Preaching Progress

About ten years ago – oh wait, it was really just this past February! – I began a book on improving my preaching.

Then the world fell apart.

But the book remains on my desk open to the chapter I have been working on sporadically for several months. Chapter 2. I did say sporadically, didn’t I? Intermittently? More not than often? Anyways.

Chapter 2 has me go through past sermons over the last several years to determine when parts of the Bible I primarily preach out of. He divides Scripture into different sections –

• Genesis-Deuteronomy (Pentateuch)
• Joshua – Esther (History)
• Job – Song of Solomon (Wisdom Literature)
• Isaiah – Malachi (Prophets)
• Matthew – Acts (Gospels/Acts)
• Romans – Philippians (Pauline Epistles)
• Hebrews – Revelation (General Epistles & Revelation)

What I learned in this is my system of saving my sermons does not lend itself to an easy examination of what texts I primarily preached from. So I had to open every single individual sermon to determine what I preached from. Which is incredibly time-consuming, and so I didn’t go through five years of back sermons. I made it through about a year and a half and I’m going to call that good.

I preach primarily on the Gospel texts. This makes good sense as I believe the Gospel should predominate in worship. However I often incorporate the Old Testament lesson or the Epistle reading or even the psalm into the sermon as well, so that even while I’m preaching mostly on the Gospel readings it isn’t exclusive to the other readings. I guess this is good. The author’s idea is that you should have a balanced use of Scripture in your sermons over time, an idea I agree with in principle so long as the Gospel predominates.

Ready for Chapter 3, I guess!

Apples & Oranges

I am not qualified to assess whether the US infection levels of Coronavirus are increasing as is commonly reported, staying the same, or perhaps decreasing. Variables in terms of reporting methodologies, the number of people being tested, and probably dozens of others I’m not even aware of are more than I’m willing or able to quantify. I’ll assume our infection levels are increasing somewhat after we bent the curve in April.

However article leaders like the ones in this news report are not helpful.

The US is compared unfavorably with New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore in our rising infection levels. The first thing I went and did was check on the populations of these countries. All of them are substantially smaller than the United States in terms of population. South Korean is roughly 1/6 of our population at 50 million people, while New Zealand and Singapore have approximately 5 million, or 15% of the US population level of roughly 330 million people.

Now maybe the article takes this into account and is comparing infection levels adjusted for population. It doesn’t indicate it, however. It seems to at least acknowledge that the geographical size of the US and therefore the reality that infections can surge in one area and then another is something different from the other countries it cites. So there’s that.

So be careful out there, but also pay attention. As I was crunching some local numbers I realized that for our particular county, infection rates are at less than 1% of the population. Of course, that’s just the cases that are tested or confirmed somehow, but still. It’s a much smaller number of people than you would think given the unrelenting news coverage.

Irony

I’m a sucker for irony, so perhaps it’s just my skewed view of the world that finds it darkly humorous that players in the National Women’s Soccer League have the option of sitting in the locker room during the national anthem rather than being on the field as has been traditional in most American sports for decades.

Perhaps people will find it interesting that a soccer league – regardless of gender – was created in part to make the world a better place by creating a “platform” for players to voice their individual opinions and preferences. I’m willing to bet those opinions and preferences are not uniformly encouraged or supported, which leads me to suspect it’s less about player rights and self-expression and more about an organizational perspective of what makes the world “a better place.”

I have a solution to this curious conundrum of a team not being unified in their expressions of national support – just remove the word national from the league name. Since it clearly doesn’t indicate anything more than a designation of location, it hardly seems necessary. And if players believe that dissent means publicly disowning their nation until their nation does what they, personally (or organizationally) want it to do, all the more reason to remove the confusing nomenclature.

Clearly the national anthem is not a requirement for citizenship, and since most (all?) professional sports teams are private enterprises, there shouldn’t be a necessity of a tradition of the national anthem being played if they are ashamed of their country. Of course, I’d think it also reasonable that such teams would repudiate any compensation they might be receiving from public funds, whether in the form of tax breaks or other incentives. To make sure they don’t feel compromised in their play. Of course. I’d hate for them to feel unduly burdened in those ways as well as in the issue of the national anthem.

