FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF SANTA MONICA

All Creatures Great and Small

Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris

June 6, 2004

Scripture: Genesis 1:20-25

We sang as our opening hymn this morning “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” written in the mid-nineteenth century by Cecil Frances Alexander, an Irish woman. Married to William Alexander, archbishop of Ireland, Mrs. Alexander raised four children, founded a school for the deaf AND wrote some 400 hymns during her lifetime, including “Hymns for Little Children” which contains “All Things Bright and Beautiful.”

Taking her theme from the opening chapter of the Book of Genesis, Cecil Alexander wrote: “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.” That second line, “all creatures great and small,” was made famous in our day in the popular stories by veterinarian, James Herriot, and broadcast for years on PBS. Set in the Yorkshire Dales of England, his stories reflect the tranquility of rural life in the 1930s, even as war loomed. From feisty farmers and their livestock to small pets and their quirky owners, these tales based on a real-life vet hallmarked dedication, compassion, common sense, affection for animals and a reverence for all living things: all creatures great and small.

Both Cecil Alexander and James Herriot knew that God indeed created all those creatures—the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, everything that moves upon the earth. When God was through with all that creating, he looked at it all and saw that it was good - all the creatures, and the humans, too. They are all part of one big, diverse, fascinating, beautiful creation. In fact, in Hebrew, there is no separate word for “nature” apart from human life. There’s just one word, nefesh hayya, which means all living creatures, all one complex, harmonious entity, all dependent on the Creator, who gives life to all. So I suppose it’s no wonder that the Bible is full of animals of all kinds—doves and ravens and eagles; sheep and goats, donkeys and mules; camels and horses, lions and wolves, cattle and oxen, snakes, fish and whales! There are all kinds of animals in the Bible, and humans, too.

In our children’s musical this morning, we’re going to hear from some of those animals, and they’re going to help teach us a few things about ourselves. If you don’t think animals can talk, just keep listening. If you don’t think animals can teach you anything about yourself, just keep listening. Because we humans like to imagine that we are the only creatures that think, and maybe that’s true and maybe it’s not. In either case, we humans have a tendency to become arrogant and put ourselves above all the other creatures and forget our place as part of God’s one great creation. But in giving us brains, one thing God requires of us is that we be good stewards of that whole creation, all creatures great and small. If those creatures are more vulnerable than we, and need our care and concern, how much greater our responsibility is to defend them and protect them and the environments in which they live.

Our biblical faith calls us to be good stewards of the whole creation, all creatures great and small. It calls us to enjoy and celebrate that creation, all things wise and wonderful, just as we will this morning, led by our children. “God gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well.”

So listen up, all you creatures! Listen and learn. Celebrate and give thanks to God. I invite our children’s choirs to lead us in listening to some of God’s creatures, and to hear what they have to say to us about ourselves, in this year’s musical, “Gospelanimals.”

Notes: