This morning at Worship, I talked a bit about some of the newer scientific evidence which seems to point towards a divine creator rather than away from one. These are important discoveries because they align scientific reality with biblical truth. Even though a lot of work remains to be done in the interconnection between these two worlds, the possibility of them making sense to each other is great news because what is real in one world should be real in the other.
For many years, science and faith lived in a philosophical stalemate. The former Harvard evolutionary biologist, Stephen Jay Gould, called these separate worlds non-overlapping magesteria (how's that for a mouthful?). In this scheme of things science would take care of the physical world and religion the meta-physical world of morality and other spiritual issues. The only problem is that scientists often relegated the magesterium (realm) of religion to second-class citizenship. Science dealt in the "real" world of things that could be tasted and tested. If religious people wanted to reflect on religious things, well and good, but the "real" world was where the real action was.
The other problem is that truth is truth, no matter where it is found. You may not be able to run experiments proving God's presence, but if He really did create the world, then His fingerprints should be all over it. Fortunately those fingerprints have been showing up with greater regularity over the last Century. The state of science at the beginning of the 20th Century was such that God was all but excluded from the equation. Many scientists today, most notably Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, continue to exclude Him. However, discoveries throughout the 20th Century have turned up fingerprints all over the place.
For one thing, astronomical discoveries have pretty much proven that the universe had a definite beginning. This discovery was a shock to even Albert Einstein, who with most other physicists had assumed the eternal existence of the universe. The discovery of a beginning means that there had to be someone to begin things and that someone was marvelously intelligent because he managed to get things going with just the right balance. Over the past 50 years scientists have discovered about 98 constants in the make up of the universe, which if even a fraction of a fraction off, would have resulted in a world hostile to the formation of life.The acknowledgement of these finely-balanced constants is called the fine-tuning of the universe.
In the area of biology, we have come to understand that life as we know it as even more complex than we had ever imagined. The discovery of DNA demonstrated to us the language of life, a straightforward coding responsible for all the complexities of life. Just think, the entire instruction manual for a human being can fit into an ultra-microscopic space. Bill Gates, eat your heart out!
Now, there are people who believe we got to this level of sophistication through random mutations over a long period of time, but that's a little like believing that an explosion in a print shop could give us the Encyclopedia Britannica provided there was enough time to get all the letters straight. For insightful discussions of these issues try visiting Reasons to Believe or The BioLogos Foundation. These two websites give contrasting reflections on God's fingerprints in the physical world, but they both address the issue.
Finally, a note about why this is so important. Understanding God as Creator goes far beyond just trying to prove the Bible is right. If God is Creator, then there are serious implications as to how we live. If He created it all, then he owns it all, which means that it is simply on loan for us to take care of, not for us to do just what we want with it. Generally, in our world today people mostly think their lives are in their own hands, to do with as they please as long as they don't seem to hurt anyone else in the process. But if God really is Creator, His interests must be taken into account.
In another vein, if God went to all the trouble of designing and creating life, He must have a purpose for it. And it is up to us to try to discover and honor that purpose-- in our own lives and in our care for the world. We cannot settle on the notion that we are random acts of a random process. We have a purpose and we owe it to our Creator to live into that purpose.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Post-Romantic?
I was reading a blog the other day about a new book by Pamela Haag: "Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses, and Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting the Rules.". What a title! Kind of takes the shine off the white gown and all. Basically the blog and article http://marriageconfidential.com/ talk about us living in a post-romantic era in which the possibility of life-long monogamous marriages are becoming a thing of the past. The article cites a Pew study which discovered that 40% of Americans believe that marriage is becoming obsolete, and that Americans are in the process of redefining it.
Can we really redefine marriage? Haag's opinion is that marriage's strength is in its adaptability to changing circumstances. One changing circumstance she cites is longer lifespans and shorter attention spans. This combination, she insists, may spell the demise of the lifelong marriage bond that resulted in Golden Anniversaries and beyond. Perhaps in the post-romantic era, there will be one marriage for child-rearing (though even that doesn't seem to be working so well) and one or more for later fulfillment in life. As far as she is concerned, marriage is likely to become more heterogeneous and customized towards particular couples.
