your good and faithful hand at work in those lives and places calling out to you for the kind of healing that must begin with you. Show us the dedication of your children willing to be healing, to work for healing, to find healing, and to give for healing. Do not let our lives or your children be defined by brokenness but by how we walk through brokenness together.
Fill our lungs with your Spirit. Give us visions of your beauty around us. Ignite our hearts for greater love. Make our path one of peace, cooperation, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Bless those who watch over us, who protect us, who tend to us, and who have to make tougher decisions than any of us would want to make. Give your wisdom in abundance and the humility to receive it. Reflect your joy in our hearts, and expand your grace. Show us how to be better blessings as we follow our Savior who taught us to pray….
Prayer of Response and Offering (unison)
God of life and love, you have placed your love in our hands. Help us to share. You have given us lives to share. Help us to love. You have made us your children. Help us to grow. In Christ and with Christ, we pray. Amen.
Today’s charge may be the easiest one I have ever offered: Go outside. Go outside and be a people of life and love where it all began. Embrace the colors and sights and sounds and feelings and wonder that is God’s world. Be renewed and refreshed, and share it with someone else. Do not forget where we meet God outside of all of the distractions that we have made. Even if you are unable to get away, take the time to unplug. Find God. It will be the best decision you made.