First Parish Church

First Parish Church
186 York Street
York, Maine 03909
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"Sea Monsters and Blessings"
Genesis 1

Linda B. Hirst
September 24, 2006

I have a confession to make: I am terrible at coming up with titles for my sermons; always have been, always will be. It’s just not one of my strengths - they’re either really boring and obvious or they make no sense at all - a while back I preached a sermon on Palm Sunday the title of which was: Lessons learned from a Fourth Grade Sunday School Class - after it was over Rich said, Good Sermon, but that title... I know. I know, I said.

At my church in CT I would get so flustered I used to leave the place for the sermon title blank - nothing at all - as time went on that’s how people knew I was preaching. They’d open the bulletin see "Sermon" followed by nothing and say, "Oh, look, Linda must be preaching today - guess she couldn’t come up with a title."

So today, for those of you who opened your bulletin, saw the title "Sea Monsters and Blessings" and thought what on earth is this going to be about, I want to give you a little hint.

It all started with a small bible study last week - we were reading Genesis, just a little part of it - from the Creation Story - the first creation story, because there are two.

The second is about Adam and Eve, but the first one is God creating the heavens and earth, the sun and the moon, the land, the water, the stars, the plants and fruit and so on and so forth. And it’s all good - that’s what the bible says. And God saw that it was good. And it is all good, it sounds wonderful. And then...somewhere along the fifth day, God’s creates sea monsters.

And it just sort of struck me as kind of funny. Because you don’t normally think of sea monsters as being necessarily good - I’ve seen enough documentaries to know that some of those things at the bottom of the sea are downright scary. And of course, I grew up on Jaws and there’s a bunch of us - and you know who you are - who didn’t go into the ocean for years because of that sea monster.

And if we think they’re scary, imagine what the people back in the day when the bible was written thought. They had boats back then, they knew what was out there, and what terrible things those great monsters of the deep could do.

But right here in Genesis, it says God created them and not only created them but saw that they were good and blessed them. Which is where my title comes from. And hopefully it will all make sense at the end and if it doesn’t feel free to say to me, that sermon title - next time you should just leave it blank and I promise not to be offended.

So from Genesis, chapter 1, vs. 1 and I’m going to stop at verse 22 a - which is where our bible study ended.

On the fifth day God created sea monsters.

The great thing about reading the bible, especially reading it with other bible, like in bible study, is that you get other people’s perspective on things - God speaks to us in different ways, at different times, you just never know what will hit you and when - that’s why we call it the living word.

For example... you and I could be sitting down reading the same passage - and I might be getting nothing from it - sometimes that happens - but you might be having this tremendous insight - this epiphany - a word straight from God - and all of a sudden the scripture comes alive.

That’s what happened last week in our bible study - and in this particular bible study called lectio divina - sacred reading - we are encouraged to listen to the scripture with the ear of the heart and listen to what God is saying to us.

And as this passage from Genesis was read I heard an acknowledgement of all the species of creation - along with all the cute, cuddly creatures - the rabbits, the deer, all the animals one might find in a Disney movie - there are some not so cute and not so cuddly creatures - such as spiders and snake. And even though I have this tremendous dislike of snakes and spiders, I know they’re all a part of creation. They all have a purpose - or so we’re told. And we’re so we’re supposed to take care of all creation - for me it was a lesson on stewardship.

That’s what I heard and that’s what I shared. That was the best I could come up with - for the life of me I couldn’t see how sea monsters could be a blessing, but that’s just me.

But another woman in our group had heard something completely different - she was having an insight, an epiphany, a word straight from God - and what she heard was this:

Perhaps the sea monsters can be metaphor for those difficult situations in life - those things, those people, those places that are a challenge for us, that are hard, that are scary, and as we deal with these things - these sea monsters - if we work at it, if we try, if allow God to help us, perhaps some good may come out of it - this is where the "be fruitful" part of the verse comes in. And maybe, even at the end of it all, we could see that somehow there’s been a blessing or two involved as well.

And I thought that was brilliant - though I was a tad disappointed that I hadn’t come up with it, I did get permission to preach on it this morning.

And God created sea monsters and blessed them saying, be fruitful.

Life is filled with sea monsters - metaphorically speaking - and that’s a fact.

Some are messes we’ve gotten ourselves into. Some are things that just happen - situations we find ourselves in that we know we have to do deal with even though we’d rather not. Some are people - at work, at school, family members - who are challenging to be around. But there they are.

Some are small - relatively speaking and can be dealt with in a short amount of time. Like teaching your 16 year old how to drive a standard when he’s only learned on an automatic at school. And there is yelling and slamming of doors and all kinds of angst and drama and headaches - and that’s all before you get into the car.

Or trying to get your senior to fill out a college application - any college application.

These are small sea- monsters that will be resolved one way or another in a short amount of time. They’re real and they’re a pain, but they’re not so frightening. They’re like a water snake that you see in a lake and even though you don’t like that it’s there, sharing the water with you, still you go swimming (unless you’re me) because you know it’s more afraid of you than you are of it and really, it won’t hurt you.