Reading Ramblings – July 5, 2020

Date: Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – July 5, 2020 – COVID-19

Texts: Zechariah 9:9-12; Psalm 145:1-13; Romans 7:14-25a; Matthew 11:25-30

Context: God gives his good gifts to his creation. Even now, in the midst of our sinfulness, God continues to pour out upon his creation more than enough to satisfy everyone. God is not stingy, but we are not very good at sharing his gifts. But we look forward to a time when God himself ensures perfectly that his gifts are enjoyed perfectly. A time when we are freed from the limitations of sinful powers of varying sorts in our world. A time when thanks and praise to God flows from all lips because all equally receive and perceive his goodness as the giver. We his people here and now are not only to be about the business of sharing his goodness throughout creation but also telling of his blessings in our lives. On this weekend when Americans celebrate our freedom, we as American Christians remember our true and lasting freedom is in Christ.

Zechariah 9:9-12 – God is coming to his creation! The true and rightful King is coming to demonstrate his rule and power over all creation. This is cause for rejoicing! Not much is known about the prophet Zechariah. He is mentioned in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 along with Haggai, evidently with an important role in the rebuilding of the Temple after the return from the Babylonian exile (circa 530 BC). Nehemiah 12:16 lists him as the son of the priest Iddo who returned from the Exile with Zerubbabel. Some see this as conflicting with Zechariah 1:1, 7 that indicate Zechariah is Iddo’s grandson rathher than son. We presume Nehemiah 12:16 simply omits the intervening generation, a practice not uncommon with Biblical genealogies. Zechariah is also evidence that the roles of priest and prophet were at some point combined

Psalm 145:1-13 – I lopped off verse 14 from the assigned reading, as it seems to be out of synch with the previous section, introducing a new line of thought. The dominant theme in the first 13 verses is giving testimony, witnessing to the power of God. The speaker begins in the first person in verses 1-3, but then expands the scope of this praise, indicating that one generation should witness to the Lord’s goodness to the next generation. How easy it is to forget this as part of our Christian life and witness, sharing with children and grandchildren how God has blessed our lives! Certainly in times like these COVID-19 days, we have much to give thanks for and much to share with others about how God continues to bless us and watch over us. This care is summarized best in vs.8-9, making it clear that God does not limit his goodness just to his faithful, but extends his blessings to all of his creation. The net result of this should be his blessed creation giving thanks to God and acknowledging him as the source of these blessings (vs.10-13).

Romans 7:14-25a – It’s helpful to reread verse 13 that was included in last week’s reading as the opening thought for these verses that follow. If the Law was the means by which sin was made known and defined in creation and in me personally (vs.7-12), it might be wondered whether we would have been better off the Law. Doesn’t the Law bring death where otherwise there would be no death because we would have no concept of sin? Hardly! Sin is to blame for death. Sin that worked initially in the flesh and blood of Adam and Eve and all their offspring, and that was only later codified and clarified to the people of God under Moses. The Law has always existed and therefore sin is always a violation of the Law woven into creation. The Law serves to rightfully condemn the sin I find within me. And I need both that clarification and condemnation of my sin because I would otherwise often be conflicted and confused regarding my sin. Sin isn’t simply what I want or don’t want. Now, in Christ, I’m very aware that while I may want what Christ wants, I act oppositely. So good and bad are not simply a matter of what I do or don’t do, or want to do or don’t want to do. I am in fact enslaved to my sin still at a certain level, acting it out in thought, word and deed even when I know better and want better. So the Law is necessary to clarify this for me so I know what sin really is and can condemn it within me, trusting in the deliverance that doesn’t come from knowing the Law or somehow learning to perfectly keep the Law but only in the person and work of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, on my behalf.

Matthew 11:25-30 – Oftentimes I’ve heard it said, If only Jesus were here today, doing what He did 2000 years ago, it would be so easy to believe! Yes Jesus says otherwise. It is not as simple as seeing is believing, as Jesus has just finished condemning Capernaum for unbelief in spite of Jesus’ preaching and teaching and healing and driving out demons there. They had all the evidence they could want of who Jesus was, but still rejected him. We can’t trust our own senses or our own reasoning skills! As such, we cannot reason ourselves to faith nor deduce faith logically, but faith must be revealed to us, shown to us and presented to us either to receive in gratefulness or spurn in arrogance or idiocy. The greatest gift in all of creation history isn’t received by everyone because not everyone will allow themselves to receive it as a child, unable to contribute anything of their own, and discarding whatever they thought was good and valuable in their lives as of no consequence to their salvation.