The Bible insists that marriage was ordained by God as a relationship where "two become one" for life. Even though people have a hard time realizing this ideal, does it mean that God's plans for marriage are now obsolete? Why not ask kids who have had to live through a divorce? Even adult children who experience a parental divorce later on feel the pain and awkwardness of life as it should not be. That is because marriage is not just about the individuals involved, but about the whole network of relationships that surround the marriage. Marriage is not just about the couple, but about the community.
If Haag has her way, when a marriage fails to go the distance, it's not a matter of the couple failing to hit the bullseye of a lifelong commitment, but of letting the arrow fall where it will and drawing a circle around it, claiming victory. Again, ask the children of divorce if they think someone hit the bullseye.
Because people are people, we will fail in relationships, sometimes irrevocably. When we do, we need all the compassion and understanding we can muster for each other, for there is always pain involved when something goes wrong. However, to treat it as right and good is the greatest tragedy of all, for it trivializes the pain for everyone involved, including the couple whose dreams have been broken.
The good news is there is healing from brokenness through Jesus Christ for all circumstances, but only for those who realize something is actually broken. What do you think?
Can we really redefine marriage? Haag's opinion is that marriage's strength is in its adaptability to changing circumstances. One changing circumstance she cites is longer lifespans and shorter attention spans. This combination, she insists, may spell the demise of the lifelong marriage bond that resulted in Golden Anniversaries and beyond. Perhaps in the post-romantic era, there will be one marriage for child-rearing (though even that doesn't seem to be working so well) and one or more for later fulfillment in life. As far as she is concerned, marriage is likely to become more heterogeneous and customized towards particular couples.
The Bible insists that marriage was ordained by God as a relationship where "two become one" for life. Even though people have a hard time realizing this ideal, does it mean that God's plans for marriage are now obsolete? Why not ask kids who have had to live through a divorce? Even adult children who experience a parental divorce later on feel the pain and awkwardness of life as it should not be. That is because marriage is not just about the individuals involved, but about the whole network of relationships that surround the marriage. Marriage is not just about the couple, but about the community.
If Haag has her way, when a marriage fails to go the distance, it's not a matter of the couple failing to hit the bullseye of a lifelong commitment, but of letting the arrow fall where it will and drawing a circle around it, claiming victory. Again, ask the children of divorce if they think someone hit the bullseye.
Because people are people, we will fail in relationships, sometimes irrevocably. When we do, we need all the compassion and understanding we can muster for each other, for there is always pain involved when something goes wrong. However, to treat it as right and good is the greatest tragedy of all, for it trivializes the pain for everyone involved, including the couple whose dreams have been broken.
The good news is there is healing from brokenness through Jesus Christ for all circumstances, but only for those who realize something is actually broken. What do you think?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Radical in a Practical Way
I attended one of those online webinars yesterday. This one was put on by G5 (http://www.g5leadership.com/), an outstanding leadership training company committed to bringing great ideas to organizations. This particular webinar was taught by Bill Taylor, author of Practically Radical. Bill's basic thrust was that organizations who hope to make it in the future must not only be excellent in what they do but radical in how they approach what they do, especially when it comes to ideas about how to interact with people.
Now for the church which carries a 2000 year old idea at its heart, that is pretty radical. But the more I thought about it, each generation of Christianity has known at least one or two radicals who were able to translate the timeless message of Jesus Christ into their context. St. Augustine did it. So did St. Francis, Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley. In more modern times we might look to Bill Hybels or Francis Chan. These people did not reinvent Jesus Christ, they just found a radically new way of communicating him to their generation.
I was especially challenged by Bill's asking if we can look at the world in a Vuja de way. Vuja de is the opposite of Deja vu (Looking at an unfamiliar situation and feeling as though you've been there before). Vuja de involves looking at a familiar situation as though we've never seen it before. Bill's great challenge was not to just look at what others are doing, but to really reflect on what is happening around us in new ways. He also stressed the importance of having whole teams of people do this so that the best ideas emerged.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Jesus Himself was pretty radical. He was deeply respectful of the love of God as revealed in the Old Testament, but He made it new in how he applied it to people that were not particularly religious. It got Him in trouble sometimes, but He launched a world-changing movement. Can we do anything less?
