Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

1 Corinthians 15:30-41

My dad gave me an article when I was small about different scientists and their differing beliefs in God. The newest, youngest scientists rejected God, believing that everything could be explained by science. But the scientists who were older and had studied far more, professed an immense faith in God, because, with all that they had seen, the world was too magnificent to be a simple accident of creation. When I see pictures taken from the depths of space I, too, am struck by the immensity and inexplicability of the universe; how can you not be awed by it, and how can you not say “God is here.”

There is a magnificent choral anthem by English composer, Jonathan Dove, using text from Amos 5:8 and Psalm 139, that encompasses, for me, the incredible universe. The anthem is called “Seek Him That Maketh The Seven Stars,” and I hear in it a relentless longing for the beyond. I have a picture in my mind of a wanderer who is searching for God, going from star to star to star, and venturing deeper into space, knowing that God will never be found, but mesmerized by the ever-greater glory of each new discovery.

In this passage of Paul’s letter, he chastises those who think that resurrection can be logically explained and contained. Resurrection, he writes, cannot be measured by comparing it to human life. Just as space cannot be contained and fully explained by pure science. The deeper we go, and the more we wander, the more we understand awe and faith; it does not matter why something is. The scientists who believed in God did not abandon science, because God does not replace science. God, instead, pushes them to venture beyond the distinction between fact and fiction to a place where it is okay for some things to simply be unknown.

-Josh Zentner-Barrett