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June 3, 2007
Scripture: Psalm 8
Title: “How majestic is your name!”

There is just something about the night sky that makes us philosophers and theologians. We gaze up at the night sky and millions of stars lay across a black sky and we began to wonder what is the meaning of it all, what is the meaning of life, what is our purpose? Who is God? We realize that we are so small compared the vastness of the sky above us. We realize that there are so many things that we do not know and do not understand. We realize that there we are just one being compared to the million planets, comets, and heavenly beings that are stretched out above our heads.

There is just something about the night sky.

I remember some of my most favorite memories from growing up are at summer camp. As the day would draw to an end and the night sky was beginning to wrap our part of the world in her dark, sparkling cloak, we would lay down on our backs on the blacktop and star-gaze. We would watch for shooting stars and make wishes. We would lay there in silence and just watch. And then always someone would start asking the big questions of life: Who is God to you? Why are you a Christian? We would all feel how small we are compared to the big picture. We would all feel how massive Creation really was and how we were just a small part of the whole.

My memories of star gazing are not limited summer camp days. In college, there was always a group ready and willing to drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hike the trails until we could find a spot to lie down and wonder over it all. The importance of exams, papers, heart-aches, and the stress of life seemed to fall away as we would gaze up at the stars and realize that none of that matter in the big picture. What mattered is our relationship, our connection with the Whole Big Earth! What mattered is that we were a part of the human race and that tomorrow would come, no matter if we didn’t get the paper finished or if we didn’t do as well as we wanted on the exams. Tomorrow would come and we needed to figure out our role in the whole scheme of things.

It wasn’t until I moved to Kentucky and was counseling my first summer camp at Wakon Da Ho did I realize that star-gazing, and asking those big questions of life seem to be an integral part to all of our faith journeys. The day had ended and night was sweeping over the sky, leaving a trail of darkness and stars. And I noticed that many of youth had lain out in the grass, gazing up at the sky. It was silent for a few minutes until someone started asking the big questions of life, wanting to know God, wanting to know why God had created them, wanting to deepen their relationship with God.

Star-gazing! The wonder of it! There is just something about the night sky that brings out the philosopher and theologian in us all!

That is what Psalm 8 is all about. The psalmist is gazing up at the night sky and is overwhelmed with the beauty of it all! The psalmist understands and feels in his soul the power and amazement of God’s creation. And the only proper response to such a feeling, to such an experience is “O Lord, our sovereign, How majestic is your name in all the earth!”

As the psalmist gazes at creation, he is reminded of the story of the first creation. There is darkness. There is Chaos. And the wind of God swept across the earth. God spoke and there was light. There is power in the name of God. There is creative energy that restores and revives that can only be found in God. And God created the world by just using God’s voice. God overcame the Chaos and brought forth light and life just by speaking.

Our God is a powerful God. Our God is an amazing God.

And our only response to such an amazing and powerful God is to lift up our voices and say: O Lord, our sovereign, How majestic is your name!”
You created the heavens and the earth. You brought forth life. You overcame the darkness and the chaos.

As the psalmist continues to gaze at the night sky, he wonders what human beings are in the whole scheme of it all. Why did God create us in this first place? He wonders “Who am I?” He wonders “Where do I belong?” He wonders “What is my role in this world?” And he wonders, “Who is God?” He becomes a biologist, an anthropologist, and a theologian as he begins to write down this hymn of praise, this hymn of wonderment, this hymn of worship.

God created the universe and all that is in it. God even created us in the image of God. How amazing and how humbling is that thought!

In this whole vast creation, God has made us partners in that creation. God chose us! Tiny, insignificant us! To take care of God’s creation! God made us in God’s image. God gave us dominion over all of God’s works. And our only proper response to such a privilege is to say Thank you and to worship and praise God.

God has created this vast universe and all that’s in it and then turns to us and says, “okay, this is yours. Take care of it.”

