The mundane magnified

“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Genesis 2:5-7 ESV

I am not a native of Sikeston or Southeast Missouri. I was born and raised in Southeast Michigan. I spent my college years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My seminary days were spent in St. Louis. My connection to Sikeston is solely through my Call as Pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church. Many have asked if I was born and raised in Sikeston (as most pastors around here appear to be home-grown). Some are impressed when I tell them, “No, I’m from Michigan.” Most say “why/how did you end up here in podunk Missouri? There wasn’t somewhere better or closer to home?” No, not for me. Christ’s church called me to Southeast Missouri, and that’s where I am.

I’ve never appreciated when people look down on their hometown when talking to me. While yes, Southeast Missouri (and that area between Benton Hill to Blytheville, Arkansas,) might seem dull, boring, or otherwise a strange place for a Michigander to end up, much good, Godly things can happen in the seemingly mundane lives of Missourians. Like those who asked of Jesus “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” some seem to think little good can come from Southeast Missouri, let alone Sikeston, Dexter, Portageville or further into the Bootheel.

I beg to differ. I invite you to consider these words from Genesis 2. Contrary to thoughts of grandiose mystical magic or some otherworldly form of creation, God simply formed humans from the ground. The LORD carved out of the ground with His hands mankind. Like a kid at the beach, the LORD delighted in forming something new out of the sand/dust of the ground. And then? He breathed into that “sandcastle,” calling it “Adam” (Hebrew for man). The sand came to life, becoming man. No magic. No mystical experience. Just the mundane magnified.

Mankind often forgets its origins: dust we are and to dust we shall return. We are made from mundane, boring, seemingly “really, that’s it?” means. The Lord got His hands dirty by shaping our first parents from the ground and breathing life into them. There is much fertile ground tilled when mankind remembers its origins: humble, banal, mundane origins.

Lest we forget, that’s how our salvation was secured, too. The executioner probably figured this crucifixion was just like any other. Yet, Jesus was stricken and His dirty hands were pierced by His own creation on the cross. The magnificence of God Almighty was manifested in humiliation for you and for me, poor miserable sinners. May our mundane lives magnify Jesus!

The Rev. Matthew Berry is pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Sikeston, Missouri. Based in Sikeston’s Historic North End, Concordia is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), a theologically conservative, biblically sound, Christ-centered church.