Our theme for today comes from:
Isaiah 51:151 “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness (right standing with God),
Who seek and inquire of the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
And to the excavation of the quarry from which you were dug.
For many people it can be a stumbling block when we talk about righteousness, myself included, but I hold on to this idea of right standing with God. Somehow sounds more of an obtainable goal. Semantics are funny as words that mean the same thing can have different feelings. Like similar thoughts with their different feelings we navigate difficult waters.
In Our church we often look to the quarry were we were dug. This is a very good theme for us as we are in the thick of preparations for the two hundredth anniversary of our congregation. Look to the rock from which you were hewn another translation says. We are hewn from Jesus to be sure, but as well the Bluestone we find all around.
Euclid Bluestone is a very nice rock to work with. It often breaks itself apart in useful shapes. It also has a less appealing quality that I find endearing: it rusts. We had mill stones and sidewalks made from this stuff, but very few buildings considering how much we have available around here. The few buildings build around here of Bluestone are easy to spot: they rust.
The idea that rocks can rust has always amazed me. Somehow I held on to the wonder I first found when I learned this fact. The things I knew that rusted were all man made. So rocks rust if they have iron. My amazement was never tempered when I learned another phrase that feels different. Oxidation. Something oxygen does something less interesting. Rocks rust sometimes and give themselves away.
Amplified Bible
6
“Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
Then look to the earth beneath;
For the heavens will be torn to pieces and vanish like smoke,
And the earth will wear out like a garment
And its inhabitants will die in like manner.
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness (justice) [and faithfully fulfilled promise] will not be broken.
The earth will wear out, not something people mention the bible says. If we come together as a human race and make the world a better place. Or even if we do the worst of sins and keep treating the earth the same: the earth will wear out.
This then the rock we are hewn from traveling across a medium sized galaxy. This rock rusts as well or was oxidized if you like. We find here the heart of the human experience. The tendency to find the entire universe in a few lines of scripture is quite the challenge to preachers. The roads we trod go on forever.
During a recent Angel bible study we are finishing this week, I came across some words I found quite simpatico from someone I haven't always found so: "Therefore let us remember not to probe too curiously or talk too confidently," John Calvin continued, "The theologian's task is not to divert the ears with chatter, but to strengthen consciences by teaching things true, sure, and profitable."
To my mind the best a sermon can do is teach all three: true, sure, and profitable. It is what brings God to our attention. There is self preservation involved here.
The scientist often faces similar obstacles seeing the entire universe in a few grains of sand. And while the theologian and scientist may be the same person they see things in different ways.
Brian Greene, a scientist and author of the Elegant Universe has a new book, "Until the end of time." He brings this idea home to me in the first paragraph of his new book, "In the fullness of time all that lives will die. For more than three billion years, as a species simple and complex found their place in earth's hierarchy, the scythe of death has cast a persistent shadow over the flowering of life. Diversity spread as life crawled from the oceans, strode on land, and took flight in the skies. But wait long enough and the ledger of birth and death, with entries more numerous than stars in the galaxy, will balance with dispassionate precision. The unfolding of any given life is beyond prediction. The final fate of any given life is a foregone conclusion."
As scientist we probe curiously and talk confidently, but we don't find any answers that have any meaning. Dispassionate precision if only. Things may be true and they may be sure, but they may not be profitable. Science leads us down the most amazing passageway, but there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
51:1 “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness (right standing with God),
Who seek and inquire of the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
And to the excavation of the quarry from which you were dug.
Look to the rock from which you were cut
And to the excavation of the quarry from which you were dug.
There are many answers ahead of us to be found but there are as many behind us to be learned. What motivates the scientist motivates the theologian. I would argue that we should use every tool available. I can be the theologian and I can also be the scientist.
Isaiah continues in:51:2
Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.This is also the rock from which we were cut. We can look to the justification of Abraham to understand our own standing.
We find Paul telling us in
Romans 4Amplified Bible
4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather humanly speaking, has found? [Has he obtained a favored standing?] 2 For if Abraham was justified [that is, acquitted from the guilt of his sins] by works [those things he did that were good], he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed in (trusted, relied on) God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness (right living, right standing with God).” 4 Now to a laborer, his wages are not credited as a favor or a gift, but as an obligation [something owed to him]. 5 But to the one who does not work [that is, the one who does not try to earn his salvation by doing good], but believes and completely trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is [b]credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God)
Right standing with God; believe and completely trust
We look to the past and we see greater challenges than we face now. I wonder if they had less of an idea of the challenges that faced them. They had no idea.
Scientist have recently figured out ways to test for micro-plastics in human tissue. Everywhere we have been able to look so far we have found this micro-plastic contamination. There is more unknown in science than known. There is more unknown than known in religion. Could we have contaminated our planet too much already. Scientifically we will see.
Isaiah has is own answers:
51:3 For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.51:4 Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples.
51:5 I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.
51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended.
We are coastlands.
"Accurate observation is the first step. Scientists try to make their descriptions complete by gathering all the facts they can, but the mere gathering of facts is not enough. The facts must be organized, and as new facts are gathered they must be related to what is already known.
In religion we respect tradition and authority from the past, especially as this authority comes to us in Scripture, in science we begin with doubting tradition and questioning authority, we demand facts supported by observation.
Scientific observation must always be an experience that can be shared, but religious experience is intensely personal. The experience of Paul on the road to Damascus is an event of inescapable importance to the beginnings of Christian Religion, but it was an experience that came to Paul alone. The men who were with him did not share the experience, and no other person---on the Damascus road or any other road---has exactly duplicated the experience.
