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  If you go to the bookstore these days, or look at the best-seller's list, you'll see a book called The World Without Us, in which a popular science writer named Alan Weisman describes what would happen if the human race, either suddenly or gradually, ceased to exist...

Seven Days with God: Day Six: God Creates Humans - Genesis 1: 24-31; I Peter 2: 4­10 - September 9, 2007 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            If you go to the bookstore these days, or look at the best-seller's list, you'll see a book called The World Without Us, in which a popular science writer named Alan Weisman describes what would happen if the human race, either suddenly or gradually, ceased to exist. Maybe some virus wipes us out, or some supernatural event like the End

of Time described in the Bible. What would happen to the earth without us?

            Within days of our untimely departure, says Weisman, the "pumps keeping Manhattan's subways dry would fail, tunnels would flood, soil under streets would sluice away and the foundations of towering skyscrapers built to last for centuries would start to crumble." Weeds, and eventually trees, would start to take over the streets, and wild animals would begin to prowl. Left unattended, our petroleum and nuclear facilities would eventually ignite or explode, and there would likely be major chemical spills into the environment. There would be great piles of rubber tires and plastics that would last for thousands of years; but eventually, a microbe would evolve that could eat those polymers, re-generate the potential for life. Fish and bird populations would return in spectacular fashion, and someday, the earth might revert back to a Garden of Eden.

            Weisman, apparently, doesn't come right out and say this, but the tone of his language is that, all things considered, things would be better off without us. Is it true? Are we a big mistake on God's part? This past month, NASA weighed in on the global warming debate. There was no question, they said, after careful research, that human activity was contributing significantly to deep environmental problems on the earth. NASA's scientists have thus joined the thousands of scientists around the world who have known this for a long time. And we know the many ways we are destructive of the earth - war, pollution, crowding out nature, and so on.

            After a while, you begin to feel like the wet blanket who is spoiling the party. Are we really that unwelcome on our own planet? Well .. .it seems to me that our Creator should have something to say about that. After all, we were God's idea. What does God say about whether we were a good idea or not? Alas, when we look for an answer to that in the Bible, it's a case of good news and bad news. Which do you want first?

            Okay. The bad news. Genesis 6, where we meet a man named Noah, (named after our carnival), begins with a section our pew Bibles call, "The wickedness of humankind." And it contains these verses: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of human kind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart ... " Ouch. That doesn't sound too affirming of our place in the scheme of things. Now, there was no Return Counter for the human race. God couldn't take us back and get a refund. There was no manufacturer's recall of defective merchandise. Perhaps God's thought process went along the lines of Alan Weisman's book: What would the earth look like without these humans? God decided that a flood was the way to find out, and God sent the rain to destroy humankind.

            Let's stay on the bad news for just a moment longer. The Bible's story continues on to the time when Jesus came into the world - God's own Son. And the story of Jesus continues on to the cross, where Jesus died a brutal and humiliating death. Theologically speaking, that is on all of us. It is one more argument God might consider: if I hadn't created those humans, I wouldn't have had to watch my Son die on that terrible abomination of human cruelty - the cross of death.

            If we were on trial now for our very existence, the case against us would look awfully strong. The evidence would be staring us in the face. The prosecution could rest. But it is not bad news that brings us here this morning; it is good news. And it is time to turn our attention to what God really thinks about his work on the sixth day of creation.

            Over the summer, I've been preaching through the first chapter of Genesis, and how it shows God adding something to the world he was creating - one day at a time. Today, it all comes to a climax in a bold and unpredictable move. On the sixth day, after completing the animal kingdom with land animals, I imagine that God decided that what he had done was all well and good -- but it lacked His signature. It didn't reflect God Himself. And so God said to somebody - maybe it was the angels; maybe it was His Son - "...let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness ... " And God created human beings, male and female. And all through the previous days, when God made something, He saw it and declared it was good. But, after making humans, the Hebrew word is stronger - God saw that it was very good. With the addition of human life, God was invested in this world in a way that He may never have been otherwise.

            Consider again the story of Noah and the flood. God was sorry He created human beings, and decided to send a flood to wipe the earth clean, eliminating humans. But, He couldn't quite go through with it - He chose a family to survive in the Ark, and carry things forward again. And that meant things got dicey. Because good old Noah, chosen to survive because he was a righteous man - well, immediately after the flood he got drunk and disgraced himself. And maybe God thought, "Oh, man! Here we go again."

            Or consider the sending of God's Son. Yes, that ended up on the cross. Yes, the cross is the sign of the ultimate human cruelty and degradation. Everybody seems to have had a part - Jesus was failed by the religious leaders, the government, the economic leaders, his best friends, and the crowd in the street. We all let Him down, the same as we all let God down. And yet, the cross is Good News. The cross is the ultimate assurance that God simply will not give up on us. God is invested in this world because of us - invested right up through the life of His own Son. And call it crazy, or stubborn - or call it grace - but God chooses not to have a world without us.

            Jesus shared the most wonderful images of God's unconditional, persistent love - a father running down the road to greet his wayward son; a shepherd combing the wilderness to locate one lost sheep; a woman painstakingly sweeping her house to locate one lost coin; a Savior walking into His own death; allowing nails to be driven into his hands. Or consider the words of Peter in today's scripture lesson - words not spoken to kings or celebrities or superstars - but rather to humble, redeemed sinners:  "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into light."

            Do you realize that? When you get up in the morning? When the day starts out wrong, and nothing will quite click, and you don't like what you see in the mirror, and someone pushes your buttons or tries to make you feel unworthy - all the little irritations and subtle messages that happen to make us wonder if it's all worth it - do you realize then that you are the very image of the Creator of the universe? That you are the sheep that God would turn over creation to find and bring home? That you are the one Jesus would give His very life for? A chosen race? Royalty in God's eyes?

            One day this summer, in Gotheborg, Sweden, Sharon and I spent a long, quiet, agonizing time looking at a museum exhibit called "Trafficking." It chronicled the human slavery that goes on today in every comer of the world. Mostly women and children are regularly kidnapped, bought, sold, exploited, smuggled, and along the way beaten, molested, many of them killed. All this to satisfy an endless appetite for sex slaves, forced brides, sweat shop labor, and so on. Their pictures and their voices burn into your soul as you look and listen. And the questions come: How can there be such cruelty in the human family? How can human life be reduced to this? And, maybe most acute: Who is watching over this little one whose life is being treated like merchandise - ­like a commodity without value except to be enslaved and exploited?

            In my heart of hearts, I believe that God is there. I believe that everyone of those discarded people is precious in His sight. Just like every worried parent in every refugee camp. Just like every scared kid trying to survive in the ghetto.

            More than anything else, that belief is the reason I am standing here today, believing in a message that must be told - we know that we humans goof things up big time - but our Maker will not give up on us - still believes in us - still cherishes each one of us. And until every last child knows that, then this church's mission is clear. And we have carnivals. And we do doorhangers. And we get classrooms ready. And we hug our wonderful teachers. And we share loving care with each other. And we build ramps, and help people in trouble, and do mission trips to our community and to the world. Because it is imperative that the grace of God be known. In this world that conspires so viciously to disregard and to make humans into things, it is so important that those who know they are valued and blessed by God spread the word. God is happy we are here, and God won't give up on us. People have to know that. You and I have to tell them.

            I heard a sales clerk say once, "I'm not going to waste my time on a $1.98 customer."  In the Lord's eyes, there are no $1.98 customers. There is only precious royalty, for whom He would give Body and Blood. If you have discovered that, you have discovered the very best life has to offer. It makes all the difference in this world. How can you be the messenger of such good news?