Calvary United Methodist Church

June 25, 2017

Vacation Bible School Worship Sunday

Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks

Children’s Sermon: Psalm 8 (selected)

All week we’ve been talking about the Word of God in such simple

terms that everybody can get in on it and share the celebration. We in-

vite the children to the front of this worship space at this time to give

thanks to God for all of the blessings He has provided for us. Come on

up. Good to see everybody this morning.

A lot of stuff going on here this week, as you know. You’ve probably

heard about Vacation Bible School, the Maker Fun Factory.

And one of the things that we talked about all week was the idea of

seeing God, God Sightings. Have you ever seen God? Would you

know what to look for if you were looking for God? Hmmm… Well,

let me give you some clues, some ideas. Each day we had a different

animal who helped us understand about the way in which God is often

seen by us, or the way that we can kind of spot God in the world

around us.

Day One was Decker,

And he is Decorating Crab. I don’t know if you have ever heard about

a Decorating Crab. He has little tiny things on his shell that are like

little hooks and he goes around and he picks up pieces of coral and

other things off the bed of the ocean and he attaches it to his shell so

he actually gets to decorate himself. That’s pretty cool! That is ex-

traordinarily complex.

So the lesson for Monday was: Thank you God for making me so

wonderfully complex.

Day Two is Tina the Termite. She is over there on that poster on the

wall. How many of you guys have termites at your house? Isn’t that

great? Yeah, termites are really well known for eating a lot of stuff,

but this is a Cathedral Termite.

This is a picture of the nest that a Cathedral Termite builds and it can

literally be 20 feet tall and it will hang around for 100 years. Human

engineers actually study Cathedral Termite’s nests to learn things about

building.

And the lesson for Tuesday was: If God is for us, who could ever be

against us. That’s what it means to stand strong.

On Wednesday it was Bubba the Humpback Whale.

Bubba the Humpback Whale was kind of interesting to all of us be-

cause of the way that Humpback Whales gather their food. They don’t

have sharp teeth and they are not terribly fast, so they blow bubbles.

Did you ever blow bubbles in a drink, let’s say a milkshake? I’m not

telling you to do this but what’s really fun is if you get a milkshake

and you take the lid off and you take the straw and you blow as hard as

you can into it, make sure you are wearing a tarp if you are going to do

that.

Because when they blow the bubbles it makes the tiny little fish that

they eat think there is a net being wrapped around them and that’s how

they eat. And God had made them so that they would be able to feed

themselves this way.

And the lesson was: The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Skyler, who is up here, was Day Four. Skyler is called a Bower Bird

and a Bower is another word for a house or a home.

So, Skyler builds these cool nests to attract a mate to start a family.

And inside that nest a Bower Bird will put anything that’s bright and

shiny and colorful. It’s kind of their way of decorating their home. It

reminds us that God is always decorating our lives with His love and

His grace.

And the lesson was: Your unfailing love will last forever.

And the last was Abbee and Abbee is a…yeah, it’s a bee, but it’s a spe-

cial kind of bee. It’s a bee found only in one part of the world.

We think of bees as insects that lay their eggs in honey comb, but

Abbee, this particular kind of bee, actually burrows a hole and coats its

eggs with flour petals. It’s really kind of a fascinating variation on the

theme.

And Friday’s lesson was: “I know the plans I have for you,” says the

Lord, just like Abbee knows the way to do what that kind of bee does.

If you look at all the incredible things around us, these are what we

call God Sightings…

Evidence that God is powerful and passionate and present in our

world.

So, how can you have a God sighting just like all the people at VBS

did? Very simple.

You look at the world and everything around us through the eyes of

faith.

And Psalm 8 shares these words which kind of talk about how it is that

the world looks when you look with the eyes of faith. The Psalmist

says: I look up at the sky. I see the countless stars and planets you’ve

made. I marvel at the moon that has been shaped by your hands.

