Creation in Christ

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Acts 17:22-28

    This summer, we had the opportunity to gather with Rich and the girls, my parents, and my nephew, brother and his wife to see a total solar eclipse on the beach in Spain.  It happened to be my brother’s 40th birthday that day, the lucky ducky – hence the trip and the gathering.  He had never seen a total solar eclipse before, but Rich and I had back in 2017 in Nebraska.  Have you ever seen a solar eclipse? How about a lunar eclipse?  It’s pretty amazing to witness.  My brother is a math/science/computer kind of guy, and so he was explaining to me why totality is so cool – the sun is exactly 400 times larger than the moon, but it happens to also be 400 times farther away from the Earth, which means that the sun and moon are the same size when their paths cross!  Isn’t that amazing?!  Just think – if the sun were a little bit farther away or a little bit closer, or a different size, we would not have a possibility of a total eclipse.
    As we begin a new school year, we are celebrating a new-to-us church holiday called “Creation in Christ” Sunday.  Orthodox and Catholic Christians have been celebrating this holiday for a while, and some Protestants have been on board since the 1990s, but now the Lutherans are in.  Today is a day to take time to marvel about God as creator.  All of creation points back to God as creator.  There are many times that creation helps us praise and give thanks to God.  Going back to school is another time to marvel – my kids are growing.  Erin wears a size 7 shoe in women’s and is in middle school.  How can that be?  How are the first confirmation students I had here in college now?  I’m sure as parents, grandparents, and adult mentors, you have your own marvelings when we think about our children growing.  Take a moment to think about what has amazed you recently – a sunrise, a starry night, clouds in the sky or a cherished moment with someone you love – just marvel, give it to God, and be grateful!  This is what Creation in Christ Sunday is all about!
    Our scriptures this morning help us marvel AND remember the source of this marvelous creation!  There is so much beyond our scope and making.  We didn’t do all of this out there – God did.  All of life and all that we have is simply a gift from God.  From the beginning, our gospel reminds us, all things came into being through Christ the Word, in fact.  God created us and all that is for a purpose.  God loves THIS world.  God designed things in ways we cannot explain or fully understand, we just simply stand in awe, wonder, and thanksgiving – at our own children, at a total solar eclipse. All of these are signs of God’s love and presence.
    I had two provoking conversations with people as a pastor this summer, on two ends of a spectrum I’m sure you’ve heard as well.  The first person huffed and said, “I don’t believe in science.”  I’m always perplexed by that statement.  Which science, for example?  Botany, astronomy, biology, physics? Like you don’t believe the earth is round or that gravity exists, or is it more of a specific concern about a particular area of science - the medical industrial complex, big pharma or pushing back on the theory of evolution?  Science is a big word.  So is belief.  This person had an all-to-common understanding that you cannot be a Christian and also “believe in” science.  I am saddened when we dismiss either, too quickly.
    In a separate conversation on the other side of the spectrum, a guy said, “I’m 150% agnostic because I am a science guy.”  I wondered – am I a science girl? I like watching NOVA and Neil DeGrasse Tyson…”. How into the big field of “science” do you have to be to be a science guy?  Both people were coming to me as a Pastor assuming that our Christian faith does not have a place for science.  Yet we have a long history of people of faith also being scientists and trying to make sense of who we are and what this created world is.  Galileo, Kepler, Mendel, Newton were all Christians and sometimes even also clergy!  I know many people of faith who are also scientists – some of you, included!  And too many people today on both sides of this conversation I just described think you cannot integrate faith and science – that you have to choose one over the other.  This has been a barrier to faith.
    I have encountered atheists who have as much disbelief in religion as it takes a fundamentalist Christian to reject some widely accepted scientific thought.  Science helps us live out our calling, as we heard in our first reading, to care for God’s creation in all kinds of scientific fields.  Science helps us understand better how this created world works.  But we also, as people of faith, don’t hesitate to ask good questions and make space for the wonder and mystery of God’s creation, beyond our human understanding.  I don’t believe that a total solar eclipse happens by accident or coincidence, for example.  Faith helps us explore the ethics of a particular scientific discovery:  if something CAN be done, should it be done, and who decides?  Faith points us back to the question of why we are here and what we are to do with the created world we have been given, which includes our very selves.  As we celebrate Creation in Christ Sunday, we can take time to see how science and faith can actually go together in ways that help us grow in faith, not diminish it.
    In our second reading from the book of Acts, Paul stands in the Aeropagus in Athens speaking to people who have a deep appreciation for the created world.  Paul meets the people where they are at and joins them in their marveling.  Then, Paul shares the good news about Jesus.  He names the Triune God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all things.  He uses the Greeks’ own poets to point to God as the “him” “In him we live and move and have our being.”  It’s a respectful conversation between Greek philosophers and Paul the Christ follower, where each shares what they know, and some Greeks come to faith in Christ because of that conversation.  The study of science can help us become more aware of how awesome and mysterious our God really is, and I hope we, too, like Paul can dare to enter into respectful conversations to share what we know about Christ and learn from others.  May our love of learning point us back to God, the creator of all things, and may we continue to take time to marvel and give thanks.  Amen.