August 7, 2022: Our Faith Story
Our Faith Story
Hebrews 11:1-3, 6; Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:1-3a
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would approach God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Last month NASA released photographs from the new $10 million dollar James Webb telescope. If you’re like me, you sat gob smacked at one particular image: a massive orange cloud with texture and depth in front of the blue/black of space, various stars in all sizes and colors sprinkled about in front of and behind the orange cloud, the hint of a distant galaxy in the blackness. Beautiful. Fascinating. Awesome.
I wondered what I was looking at . . . “What is this orange space cloud?” I discovered it is a planetary nebula, a dying star that is expelling a large fraction of its mass in successive waves which appears to us as this foamy, orange cloud. Here on earth, scientists have dubbed this the “Carina Nebula.” It’s close to us, at least in terms of outer space distance. It’s in our own galaxy, only 7,500 light years away. Which means the beautiful image captured by the Webb telescope is showing us what the nebula looked like 7,500 years ago, when most of you weren’t even born.
The new telescope has also located the most distant star discovered to date, Earendel (named after a character in Lord of the Rings). It’s a whopping 12.9 billion light years away. Which of course means that the image the Webb telescope has captured is what the star looked like 12.9 billion years ago. Only Herb Frietag is old enough to have been around then.
When you see these images—when you try to wrap your finite brain around the vastness of the universe—stars and galaxies and nebulae and 12.9 billion light years—what comes to mind for you? Maybe you’re reminded of a hymn we sing from time to time:
O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:
This response—this giving of ourselves over to wonder and praise in light of the majesty and mystery of the cosmos—I think this might be the response of praise that earns us (even us) a place in the Hebrews 11 “Roll Call of Faith.”
This chapter, Hebrews 11, recounts some of the great heroes of faith from the Hebrew Bible (what we call our Old Testament). Although we don’t know who penned this book of the Bible, we know that the person was a Hebrew writing to other Hebrews. As a part of the argument to inspire his or her fellow Jews to faith in Christ, the author calls to mind a litany of Hebrew heroes: Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Rahab . . . but at the very beginning, do you know who the author lists first among the “Roll Call of Faith?” First among the heroes of faith? First among those notable for faith in God, responding in remarkable ways through adversity and hardship? Who is listed first in the Roll Call of Faith from Hebrews 11? We are! And what response of faith earned us this high honor? Our belief in God as the Creator of the cosmos. Listen again:
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
Something I never considered about this verse before this week is the irony in it. The word “understand” here (by faith we understand)—the word in Greek is noeó, which basically means “mental effort” or “reason”—the ability to reach “bottom-line” conclusions. The verse could read, “By faith we reason.” Faith via reason! Reason as a response of faith!
Those who suggest that people of faith must reject science and check their brains at the door are misguided at best, perhaps even intellectually lazy. It’s easy to reject religion. It requires little intellectual curiosity to reject the notion of “God.” It takes far more effort to attempt to understand God in light of the best science of the day. This is the work that earns us a spot in the “Roll Call of Faith.”
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
Since this reasoning about the origin of all things is what got us a spot in the “Roll Call of Faith,” let’s dig a little deeper and make sure we earn our place!
For starters, let us ask together the question posed by Gottfried Leibniz, the German scientist and philosopher: “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
Let’s begin with the first of two creation stories in the Old Testament:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Of course this creation story was told orally until finally written down sometime around the 6th Century BCE and included as the first verse in the first book of the Hebrew Bible. An ancient story, there was no understanding of quantum physics, no observation of loop quantum gravity or string theory. The concept of “energy” wasn’t developed until 1800, for that matter. Ancient people, using ancient language to describe the origin of all creation:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
This is poetry. This is not science. Woe to the poet who rejects science. But greater woe to the scientist who rejects poetry! How terrible it must be to be smart without being wise.
A second creation story can be found in Genesis 2. It is thought that this story emanated from a different tradition within Hebrew culture. This story offers the tale of a garden and the first man, the first woman, and a talking serpent. Truth? Yes! Science. Nah.
Let’s skip ahead 600-700 years after these creation stories were penned, to the creation story in the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Again: poetry, not science. But powerful poetry indeed! Do you see how John reinterprets the age-old origin story in light of new information revealed through Christ? The Hebrew people reading the first verse of the Gospel of John would immediately recognize: “In the beginning.” Ah! But there’s a twist! The Word—Christ—with God. The Word was God. Present at the origin of all things.
John is reinterpreting Genesis 1:1 in light of the Christ event. This was no small feat of intellectual curiosity. John is basically telling his readers that what they believed about the creation of the world wasn’t wrong, it was simply incomplete. The incarnation of Christ offered new information that they had to assimilate into their preexisting cosmological understanding.
Have you ever had to adjust your understanding about something due to new information? I hope so!
Fast forward to 1931. Georges Lemaître was a Catholic priest and cosmologist from Belgium. A student of both science and religion, Lemaître—a Catholic priest—is known as the father of the Big Bang Theory, the theory of origin held by most scientists today.
“Lemaître clearly insisted that there was neither a connection nor a conflict between his religion and his science. Rather he kept them entirely separate, treating them as different, parallel interpretations of the world, both of which he believed with personal conviction.”[1]
Can “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” be true alongside “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God?” In first century Palestine, it was difficult to conceive of such a thing, but now Christ-followers widely accept this as true.
Can “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” be true alongside “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God” be true alongside “in the beginning there was a big bang?” Absolutely!
The Christ event did not require an abandonment of the idea of God as creator. A big bang theory based on the best science available to us does not require the abandonment of “in the beginning was the Word.” The big bang theory simply offers an explanation into the how of the creation event.
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
We must rely on faith when we speak of first cause, because let’s remind ourselves, none of us were there.
One of my favorite passages about the creation of the earth can be found in the book of Job. Job has been complaining about his suffering, and God speaks to Job from out of a storm. I love this passage because here we find a sarcastic God, which makes me feel a bit better about my own gift of sarcasm. Listen to what God says to Job (Job 38:4-7):
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
This is God reminding Job that God is God and Job is not.
Sometimes we have to be reminded that we are not God. In fact, that’s step 2 in the 12-Step program used in various recovery programs.
“We came to be aware that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” It’s important to remember that there is a God and we’re not it.
So whenever doubt creeps in, if you ever wonder if there is a God, I encourage you to pull up one of those James Webb telescope images. Try, just try, to wrap your mind around the vastness of the universe, the planets, the galaxies, the star that’s 12.9 billion light years away, the possibility of a multiverse . . . then remember the words God spoke to Job:
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
And as you sit gob smacked at the immensity of the universe far beyond our ability to fathom, you’ll once again earn your place in the “Roll Call of Faith.” Because:
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
This is OUR STORY, this is our song;
praising our Savior all the day long.
[1] https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/georges-lemaitre-big-bang#:~:text=This%20startling%20idea%20first%20appeared,scientific%20orthodoxy%20in%20the%201930s.