Slow MoverAnd It Was Good
A Sermon on the Character of God
(Note: Sermons can be heard in audio format at https://millersburgmennonite.org/worship/sermon-audio/)
Today we are starting a 3-part series on the Goodness of God. Our theme verse for this series comes from Psalm 27:13:
“I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.”
That verse will guide us through these weeks as we reflect on the goodness of God: what it means that God is good, how we have experienced God’s goodness, and how we are called to share God’s goodness with others.
Today, we begin at the beginning.
When I was a boy growing up on ten acres of wooded land in rural Mississippi, I used to climb the mimosa trees near our house. I would get sap on my knees and elbows and see ruby-throated hummingbirds seeking out the fragrant flowers around my head. I was not thinking in theological language then, but I was learning something. I was learning that I was stuck to something bigger than myself, and that something was rather wonderful.
We know about the Good Book, the Bible. We read it, study it, preach from it, and seek to live by it. But there is also what I call The Other Good Book: the book of Creation. Not a replacement for Scripture, but a witness alongside it. A book written in wind, soil, birdsong, tree bark, creek water, deer tracks, ant hills, and the breath of living things.
Creation has a way of teaching us if we are willing to listen. And one of the first things creation teaches us is this:
Dios es bueno.
God is good.
And because God is good, what God creates is good.
That is where Genesis begins.
Not with sin.
Not with shame.
But with God creating, God seeing, and God calling creation good.
Let us pray,
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen
Homily
In the beginning, God speaks, and light comes into being. God gathers the waters and brings forth dry land. God fills the sky, sea, and earth with life. And again and again, after God creates, the same refrain appears:
And God saw that it was good.
Then God creates humankind in the image of God, blessed by God and given responsibility within creation.
And then Genesis says:
“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”
That is where the story begins.
The first word over creation is not “broken,” “sinful,” or “condemned.”
The first word is good.
Before there is a fall, there is blessing. Before there is exile, there is a garden. Before there is shame, there is delight. Before there is sin, there is goodness.
That matters because we often begin the story in the wrong place. We begin with what is wrong: human failure, guilt, sin, and everything that has gone bad in the world.
We shouldn’t ignore those things. The world is wounded. Creation groans. Bodies suffer. Relationships break. Violence, poverty, and despair are real.
But Genesis does not begin there.
Genesis begins with the goodness of God overflowing into the goodness of creation.
The repeated phrase “and it was good” is not filler. It is a deeply theological claim. The created world is not a mistake. The earth is not trash. The body is not shameful. Human life is not an accident.
God looks at what God has made and calls it good.
Dios mira lo que ha hecho y lo llama bueno.
The world is good because God is good. Creation reflects the character of the Creator.
Thomas Aquinas said God is not merely one good being among others. God is goodness itself. God does not simply have goodness the way we might have a good day or do a good deed. God is good in God’s very being. God is the source from which all true goodness flows.
That is why I love this phrase:
God is good all the time.
All the time, God is good.
It may sound like a simple phrase. A church litany. A call and response.
But if we really hear it, it is one of the deepest confessions of faith we can make.
God is good.
Not merely when life is going well. Not merely when prayers are answered the way we hoped. Not merely when healing comes quickly.
But all the time.
That does not mean everything that happens is good. It does not mean suffering is good.
It means God is good.
That is an important distinction. If we confuse everything that happens with the will of God, we may begin to call evil good. We may begin to think suffering, poverty, despair, abuse, and violence somehow come from the heart of God.
Scripture tells us something different.
The Psalmist, in addressing God, says:
“You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.” (Psalm 119:68)
God’s actions flow from God’s character. God’s commands, teaching, correction, guidance, and wisdom all come from goodness.
God’s ways are trustworthy because God is good.
But this raises an honest question.
Do we really believe God is good?
¿Realmente creemos que Dios es bueno?
Not just in what we say out loud. Not just in our hymns. Not just in our theology. But deep down, what kind of God do we imagine?
Some of us may carry an image of God as a disappointed parent, standing over us with crossed arms, waiting for us to mess up. Some of us may imagine God keeping a record of every one of our failures. Some of us may imagine God as mainly angry, cold, distant, or impossible to please.
Some of us may say “God is good,” but inwardly live as though God is out to get us.
Nuestra imagen de Dios importa porque la forma en que vemos a Dios moldea la forma en que vemos todo lo demás.
Our image of God matters because how we see God shapes how we see everything else.
If we believe God is mainly punitive, then every hardship feels like punishment. If we believe God is always disappointed, then we may never rest in grace. If we believe God is looking for reasons to condemn us, then we may become fearful, anxious, defensive, or ashamed.
