God doesn't create in straight lines

**Note - there was something wrong with the video today, so just a text.  Hopefully we'll figure it out by next week!
 

Pentecost 4B, Proper 7
Mark 4:35-41


In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.


Fear.

It’s one of the most basic human experiences.

We’ve all been afraid at one point or another.  Through a quick Google earlier this week about what fear is, exactly, the word that appeared most often was “normal”.

Fear is normal.  We all feel it from time to time.

In the Gospel lesson today, we hear one of the more familiar stories about fear.  Jesus has been traveling, teaching, and performing miracles.  Along the way he’s accumulated a large following.  The closest among them become known as the disciples, and they are with him in a boat.  There are other boats, filled with other followers, but the closest among them - the disciples - are with Jesus.

Out in the water, presumably within the safe confines of the boat - their security was suddenly interrupted.  A storm came up and tossed the boat around.  And the disciples became afraid.

They went to find Jesus - in their fear they sought solace from the one among them who seemed to have all the answers.

To their dismay, however, they found him asleep.

In the midst of their fear - their sense of scrambling around the line between life and death - their Lord was simply asleep.  As almost a kind of insult to their fear, Jesus’ rest went undisturbed.

One of the things that I like most about this time of year - this “Ordinary Time” within the church’s calendar - is that it explores some of these normal parts of our existence.  And fear IS normal.

Earlier this weekend, I went on my day off to see a movie with a friend in Brooklyn.  We were planning to have a day at the beach, after it had been so hot this week, but instead, it would turn out to be the day that it would rain.  After a week of unrelenting sun and merciless heat, our beach plans were thwarted by strong storms - the kind of strong storms that are pretty uncommon around here.

Undeterred, however, my friend and I were determined to enjoy our day off together.  So we went to see a movie.  The movie was terrible, as a matter of fact - I wouldn’t recommend it.  It was called Prometheus.  But as bad as the movie was, there was, within it this one line that captured my imagination - particularly as it related to the Gospel lesson for today.

A band of space explorers had traveled to a far-off planet on suspicion that another form of intelligent life inhabited there.  As they approached the planet and were deciding where to land, one of the scientists onboard saw through the window a series of straight lines and grids.  He said, “Land there.  God doesn’t create in straight lines.”

scarred land left behind as the Dead Sea has receded, March 2012
It’s true, isn’t it?  God doesn’t create in straight lines.  The shapes are always more complex: there are gentle curves and sharp edges.  There are cracks and crags.

Humans, on the other hand, tend to be more comfortable with straight lines.  We like to see all that lies before us, as far as we can.  Twists and turns engender fear - they feel unstable.  Straight lines make us feel assured and safe.

But the truth is, fear is normal.  As normal as the odd angles and turns that appear throughout God’s creation.  God doesn’t create in straight lines, and the world and our experiences within it aren’t as safe and predictable as we might like.

In the church - not just here at St. Paul’s, but in the church throughout the world - we’re living in a climate of fear.  The straight lines that we thought that we’d built for ourselves and for our futures aren’t holding up anymore.

The expectation of what church is and should be as it was experienced in the generations before us is proving to be untrue for our time.  Some people are even beginning to conclude that those clean and straight paths that we’ve built are keeping us from really walking with God.

After all, God doesn’t build in straight lines.

Too often we keep trying to walk those same straight lines laid out by our parents and our grandparents, but more and more we’re finding that the road we thought we’d be following isn’t beneath us anymore.  And our commitment to straight lines isn’t serving us as neatly as we’d expected it to.  The world has changed around us, and the same old patterns of moving forward just don’t work anymore.  When we insist on continuing to walk in straight lines, we run into walls, or the path is rocky, or the goal is nowhere to be found.

Straight lines may allay our fears, but they don’t serve us well for long.  Sooner or later our selfish and shortsighted commitment to them keeps us from following the crooked, and often frightening paths that God has laid out for us.

Several years ago Bishop Spong wrote a book called Why Christianity Must Change or Die.  The same is true of the church.  It used to be true that we could simply open our doors on Sunday mornings and assume that the people would come.  But that’s becoming less and less true.

After my friend and I finished the movie on Sunday we went back to his neighborhood bar to have a beer and to wait for his wife to get home from work.  The little dive-y bar was packed to overflowing with young people - my friend and I were among the oldest people there.  They were laughing and reconnecting with their friends - many of them had their children with them.  They were eating and drinking and engaging in real community.  In the outdoor section where we sat, I looked up to my left and saw my friend’s massive stone church.  Just a little farther away and to the right I saw the massive Roman Catholic cathedral.  And I realized - perhaps for the first time - that those impressive structures don’t seem to impress people anymore.

Churches are dying all around us, because we keep walking along the straight lines we’ve always walked along, and we’ve hardly noticed that the path is no longer beneath us.

I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but the truth is, we have to start finding another path.  God doesn’t create in straight lines, so the more we insist on sticking to them - sticking to the path we’ve always been on - the more assured we are of wandering away from where God would have us go.

It can be scary to go a different way.  It can feel like the security of the world that we’ve come to depend upon is falling apart around us.  But we have to find another way.  We have to be willing to try to walk with God - wherever that walk might take us.  Even when it seems unsure.

