Creation & Crucifixion

God is in all that is. God is in the universe. God is in all of creation. God is in the plants and animals. God is in the mountains and the oceans.
And God is in you.
There is a divine spark in you.
I said that last week. And I said that one way we know this is because we have eaten the body and blood of Christ at the communion table. This literally (in a symbolic way) shows that Christ is in us.
We call communion a sacrament, because it is something simple, something ordinary, that allows us to see something holy, something extraordinary.
Communion is a sacrament, because ordinary bread and ordinary juice become for us the presence of Christ. They allow us to glimpse Christ’s presence.
And we take these ordinary elements into our bodies as a reminder that Christ’s holy presence lives within us - a reminder that we are united with Christ and with one another by the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us.
Ordinary bread, made holy; ordinary juice, made holy. Ordinary people, made holy, because Christ’s spirit dwells within us….
The Spirit dwells within us; the Spirit dwells within all people; the Spirit dwells in every aspect of Creation.
Where in scripture does it say this?
In Colossians 3:11, it says that Christ is all and in all.
In John chapter 1 it says that all things came into being through Christ.
All things.
All of creation.
All things came into being through Christ. Christ is all and in all.
Through the things God has made - through all things - God’s eternal power and divine nature are present...
In the first chapter of Romans, it says: “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—God’s eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through the things God has made” [1:20].
According to Richard Rohr, another name for that eternal power and divine nature is Christ.
We know Christ was present in the beginning. Christ is the word, and in the beginning, the word was with God, and the word was God.
About 2,000 years ago, that Word, that eternal power and divine nature, that divine energy… came to dwell in Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus understood that God’s eternal power and divine nature were within him. Jesus understood that God’s eternal power and divine nature was present in all people.
He tried to show people this. He tried to draw their attention to the fact that they were created in God’s image, and that God’s Spirit was within them.
He even said that he was with them, and always would be. Forever. Until the end of the world. He told them to eat bread as a reminder that his presence is always within them.
This is what got him killed. You can’t just go around saying that God is present in you and in all people...
Not when Caesar considered himself to be God.
Not when all the kings and governors who ruled on Caesar’s behalf considered themselves to be very close to God because they were very close to Caesar.
Not when the high priests considered themselves to be closer to God than anyone else because they dwelt in closest proximity to the holy of holies that lay behind the sacred curtain.
You can’t just go around saying that God is present within and among the people, because that would undermine the special status these ruling elites claimed for themselves.
So the ruling elites - the high priests, the Roman authorities - conspired together to have Jesus crucified.
They crucified Jesus. They crucified Christ.
But they didn’t understand that Christ was not confined to that one human life. Christ, the Word, the life and the light that was present at the beginning of all creation, was and is present in every aspect of creation!
Present in every human being...
And if Christ is present in every aspect of creation and in every human being…
Then however we treat any person, and however we treat any part of creation, is how we treat Christ.
Now: people in Jesus’ time would search for God in temples and palaces. As I said: Caesar considered himself to be God, and the kings and governors who ruled on Caesar’s behalf considered themselves to be very close to God, and the priests who dwelt in close proximity to the holy of holies that lay behind the sacred curtain considered themselves to be very close to God.
So that’s where the people looked for God: among the powerful.
But Jesus said, when you look for me, look among the lowly. Look among the least. Because Christ is everywhere. God’s eternal power and divine nature are everywhere.
Jesus says: you already know to treat the kings and priests well. So I say to you: treat the homeless well. Treat the poor well. Treat the hungry well. Treat the naked well. Treat foreigners and immigrants well.
Because my presence is there, and how you treat them is how you treat me.
How we treat all things and all people is how we treat Christ.

I’m repeating myself, saying the same thing in different ways, because I want to make sure you understand this before moving on to what’s next.
So if Christ is in all things, in every person, in every aspect of creation, then not only are we to treat every person on earth with love and honor, but we are also to treat all of Creation with love and honor.
That’s why Marie Kondo on her Netflix show always greets the house with a prayer before she begins teaching the people who live there how to tidy up. And that’s why she teaches them to carefully fold and store all their belongings, and to offer thanks to each item they choose to get rid of… because how we treat any part of creation is how we treat Christ.
Christ’s spirit is everywhere. Even in an old sock.
After all, that sock is made from cotton that grew in a field somewhere, nourished by water and the sun, and harvested by human hands. The life of the water and the energy of the sun and the work of human hands all went into the sock.
So even if it’s time - or past time - to get rid of that old sock, we get rid of it with gratitude.
Because how we treat any part of creation is how we treat Christ.
If we treat any aspect of creation poorly, with disrespect, then we are treating the Christ-presence that dwells within it poorly, and with disrespect.

Think about what this means for how we treat Creation.
If we destroy creation…
If we destroy the ocean with plastic,
If we destroy the water with oil spills,
If we destroy the air with pollution,
If we destroy the climate with carbon dioxide…
We crucify Christ all over again.
2,000 years ago, people crucified Jesus of Nazareth because they refused to recognize the eternal power and divine nature that he contained. They crucified him, because they did not see - or refused to see - the holy presence of God in him.
We do the same thing when we destroy nature.
We refuse to see the divine presence in a forest of trees, so we clear-cut those trees and lay waste to the land.
We refuse to see the divine presence in precious, clean running water. So we spoil the water by building oil pipelines that leak and foul the water.
We refuse to see the divine presence in clean air, so we rollback clean air guidelines...
Some people say it would cost too much to protect the environment, it would jeopardize the economy, it would jeopardize job creation...
Well, first of all, I don’t believe such things. I think they are lies.
Second of all, I see a lot of similarity between their their excuses, and what I imagine were the excuses of those who abandoned Jesus when the authorities came after him.
We heard in today’s Palm Sunday scripture how the crowds praised God joyfully with a loud voice when Jesus made his arrival into Jerusalem. They lined the streets, they cheered, they waved palm branches.
But just a few days later, when Jesus was arrested and put on trial - what happened? How did they go from “praising God joyfully with a loud voice” to yelling, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Even Jesus’ own disciples abandoned him when the moment of truth came.
How do you think they justified their actions? What excuses did they offer when they turned their backs on their core beliefs? When they turned their backs on him?
I bet their excuses were a lot like the excuses that so many use today, who continue to crucify Christ by the way they live, who choose their own comfort, their own luxury, their own ease of living, instead of choosing to honor the eternal power and divine presence that exists. in. all. of. creation.
And every time we choose convenience over creation, we crucify Christ. We kill the Christ that is in every aspect of creation.

Lent is a season of repentance. Lent ends on Easter, and this year (it just so happens), the day after Easter is Earth Day.
So let us repent of our tendency to choose convenience over creation. Let us repent of our habit of crucifying Christ over and over again, in every wasteful habit, every needless assault on creation.
Let us turn to a new way of living - a way of living that recognizes Christ’s presence in all things, and all people.
Let us give thanks for every blessing we have received, every meal, every breath, every ray of sunshine, every birdsong we hear, every drop of water… every old sock that has served us well.
Let us find ways to let our leaders know that the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it. All of creation is holy and deserves to be protected. All resources are sacred, and must be used sustainably, with gratitude to God.
Let us choose the ways of life, and not the ways of death.
Let us contribute to the resurrection of this Christ-filled creation, as we honor the sacred presence of Christ in all things.