Now for the church which carries a 2000 year old idea at its heart, that is pretty radical. But the more I thought about it, each generation of Christianity has known at least one or two radicals who were able to translate the timeless message of Jesus Christ into their context. St. Augustine did it. So did St. Francis, Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley. In more modern times we might look to Bill Hybels or Francis Chan. These people did not reinvent Jesus Christ, they just found a radically new way of communicating him to their generation.
I was especially challenged by Bill's asking if we can look at the world in a Vuja de way. Vuja de is the opposite of Deja vu (Looking at an unfamiliar situation and feeling as though you've been there before). Vuja de involves looking at a familiar situation as though we've never seen it before. Bill's great challenge was not to just look at what others are doing, but to really reflect on what is happening around us in new ways. He also stressed the importance of having whole teams of people do this so that the best ideas emerged.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Jesus Himself was pretty radical. He was deeply respectful of the love of God as revealed in the Old Testament, but He made it new in how he applied it to people that were not particularly religious. It got Him in trouble sometimes, but He launched a world-changing movement. Can we do anything less?
Saturday, February 19, 2011
More Than You Can Imagine
I had a chance to watch the February 13th edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It featured the Hurston family of Brevard County, Florida. For years, the Hurstons have been ministering the love of Jesus Christ to the world by distributing portable water filtration systems to the neediest places on earth. They were some of the first to arrive in Indonesia in 2004 after the tsunami, and they were among the first to arrive in Haiti after the earthquake of 2010.
They give themselves away without reserve. On one of their many mission trips a couple years back, a pipe burst in their home and flooded it. They got the water out but it never became liveable again. They worked on it a bit, but carrying relief to Haiti became a much larger priority. And then, they hit the jackpot with Extreme Makeover. Not only did they get a new house, Joe's plane got refurbished, and Bank of America made a $100,000 donation to their mission: Air Mobile Ministries.
So far, just a heart-warming story. When you dig behind the scenes, it's actually miraculous. About two years ago, Joe came to a pastors' prayer group I was helping to lead. He asked for help in negotiating with the city to allow him to use his building for banquets so that he could capture a stream of income to keep his ministry alive. The city was looking to shut down that part of the business and he was desperate. We managed to help him a bit, but I still remember how hard things were for him. And then the pipe burst. But he kept on giving.
I had a chance to talk with Joe after this week's show and reminded him of that time. We laughed together as we reflected on the truth that you can't out-give God. When the Hurston's were in a difficult spot, they kept on giving, even when it meant doing without themselves. They could scarcely get a hearing from their city. But in an amazing turn of events, God gave them a home beyond their wildest dreams and he gave them national exposure for their ministry. He did far more than they or I could have imagined at the time!
If you want to know more about Air Mobile Ministires, check them out at http://www.airmobile.org/. If you want to see the Extreme Makeover Show featuring them, go to http://abc.go.com/watch/extreme-makeover-home-edition/SH559052/VD55111809/hurston-family.
They give themselves away without reserve. On one of their many mission trips a couple years back, a pipe burst in their home and flooded it. They got the water out but it never became liveable again. They worked on it a bit, but carrying relief to Haiti became a much larger priority. And then, they hit the jackpot with Extreme Makeover. Not only did they get a new house, Joe's plane got refurbished, and Bank of America made a $100,000 donation to their mission: Air Mobile Ministries.
So far, just a heart-warming story. When you dig behind the scenes, it's actually miraculous. About two years ago, Joe came to a pastors' prayer group I was helping to lead. He asked for help in negotiating with the city to allow him to use his building for banquets so that he could capture a stream of income to keep his ministry alive. The city was looking to shut down that part of the business and he was desperate. We managed to help him a bit, but I still remember how hard things were for him. And then the pipe burst. But he kept on giving.
I had a chance to talk with Joe after this week's show and reminded him of that time. We laughed together as we reflected on the truth that you can't out-give God. When the Hurston's were in a difficult spot, they kept on giving, even when it meant doing without themselves. They could scarcely get a hearing from their city. But in an amazing turn of events, God gave them a home beyond their wildest dreams and he gave them national exposure for their ministry. He did far more than they or I could have imagined at the time!