Those wonders are far away—they are beyond my reach. But then I

look at the world right here around me. Your amazing creatures are

everywhere. They swim in the oceans. That’s Bubba right there.

They fly through the air. The burrow in the ground and they walk on

the land. Everything that you’ve made is beautiful. And in all of this,

to think that you, God, would think of little me…It makes my heart

come alive. I never have to wonder if someone cares for me, be-

cause…I love God who made us, I love the Maker…And the Maker

loves me.

See the eyes of faith enable us to see God’s hand all over the place.

For example, like in the world around us. Did you ever go surfing or

swimming in the waves at the ocean? Can you imagine riding a wave

and having a dolphin ride right beside you? That’s pretty cool stuff

and it’s just one of the amazing things that we see in the world around

us.

This particular photograph is taken by the Hubbell telescope and that

particular nebula is called the Eye of God. Get it? It looks like an eye

staring out of the sky at us. When we see things like that, it causes us

awe. It’s the root of the word “Awesome”. And all week long when-

ever we saw or heard something awesome, the kids all yelled, “Wow,

God!” Can you yell “Wow, God!”? (Wow, God!) They are going to

blow you away in about ten minutes.

And when we feel that awesome experience, we have in our hearts

something called “Wonder”

And that’s what causes us to worship. We recognize just how awe-

some God is and how wondrous is God’s creation.

But it’s not just in the world out there. The eyes of faith enable us to

see God’s hand in…

The world within us. I bet you have some pretty cool ideas.

You are creative people. You have in your mind visions of things that

don’t yet exist.

And God has given each of us the ability to take the thoughts in our

minds, whether it be through music or art or other things, God has giv-

en us the ability to share the vision that we have in our mind.

And God has also helped us through humility to realize that all the

great stuff around us which gives us all the creativity that we have, it’s

all a gift from God.

So we see through the eyes of faith God’s hand in us, but there is one

more place and it has to do with these amazing creatures that you are

sitting next to.

The eyes of faith enable us to see God’s hand in the world between us.

The world between us is called relationship, right?

And in our relationships, we understand what it means to serve. Every

time you serve someone, you are in effect being the hands of God.

And one of the ways that we serve one another is by allowing each

other to make mistakes. We forgive one another.

And when we perfectly serve and forgive, we call that love.

And who is the person who taught us how to perfectly love? His name

is (Jesus) Jesus! Exactly right! He’s the one who, in effect, brought

God’s love to us and taught us how to be amazing and awesome.

Because if we look around with the eyes of faith,

There are literally God sightings everywhere.

And faith, the eyes of faith, they work like a magnifying glass.

It enables us to see the things that we might normally miss.

Now, in this basket are magnifying glasses. They have three different

colored handles.

And I decided to take a couple of them and do some investigating in

the back yard the other day.

So Fender and I took a look at stuff up close.

And see, that’s what faith is like. Faith allows us to look at things up

close and see what it is that God is doing.

Because if we look around with the eyes of faith…

There are God Sightings everywhere.

Thanks for sharing in our time this morning.

Message Through VBS Music:

After Made For This

Welcome to the Maker Fun Factory. Each day this week, our

songs, bible stories, activities, and even our snacks taught us one sim-

ple lesson: God creates. That’s why we call him the Maker.

This isn’t a new idea. It’s the first story in the first book of the

Bible. “In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.” It’s

the first statement in one of our oldest creeds of the faith: I believe in

God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth. God made eve-

rything—including us. But he didn’t just make one or two people: He

made billions of people us and put us together for a purpose.

If we look around, we can see God in everything: ocean and

sky, sunshine and rain, laughter and tears. God made it all and it’s

beautiful.

After The Maker

When someone says that they love you, how can you be sure?

You’d like to believe them, but actions speak louder than words. Love

means action—doing something that shows someone how special they

are.