“The wonder of it all is that the God who formed the heavens and the earth, whose glory is shown in the silence of a sunset and the cry of an infant, who sustains all things by [God’s] power, actually puts God’s trust in us to manage the resources of the earth wisely!”

God made us partners in creation! Made us, human kind, partners in creation. We who can be weak, who can be confused, who can be selfish, who can be destructive, who can be hateful, are made partners in creation. “We are the ones that God is banking on for the care of this wonderful creation.”

What was God thinking!?

And once again our only worthy response is praise. And once again our only worthy response is worship. As the psalm ends, we are reminded once again of God’s power, of God’s might.

“O Lord, our sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

The psalmist understands that although humans are partners in creation, that although humans are created in the image of God, God is still in control! In the whole scheme of things, even though we have been given dominion over creation, God is still in control. We are still a small part of God’s whole creation. It doesn’t matter that we are given stewardship over the earth. It doesn’t matter that we are made in the image of God. God is still in control!

And that is the basis of our relationship with God. In our smallness, we recognize the grace that God has shown us. It is humbling to think that God took noticed of us among all of God’s creation and said I want to partner with you in this.

God has shown us grace from the very beginning as we were being formed from the dust. God has shown us grace from the very beginning as God breathed the Breath of Life into us. God has shown us grace. And that is the very foundation of our relationship with God.

Every time we gaze up at the night sky, we are reminded of our smallness among creation and we are reminded of our enormity in the sight of God among that creation. We are created in God’s image. And we have been given dominion over all of God’s works. We are reminded of that God has shown us grace as God’s people from the very beginning of creation.

And every time we gaze up at the night sky, we are reminded that God is still in control of us, of creation, of the Chaos. As we stare up at the millions of stars, we are reminded that God is in charge! No matter what our life holds for us, God is in charge! What a powerful and humbling thought!

He always felt the need to express the amazement and the power of God creation. He always thought that God was calling him to be a preacher. But the church would not recognize him. They said that he had too much zeal for God and that no one would take him seriously as a preacher. Preachers are serious. God cannot be made to be understood by us unworthy humans. God would never take notice of us worthless beings.

And so he left the church, feeling rejected, feeling lost, knowing that he still had this need to express the power and the amazement of God’s creation. He wrote to his brother that he rejected the whole system of religion, though not religion itself. “That rejection does not keep me from having a terrible need of shall I say the word-religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars.”

The stars became a doorway to the infinite. They became natural symbols of hope, of love. He felt the power of God as he gazed out at the stars at night. As he gazed at the stars over the hillside in France, he is reminded of the story of the first creation. There is darkness. There is Chaos. And the wind of God swept across the earth. God spoke and there was light. There is power in the name of God. There is creative energy that restores and revives that can only be found in God. And God created the world by just using God’s voice. God overcame the Chaos and brought forth light and life just by speaking.

As this gentleman continued to gaze at the night sky, he wondered what human beings are in the whole scheme of it all. Why did God create us in this first place? He wonders “Who am I?” He wonders “Where do I belong?” He wonders “What is my role in this world?” And he wonders, “Who is God?” He becomes a biologist, an anthropologist, and a theologian as he pulls out a canvas, sets out his paints, and hold his paintbrush in his hand.

And soon images of hope and love exploded onto a canvas. Yellows against a backdrop of shades of blue. Swirls and twirls of the Divine above a small village. Globes of yellow that inspire awe and humble the human race. A reminder of God’s grace each and every time we take a look at the painted canvas. A true sense of raw worship as the images of blue and yellow stir our souls. A reminder that we are created in God’s image and can take part in the process of God’s creation. A reminder that God is still in control. An awe inspiring and humbling thought.

This painter has an experience with the Divine. This painter has a moment of connection with the Spirit of God. This painter has an opportunity to witness to the power of the God of creation.

And we as observers can only gaze up at the canvas of “Starry, Starry Night” and say, O Lord, our sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

May we always be in awe and be humbled as we gaze up at the night sky. Amen.

Rev. Heather McColl
Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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