Slack Tide

Genesis 2:4-9

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.  In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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We've arrived at the penultimate Sunday of our summer series: The Gospel According to Jimmy Buffett. It feels right then that our song and Scripture reading for today bring us to a place where the world draws a breath, and everything seems to pause. That's what a slack tide is, that enchanted moment, as Jimmy Buffett would say, where all feels right. Some might call it zen, enlightenment, or some like myself might call it that moment where all not only feels right in the world, but you feel a close spiritual connection to God as well. The question then is, "What breaks this slack tide and summons a storm to break our moment of tranquility?"

I want to tell you a couple of short stories that I’ve heard Christians use periodically to process events when things go wrong. … 

1. Mesopotamian Creation Narrative

   1. The gods created the universe out of strife and conflict. 

   2. The gods created human beings to act as slaves. 

   3. The story of creation explains the existence of pain in the world. There is a trajectory of despair. 

2. Genesis Creation Narrative

   1. God created the universe by speaking it into being. 

      1. God Spirit hovered the chaotic watery void. 

      2. God did not spill blood to create the world. 

   2. God created human beings as an act of love. 

   3. The story of creation explains what was and what will be. There is a trajectory of hope. 

3. These are stories we tell ourselves when we flow back and forth between the life-giving waters of God and the chaotic void that tells us that if we want to preserve something for ourselves, then force is the only answer. 

   1. The Mesopotamians told themselves this story to justify their fractured world, a world marred by warring nations and suffering. 

   2. The Genesis narrative tells us that things are supposed to be different, but we must believe that things can be different and take action. 

   3. Whether we experience that feeling of slack tide depends on what story we tell ourselves. 

“I want the whole wide world to swim along.” (But do we really?)

1. Within the church… 

   1. Who do we welcome at church? 

   2. Who do we exclude? 

2. Within society… 

   1. How do we react to people we don’t agree with? 

   2. Are we drawing battle lines? Or are we trying to find the openings for dialogue and relationships? 

3. Within ourselves… 

   1. Maybe we think that we aren’t good enough to be a part of something? If so, where are we hearing that message?  

   2. What are we bringing along as we search out that elusive slack tide? Perhaps what we think we need isn’t all that valuable. 

“Find the good in everybody.” (“God saw that it was good.”)