If you want to know more about Air Mobile Ministires, check them out at http://www.airmobile.org/. If you want to see the Extreme Makeover Show featuring them, go to http://abc.go.com/watch/extreme-makeover-home-edition/SH559052/VD55111809/hurston-family.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
An Incredible Voyage
Outstanding sword fights, a dragon, a sea serpent, nasty pirates, and even a talking mouse. That's what you get in Voyage of the Dawntreader, plus a whole lot more. Voyage opens in theaters on December 10th, but I had the privilege of seeing a sneak preview a couple of weeks ago and it is fantastic. It's an adventure movie fit for the whole family: lots of action but no gore and bad language. It is entertaining, but it is not mere entertainment.
Based on C.S. Lewis book of the same name from The Narnia Chronicles, the film explores not just an "outside" adventure, but also plumbs the depths of human character, especially in relationship to temptation. Without giving you a spoiler suffice it to say, that Voyage demonstrates time and again that often getting what we want leads to far less than we expected, and trouble besides.
Whether you are an adult, a teen, or child, Voyage rings true to the human experience and helps us understand that sometimes the most meaningful, and challenging, journeys in life are not a thousand miles away, but right inside of us. Don't miss it!
Based on C.S. Lewis book of the same name from The Narnia Chronicles, the film explores not just an "outside" adventure, but also plumbs the depths of human character, especially in relationship to temptation. Without giving you a spoiler suffice it to say, that Voyage demonstrates time and again that often getting what we want leads to far less than we expected, and trouble besides.
Whether you are an adult, a teen, or child, Voyage rings true to the human experience and helps us understand that sometimes the most meaningful, and challenging, journeys in life are not a thousand miles away, but right inside of us. Don't miss it!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Hope Begins with You
I had the great privilege of attending the "Hope Begins with You" luncheon in downtown Orlando sponsored by the Community Food and Outreach Center. It was an inspirational luncheon in support of an organization that seeks to bless people in need throughout the Orlando Metro region.
The focus of the organization is on the working poor who need a hand up rather than a hand out. I heard that phrase-- a hand up not a hand out-- throughout the luncheon. The keynote speaker was Susan Spracher of Spracher Wealth Management in Winter Park. She described how her success in business was the result of an accumulation of hand ups offered by various people in her life. And now, she is paying it forward.
The truth is all of us are the result of people giving us "hand ups" in our lives. Sure, a lot of what we achieve in life is due to hard work on our part, but a lot of it has to do with other people believing in us, sometimes before we even demonstrated any promise at all. That's what the Bible describes as grace or undeserved favor, and it was best demonstrated by God in Jesus Christ:
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 5:8 (NLT)
The luncheon today reminded me that I have been given "hand ups" far more often than I have recognized, and it is my job to pass those "hand ups" on to others. To whom have you given a "hand up" recently?
If you're interested in finding out more about the Community Food & Outreach Center visit their website at:
http://www.communityfoodoutreach.org/index.html.
The focus of the organization is on the working poor who need a hand up rather than a hand out. I heard that phrase-- a hand up not a hand out-- throughout the luncheon. The keynote speaker was Susan Spracher of Spracher Wealth Management in Winter Park. She described how her success in business was the result of an accumulation of hand ups offered by various people in her life. And now, she is paying it forward.
The truth is all of us are the result of people giving us "hand ups" in our lives. Sure, a lot of what we achieve in life is due to hard work on our part, but a lot of it has to do with other people believing in us, sometimes before we even demonstrated any promise at all. That's what the Bible describes as grace or undeserved favor, and it was best demonstrated by God in Jesus Christ:
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 5:8 (NLT)
The luncheon today reminded me that I have been given "hand ups" far more often than I have recognized, and it is my job to pass those "hand ups" on to others. To whom have you given a "hand up" recently?
If you're interested in finding out more about the Community Food & Outreach Center visit their website at:
http://www.communityfoodoutreach.org/index.html.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Halloween-- Trick or Treat?
I find it curious that the United States, one of the most overtly Christian nations in the world, is also the country that celebrates Halloween-- the holiday of ghosts and vampires-- most enthusiastically. And it has been so since the late 1800's, long before the most recent decline of Christian profession among the population at-large. What's up with that?