Writing History

You wouldn’t know it from reading local news stories, but public officials are allowing mobs of people to destroy public landmarks – the costs of which are borne by taxpayers.

For instance, in San Francisco several statues were recently knocked over by mobs of people. The reports of what happened and why are fascinating. Consider this report, which begins as a fairly neutral account of what happened and some of the costs entailed, but then devolves into a virtual legitimization of the destruction due to essentially bureaucratic red tape. If only officials had moved more quickly to respond to input, the situation could have been handled properly. The writer ends the column justifying the destruction of public property as appropriate, despite the fact that some of the destruction mentioned in the article is also described as “less thought out”.

Or you could read this report, that begins with justification of the actions. Neither article describes any real effort to apprehend the vandals or stop them from destroying the statues in the first place, even though it seems likely the police could have effectively intervened. Perhaps fear of reprisals in the form of demands for disbanding or defunding the police department caused officers to hesitate to get more directly involved? Regardless of the rationale, those police officers will be directly involved in terms of their tax monies being used to pay for necessary cleaning, removal, storage, and whatever other costs the mobs incurred.

Closer to home an effort was made – perhaps half-heartedly – to destroy a statue in Ventura, California.

This report makes it seem like a rather innocuous discussion, really. A respectful exchange of ideas about the future of a statue commemorating a historical figure prominent in California history. A “rally” is described to “discuss” relocating the statue to private property.

Or you could read this account, which describes a far more volatile confrontation and a desire for more than discussion, at least by some of those present. Again, police presence is described as somewhat distant, but in this case enough to deter those bent on illegal activity from pursuing their goal.

I’m not quite clear how these events are described so casually despite the destruction of public property intended or carried out. Does the fact that someone is allegedly angry mean they are not subject to the law? Isn’t the law intended, at a very practical level, to discourage certain behavior by people who might be highly emotional and not thinking most clearly? I’d be fascinated to learn if Black Lives Matter has plans to reimburse cities for the forced redecorating (dedecorating) carried out in the movement’s name? Perhaps they’ll take up collections from people happy that the offending monuments are gone to defray the costs? Or is that really not at all something they’re concerned about? Hmmm. That’s a tough one to figure out, isn’t it?

It’s a dangerous situation when people believe they can act with impunity, destroying parts of their community without bothering to consider how others think or feel about the destruction, and expecting those other people to pick up the tab for their actions. If this is a foreshadowing of how things will operate in the future of defunded police departments, I can’t say I’m a fan of it.

Not that anybody’s asking me.

Filtering

Thanks to Ken for sharing an article with me from the Wall Street Journal about Amazon’s discriminatory advertising practices. The article highlights something everyone should know but is easily forgotten – Internet companies like Amazon and Facebook and Google are just that, companies. They are not required to provide equal access to everyone. They are not required to sell every possible product that is available. And each one answers to shareholders and is very responsive to market forces.

Which means if you publish something that might be considered politically incorrect, you may not find your product listed or highlighted or advertised on these sites. Which means of course you’ll have a harder time making people aware of your work.

This brief reminder also highlights another level of censorship from some of these same companies – which materials are made available in electronic format for e-readers, and whether titles available today will be available in the future.

Both of which are reasons I love me a good used bookstore, and I’m fortunate to have several not too far away that can help me get my hands on all sorts of things that may increasingly become difficult to find through Amazon. And it’s why I prefer actual books to e-readers (I’ve never owned an e-reader, even though I love the convenience factor they provide). You never know when your copy of something may end up being one of the last copies in existence because of censorship.

Reading Ramblings – June 28, 2020

Date: Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – June 28, 2020 – COVID-19

Texts: Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 119:153-160; Romans 7:1-13; Matthew 10:34-42

Context: It is the erroneous assumption of some (many?) Christians that there can be a happy medium, an accommodation of sorts between the world and Christ. That the world will accept Christ if He is presented in the right way and right conditions, and that we can in turn continue to enjoy the world on our terms. But middle ground is tenuous at best and always fleeting. The prince of this world will not permit compromise unless he believes it will lead to his advantage. And likewise, God the Father has no intention of sharing his creation with any pretenders to the throne. Whatever middle ground we may appear to occupy will not last long, nor should we ultimately desire it to as it’s an expensive and dangerously misleading place to stand.

