I Corinthians 12:4-11
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
Psalm 36:5-10
5 Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. 10 O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart!
I love the imagery in this psalm! It forms a picture in my mind as I read it:
Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your judgments are like the great deep;
The language is beautiful. This Psalm is the humble effort of a human being to set into words the vastness of God. These are but a few phrases of perhaps a million more that we could describe God with. And of course, no amount of words will ever be enough to describe the complete God. Each word we utter is bound up in the language of the Finite in order to describe God, the Infinite. How can we wrap our head around infinity? There is really no valid way for us to describe the entirety of God because we are rooted in the Finite nature of just being human. We’re mortals, we live in finite time, we think in finite ideas, we relate to other parts of creation in finite terms.
I don’t know about you, but every attempt I make in trying to convey the infinite nature of God actually just results in me trying to think really big…maybe immense…but my understanding never approaches infinity. In fact, in my quest to even try to imagine infinity, I tried to think of something that might represent the largest number that I could think of. The biggest thing I could think of is the number of stars in existence. I actually did a Google search on my computer for how many stars are in the universe. To my surprise, Google had an answer for me!
Our galaxy has about 100 billion stars in it, and there are about 10 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Given that, NASA estimates that there are 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe! Note that I say the observable universe. The number of stars is probably infinite, but we can't see them all because light travels at a finite speed, and scientists believe that light has had only about 13 billion years to travel. So that means we can’t observe any stars further than about 13 billion light years away. That’s just the physical universe. I can’t even begin to imagine what form of creation is outside the physical, observable universe.
And then it occurred to me that each of those infinite stars are unique in God’s Creation. God created ---everything in existence--- the universe and beyond--as a loving reflection of God. The Book of Genesis is clear that we are all created in the image of God. Not the complete image of God--- that would be impossible given that we’re finite beings, and God is infinite. We were created in the image of God---we reflect some facet of God, some part, some aspect of God.
God imbued each part of creation ---and every part of creation --with some facet of God’s self, only a part of which is observable and knowable by humans. For instance, if we look at a bird in the sky, we marvel at the miracle of flight. If we look at a stone weathered by tidewaters, we marvel at the interplay between earth and sea, how smooth the stone is, how beautiful it is. We need only look around us at the incredible diversity of creation to get a glimpse of the complexity of the image of God. Each part of creation, each being, each person is unique in the universe. Each person is created with a unique combination of traits of the mind, body and spirit woven together to create a masterpiece of God’s expression. Even if we map all a person’s DNA, we still can’t measure the fullness of who a person is, for they’re also shaped by experiences, time, growth and a host of other variables that we haven’t even discovered yet.
Within that process of creation, each of us is given our own unique constellation of God-given gifts. As the Corinthians verse said: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Each collection of gifts is unique, AND each activated by the same spirit of God. Even though the number of combinations of traits and gifts are infinitely diverse and countless in number, God is One infinite presence. Never changing, never separated from us, and knows no limits. God is steadfast, enduring, timeless. Woven into the fabric of all existence is a singular God.
God is infinite indwelling. God dwells in us through the Holy Spirit. Each of us has a personal relationship with our Creator God, a relationship completely unique to us. And because our consciousness and our understanding are limited to our own experiences, there is no way to comprehend the full relationship that others have with God. We can talk about commonalities. For example, we as Christians gathering together for worship today. And yet, my personal relationship with God will be different than yours. But God is the same, a steadfast indwelling.
God is infinite love.
God freely created the world as an outpouring of love. Creation is intensely diverse, and God loves everything in it. Even as we turn against God and our neighbor, God's love remains constant. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent God’s Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Steadfast Love.
God is infinite grace.
Jesus Christ redeemed us in his sacrifice on the cross and in the resurrection. In this, Jesus became a witness for God’s steadfast grace.
2 Corinthians 12:9 says “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
For better or for worse, we have the capacity to choose and a capacity to grow. Sin is when we choose a path that veers away from God’s desire. In grace, we find forgiveness. Yet, Grace is far greater than forgiveness of sin. God accepts us and loves us just as we are, with weaknesses and gifts and that whole masterful constellation of our identity. Yet, grace is more than God’s acceptance. Grace is our steadfast companion as we move through time and experience. Grace gives us a space in which to grow.
In our weakness, we fail to see the depth of God’s desire to love. We try to put limits on God’s love. We ask who is my neighbor, who am I supposed to love? who does God really love? When we ask these questions, we miss the point. God never makes mistakes ---the entirety of God’s creation is perfect and loved. God never turns away, God never rejects —Our limited understanding of the diversity and complexity of God’s image in those who are different from ourselves makes us perceive limits to love where none exist.
Our understanding of other people and our understanding of God changes and grows and deepens when we realize that God just made us and the world more complicated than we first thought. We are in continuous growth toward a deeper relationship with each other and a deeper relationship with God.
As we move through this evolution of self, let us find peace in this simple truth: God’s presence endures, God’s love endures, God’s grace endures… forever.
Amen.