The conduct of experiments is a feature which completely separates scientific from religious method. You cannot set up an experiment in religion. Religion is a matter of individual, personal relationships, and in these relationships the controlled condition of experiment are impossible. When we attempt to include God in the experiment the situation becomes silly."
"It would seem from what has been said that scientific method and religious method are so different that we cannot hold them together, but we must remember that it was the Christian civilization that gave birth to the natural sciences.
Christian civilization garnered the philosophy and the geometry of Greece, the astronomy of the whole ancient and medieval worlds, the arithmetic and algebra of the Indians and Arabs, as well as the religion and ethics of the Hebrews. Natural science and it's offspring technology and medicine are the gifts of Christian civilization to mankind.
He will comfort all her waste places. That brings me these images. I was reminded recently that blood stains concrete. Had a bit of a run in with my sister's dog and some uncontrolled dogs. I go by this spot often now and see the blood stains in the concrete. In Bosnia I walked a street and saw stains, but didn't really necessarily believe them. The thing that is overwhelming is all her waste places will be comforted. It almost seems like it would take too long. Scientists will tell you these places have been wasted thirteen billion years or so. Perhaps we do have time. Human brains can't really process such large numbers.
The best example is a million seconds vs a billions seconds. Think about that for a second. A million seconds 12 days. A billion seconds 31 years. A trillion seconds you might wonder as we are getting closer to having trillionaires. A trillion seconds 31,688 years. It is not only man's heart that is flawed.
Science and religion serve import roles. My grandfather had this to say:
In religion we respect tradition and authority from the past, especially as this authority comes to us in Scripture, in science we begin with doubting tradition and questioning authority, we demand facts supported by observation.
Scientific observation must always be an experience that can be shared, but religious experience is intensely personal. The experience of Paul on the road to Damascus is an event of inescapable importance to the beginnings of Christian Religion, but it was an experience that came to Paul alone. The men who were with him did not share the experience, and no other person---on the Damascus road or any other road---has exactly duplicated the experience.
The conduct of experiments is a feature which completely separates scientific from religious method. You cannot set up an experiment in religion. Religion is a matter of individual, personal relationships, and in these relationships the controlled condition of experiment are impossible. When we attempt to include God in the experiment the situation becomes silly."
"Teaching things true, sure, and profitable" We in the end are faced with this concept of forever. "but my salvation will be forever." A scientist will talk of heat death and see no light at the end of the tunnel. This maybe be true or we may find more facts. We do not know. We search for new facts with the faith that what we have done before we will do again.
We have moved what we know forward. We find ourselves, "But wait long enough and the ledger of birth and death, with entries more numerous than stars in the galaxy, will balance with dispassionate precision. The unfolding of any given life is beyond prediction. The final fate of any given life is a foregone conclusion." That scientific idea to me has become more than it should. The final fate of any given life. We have a halting problem.
The simplest description of this dilemma is: In computability theory, the halting problem is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running, or continue to run forever.
We can make a prediction for any given life, but can we be sure that every life ends? With each new one there is new possibility. Given time new possibility can take us anywhere. We may be back to semantics but these words feel right. Before Jesus came and sent us the holy spirit the final fate of any given life was a foregone conclusion.
Almost like a mutation the Messiah gene perhaps. Something that we had not seen before. Something that all signs seemed to point towards. Why it took thirteen billion years at least I don't know. How many more it will take I'm not sure.
Scientist and theologians in the end come to this question of death. This balancing with or without passion. Separating the goats and the sheep. We seem lost in ourselves and scared of death. Here is where we find our profit today: the balance sheet has passion. "wait long enough and the ledger of birth and death, with entries more numerous than stars in the galaxy, will balance with dispassionate precision." Where is the fun there, the struggle there, what is the reason there. A million seconds a billion seconds a trillion seconds.
We find an entire universe in a few phrases. There is a reason or there is not. Faith is the choice to believe that all these things we know along with the things we don't equal something of value. Balance with passionate precision.
I will share one last thought of my grandfather's in closing:
"It would seem from what has been said that scientific method and religious method are so different that we cannot hold them together, but we must remember that it was the Christian civilization that gave birth to the natural sciences.
Christian civilization garnered the philosophy and the geometry of Greece, the astronomy of the whole ancient and medieval worlds, the arithmetic and algebra of the Indians and Arabs, as well as the religion and ethics of the Hebrews. Natural science and it's offspring technology and medicine are the gifts of Christian civilization to mankind.
Let us be very hesitant in using the phrase, "the Bible says",---it takes careful and prayerful study to interpret correctly the message of the Bible.
And having read, studied, and interpreted the Bible----remember "it is better to be a sermon than to preach one."
Let us pray
Almighty God, giver of every good and perfect gift: teach us to render unto thee all that we have and all that we are, that we may praise thee, not with our lips only, but with our whole loves, turning the duties, the sorrows, and the joys of all our days into a living sacrifice unto thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Amen
Nottingham August 23, 2020
And having read, studied, and interpreted the Bible----remember "it is better to be a sermon than to preach one."
Let us pray
Almighty God, giver of every good and perfect gift: teach us to render unto thee all that we have and all that we are, that we may praise thee, not with our lips only, but with our whole loves, turning the duties, the sorrows, and the joys of all our days into a living sacrifice unto thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Amen
Nottingham August 23, 2020