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When the group of priests who wrote the creation story in the beginning of the Bible imagined what the world was like before creation, they pictured a lot of water. This made sense, given what they could observe.

Seven Days with God: Day Two: God Creates Balance - Genesis 1: 6-8; Mark 6: 30- 44 - July 15, 2007 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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When the group of priests who wrote the creation story in the beginning of the Bible imagined what the world was like before creation, they pictured a lot of water. This made sense, given what they could observe. When they looked up at the sky, they saw that it was gray or blue - like the sea. It was also where rain came from. Therefore, there must be a huge pocket of water up there somewhere, from which water sprinkled or poured down on occasion. When they looked down into the ground, they saw that if they dug deep enough, they found water. And sometimes it bubbled up in springs and rivers. Therefore, the ground we stand on must be floating on water. And, if you traveled in any direction, eventually your travel would be cut off by water - water too vast for any known boat of the time to cross. Therefore, water surrounds us on every side.

Given this, the priests described the second day of creation like this: "And God said, 'Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day." That is the reading in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. If you grew up, like I did, memorizing the King James Version, you know that the word used there was 'firmament.'

I like 'dome' better, mainly because I still have no clue what a firmament is. But I do know what it means to drive to Syracuse and go to the Dome. If you've been to the Carrier Dome, it is a place not much different from what those priests pictured on the second day of creation: it is a bubble that has been created for a special activity. In the case of the Carrier Dome, the activity is the upcoming successful season of the Syracuse Orange football team (Hey. A little wishful thinking can't hurt.) In the case of God's 'dome,' the activity in the bubble was all of life and existence as we know it.

Last week, talking about Day One of creation, we saw how the first thing God did was turn on the lights. On the second day, God blew, into the middle of the waters, a bubble where all of creation could take place. And the thing is, inside that bubble, everything had to be perfectly balanced. In his book entitled Life, science writer Richard Fortey talks about the planet Earth, and the perfect balance necessary for life. Fortey doesn't set out to give a religious view of creation, but it sure ends up sounding like it. He says:

"The balance between the size of the Earth and the heat supplied from the living fires (within) has to be exquisite: a smaller planet might have 'burned out,' while a larger one might never have achieved the right temperature at the surface to foster life. The globe spins on its axis, which ensures that not only one face is presented to the implacable Sun. All sides bask in its blessings, but none bake excessively: we are toasted to a turn. Likewise, the distance of the Earth from the Sun is finely adjusted - not so close that we are burned, nor yet so far that the rays from the Sun would be too dim to allow the chemical reactions upon which life depends. The placement of the Earth in the firmament, and its pivoting in the solar system, are fine-tuned to make life a possibility. If life is just a matter of chance, then the dice were loaded in its favor."

In other words, conditions inside "the dome God made had to be in perfect balance, or life could never have happened. A little hotter, a little colder, a little faster, a little slower, a little smaller, a little larger, titled a little this way, tilted a little that way - and the Earth could not have supported life as we know it. The bubble would burst. I don't know about you, but that seems to me to be the work of a Master Artist. That seems to me to be work that only God Almighty could do. On the second day, God created the perfect, 'exquisite' balance that made life and existence as we know it possible.

What I want to say today is that we live every second of our lives in a balance that is nothing short of miraculous. That is true physically: consider the balancing acts our bodies are keeping every moment: for example, without giving it a second thought - at least under usual circumstances -- we spend our day breathing in and breathing out in perfect rhythm. And the earth's atmosphere provides us with a perfect mixture of oxygen and other elements to breathe. When the air is not perfect, as is true more and more these days, we get things like asthma, emphysema, and other toxic effects - the balance of things is off. Meanwhile, our hearts maintain a perfect rhythm in balance with our vascular system to send blood coursing through our veins. Again, we don't spend much time thinking about it - unless things get out of balance. Then we think about it a lot.

We strive for physical balance in other ways. When we eat, if we're smart, we strive

for a balanced diet. When we plan our time, if we're wise, we will keep a balance

between exercise and rest. The scientific word for the balanced pace of our body is metabolism. When we don't exercise, our metabolism gets out of kilter, and things like the burning of bodily fuel get out of balance. At the same time, studies are showing more and more the importance of getting a proper number of hours of sleep to balance the activity of our lives - cheating on sleep effects our emotions and shortens our lives. The digestive system, the muscular system, the nervous system - everything is about balance. And why not? We were created by a God who installed a delicate balance into what He made from the very beginning. And when we don't keep that balance, we suffer the

health consequences. When we do, our bodies are nothing short of miraculous.

We were also created for spiritual balance. This is the idea behind the actions of Jesus in the New Testament lesson for today. Mark 6 tells us that the disciples have returned from their first evangelistic mission. Jesus has just sent them out into the surrounding villages to spread the news of the Kingdom of God. When they returned from their mission, we're told by one writer, they were excited and amazed by what had happened.