Let me begin by offering a couple of suggestions as to why people like Halloween (besides the candy!). Ghosts, vampires, and other things that "go bump in the night" lead us into an exploration of the world of mystery. Throughout human history things have occurred for which people had no easy explanation. For example, someone once had a mysterious encounter with something in the mountains and the legend of "bigfoot" was born. I do believe the mysterious encounters were real, even if the explanations were surreal. Some of these mysterious encounters were obviously dark and scary, giving rise to all sorts of evil creatures in the minds of people. Vampires and werewolves may not be "real" but they are close enough to the human experience of evil to be believable, or at least attractive.
If you'll notice, very few creatures out there hold final sway over people. There is always an antidote of some sort: a silver crucifix, an special incantation, or amazing superhero who finally lays the scary creature to rest. That speaks to the human need to control evil wherever it is found. The stories of vanquished ghosts and reburied vampires are epic tales of good conquering evil, though not without a lot of scariness before the job is finally done.
So, people may ask, what's the harm in a little Halloween fun, especially if the good guys win in the end? There's probably not a lot of harm in some good-natured fun, except that interest in these legendary stories miss the true good versus evil story: the triumph of Jesus Christ over Satan on the cross. You see, the emergence of vampires and ghosts probably are the result of people rubbing up against dark spiritual forces, which the Bible calls demons, the creatures aligned with Satan. However, these evil forces are not conquered with a stake through the heart but by the authority of Jesus Christ. The problem with epic tales involving Halloween-like creatures is that people kind of sort of hope their version of victory is true, whereas the Good News of Jesus Christ is true. Anything that distracts people from that core truth is ultimately harmful to the resolution of fear in their lives.
The other problem with a fascination with witches, goblins, and the like is that it sometimes leads to a genuine encounter with darkness that people cannot control, resulting in genuine spiritual and psychological damage. In that sense they are tricked into believing in something that can offer no treat at all. That is why God was so adamant in the Bible that people should not pursue the dark arts or the power of other gods. He knew that is was a road to nowhere at best and to the gates of hell at worst. He didn't want people to miss out on the road that leads to real life by walking down a different road. Which road are you on?
Let me begin by offering a couple of suggestions as to why people like Halloween (besides the candy!). Ghosts, vampires, and other things that "go bump in the night" lead us into an exploration of the world of mystery. Throughout human history things have occurred for which people had no easy explanation. For example, someone once had a mysterious encounter with something in the mountains and the legend of "bigfoot" was born. I do believe the mysterious encounters were real, even if the explanations were surreal. Some of these mysterious encounters were obviously dark and scary, giving rise to all sorts of evil creatures in the minds of people. Vampires and werewolves may not be "real" but they are close enough to the human experience of evil to be believable, or at least attractive.
If you'll notice, very few creatures out there hold final sway over people. There is always an antidote of some sort: a silver crucifix, an special incantation, or amazing superhero who finally lays the scary creature to rest. That speaks to the human need to control evil wherever it is found. The stories of vanquished ghosts and reburied vampires are epic tales of good conquering evil, though not without a lot of scariness before the job is finally done.
So, people may ask, what's the harm in a little Halloween fun, especially if the good guys win in the end? There's probably not a lot of harm in some good-natured fun, except that interest in these legendary stories miss the true good versus evil story: the triumph of Jesus Christ over Satan on the cross. You see, the emergence of vampires and ghosts probably are the result of people rubbing up against dark spiritual forces, which the Bible calls demons, the creatures aligned with Satan. However, these evil forces are not conquered with a stake through the heart but by the authority of Jesus Christ. The problem with epic tales involving Halloween-like creatures is that people kind of sort of hope their version of victory is true, whereas the Good News of Jesus Christ is true. Anything that distracts people from that core truth is ultimately harmful to the resolution of fear in their lives.
The other problem with a fascination with witches, goblins, and the like is that it sometimes leads to a genuine encounter with darkness that people cannot control, resulting in genuine spiritual and psychological damage. In that sense they are tricked into believing in something that can offer no treat at all. That is why God was so adamant in the Bible that people should not pursue the dark arts or the power of other gods. He knew that is was a road to nowhere at best and to the gates of hell at worst. He didn't want people to miss out on the road that leads to real life by walking down a different road. Which road are you on?
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