But what if God is better than that?
What if God is not the author of cruelty? What if there is no evil in God? What if humanity, not God, is to blame for poverty, despair, abuse, and violence? What if God is not waiting to catch us in something wrong, but is always working to call us back into life?
To say God is good does not mean God ignores evil.
God’s goodness is not weakness or sentimentality. Because God is good, God opposes everything that destroys life.
Porque Dios es bueno, Dios se opone a todo lo que destruye la vida.
God’s judgment, rightly understood, is not the opposite of God’s goodness. God’s judgment is what goodness looks like when it confronts evil.
A good doctor does not ignore disease. A good shepherd does not ignore wolves. A good parent does not ignore harm being done to their child.
Goodness acts. Goodness protects. Goodness tells the truth. Goodness heals. Goodness restores.
So when we say there is no evil in God, we are not saying God does not care about evil. We are saying evil does not exist in nor come from God’s heart.
God is not secretly cruel. God is not secretly malicious. God is not secretly against us.
God is good.
Dios es bueno.
And if God is good, then wherever life is being restored, God is at work.
Julian of Norwich lived in a time of great suffering, illness, plague, and uncertainty. She did not deny suffering or pretend pain was unreal. But she believed that God’s love was deeper than suffering, and that in the end God’s goodness would be stronger than all that wounds and destroys.
Her famous words were, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
That is not shallow optimism. That is deep trust that God’s goodness is not defeated by brokenness,
Perhaps this is why Psalm 23 speaks so deeply to us.
Green pastures, still waters, restored souls, God’s presence in the valley of the shades[RS1] , a table prepared in the presence of enemies, and a cup that overflows.
And then comes this promise:
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
“Ciertamente la bondad y la misericordia me seguirán todos los días de mi vida.”
Goodness and mercy.
Not guilt and condemnation. Not shame and fear. Not wrath and suspicion. Not despair and punishment.
Goodness and mercy.
The word “follow” can carry the sense of pursuit. God’s goodness and mercy do not simply trail behind us at a distance. They pursue us. They come after us. They seek us.
We may often imagine the things following us are more sinister than that: regret, failure, the past, shame, fear.
And yes, sometimes those things can feel close behind us.
But Psalm 23 promises that there is something deeper pursuing the people of God.
Goodness and mercy.
(song)
The hounds of heaven are not guilt and condemnation. They are more like our blue tick coon hound Belle, who is sure that anyone and everyone is a friend and/or wants to be her friend too. Our pursuers are goodness and mercy.
And when sin wounds what is good, God does not abandon creation. God works to redeem it.
In Jesus, we see the goodness of God most clearly.
If our image of God does not look like Jesus blessing children, touching lepers, forgiving enemies, feeding the hungry, welcoming the outcast, forgiving enemies, and laying down his life in love, then our image of God needs to be redeemed.
Jesus does not reveal a God who is eager to condemn. Jesus reveals a God who seeks the lost, touches the untouchable, welcomes children, eats with sinners, heals the sick, lifts the shamed, and lays down life in love.
If you want to know whether God is good, look at Jesus.
Jesús es cómo se ve la bondad de Dios hecha carne.
Jesus is what the goodness of God looks like in the flesh.
So perhaps the invitation today is for each of us to look within and examine the image of God we carry.
When you think of God, what rises in you first?
Fear? Shame? Suspicion? Condemnation?
Or goodness?
Do you believe God is good? Do you believe God’s desire for you is life abundantly? Do you believe goodness and mercy are following you?
For some of us, the answers to these questions may surprise us. Distorted images of God do not always disappear in a moment.
But God is not limited by our distortions.
God is bigger than our fears. God is kinder than our shame. God is more merciful than our guilt. God is more faithful than our anxiety.
God is good.
Dios es bueno.
And because God is good, we can trust God with the truth. We can bring our pain, questions, anger, grief, failures, our whole selves.
No tenemos que escondernos de un Dios bueno.
We do not have to hide from a good God. We do not have to pretend before a good God. We do not have to earn the goodness of a good God.
We receive it. We trust it. We live out of it. And by grace, we reflect it.
Genesis says God saw everything God had made, and indeed, it was very good.
Psalm 119 says, “You are good, and what you do is good.”
Psalm 23 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
So let us begin here.
God is good.
Dios es bueno.
Not sometimes. Not reluctantly. Not only to the deserving. Not only when life makes sense.
God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.
Amen
Benediction:
Go forth trusting the goodness of God.
Go forth seeing the goodness already written into the world God loves.
Go forth becoming people who reflect the goodness of God.
And may goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.
Go in Peace.
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