Minds in the Stars

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 19, 2015

Minds in the Stars

Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came near

and heard them disputing with one another,

and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him,

“Which commandment is the first of all?”

Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel:

the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul,

and with all your mind,

and with all your strength.’

The second is this,

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Then the scribe said to him,

“You are right, Teacher;

you have truly said that

‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’;

and ‘to love him with all the heart,

and with all the understanding,

and with all the strength,’

and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’

—this is much more important than all

whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him,

“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

After that no one dared to ask him any question.

***********************************************************

What sound does it make as it passes?

In the vacuum of space

there is no sound at all,

…or is there?

We know what a train sounds like as it approaches.

Not a lumbering freight train,

but a streamlined passenger train,

straight out of the 1940s, racing across the country,

the low rumble of the diesel felt as much as heard,

the air horn piercing and demanding,

the steel wheels singing their rhythmic song:

“clickity-clack, clickity-clack.”

The sound grows in intensity

as the train approaches,

and then in whoosh,

flying down the tracks,

the sound fades away even faster than it approached.

As the sound dies out

you have a vague recollection

from high school science class,

about something called the Doppler effect.

Imagine now you are sitting on an asteroid,

a million miles from Pluto,

almost 3 billion miles from Earth.

Imagine as you look toward earth

you see it coming,

tiny at first, a mere speck of light

but growing with every second,

something approaching,

approaching very fast.

It gets larger and larger,

brighter and brighter,

and then in an instant it shoots by:

a satellite, the New Horizons satellite,

something made by humans on earth,

traveling at 30,000 miles per hour.

Would it have made any noise at all

as it approached, as it flew by?

Would you have heard anything,

anything at all,

even an imaginary sound,

something your brain created

to fill the silence,

the vacuum void: a cosmic “whoosh”?

On it went, that satellite,

closing in on its destination,

nearing the end of its 9-year journey

covering 3 billion miles

as it prepared for its rendezvous with Pluto.

On it went, the New Horizons satellite,

its camera snapping away furiously,

like a tourist seeing the sights of Washington

for the first time.

I grew up in the 1960s,

the halcyon days of the space age,

the days of the Mercury astronauts,

those first seven who had “The Right Stuff”.

They were followed by the pairs of Gemini,

and then Apollo,

which gave us those dramatic pictures of earth

taken from the moon,

those pictures showing our brilliant blue planet

hanging in space,  floating,

beautiful,

yet looking so terribly alone.

I have always marveled at the accomplishments:

of our space program over the decades –

from the first human orbiting around the earth,

to the many achievements of the Space Shuttle,

including placing the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit.

Who could have imagined

we’d land a probe on Mars?

Who could have imagined we’d send a satellite

on a 9 year, 3 billion mile journey

to a heavenly body less than a quarter the size

of our own planet,

too small even to be called a planet?

There is something about space exploration

that seems to bring out the best in us,

that seems to use,

seems to focus all our God-given gifts:

our intelligence,

our creativity,

our imagination,

our determination,

our perseverance,

and our ability to dream.

There is something about space exploration

that I find exhilarating,

not only for the scientific accomplishments,

but because everything we learn about the cosmos

reflects on the glory of God the Creator.

There is also something about space exploration

that helps us to understand what Jesus means

when he teaches us to love God with our minds

as well as our hearts, our souls, and our strength.

We are to use our minds to worship God;

we are to use our minds to glorify God;

we are to use our minds to learn about God,

to ask questions,

to wonder,

to explore.

Church leaders have discouraged thinking

for so much of our Christian history,

demanding acceptance of beliefs without question.

Galileo’s experience more than 300 years ago

was one of the more notorious examples:

when he was branded a heretic for proposing

that the sun did not revolve around a stationary earth,

but rather the earth revolved around the sun.

Church leaders condemned him for his theory,

condemned for looking up at the stars and thinking.

They denounced him, saying,

“Doesn’t scripture tell us in three distinct places,

“The world is firmly established,

it shall never be moved.”

(1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1; Psalm 96:10)

End of discussion.

End of thinking.

But we should think.

We should question.

We should ponder.

Our minds should be in the stars

and in the world all around us,

for they all reflect the glory of God!

We know the Bible isn’t a book of science;

it is a book about relationships;

it’s a book about discovery;

it’s a book about wonder;

it’s a book about exploring;

and of course, it’s a book about love.

                                            

We children of God have shown

time and time again

how we can be just like Job,

who, with his friends,

“darkened counsel by words without knowledge”,

We too so often close our minds,

speak without thinking,

and, as we say in our Brief Statement of Faith,

accept lies for truth.

When we send our young people to

Massanetta Springs,

Montreat,

Triennium,

even Vacation Bible School,

it isn’t to drum dogma and creeds into their heads;

It’s to awaken them to the glory of God all around them,

and to encourage them to think:

think,

think about God,

think about their relationship with God;

use their minds to learn about God,

use their minds to help them worship God.

Imagine what might happen

if we use all our minds to learn –

learn about God,

learn about God’s creation,

learn about our relationship with the Lord our God,

learn about what we can do,

what we can accomplish with God,

through God?

Perhaps one child of God, as she is learning,

will find in the story of the loaves and fishes

a lesson leading her to feed more hungry people

not through greater production,

but through better distribution.

Perhaps one child of God, as he is learning,

will find in one of the stories about Jesus healing

a lesson inspiring him to help healing

by finding a cure for disease that kills or cripples.

Perhaps one child of God, as she is learning,

will find in Jesus’ call to love even our enemy

a lesson leading her to work for peace and reconciliation

in a situation everyone else thought hopeless.

Perhaps one child of God, as he is learning,

will find in the text that tells us

the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

a lesson leading him to work for more sustainable living

among all God’s children.

It isn’t flippant to say,

we should have our heads in the clouds.

We should have our minds in the stars,

for there we will see the glory of God;

there we will learn about the glory of God.

Think about it.

AMEN