Then, says Mark, "(Jesus) said to them, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat." We don't know, but it certainly is possible to imagine that the disciples, reunited and sharing their experiences, might have been energized and ready to go out again. But Jesus was thinking about balance. They hadn't had time to rest; they hadn't . had time to regroup; there wasn't time even to eat. It was time to restore the balance. What Jesus was teaching was exactly what he practiced in his own like: We see it at every key turn in his life - he draws apart to gain perspective and to talk to God.

We have lost that sense of balance in our society. This is ironic, because the early settlers in our nation counted on that kind of balance -.., some call it the Protestant, or the Puritan, work ethic - the idea that hard work, balanced off by careful observance of the Sabbath, is the formula for success. Six days of work, and one day of rest: work and Sabbath is one of the key spiritual balances we keep in life.

In our busy, hurry-up society, we have lost that priority of Sabbath - taking time out for God, for rest, for perspective. I talk to people about their prayer lives, and more and more it's about not finding the time for prayer, or making prayer part of a multi-tasking plan. I've said it myself: "My life is busy; I'm always on the go. So I pray when I'm doing something else, like running, or driving, or watching the news." And certainly that is better than nothing. But somehow it's not quite the same as answering the invitation of Jesus: "Come away with me." In the bulletin this morning, I have enclosed a sheet that outlines the cost of neglecting our souls, and not taking the Sabbath time our lives need.

There are other spiritual balancing acts we need to master. For example, we have to learn to balance solitude with community. Some of you, like me, are introverts. I recharge my batteries by drawing back and spending some alone-time with God. That is good, productive time for me; but I also realize that I need social time - I need to be part of a community of family, friends, church, neighborhood, and so on. If I just stayed alone, my life would be out of balance. On the other hand, some of you are extroverts ­you recharge their batteries by being in a crowd, with a lot going on, and having many different kinds of relationships. For you, that is a good, productive time. But you have to be reminded that you also need alone-time, because without it, you will lose balance and perspective. The thing is, we have to know how we're wired, accept that as a good thing, but then also push ourselves to keep the balance of solitude and community that works.

There is the spiritual balancing act between prayer and action. This is an age-old polarity. Who is more spiritual? The monk who retreats from the world and spends his days in prayer? Or the active Christian who tackles social issues and tries to solve the problems of the day? Fortunately, we have examples of people like Thomas Merton, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr., who found the powerful balance between prayer and action. Some people are powerful prayer warriors, but they need to be mindful that God is calling them to action as well. Other people are dynamos of social action and witness for Jesus in this world; but they need to be mindful that prayer is the necessary foundation for their work for God in this world.

There is the balance between innocence and wisdom. This is the act of holding in tension a simple, childlike trust in God, and a realistic view of the world. There are some religious groups who have taken the stand that they will not accept any medical services - they rely totally on God for healing. That may be the ultimate declaration of trust in God; but it's out of balance. It is not balanced by the wisdom that says that God performs miracles through medicine. There are many others who have become cynical or pessimistic, because they see so much darkness in the world; they've said, What's the use of trying to improve anything? Certainly that reflects a sober, clear-eyed awareness of the sin and tragedy an around us. But it, too, is out of balance. It is not balanced by the biblical invitation to ‘Trust in the Lord.' Jesus told his disciples to be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. I believe that is the perfect statement of a balance. Yes, we are people who keep a close, realistic eye on the suffering in the world; but we are also Easter people of hope, who believe that God has won the victory of light over darkness.

There are many other examples of the spiritual struggle for balance we have to keep.

But, alas, my weekly balance between having so much more I want to say, and running out of time, has caught up with me. So, let me just mention a couple other balances you might pray about: the balance between providing for you and your own, and sharing with others. (Actually, the Bible gives an easy formula for that: 10% of all you have is what you give to the Lord's work; the other 90% is to take care of you and your family. But even with that easy formula, a lot of people are out of balance) Or what about the balance between being safe and comfortable on the one hand, and stepping out to risk in faith on the other. In the next few months our church has to wrestle with that one; every one of us as individuals has to figure it out, too. You can't grow and be comfortable at the same time.

In one of the most beloved passages of the Bible, the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes says, "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance ..." and so on the list goes. It seems to me that this is wisdom from a God who created a world in delicate balance, who brought it to a blessed balance of love between a cross of death and a tomb of life and victory, and who still calls us to the delicate miraculous balances that make life healthy, fulfilling and faithful.

But don't forget the way that list from Ecclesiastes ends - "everything is beautiful in its time." I would paraphrase - everything is beautiful in the miraculous and exquisite balance of God's creation. Pray about your life, that you might find the physical and spiritual balances that will put you in perfect tune with the loving grace of your Creator.