Outside In: Opening Worship to God_s World of Wonder and Delight

Rev. Scott Hoezee

What are the influences that tend to disconnect public worship of God from the physical creation of that same God? Are there ways that pastors and lay people alike can work to overcome these influences and so make Sunday worship services a bridge to God's creation instead of a detour around it? In this lecture, Scott Hoezee will suggest that the Bible itself is the Christian Church's first, best guide to (and window on) an enhanced celebration of God's cosmos. Along the way, however, we will note the cross-currents, ironies, and competing factors that sometimes make the attempt to bring the outside world inside the sanctuary a challenging, if not dicey, prospect. What constitutes some of the biblical evidence that the contemporary church both can and should reconnect faith and ecology? What are some of the broader sweeps of traditional Christian theology that reveal how a Christian's love for God ought to extend to the handiwork of that God? This lecture will sketch a vision for the church and will include hands-on suggestions for what preachers and parishioners alike could do at home with their families as well as at church with the wider family of God to foster a greater awareness and celebration of the non-human aspects of God's creation. On both biblical and theological grounds, this lecture will strongly assert that all Christians should be naturally curious about God's creation. We should have a hunger and a longing to know more about this world and our place in it, in no small part because God created us in the divine image precisely so that we could exercise this kind of ecological preservation, study, and celebration: a combination of factors that themselves lead God's people to an enhanced worship and praise of their Creator God!

Scott Hoezee is a graduate of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. Since 1993 he has been the Minister of Preaching and Administration at the Calvin Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to that he spent three years as the pastor at the Second Christian Reformed Church in Fremont, Michigan. Scott is the author of five books, including The Riddle of Grace (1996) and Remember Creation (1998) as well as of numerous articles and reviews. From 1998-2001 he was a participant in the national Pastor-Theologian Program sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. In the context of that program, Scott was granted a four-month sabbatical in Princeton in the fall of 2000, at which time he worked on a forthcoming book titled Science on Sunday: Preaching God_s Word in a World of Science. He is currently the Reviews Editor for Perspectives magazine and convenes a local study group of pastors in West Michigan as an off-shoot of the larger Pastor-Theologian Program. His wife, Rosemary, is an English teacher, freelance writer, and an R.N. who works at Holland Hospital in Holland, Michigan. Their daughter, Julianna, attends 4th Grade and their son, Graham, attends Kindergarten at Oakdale Christian School in Grand Rapids.