We tend to
think that questions about science and religion
are separate from
our daily lives
Just as we
tend to think that matters of abstract theology
are separate from
our daily lives
But this is
not so.
The way in
which we understand the universe
has a profound
impact on the way we treat others,
the way we think
of ourselves, and
the way we
interact with God.
It makes a
difference whether God created
the heavens and the earth
much as it makes a difference
who painted a painting
We know the
artist
and so have
a special appreciation.
The work speaks of the worker,
and
the worker of the work.
I would
encourage you to look at the world as though
it were
created by an intimate friend.
It was.
It makes a
difference whether God created
the heavens and the earth
much as it makes a difference
who designed a bridge.
We trust the
engineer
and so we trust what she has designed
to be safe
and made for our use
(though,
just like a bridge, not only for our use).
I would
encourage you to look at the world as though
it were created
by someone with you in mind
(though not
only you in mind).
It was.
The universe
was not simply made by God,
it was made
by God through Christ
and so
there is a particular humanity about it.
And even this
is not enough to say,
for the
truth is even more shocking.
In being
human, Christ was flesh and blood—
that same
flesh and blood we share at this table.
We are invited
into eternal life,
not by
eschewing the flesh,
but by
partaking of the very flesh and blood of Christ.
Our salvation
comes through the physical universe.
It is curious
that Jesus makes this strange declaration
just before saying:
“It
is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.”
And many
theologians have jumped to that,
along with
Paul’s dismissal of the flesh
without
wading through “whoever eats of this bread…”
and Paul’s
insistence on resurrection in the flesh.
The question
of how the physical relates to the divine
is central
to Christianity, though we try to avoid it at times.
“This teaching
is difficult; who can accept it?”
Science gives
us a picture of the universe, which is finite, if not bounded.
Christianity
gives us a picture of life eternal.
Fitting that
eternity with that finitude can be challenging,
and yet
that is precisely what we are called to do.
We are called
to witness eternal life,
even though
we die.
We are called
to witness to a God
who was not
mortal,
and yet
lived and died as we do—
who gave
his very body and blood that we might live eternally.
Some will ask
you to give up eternity because it doesn’t fit
into the smallness of the universe.
Just as God does not fit into a loaf and a cup.
Others will
ask you to make the universe smaller,
so that
their picture of God will fit around it.
Which,
if you think about it, is just another version of the same thing.
It is an
excuse to avoid the mind-altering wonder of the both/and.
Both
God and Human.
Both
Spirit and Flesh.
The way you
treat this flesh depends on what you think it means,
whether it
has a soul,
whether,
and how, the Spirit of God inhabits it.
The trick will
be to accept the wonderful limitations of God’s art,
appreciating
the blank spaces
the hard
black lines
and the
limits of the canvas
While also
listening in our hearts for the greater message
conveyed by
God’s creativity, love, and care
displayed
in the simple fact
that God
picked up the brush.