God of grace, ever creating and restoring, you breathe life into all things and embrace us with an everlasting love;
help us to grow in wonder, to have grateful hearts, and to dream generous dreams; that, in gathering what we have,
we may graciously offer ourselves to accomplish what you will, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What’s your dream, the longing of your heart?

When you are asked ‘What is it you really want?’ what is it that you think of?

Has anyone ever asked you that question?

Would you know how to answer?

I wonder if most of us don’t know what to say – we don’t know what it is we really want!

Of course, the world around us, the society we live in, the global market-place we are a part of would love to give us the answer! A bigger house, a better car, the latest technology, a fabulous holiday, a diamond ring, or football shirt (probably not much difference in price there, these days!) – designer clothes, shoes, handbags, avant garde art, off the wall experiences – the list goes on and on – the message being that the need inside us can be met by these material things.

I guess, if we were to ask the people of Nepal and Tibet right now, what they really want or long for – it would be their loved ones restored to life, or their missing ones to be found – and after that – a world that is safe for everyone – where lives won’t be snuffed out by climate catastrophe. 

The peoples of the Middle East and Ukraine might say – a place to live and bring up their children, a home that is secure – communities where people can live together in peace.

In the extremities of disasters and conflicts, its much easier to see what really matters – what our dreams are all about.

And then there is joy in the midst of suffering, light in the darkness, hope in despair.

This is the Christian story and experience. The joy comes because of the suffering – the candle burns brightest in the darkest night – hope springs up paradoxically when we have almost given up.

The joy that Isaiah speaks of in the reading today – the restoration of the land – trees and hills and mountains singing for joy – is an image of new life bursting forth in what was formerly desert – the new beginning of God when it looked like all was lost. We hear these wonderful words of hope each year in Advent – and we know this ourselves as recent rain brings greenness back into the desert of our own land.

Now, in the season of Creationtide, we are giving thanks for all the wondrous gifts of creation – and remembering our shared responsibility to take good care of such a precious gift.

This year, we have had a gift of new life outside our kitchen window. A rigged up bird feeder containing fat balls has become a gathering place for an enormous number of small garden birds – especially great tits. Some weeks back when the first fledglings were out of the nest – there were 10 or more crowding everywhere and flitting backwards and forwards to the feeder. Then they grew larger and disappeared. Now, another set of babies have suddenly begun to arrive each morning – Great Tits usually only produce one clutch of eggs each spring when caterpillars are at their most plentiful – and so this is an amazing blessing for them, and us this year.

The gift of these pretty, perky little birds has been a real source of joy this summer – and has led me to order yet more supplies of fat balls and seeds – both thankfulness for the gift of them, and a sense of ongoing responsibility!

And this is perhaps the way to think about our Stewardship Review this year, ‘Giving and Growing Together’ – and the question of our giving to the mission and ministry of the church, both in gifts of money and our time and talents. 

We give in response to the wondrous gifts we already receive from God – and it is often as we delight in nature all around us – and recognise our need to care for all this – that we come close to God – understanding something of the giver in the gift – the creator in the creation.

All this takes on yet more significance when we come to our other readings today. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul sings a stunning hymn of praise to Christ – who is the image of the invisible God – the firstborn of all creation – the one through whom and for whom God made everything that is!

If we go back to that question we began with – what is it you really want? I guess not many of us would say – I want the whole world! Everything that is made!

And yet this is the gift God gives to Jesus – because God loves him so much!

And what is Jesus’ response to such an unbelievable gift?

He himself gives everything for love of God and for love of all that God has made – including us!

Jesus himself is Lord of all creation – even the winds and the waves obey him – and he gives everything, even his life, that we might have the same fullness of life, of God, that was, and is, his.

When we come to consider today, and in the weeks ahead, throughout this season of Creationtide, what we might give back to God – for the ministry to which Jesus calls us in the life of the church – what we might share from our financial resources – it doesn’t matter how big or small that gift is – only we know what we have to give – and what we might share from our time and talents – then surely we start from that place of wonder at all that God gives to us.

We start from that question that God asks us – what is it you long for? What can I give you? I will give you all you ask for and more – because even your dreams will never reach the fullness of all that I will do for you.

What might we say back to God – to the Lord Jesus who saves us, to the Holy Spirit who gives us the breath of life in our bodies and the power of love in our lives?

What is it you most long for?

What will our response be this Creationtide?

Readings: Isaiah 55:12-13; Psalm 96; Colossians 1:15-20; Matthew 8:23-27

Preacher: Rev’d Michelle Dalliston

Location: St John’s Church Peterborough UK