Jeremiah 28:5-9 – We don’t lack for conflicting messages in this world, and that has always been the case. Those who claim to speak on behalf of God appear to have an easy job. But the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Jeremiah echoes the sentiments of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:14-22 – those who claim to speak in God’s name should be held to their word, and judged by that word. Jeremiah faces the additional difficulty of reminding not just Hananiah but those inclined to listen to him that it’s easy to prophesy good things, as that’s what people want to hear. God’s Word often calls his people to the reality of how difficult things are in this world and how desperately Satan would like to see God’s people crushed and broken away from the loving hand of God the Father. Preaching peace and security has always been easy but rarely been accurate!

Psalm 119:153-160 – This portion of the acrosstic psalm uses the Hebrew letter resh. Speaking God’s truth to a world insistent on lies (Romans 1:18-32) will result in suffering for those who proclaim that truth. This psalm is spoken by the one who is faithful to the Word of God and is being punished for it. The speaker requests deliverance (v.153) from a potentially life-threatening (v.154) persecution (v.157). While the source of this persecution is not specified, it seems to have to do with the speaker’s refusal to compromise or violate God’s law (v.153) or statutes (v.157). It is reasonable for the faithful to pray to God for sustenance and vindication against the lies of the world. Such vindication ultimately is to the glory of God rather than just a personal blessing. Whether our preservation in the moment will best accomplish God’s purposes or not is not knowledge we’re usually privy to, calling us to trust that even an ignoble death can be used by God towards his ends, and we remain both in life and in death firmly in his care and love.

Romans 7:1-13 – The Christian’s relationship with the law is a matter of considerable confusion. The Law remains, but in Christ our relationship to the Law has changed. In Galatians 3 Paul will explain the Law as the means by which God protected creation until the coming of the Messiah. Paul uses the metaphor of marriage here to demonstrate the substantive change we have undergone in relationship to the Law. We were born sinfully bound to the Law and under it’s power to condemn us, but as we join ourselves to the death and resurrection of Jesus in baptism, we spiritually die and are reborn. So we are no longer bound to the Law as before, and we are free for Christ to claim us as his own. The Law in some ways stirred us to greater sinfulness once we understood what was prohibited to us. Our sinful nature found in the Law a guide as to what further and deeper sin we should be pushed towards. However the Law was not to blame for this, but our slavery to our sinful nature. The Law is good because it defines good and evil for us and saves us from the error and confusion of trying to define these things for ourselves, something we are always having to relearn. We can in no way transfer blame or guilt to the Law, but must always acknowledge it as the good gift of God, the righteousness of God spoken into a creation broken and unable to know that righteousness directly as Adam and Eve did in Genesis 1-2. So the Christian is not free and separate from the Law, but only from the condemnation of the Law. Sin remains sin, but the penalty of our sin is now satisfied not in our condemnation but in the forgiveness afforded by the incarnate suffering and death of the Son of God on our behalf.

Matthew 10:34-42 – Having prophesied the opposition his disciples will eventually face in fulfilling their duties as messengers, Jesus clarifies what will result from his work among us, the division it will create as the prince of this world fights against it, seeking to keep God’s creatures blinded and enslaved. God does not seek such division, but is committed to standing firm against the plots and plans of Satan. To imagine a God that shrinks from confrontation is to misunderstand both God and the nature of our depravity and sinfulness. There is no such thing as a little bit of salvation, or a partial victory or negotiated peace with evil. There is only victory. And while amnesty is extended in grace to those who repent of their former disobedience and rebellion, those who refuse such amnesty place themselves under eternal judgment. It is quite literally all or nothing and this should not surprise us as we live in the confusion and shifting ground of a creation constantly trying to mistakenly assert such compromise is not only possible but desirable. As though good could ever co-mingle with evil, purity with impurity, holiness with desecration, righteousness with outlaws.