In the end of the story, Jesus restores the calm.  The disciples just could not yet take the threat to their security.

There will be times when we need calm, too; but, we have to remember that calm, security, peace, tranquility - whatever else we may long for - those aren’t the goal.  The goal is to walk with God.  Sometimes that’s not the easiest path to walk, but it’s the path to which we’ve been called.  Amen.

Comments

Unknown said…
God doesnt create straight lines - WRONG

According to Dr. Chloe Bulinski, a Professor of Biology at Columbia University, straight lines are all around us, from the compound eyes of insects to the collagen fibers in connective tissue. Dr. Bulinski cites Tasmania’s Tessellated Pavement, an inter-tidal rock platform that looks like the floor tiles in your kitchen, as a particularly fine example of naturally occurring straight lines.

and here look at this image for proof

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwx0zoRgsC1qciafbo1_r1_500.gif




I really wish religion would already become obsolete, you guys really dont know much about god, what you actually know is what youve learned from books written by men, how silly can you be, but I understand that not everyone is born to have the wisdom and itelligence, i wonder why..
Sven,

I'm sorry if my sermon upset you. It actually sounds more like you're upset with religion in general than with me, and in my experience, that kind of anger usually comes from some experience of being hurt by religion - either through some kind of specific abuse or some more general disappointment. I know as well as almost anyone about how that happens all too often. I don't know if that's the case with you, or not, but if it is, please accept that it wasn't my intention to contribute to however you've been hurt.

As to learning from books - you're right. Theologians learn from books. Just like scientists do and a lot of people who learn in a lot of different fields. I'd be willing to bet that Dr. Bulinski, whom you mention above, learned by reading some books, too. I happen to know that she's contributed to some books as well - helping others to learn. Learning from books doesn't negate the learning - whether it be in science, theology, or any other field. In fact, it enhances it. But it's also not the only way of learning. In addition to the learning that I've experienced through reading books written by men (as you say, and more than just a few women, I'd add), I've also learned through experience, field education, and observation - not unlike the learning done by most scientists.

I'm not a physicist, nor do I claim to be. I'm sure there are plenty of straight lines in the universe - depending on the scale at which one examines. As to the ice crystal image you posted - sure, there are straight lines if you look close enough. If you look at the bigger picture, they're anything but straight. It's all a matter of perspective.

But that's really irrelevant to my "God doesn't create in straight lines" device from my sermon. It was making use of a metaphor that I'd encountered. It captured my imagination and helped me to grapple with the human reality of fear. I tried to use it to help my congregation and the readers of this blog to grapple with it as well. It's a challenge that we all face, and worth exploring.

Thank you for reading, and I'm sorry if the post has upset you. If my very existence upsets you (which you seem to be getting pretty close to saying in your last paragraph) then kindly don't click on my blog posts again. Then you can forget that I exist, and I'd bet we'd both be better off.

Sincerely,
Jon+
Unknown said…
I wasnt hurt by religion, nor am i upset with your sermon, i just stumbled on it by accident. Once I saw your quote from "Prometheus" i had to jump in and show how wrong religious people are.

I have no specific quarrel with religion, i just find it to be an obvious falsehood. What you really all are- are moral guides, but far from messengers or interpreters of god. Look at how much grief Christianity has brought throughout middle ages, how many lies were constructed based on religion that had nothing to do with god, but fueled by peoples own ambitions. Whos to prove that today it isnt the same, just in a different form? Once again, youre just a moral guide. But even there you guys manage to fail with homosexual bishops lusting for boys. Its funny you catholics eased up on homosexuality as soon as it became mainstream.

You say " sure, there are straight lines if you look close enough. If you look at the bigger picture, they're anything but straight. It's all a matter of perspective." - That is waht you all say when it comes to explaining your religious points of view, just like you say "dont read the bible literally" or how there are thousands interpretations of same bible passages just as there are plethora of Christian denominations. You cant even agree on one view of god. Yea, you say tehres one god, but you still interpret his ways in billions of different ways.

Theres really no other way to look at crystal forming or other similar natural formations other than straight lines, no matter how you look at it. Because only someone who purposely wants to deceive you would make squiggly lines look like straight lines, and we all know who in your book likes to deceive. Theres no reason for god to show something other than what it really looks like. Yes tehre are things that are harder to see or understand, but they dont manifest themselves as something they arent.

The only reason why you believe this mumbojumbo, is because most of this planet's population believes it. They all believe it because "hope dies last", we also experience certain phenomena attributed to a religious god, which we cant explain with traditional reasoning, but just because we dont know where the universe ends doesnt mean that its beyond our understanding.

ANd then you devote your life to reading the bible and listening to metaphorical mumbojumbo at sermons and when put together with natural phenomena of the human brain, you call it god.

I could go on and on about it... but ill stop

I believe that god as a concept does exist, he/it just has nothing to do with your silly Catholisism or your silly bible.

on the last note, stop worshiping idols. Youre worshiping an image of a cross with a man nailed to it. How is it different from worshiping a golden calf? Jesus was supposedly god himself, but calf isnt. Isnt god in everything? hope your read it this far...