Our United Church of Christ Statement of Faith was written by Robert Moss - the second president of the United Church of Christ. As a Statement of Faith it is not a creed which everyone must subscribe to in order to be a faithful member of this denomination. It's a Statement of Faith. You don't have to accept as gospel every word of it, exactly as it is written. Rather it is one statement of faith among many - but one which is comprehensive and speaks to us today about what it is that we believe, and what it means to be a believer. During the coming weeks we will explore this Statement of Faith together in an effort to understand it better, and hopefully in the process we will understand more deeply what it is that each of us believes.

Statements of Faith typically begin by talking about how we understand God, and this statement is no exception. It begins by talking about God as the Eternal Spirit. Eternal - goes on forever. God is, God was, and God will be - always. In Exodus 3, where God is calling Moses to go and lead the Israelite people out of their slavery to the Egyptians, Moses asks who God is, so that he will know what to say about God to the king. In that delightful encounter, God replies by saying "I AM" - in other words there was no time or place when God did not exist. There is no time or place when God does not exist. There will be no time or place where God does not exist. God is. God was. God will be - forever.

Now, we can always get hung up on questions like, "How can that be?" We want to understand the technical details. We want to be able to explain how this happens, and instead God expects us to trust and to recognize that there are limits to our knowledge and understanding, and that some things - and this is a good example - some things we will never understand.

For God is not flesh like we are. God is the eternal spirit. Once again we find that confusing, for God is not bound to one time and place, as our bodies are. God has no flesh and cannot be seen, but God is everywhere. God is even here (point to self), and in there (point to someone else) and there and there, and in each and every one of us. It is impossible for us to hide from God, for God is in each one of us, and God knows us better than we know ourselves.

I love this next part of the statement of faith: "God calls the worlds into being". Think about that. God creates with a word. I don't know how things work for you, but I know that when I make something it usually takes a great deal of work. In fact it's usually much more work than I expected.

Think about that. God creates with a word! Sometimes words are hard to speak. Sometimes they take a great deal of preparation. But the reality that God creates with a word reminds us that what is impossible for us, is easily within the bounds of God's power, and that it can be done by speaking the right word. If you remember back in Genesis 1, which describes the creation of the universe, we are told that God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." Creation took place when God spoke the right words.

We are reminded of that reality in Psalm 33 which praises God, but also has an understanding of the fear of God. This is a fear which includes awe and reverence, a fear which stands back in the face of God's awesome power, a fear which commands us to worship God, for when God spoke the world was created! The Word of God, even just the breath of God's mouth is enough to create the immeasurable heavens and all the countless starts. It is God by whom all things are made - including us.

Think about the new look the front of our church has. It's wonderful, but it also took a lot of work. Dave and Marianne Reichard spent months planning and organizing and fund raising and worrying, as did others who helped. Yesterday, we had a lot of people here, working at digging and planting and mulching. The result is fantastic, but it took a lot of hard work. It wasn't an easy project. Not a single one of us were able to do it with just a word, and big as that project was, it's amazingly small in comparison with the universe, the universe that God created with a few words.

God's Word is entirely different from our words because of the power that God's Word has. God but spoke and it was done. In this day and age, we need to be reminded of God's power and how it is so great that it makes any power that we have or that we might aspire to seem utterly insignificant in comparison. It's easy to be proud of the things that we have accomplished as individuals or as a nation, and often we have good reason to feel that way, but at the same time these powers and accomplishments are as nothing next to God, and we need to remember that! If we want to accomplish truly great things, then we need to turn to the source of the truly great power. We need to turn to God.

Paul says this very well to the leaders of Athens. They led a people who were religious, but worshiped an unknown God. Paul reminded them of God's power and might, that it is God who made everything that we worship, and that while God does not need the things that we can supply, we desperately need the things that God gives. It is indeed in God that "we live and move and exist".

These words are important words not just for the people of Athens almost two thousand years ago. They are important words for us to hear today. It is so easy for us to get caught up into making God in the image that we'd like God to be. It's so easy to pretend to ourselves that God approves of all that we do, and doesn't expect us to change. But that's not what Paul says, and that's not how God is. Rather Paul reminds us of the amazing power of God. Paul reminds us of how desperately we need what God provides. And then Paul reminds us that God does expect us to live faithfully and lovingly, and that there is a day and a time when our lives will be judged... by God.

We are created in the image of God. Think about that! For that says something special about both God and us. It declares that there is a special bond between us. The term image of God does not suggest a physical resemblance. It does not suggest that God is a particular size or height or color or any other physical feature, rather it refers to the active personal relationship that God has established with us, a relationship which is the foundation of our existence.

We are created in the image of God. We have the ability to hear the Word of God and to respond to it - just as we also have the ability to ignore it. Each of us, no matter how badly distorted we might be by greed, jealousy, pettiness, or other forms of evil - each of us - even Bucky Phillips - is a person who is intended to know God, to love God, and to love each other. The image of God is not only the form of our past and our present, it is also intended to be our destiny.

We are an unfinished creation, destined to change, and meant to develop in the fullness of God's creative power. That doesn't always happen, for sometimes we turn away from God and towards the path of sin, and again Bucky Phillips is a good example of someone who has done that. That is why God judges us. That judgment of God is meant to call us back - to inspire us to live in faith, as God has intended us to live. The temptations that surround us are many. It's so easy to be seduced by the power of someone or something else. We are a fickle people, who at times place more value on sleeping late than or worshiping God, who at times would rather trust in the our wisdom rather than God's wisdom of the strength of our country's armies than in the strength of our Creator, who at times would rather wander aimlessly than discover the sense of purpose that comes from living as God's child.

God knows all of this about us and more - for God knows all that there is to know, and God loves us, in spite of our fickleness. God calls us with that powerful creative word. God calls us to discover anew who we really are, and then to respond by seeking to live as God's faithful child. Today and in all of the days to come, may each of us hear God's call and seek to respond in faith and in love!

Amen.