God knew this when he created us. Each of us is different—

special—one of a kind. Making us unique was only the first loving act

of our Creator. Putting us together was his second act of love. But we

don’t see each other as God sees us. When we think of ourselves as

the Maker’s most important creation, that’s called sin.

After Love Come Down

Many people were afraid of Jesus. They thought he was going

to start a fight with between the rich and the poor. The leaders of the

country thought he wanted to be king. The priests in the Temple were

concerned that he might start a new religion.

But some heard God’s voice in what He taught. They saw the

Maker’s hand in how he touched and healed children, slaves, soldiers,

outcasts and the sick. Some saw that the Maker was doing something

new by walking with us rather than looking down on us. In Jesus, they

knew that God is for you, and God is for me.

Sin makes love almost impossible because it blinds us to the

Maker’s plan. So God decided to show it to us himself. He sent Jesus.

That’s when Love Came Down.

After God Is For Me

How many times can you forgive someone? In Jesus’s time,

there was a number: Seven. You should forgive someone seven times.

Why seven? Seven is the number of days the Maker took to

complete his work. For six days, he created, and then he rested on the

seventh day. All the universe was completed in seven days. In Jesus’s

day, you forgive seven times. That’s enough.

But it wasn’t enough for Jesus. He asked, “How many time

does God forgive someone?” Jesus went to extremes: seven times

seventy! Ther are no limits to forgiveness. In other words, God’s for-

giveness if so Big, you’ll lose count of the times He forgives. You

might as well try to count the drops in the ocean.

After Drops in the Ocean

When we decide to forgive each other, we begin to realize the

purpose of our lives. The Maker created us for a reason; to be a family

of faith held together grace. When we choose ourselves before God

and others, however, we break the bonds of love. We become separat-

ed. And there’s only one way to put the pieces of our lives back to-

gether.

Forgiveness. Forgiveness isn’t just a good idea; it’s the way to

peace. God doesn’t just tell us to forgive—God does it again and

again. If we share this gift with our neighbors, we begin to see what

we were meant for. We begin to be all we were made to be. Because

the Maker forgives us, we forgive each other.

After You Forgive Me

God has given us everything we have and all that we are. There

are a million reasons to celebrate and sing!

Our time together this week has reminded us of what the Maker

is doing and how we can be a part of it. So here are the daily lessons:

God made you.

God is for you.

God is always with you.

God will always love you.

God made you for a reason.

Whenever we heard the memory verse for the day, we respond-

ed with a loud, “Wow God!” Just like the one you’re going to hear in

THREE, TWO, ONE . . . . !

If it seems that we like to get a little crazy, you’re right! It’s

that time again!

After Let’s Get a Little Crazy

Our worship and our music is an offering to the Maker of all

things. While God doesn’t need anything we have, the only thing God

desires is our hearts.

Like a good and gracious parent, the Maker is always ready to

give. His gifts are as special as we are. He knows what we need. He

knows what we can do. As we present our offering, may we remember

that he calls to us to be generous in our sharing. He knows our name.

Thank You:

There are many people we want to thank

both as a congregation and as kids who had a great time this past

week.

We want to thank the snack factory that happened over in the kitchen.

These guys devastated the snacks every day.

The Senior Staff: these are adults and college students who gave up

part of their summer to be a part of this.

Also the Junior Staff, the middle school and high school kids who are

part of the great group that we have working here.

Dr. V and the Failed Experiments behind me have been part of this as

well and we thank them for sharing their talents.

And also, most importantly, to Rebecca Slavinsky and her daughter

Savannah who are the CEO and Assistant to the CEO of this entire op-

eration.

Now, I want to say something to you guys. In that basket back there

are magnifying glasses so you are welcome to take one with you be-

fore you go and you guys need to stand up and get ready to do some

singing because He’s got the Whole World in His Hands.

Benediction:

The great confession we share is this: I love the Maker…

And the Maker loves me.

Thanks be to God for these young people who share the message that

you take with us. Peace be with you. Amen.