Against attempts to hold such a middle ground Jesus speaks starkly. If you love the things and people of this world more than God you ultimately lose both eternally. Only by loving the things and people of this world in their proper place as fellow creations and creatures rather than gods and goddesses can we hope and pray both for their salvation and our own. It is not that we are to neglect or abandon the Fourth Commandment or our marriage vows. But for those in Christ all these relationships are derivative from and therefore only possible when kept in their proper relationship to our relationship with Christ.

Filling in Gaps

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?

Remember how she said that we would meet again

Some sunny day?

Vera, Vera, what has become of you?

Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?

Pink Floyd, “Vera” from The Wall

I remember being blown away by the power of Pink Floyd’s The Wall when I discovered it in high school. The disturbing power of that album, the bitter disappointment and rage at the society that arose in Britain from the ashes of World War II were all heady historical commentary set to music. And as often as I’ve listened to this album – or most any album or book or movie – there are references and allusions I miss or never bother to track down.

Vera Lynn is one of them. I assumed at some level she might be a cultural/historical figure from the British World War II era, maybe a film star. But now I know she was a singer. A singer who was never able (or allowed) to move beyond her cultural mooring of wartime Britain, and who has now died at a very respectable age of 103.

Another brick in the wall of understanding.

Reading Ramblings – June 21, 2020

Date: Third Sunday after Pentecost – June 14, 2020 – COVID-19

Texts: Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 91; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:16-33

Context: Faithfulness to God will sometimes put us at odds with a world around us still enslaved to Satan and sin.

Jeremiah 20:7-13 – The prophet Jeremiah is appointed by God the Holy Spirit to speak a hard word to the people of Judah, a warning of destruction, of exile to Babylon. It is not a popular message, nor one that makes any sense to those who comfort themselves as the people of God. Surely God would never allow his chosen people to be humiliated! Jeremiah is publicly beaten and humiliated for the message he brings (vs. 1-3). How difficult it must be for Jeremiah to suffer only for speaking the true Word of God! How frustrating it must be to have his words fall not just on deaf ears but actively hostile ears! Jeremiah deals with this pain vocally in the verses for this morning (vs.7-10), stating his situation to God before, no doubt by the power of the Holy Spirit, he also speaks his consolation (vs.11-13), reminders of the God he serves and who cannot be overcome by the machinations of men. So you and I are called to faithful trust in our God who lives and reigns regardless of how the nations or our neighbors may rail against his Word.

Psalm 91 – God is our mighty fortress. He is the rock to which we cling, and also the rock upon which we build our lives. He is there for us always and in all things, not simply in those moments of terror or panic or uncertainty. He was present before the Coronavirus, He is with us now, and He will continue to be with his creation until our Lord’s return and the renewing or recreation of all things in unity under God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit once again. What is there we have to fear in this life? Those blessed with old age talk aboiut how quickly life goes, and it’s true. Yet we look forward to eternity! If our lives here and now are not all we hoped or expected them to be, all is not lost! If we are subjected to turbulence and uncertainty despite all our careful plannings and preparations, all is not lost! If we fall prey to sickness or disease, to war or any number of other dangers, all is not lost! We do not live in fear of the tragedies in life nor do we allow the blessings in life to eclipse our identity in Christ and our eternal destination.

Romans 6:12-23 – Having laid out faith in Jesus Christ as the means of salvation apart from adherence to the Law, Paul now has to clarify what he’s talking about. Does that mean the person in Christ ignores the law? Does it mean – if God’s grace increases to account for or sin – that we should sin more in order to give God greater glory in being even more gracious and merciful to us? It sounds funny, but it’s a logical conclusion people in Paul’s day and our own have come to – usually in rejecting the Bible and Christ as illogical.

Obviously, this is not the point Paul is getting at in any way. Christians are not exempt from the Law, but the Law wields a different power in the life of a Christian – a power to guide and lead but not a power to condemn and damn. Our baptism into Christ is not simply a photo opportunity and an excuse for everyone to get dressed up for church. Our baptism is actually a spiritual killing and raising to life again. But that death and rebirth doesn’t just affect our relationship with the law, to a certain extent it affects the sin in our lives as well, which is where we pick up Paul’s line of thought in verses 11-12. We have a newfound power – the power of God the Holy Spirit within us – to resist sin. Not that we can do so perfectly, but we can do so much better than we could before receiving faith in Jesus Christ! Just as if we had the opportunity to travel back in time to relive our lives and avoid the errors we regret now, our rebirth in Jesus Christ provides us the opportunity to live the rest of our lives out with decidedly different standards and possibilities guided not just by blind, sinful selfishness but the indwelling power and presence of the God who created, redeemed and now leads us towards holiness.

