Spiritual Reality

Sermon for May 12, 2013

by Pastor Peggy Ray

Spiritual Reality

     There’s a saying I know you’re familiar with, The more we know, the more we realize we don’t know. That wisdom is particularly applicable to our understanding of today’s Scriptures.

     For several centuries, we, humans, have been operating under the assumption that the universe functions according to physical laws that can be known. Our growing understanding of these physical laws led to great material progress. But it also had some unfortunate consequences. Stories like the Ascension came to be viewed as just too outrageous for educated, modern, cause-and-effect folks to take seriously. They assume that in order for the Ascension to make sense we need to embrace the three-story universe of the Bible. This reminds me of the Soviet-era cosmonaut who returned successfully from a mission in space and declared that he didn’t find God “up there” and thus all religion must be false. If we insist on operating within this framework, then our witness to the Gospel will limp along and have very little impact on others. 

      But, in the last couple of decades, science has moved way beyond the assumption that the universe functions according to the physical laws we know. Scientist now believe that only 4% of the total universe operates according to the laws of our three dimensional world. 96% of the universe is composed of what scientists call “dark” energy (70%) and

“dark” matter (20+%).  All “dark” means is that we know zilch, nada, nothing about 96% of our universe. The universe is far more surprising and mysterious than we previously believed.

     I start with this because when people object to the idea that there is more beyond our tangible, provable-with-hard-evidence observations and experiences of the world, they aren’t taking the entire universe into account. When they assume that faith and science are either/or points of view, they are operating under an outdated understanding of reality as consisting only of our three-dimensional physical world. But string theory suggests the reality is not 3-dimensional but 4, or 5, or even 6 or 7 dimensional.

     In Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, he enters a room suddenly, without using a door; he appears next to a couple walking together on the road to Emmaus; he cooks breakfast for Peter and his friends by the shore. But he disappears just as suddenly as he appears. Clearly though the resurrected body of Jesus is visible, it demonstrates qualities that are not limited to our three-dimensional reality.

     Imagine! Suppose God exists outside of our three-dimensional reality, outside of time, in a dimension beyond the physical world. If that is true then the description of Jesus’ return to the Father is totally credible. More importantly, We don’t have to choose between science and faith!  Science and faith are no longer either/or.  Science and faith can both agree that there is a reality beyond the three-dimensional world of physical reality. In a 4 or more dimensional world, the Bible’s affirmations that God is beyond all limitations of time and space; God is unchanging and all-powerful; God is majestic and sovereign and eternal; these affirmations make sense. And perhaps the Bible and mystics are right that there is a reality where God reigns, and where God heals and makes all things new again. 

     Jesus had risen from the dead, eaten fish with his disciples, walked with them up to Mount Olivet. Jesus had continued to teach them from the law, the psalms, and the prophets. Suddenly he was lifted up and carried away on the clouds. Going back to glory! Hallelujah! Jesus is Lord. To proclaim Jesus’ ascension is to claim that God has exalted him -- the same Jesus who welcomed the sinners, who suffered and died in shame and rejection by this world -- as Lord and Messiah (2:36). Jesus is God’s promise and plan for the whole world.

     Jesus’ ascension alters our picture of God. God is NOT completely detached from our human experience. The Jesus, who sits at God’s right hand, reveals a God who is vulnerable and approachable, who knows loneliness, betrayal, rejection, thirst, and even death. So, when we turn to God in times of distress or temptation, we are not turning to a God unfamiliar with our struggles. God knows our trials and comforts us.

     Even more importantly, God is here! God is everywhere! God can be found all around you—in each person that touches your life, in every living creature, in the splendor of all Creation.  God is the beauty in a little flower. God is in the warm rays of sun in winter, the radiance of new-fallen snow, and the magnificent design of a snowflake. God is the joy of friendship and the love that thrills the human heart.

    The last few verses of Luke’s Gospel are filled with blessing. Jesus takes his disciples out of the city and blesses them. As he blesses them, he departs. Which is interesting. You’d think that Jesus would finish blessing them and then depart. But Luke says that, “while he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” Almost as if he just couldn’t stop blessing them. Or that his blessing doesn’t end with his presence, but continues. Or that his blessing of them and all disciples never ends. Jesus’ ascension, then, isn’t about his leaving – his disciples, us, the world – but rather is about God being accessible to us. God is always seeking to break through the locked doors of our lives, anywhere and anytime.