The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 6 September 2026, Eldroth, Clapham
“I lift up their eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come?” asks the Psalmist.
Many people look for salvation in nature, but don’t know where it will come from. Every day people visit here seeking something special, something restoring and healing, maybe something spiritual, in these hills. But what?
People have always been on this search for God in creation. The ancient people often thought of a Creator God as a sky god – bringing forth rain in season; they regarded him as a nature god – punishing wrongdoing through famine or flood; the ancients saw him as just like a god of any other emperor cult – destroying enemies to claim territory for his chosen people. There are echoes of all this n our own scriptures.
But with wonderful insight, our scriptures perceive a personal God – Psalm 121 speaks of one who like a loving parent watches over us whilst we sleep; One who like a caring companion on an uphill trail makes sure that our feet do not stumble; One who even shades us from scorching sun and the dangers of a shadowy moon. Ever-present, ever-giving, this Creator God has something more.
And then, Jesus comes along. And Paul teaches us in Colossians that the Creator of this very earth, these very hills, is also and at the same time the Saviour.
Could he be the One God who not only sets Creation in motion and sustains it, but who also intervenes in human history to save it? If he is a personal God then is it possible for us to see him?
The city of Colossae around 60 years after the birth of Jesus had been twice shaken by cataclysmic earthquakes which destroyed the place. It had become a place of spiritual turmoil whose people were seeking certainty and Salvation. One of the earliest Christian communities was established there.
To try to help these Colossian believers, Paul wrote one of the very first Christian creeds. We heard it this morning. It begins by saying, ’Christ is the visible image of the invisible God’. This is a remarkable statement: if you look at Jesus you see what God is like. This Creator God who had been hidden for so long is visible in the very human shape and form of Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh.
Jesus is the saviour, through his absolutely self-giving act on the cross and his glorious life-giving resurrection. And he is also entirely the Creator – ‘who existed before anything was created and is supreme over all Creation, through whom God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.’ The Creator is the Saviour, says the earliest Christian creed.
There is no division between Creation and Salvation. This means that as well as seeking heavenly, ‘spiritual’ things we also find God acting at the heart of the life we live now, the human and the non-human parts of Creation. This good news inspires those who are seeking Salvation in this world – those who care about life on earth becoming better, now; and it is inspirational for those who are seeking Salvation for this world – those who care about the earth and its well-being.
This passage of scripture helps us understand that Jesus brings Creation and Salvation together. His life-affirming act of creating everything from nothing, is exactly the same thing as his self-giving out of love on the cross through which death itself dies. The Creator is the Saviour of the human and the non-human world, which is one world, entirely made and saved in the absolute love of God.
The Salvation which Jesus worked was, at the same time, the fulfilment of his Creation. On the cross human sinfulness died, as did everything else that is broken in nature. On the cross Salvation was bought, marking a new beginning for God’s whole Creation. [2]
We can celebrate because by the life of Jesus, God’s fullest life; and by the cross, God’s gift of self-giving unconditional love; and by Jesus’ resurrection, God’s release of healing, forgiving, renewing power into the world: all that is broken in Creation may begin again – human and non-human alike.
We can give thanks that as a result of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, Creation is in the process of leaving death behind. As a result of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, all Creation is in the process of being reconciled.
Is this the good news for those who are seeking Salvation in nature but didn’t know where to look?
- the good news that there is a Creator behind all this beauty and wonder, who existed before anything else, and who holds all Creation together;
- the good news that this same Creator can be known because he has shown himself, he has walked the earth, lived, laughed, loved, taught, blessed, healed.
Yes – the good news is that this Creator-Saviour has wept over the world’s brokenness, has calmed nature’s storms, has restored afflicted people to good health, has cast out evil spirits and brought blessing to the poor.
Yes – the good news is that this same Creator-Saviour, by exposing and confronting the sin of the world, paid the price with his life but now lives again, having overcame death once for all.
All this is very good news for all who are seeking after God’s life and truth in this world.
The final piece of good news is that the creative work of Salvation – of reconciling Creation – is a work in which we believers share in every day.
The Colossian creed says that ‘Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.’ Which means that just as Jesus himself once embodied God on earth, showing the world the image of the previously invisible God, so now, with the help of his Holy Spirit, The Church now embodies God on earth. It is our joyful task to share in his work of Salvation – of reconciling Creation – in the way we live our lives each and every day.
Let us pray constantly for all who ‘lift up their eyes to the hills’, all those who are looking for God in this world. And let us continue to encourage each other in the joyful task of opening our eyes to The Creator, who is also and in the very same way The Saviour.
Notes
[1] A précis of a longer sermon, The Creator is the Saviour, preached at Ayashi Chuo Christ Church, Miyagi, Japan, 31 July 2022
[2] This section is based on James Alison, Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination, pp.49-50. Read extract of the passage here. See also Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Lectionary, PROPER 11 (July 17-23) – YEAR C / Ordinary Time 16, Resources on Colossians 1:15-28, and my previous sermons Reconciling Creation (Somerset, 2015) and Rebirth and reconciliation: Creation starts with Christ (Yorkshire, 2021)
