This Word is Light

Short Sermon: For Bishop's Certificate (Week 4)

Psalm 104, Genesis, and John 1 in Conversation

“O Lord my God, you are very great… You wrap yourself in light as with a garment.” Psalm 104:1–2

 “In the beginning was the Word… In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”  - John 1:1,4

This evening we come to Psalm 104, one of the great songs of creation in Scripture. It doesn’t just tell us about the world; it invites us into a gift - a created world that already praises its Creator. In vibrant, poetic language, the psalmist’s awe echoes the opening chapters of Genesis, where God speaks light, land, life and breath into being.

And today we also hear those words from John’s Gospel -“In the beginning was the Word.” John deliberately takes us back to Genesis, but he does something more: he tells us that the creative Word through whom all things were made is not distant or abstract. This Word is alive. This Word is light. This Word comes among us.

In Genesis, we read that God saw that creation was “good” - repeatedly, rhythmically, joyfully. Genesis 1 is not a scientific report; it is Good News: that the world exists because God delights in giving life.

Psalm 104 sings that same good news. It paints a picture of a world that is not chaotic or accidental, but ordered, diverse, and lovingly sustained by God. Sun and sea, mountains and animals, birds and human labour -not as detached facts, but as a living tapestry woven by a generous Creator.

John’s Gospel presses this even further. “All things came into being through him,” he writes. Creation is not simply something God once did; it is something God is continually holding in being through the Word. The light spoken in Genesis, the light wrapped around God in Psalm 104, is the same light John says “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Creation is sustained not by force, but by faithful, life-giving love.

Psalm 104 moves effortlessly from mountains to oceans, from grazing animals to the wind that stirs them. It is a world of rhythm and relationship: rain to earth, streams to valleys, birds to cedars, lions to dens. Humanity is part of this web - not placed above it, but within it.

This matters. Because too often, we have read Genesis as though “dominion” meant domination. But Psalm 104 offers a corrective. It contains no language of conquest, only care, provision, and balance. God sets boundaries - for seas, seasons, and creatures - not to restrict life, but to allow it to flourish.

John’s Gospel quietly affirms this vision when it says, “In him was life.” Not just human life. All life. The same Word that becomes incarnate as Jesus is already present in the rhythms of creation - sustaining, enlivening, holding all things together.

The heartbeat of Psalm 104 is praise: “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” And that praise is not limited to human voices. The psalm imagines a world where everything that has breath participates in thanksgiving - simply by being what God created it to be.

John tells us that this life is also light - light that shines, reveals, warms, and guides. Creation itself becomes a witness to God’s glory. As I have often reflected on my own journey, delight in the natural world can become a doorway into theology - creation as a living text, written in leaf and river, lion and lark.

For me - to lose sight of creation is not only an environmental failure; it is a spiritual one. We lose one of the primary ways God still speaks.

Psalm 104 helps correct a common imbalance. Genesis tells us who made the world. Psalm 104 tells us how to live within it. And John tells us why it matters: because the Word through whom all things were made chooses to dwell among us.

God sustains every creature with his Spirit - the divine breath that animates all life. When the psalmist says God sends forth his breath and creatures are made alive, it echoes Genesis. But John goes further: this same life becomes flesh. The Creator enters creation.

So the question for us today is not simply, “What did God do?” but “How do we live in the light of what God is still doing?”

• Do we receive the world as gift, not possession?

• Do we honour creation in how we live, consume, and care?

• Do we allow the light of Christ to reshape how we see the world -not as disposable, but as beloved?

  
  

Psalm 104 ends where it began - with praise. “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” John’s Prologue ends with light shining in the darkness.

Together they remind us: the world is not abandoned. It is held, sustained, and loved by God. Creation is not just the setting for salvation - it is woven into it.

May we be people who see creation with wonder, receive it with gratitude, and care for it with humility -because every creature, every breath, every sunrise still bears witness to the Word through whom all things were made.

Amen.

For more on this area of theology - please see: https://www.frrichardtuset.com/post/a-theology-of-creation-a-personal-exploration-and-reflection