The Evolutionary Accident

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place— what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9

In an Advent sermon (Advent - Facing God in the Face of Nothingness), Dr. Stanley Hauerwas[1] shared a message so desperately needed today in our world, stuffed-full of nihilism, emptiness, vanity, the sense of zero purpose and meaning.  Here is an excerpt from that message:

Christian humanism is not based on the presumption that our humanity is self-justifying.  Rather Christians are humanists because God showed up in Mary’s belly.  We are not an evolutionary accident.  We are not bubbles on the foam that coats a stormy sea.  We are God’s chosen people.  We have been given good work to do in a time when many no longer think there is good work.  What an extraordinary claim.  What extraordinary good news.

The Psalmist shares Dr. Hauerwas’ point, that God’s presence fills the earth, stretching even further than the heavens, to that unknown “above”.  The Psalmist also touches the nerve every human experiences:  WHY…why am I here; is there any purpose to my existence, or am I an extraordinary, albeit meaningless accident, produced by the chance collision of matter with a black hole?  Indeed, we all ask:  What are we…who, and what am I?

The opening remarks of Hauerwas’ sermon quotes William James, a late 19^th century Harvard professor and philosopher, who called the earth and its universe a local accident in an appalling wilderness of worlds where no life can exist.  Let there be no question about James; as an atheist, he would have us believe that God is simply the figment of imagination…we create Him because we need something to cling to in all the emptiness we inhabit, devoid of any sense of hope.

For William James the age of (so-called) enlightenment proclaims the light of the heavens is merely a scientific reflection of man’s glory, an ode to the human ability of observation.  According to divinely-revealed truth, the heavens and earth are God’s invitation to explore the wonder and majesty of God’s glory, not a reflection of man’s genius, produced by a clumsy-collision of atoms and anti-matter.  All of life, the very existence of humankind, and the deepest question of the ages calls to the deepest part of that unanswered question, who am I, and what am I doing here.  In Christ alone we find the truth:  you are my beloved, and in me you will know your worth and purpose.

For You Today 

Questions call for either hypothetical guesses, or reasoned evidence.  Both take a measure of faith.  So, did we make God in our own image to stifle an uneasiness with an unsatisfactory answer, or are we created in God’s image to be His glory?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Title Image(s) courtesy of Marci Joines Macha on Facebook                   

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke Divinity School and Duke Law School. 

Sovereign

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

“From eternity to eternity I am God.  No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.  No one can undo what I have done.”  Isaiah 43:13

Once one gets past the sophomoric notion of atheism, to admit there IS a divine Creator, one must grapple with a supremely-challenging dilemma of IF that divine One is truly in charge…and to what degree.  Is God sovereign, or are there some things he cannot (or chooses not) to touch?  And if He truly is “in charge” of everything, why is the world in such a mess?

If one has the temerity to affirm God is Sovereign (as Isaiah wrote), the final question surrounding humankind’s response to a sovereign God is two-fold:  What does that look like, and how should I live now that I know that?

In my limited experience as a human being, and a believer in the sovereignty of God, in nearly 50 years of theological thinking, writing, preaching, and pastoral ministry, I have never been able to fully articulate in a single sentence the answer to that question…until yesterday, when a Facebook friend re-posted a prayer from a friend’s page:

It took me just a moment to read it, and pass it off as simply another superficial stab at teaching a child to pray.  I continued scrolling through the endless and mostly inane trivia of social media, but the thought of that sentence would not fade to the background  Then the depth of faith contained in this one sentence scratched its’ way to the surface of my tired mind and shouted:  Listen, Russell; you’re never going to need more in life, or My Kingdom than this.  This is what living in My Kingdom is like; this is how you bow before Sovereign Lord.

I’m not one given to hearing God audibly, or seeing a message behind every bush or cute thing my dog does, but this one sentence about how to go about greeting God every morning of my life makes more sense than all the combined drivel you can find in self-help speeches and books; this is placing 100% of all the trust I can ever muster in God’s care for me. 

Fix me when I’m the problem – is taking the humble knee, admitting I’m broken enough to need fixing

Protect me when I’m not the problem – is admitting I’m going to move on in God’s strength, speaking up for loving justice, doing mercy, and walking humbly with God[1], because my strength isn’t enough for this messy life…I need Him to have my back.

·       This is taking my stand on the only hill I’ve ever truly needed to die on. 

·       This is how you take up the cross and follow the One who died for you. 

·       It is the bottom line of the call. 

