My Ethics professor had a favorite thought that he shared with us many times. He said, “Grant me to right presuppositions and I can prove anything.” Obviously, what he was saying is, “Whatever you are willing to grant me as an uncontestable truth, I can then use those truths to prove the rest of my thoughts or beliefs.” We all have presuppositions, fundamental or foundational beliefs that we hold as uncontested or unquestionable truths. I am not saying they should be unquestionable, for I believe we need to take a new look at what we believe on a regular basis. But, never-the-less, it us upon these truths that we build the rest of our worldviews, our theological understandings of life and our relationships to God. For us, as Christians, our claim is we find these truths in scripture. As we begin our new series, “God’s Unfolding Drama,” I am being given the chance to share with you what I believe some of these fundamental truths are in the unfolding drama of God’s action and participation in the life of God’s creation. The question today is, “What are some presuppositions, what are some biblical truths, we can bring to the beginning of God’s unfolding drama?”

Matthew Fox is a spiritual writer who wrote one of the most influential books in my faith journey, as it presented some of these fundamental truths for me. His book is entitled, Original Blessing. According to Fox the earliest understanding of the creation stories, the very first stories of scripture, is that in all God does, God seeks to be a blessing. That the earth and all life were created in God’s deepest desires to be a blessing. The creation stories of Genesis are trying to show us that creation is the artistry of God and that artistry is good. God’s words of “Let there be” are the creative energy of God that creates a world, a beautiful world that is a preparation to receive life. And then God says, “Let there be” and life, the beautiful gift of life, of plants and animals, birds and fish, receives this beautiful creation as a gift in which to live. I want to believe that when God saw humanity, God did feel in the very depths of God’s being that indeed we were not only good, but we are as scripture tells us, a very good creation. The story tells us that humanity, male and female, are created in the image of God.

The writer of Psalm 8 looks at humanity in the midst of this incredible creation and asks the question, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are mortals that you are mindful of them?’ And then answers his own question by saying, “And yet, you have made them, us, a little less than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” These first expressions of scripture about who we are and God’s pronouncements of us all being a very good creation are my most fundamental, most foundational presuppositions about my faith walk with God. So consequently, as I look at the full drama in scripture I reflect upon the stories from this perspective as truth. That you, me, all people are children of God, created in God’s image and that we are a very good creation and that this is the beginning of the drama, the receiving of blessings.

In Genesis 12, we find the drama continue in the Abraham story, the original covenant story of God with creation. It is the reinforcement of the original challenge of God in Genesis 1 of being co-creators with God in sustaining creation. God asks us to be artists as well, artists that bring blessing to others. In the story we hear God say, “I have blessed you so that you may be a blessing.” But, as Deuteronomy tells us, that God will not coerce us to receive the blessings, but will allow us to choose. “Today, I set before you blessings and curses, life and death. Choose life!” Original blessing, as our understanding of God’s hopes and desires for us, asks us to choose life by choosing to live in the blessings of God. To not choose life means we choose to live outside blessing, outside the desire of God to be a blessing. That, to me, is the judgment of how we live our lives. Have we chosen blessings, have we chosen life in its fullest promise from God?

This thought is significant for us as we enter into this season of Lent. Lent from its inception was meant to be a time of reflection that would prepare people to be baptized and to move into a closer walk with God as a member of Christ’s church. Why? So in our relationships with God we find blessings. We find life. Jesus, in the first verses of the Gospel of John, is called the “logos” the word of God. Jesus is the creative energy of God, the source of God’s blessing that comes into the world. Why? So we may have life. So we may become a new creation in the living of our lives. Jesus, himself, says, “I did not come to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved, so the world has the chance and the pathway and maybe even the understanding it needs about God’s desires to enter back into at-one-ment with God. So the world has a path to choose blessing, a path to choose life. My fundamental belief, my presupposition about the significance of my walk with God is that I seek God not to escape hell but to enter into the kingdom of heaven. My faith journey seeks to enter into God’s deepest desire of being a blessing to my life now and forever. And that in covenant with God I am to be a blessing so others may enter into the kingdom as well, so they, too, may know God’s deepest desires for them.

Lent is about choosing life. There is a wonderful story about Michelangelo the famous artist that reflects my fundamental understanding of our relationship to God, especially God as artist. I do not know whether the story is apocryphal or not, but its message reflects the presupposition of blessing. Michelangelo had a group of workman bring a huge block of marble into his studio so he could begin work on his next statue. As the men moved it into place, Michelangelo asked, “What do you see sitting in the midst of my studio?” The men being a little puzzled said, “We see a block of marble.” “Really?” Michelangelo mused, “When I look at what is before me, I see an angel waiting to emerge.”

We have some questions before us. The first is, “What are your presuppositions, your fundamental, unquestionable truths of faith? Your answers will influence how you see your journey, your place in this unfolding drama. But I do believe that scripture challenges us to answer the following questions. Do we believe that God’s original intent was blessing? Do we really believe that we and all people are created in the image of God? Do we believe that we are created just a little less than God? Do we believe that God still keeps before us the promise of blessings and life? Do we believe that God can see an angel waiting to emerge from within us? Do we believe that as we journey through Lent, we will catch glimpses of that angel within, knowing it brings us closer to God’s original blessing of being created in God’s image? I hope so, for I believe that these are the presuppositions, these are the fundamental building blocks of God’s unfolding drama.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on March 5, 2006.