We have a true freedom and power to do this – albeit imperfectly as Paul will clarify in Chapter 7. Paul will continue to develop a line of thought that the Christian now lives and breathes in a different atmosphere, as it were, in Christ than before Christ while under the authority of Satan. But this change in environment and atmosphere does not set us free for a life of forgiven licentiousness. Rather, we are now slaves to Christ. Willing, grateful, blessed slaves. We are creatures and creatures have masters. Christ freed us from our slavery to sin and Satan which leads only to death, that we might be slaves of the God who created us, destined not for eternal misery but eternal life because of Christ.

Matthew 10:16-33 – We continue in Matthew 10 with Jesus preparing to send the disciples out for mission work. The reading does not exactly match the lectionary because I thought the lectionary divided up the text imprecisely. Last week Jesus laid out the reason for sending them out and the ground rules for how they would conduct their mission work. This week He begins to warn them not to assume their work will be universally received and appreciated. Here Jesus begins to speak prophetically. We have no textual evidence of the disciples being arrested or forced to defend themselves before “governors and kings” on this particular mission journey. Though certainly, the majority of them apparently did have to do so eventually – after Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension. Jesus here speaks as the Old Testament prophets did, sometimes mixing prophetic visions of nearer and more distant events without distinction. His words might have sounded very strange and a bit over-dramatic at the time, but later in their lives I’m sure his Word sustained them in the midst of trials and challenges both literal and figurative.

Likewise you and I are called to take Jesus’ words to heart. Not everyone will be happy to hear the news of a God who loves us enough to die for us and calls us into a life of obedient gratitude for saving us from ourselves and sin and Satan and death. There may be times when our message whether carefully crafted or mentioned off-handedly results in a furious rebuttal. And certainly some of God’s people throughout history and still today find themselves on trial or even at the mercy of an angry mob demanding their death.

At one level, while we don’t seek such responses, we are not to fear them or live our lives trying to hide from them. We are called to bear witness to our faith in lives of obedience to God the Father’s two guiding mandates in creation – love for him and love for neighbor, where love is defined not by us or the other person but by the God who created both. There may be times when we have to lovingly refuse the definitions and expressions of love our neighbor or culture demands from us because we know that, according to the Word of God, such definitions and expressions aren’t actually love.

When we have to reject the world’s definitions and ways of doing things and remind the world there is a Creator and his rules are to guide us, the response is oftentimes far less than grateful. But even if rejection of our witness of word and deed seems unanimous, we need to trust the Holy Spirit’s power, that He can move hearts and minds to faith using our imperfect obedience. It may not necessarily spare us the wrath of the mob or the penalty of the improper human law, but it should always remind us that we are never outside the love and care of our heavenly Father who is capable of turning Satan’s cruelest acts of inhumanity into opportunities to welcome new brothers and sisters in Christ into eternal life.

Peloponnesus & Bible Study

I start all my Biblical book studies with a section on isogogics – the study of things around or surrounding the text like who the author is, when it was written and by and to whom, and other information. When we can better understand these sorts of things we potentially gain better ears to hear what the author was saying and why. Not all studies include this sort of information but I find it very helpful.

One such example? Prior to starting preparations for this study on 1 Corinthians I didn’t realize there was an isthmus separating Greece into two main sections. I didn’t realize that Corinth’s location near this isthmus led to a very old and storied history of commercial vitality as the city had access not just to a western port leading towards Italy and Europe but an eastern port leading towards Turkey and the Orient. And because my geography knowledge is so sparse (I’m American), I didn’t know that the region where Corinth is situated separated by this isthmus from the rest of Greece is known as the Peloponnesus.

Just another reason I prefer to research and prepare my own Bible studies rather than rely on something someone else has prepared. I may never need to know some of these details, but I feel like they’re helpful in some small way to my larger appreciation not just of the Word of God as it impacts actual people and places, but the Creation of God as a whole.