For You Today 

Want to know how to walk in God’s presence?  Let your heart pray:

Sovereign Lord, fix me and protect me as I walk with You today!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image:  via WikimediaCommons   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.Micah 6:8

Will Your Rope Hold?

 

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.  Hebrews 12:1-2

I have heard people talk about the Christian life as if it were a rope.  There are as many theories as there are people as to how to go about living that rope-life.  But they distill-down to about three:

1.    The Latent Atheist:  When you come to the end of the rope…let go…there was nothing there in the first place, only the end of the rope.  It’s over.

2.    The Budding Optimist:  When you come to the end of the rope…let go, because God will catch you.

3.    The Uncompromising Pragmatist:  When you come to the end of the rope…tie a knot and hold on, because that’s what people do.

I’m not at all sure you can take any of those in raw form and build a plan for life which is Biblically-sound.  Certainly not atheism; there’s no future in the absence of hope.  Optimism may sound good on a mountaintop, but Christians are called to walk in the valleys of life.  Pragmatism is the other side of a dry well because it smacks of humanistic self-reliance, the very opposite of surrender to the will (and Providence) of God.  Besides, human strength goes only so far.

So…what to do?

A case can be made for both perseverance and faith.  Perseverance is tying the knot, and faith is engaging life, walking, trusting God for the ground under your feet with every step.  It is the game plan for the surrendered life in Christ.  It is not an absence of fear, but putting your leg to the next step despite fear, depression, hurt, wonder, or any other of the six billion things that might short-circuit following in Jesus’ footsteps.  You breathe, in and out, you walk daily, serving, loving, and waiting on His direction.

There’s an oft-repeated line in a poem entitled When He Comes.[1]

There’s a King and captain high, Who’ll be coming by and by.

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when He comes.

When He comes!  When He comes!

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when He comes!

For You Today  

The Christian life of surrender to God’s will is filled with hoeing cotton, a euphemism for doing what God brings your way; you walk with Him in prayer and obedience, and you engage your community in every way, both the simple and complex.  As Paul put it: 

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Colossians 3:23

Today, breathe, pray, get moving, keep serving and loving…hoe all the cotton He gives you…and keep looking for when He comes.  You won’t have to worry about whether your rope will hold…you know the One who holds the rope!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Holy Huddle  and  Strength to Go On

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] When He Comes, French E. Oliver, 1921

When Intelligence Turns Foolish

 

Tuesday of Holy Week, March 30, 2021

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.  Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven.  And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.  So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.  But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.  1 Corinthians 1:18-25

There is a lot of intelligence in the world.  From Albert Einstein, to all the medical, political, and social scientists, added to space engineers, agricultural wizzards of GMO fame, and those who put astronauts in space (particularly those who bring them back safe to earth), the wisdom of humanity has a handle on a quantum truckload of intelligence.

But there is a limit!

The question, answered by Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthian believers, is when does man’s intelligence turn foolish?  Paul’s answer is that humanity’s intelligence places itself in the trash can when it starts to battle against faith, and, in particular, faith regarding the cross, tomb, and resurrection.

In Paul’s Jewish frame of reference all humanity was categorized as either Jew or Gentile.  And both were guilty of the foolishness of denying the cross. 

To the Jews, who were looking for a Messiah to rule over earth, it was an offense to imagine he would be hung on a cross like a common criminal; it was a curse.  To the Gentiles, particularly the philosophers, thinkers, and debaters, the whole idea of power without human intelligence that can be proven and held in hand, was just pure nonsense.  In other words, faith, genuine faith that trusts God to handle our biggest problem is unnecessary; we can figure it out, thank you very much…no higher power needed.

For humans, endowed with sentient life – an awareness of both sensory and abstract dimensions of existance – dependence on some unseen “Creator” is a nonsequitur – there isn’t anything we can’t do for ourselves, so creating a creator is for the foolish and weak. 

However, for those who care to admit the truth, we don’t have nearly the intelligence with which we credit ourselves.  Chief among the evidence is the most basic question (and, arguably the most important question), that question of what happens when this life is over.  To deny the continuance of sentient existance solely on the basis of flesh decomposing, is to push an argument from silence.  No life seen is only proof that you cannot see with human eyes, or measure with human intelligence, what lies beyond the grave.  There are some things the 0’s and 1’s of aritificial intelligence cannot measure.

For that you need faith.

For You Today

We’re into the sacred season of faith known as Holy Week…the passion is unfolding, and the faithful are seeing the evidence of things not seen.[1] 

All true intelligence is born of, and lives-in faith in God, the author of faith[2].

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Hebrews 11:1

[2] Hebrews 12:2