Creation 4

You know the Sistine Chapel?  That famous building in the Vatican, where Michaelagelo painted frescoes depicting stories from Scripture, like God creating Adam and imagining Jesus at the Last Judgment.  He painted these in the early 1500s, so 500 years ago, and visitors are still showing up to see these works.  In fact, every day, some 17,000 to 20,000 people visit the Sistine Chapel to marvel at these works of art.  Last year, seven million people passed through this holy space. 

And every single one of those visitors brought something with them that was slowly creating buildup on these frescoes, covering over the artwork and, as it was described in the news story written about this artwork, “’creating a sort of cataract’ that flattens the dramatic effect of shadows and light of the roughly 45-by-40 foot fresco.”[1]  What on earth could do so much damage to this precious artwork? 

Every person who stood in the presence of this artistic greatness brought with them their breath.  Apparently, a couple of years ago, the museum entrusted to keep these artworks in good shape noticed that the colors weren’t looking as vibrant as they once were, so they looked closer and found a coating over the paintings, and laboratory tests revealed that the coating was primarily calcium lactate, a type of salt formed from the breath of all these visitors mixed with the temperature and humidity in the chapel. 

So how do you clean almost 2000 square feet of wall?  With a specially-designed scaffold that would continue to allow visitors into the chapel while workers use delicate Japanese tissue and deionized water to dissolve and remove the salt deposits.  Vice chief restorer Angela Cerreta said “Every time we work, we discover new details of his technique—how he reasoned, how he resolved questions of volume and drawing.  For us, he is still present.  As we gradually remove this white veil and see things more clearly, we always notice something new.  The emotion continues, every day.”[2] 

We live in a world where war threatens human life, where artificial intelligence is doing whatever it’s doing, where climate change is bringing stronger storms and more flooding in some places and more droughts in other places.  And in this world where it’s hard to imagine where you could possibly find hope, there are people working in the Sistine Chapel to restore the art inspired by our Holy Scriptures, one tiny part of telling God’s story, cleaning off the residue of people’s breath even while people continue to visit the chapel, presumably continuing to breathe in the same space. 

The readings from Scripture today remind me how important is hope as part of our life in Jesus Christ.  The prophet Ezekiel warns against hopelessness, as though the sins of parents will doom their children—with our God, there is always a chance for redemption.  Turn from wickedness and live, he says.  And Paul writes to the Christian community in the city of Philippi, to encourage the believers there, reminding them to look out for each other and repeating the words of an ancient hymn: though Jesus existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. 

How did Jesus persist even when he knew his life would end too soon?  In the Gospel lesson today, this story in Matthew’s Gospel comes after Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, so this is during the last week of his life.  But Jesus isn’t hopeless at all—he goes to the Temple, still teaching and still debating with the chief priests.  Jesus isn’t drifting away from the world but seems to be very involved in it, still calling people to let their words and actions align, urging people to keep their promises to God, because God remains steadfast in love. 

Writing in the Christian Century magazine, Lynn Tang Lee considers what Christian hope looks like in the world we live in, acknowledging the pain without giving up on the future.  Lee finds hope in the work of Vincent W. Lloyd, a Black theologian, who writes

“Christians are supposed to be committed to a vision of the future in which goodness prevails, a time when violence and suffering end.  This vision produces an uncannily bright disposition, a disposition discordant with the violence and suffering that surrounds.  Christians are called to do more than endure or persevere in a world of wretchedness.  They are called to thrive, to have a radiance guaranteed by the eternal happiness they know is to come—to have a radiance that itself participates in that happiness…In comfortable circumstances, Christian hope and worldly hope are difficult to distinguish.  But in the face of adversity, sustained adversity, worldly hope retreats.”[3] 

In other words, as circumstances worsen, worldly hope, which is mere optimism, doesn’t have much to offer.  Lee explains it this way:

“Christian hope surpasses feeling, affect, or desire.  This type of hope does not pay attention to whether it is realistic, achievable, or practical to pursue an end to violence and suffering.  This type of hope chooses to pursue goodness even if the effort is likely to fail…A lived commitment of this kind produces a radiance that is part of happiness.  In other words, Christian hope is paradoxical.  Dwelling in the crucible with those who face violence and then participating in ending the violence unaccountably leads to happiness.  This is a clue that Christian hope is found where we may not normally look.” 

God did not call you to fix the entire world, but God has called you, in love, to be part of the healing that God desires for all of creation.  Find what is yours to do, whatever mess you can clean up in your own little area, and encourage others who are doing their part.  It’s a work of faith to trust in God, but this is the hope to which we are called.  It doesn’t have to make sense, we don’t have to verify whether our efforts succeed or fail, we just testify to God’s goodness, show love to people who are most vulnerable, and always remember how beloved we are. 

To re-word the comment made by the vice chief restorer of Michaelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, because I think she could be talking about God and human efforts to be part of God’s work on earth:

            Every time we work, every time we get deeply involved in the healing of

creation, the closer we get to the details of God’s creation,

we discover new details of God’s technique,

we encounter grace in God’s handiwork. 

For us, God is still very present.

As we gradually remove the veil of hopelessness

and see things more clearly, we always notice something new. 

Indeed, God, the Master Creator Artist is still creating things new.

And as Ezekiel reported God’s words:

            Get yourself a new heart and a new spirit!  …Turn and live.

Amen. 

Pastor Cheryl

[1] Claire Giangrave, “Michaelangelo’s Last Judgment gets cleanup as tide of visitors to Sistine Chapel grows,” Religion News Service, seen in The Christian Century, May 2026, page 21-23. 

[2] Ibid pages 22-23. 

[3] Lynn Tang Lee, “Afro-Pessimism and Christian Hope,” The Christian Century, August 2026, pages 66-69.