But others sea monsters are bigger and of a more serious nature - the nearly impossible situation at work, the relationship with a partner or friend that needs fixing or ending, the troubled child or troubled teen, caring for an aging parent, dealing with the loss of a loved one, a serious illness.

These sea monsters are the kind that lurk under water, occasionally rearing up just so you can get a look at their terrifying size - like the legendary Lock Ness monster or something out of a Harry Potter novel, and then they go under water again and you can feel the water moving with it’s presence - you can feel the water undulating - because that’s what these huge issues in our lives do - they undulate - they keep us guessing, keep us up at night, fill us with anxiety and worry, keep us wondering: what will happen next, what should we do? These are the big ones, the serious ones, the scary ones.

And it’s hard to think of them as being a blessing or being in any way fruitful - it’s hard to think of any good to come from an illness, a huge problem, the loss of a loved one, whatever the sea monster in your life is, and yet...the possibility exists...with the help of God.

I came across this quote the other day and I think it’s from the Boy Scouts

What do you usually pray for?

Most people pray to be kept safe from bad things happening to them. They pray for an easier time of it, for health, and safety. These are all fine, but bad things will happen to everyone. Being able to handle those bad things and challenges that life includes is important.

Without challenges, you don't find your limits.

Without challenges, you don't expand your abilities.

Without challenges, you don't grow.

The next time you pray, you might pray for strength and guidance to overcome the challenges rather than to have no challenges at all.

I’ll be honest, whenever I’m faced with a difficult situation, my first prayer is for God to remove it, whatever it is, to get it out of my life because it’s too hard, too painful, too much work to deal with, but that usually doesn’t happen.

And then I try to ignore it - but you know and I know, that tough situations, tough people, tough issues hardly ever go away on their own.

It’s only when we address the challenges, the difficult situations in life, face our sea-monsters as it were, that the real growth, the real transformation, the change happens. Maybe we grow closer to God, become more wise, or we become stronger emotionally and spiritually. Maybe the situation doesn’t change but we change. That’s the " fruitful" part. Hard as it may be, whatever issue we’re dealing with, with God’s help - perhaps some good will come of it. And maybe, at the end of it all, we will have seen a blessing or two along the way.

I can think of many examples and I’m sure you can two of how this has happened or may even be happening to you now, but I want to share one in particular - it happened last summer during the Susan G. Kommen Foundation 3-day, 60 mile walk to raise money to help end breast cancer. There are thousands of women who walk this and every one who walks has story - they’re walking for a friend who has breast cancer, or they are breast cancer survivors themselves and as people walk, their share their stories and as you can imagine, they’re all incredibly inspirational.

Well, among the thousands of women who walk there are a few men. Some walk together in teams and a few walk alone. Well, there was this one man, older gentlemen who was walking alone. We noticed him, we all noticed him, he had a walking stick and he didn’t stop to chat like the rest of us, or fill himself with snacks at every available opportunity like the rest of us, or just stop to stretch every chance he got, like the rest of us. We’d pass him, then we’d notice him passing us, we’d pass him, then he’d pass us. We never talked with him, other than saying Hello.

This went on for three days and 60 miles.

Well, at the end of the walk, the thousands of women and the few men end up in this kind of holding area where we’re greeted by our family and friends and it’s very emotional, lots of tears. And as we gathered in this holding pen, there was this man who was being greeted by his grown son and when they met they embraced one another and wept. Well, that was too much for us. Of course, everyone around him watching this wept too and finally someone from our group was brave enough to go up to him and ask him who he was walking for, what was his story.

And he shared that his wife had died that year of breast cancer, and it was horrible and awful for all of his family, but rather than let that be the end, he decided to honor her by walking for her raising money so one day no one would have to bear the loss that he did. He faced this awful situation in his life and this was his way of bearing fruit. And we all saw it, and saw the blessing he was to his family and to us.

That’s how sea monsters can be blessings.

These metaphorical sea monsters are a fact of life - and while I’m perfectly o.k. with God creating the literal sea- monsters, I don’t think God creates this other stuff - gives people like cancer or causes relationships to fail or people to behave badly, I think these things just happen - and God weeps with us when they do - but God does give us the ability to get through them and I believe God hopes we will use our faith, use our friends, use God so that we will find a way to bear fruit in the process, and maybe even be able to see at the end, a blessing or two.

So next time you’re faced with your own challenge - your own sea- monster whatever it is, instead of praying for God to remove it, or trying to ignore it, remember:

Without challenges, you don't find your limits.

Without challenges, you don't expand your abilities.

Without challenges, you don't grow.

The next time you pray, you might pray for strength and guidance to overcome the challenges rather than to have no challenges at all.

May God bless and use the sea monsters in our lives to our good and to God’s. Amen.

Dear God, help us always to remember that you are with us, walking beside us, help us also to remember as Paul says in that wonderful verse from Phillipians: that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Give us strength and all we need this day and always. Amen