Psalm 104 (selected verses) & Luke 7:11-17
Today is Evolution Sunday, a project of an organization called The Clergy Letter Project which began in 2004. In response to a Wisconsin school board's decision to dilute the teaching of evolution in science classes, statewide clergy wrote a letter supporting the partnership of faith and science. Eighteen years later over 17,000 clergy in six faith traditions world-wide have signed that letter and many of their congregations now celebrate on the weekend closest to Darwin's birthday each year. In 2021 a new letter in support of climate action has received more than 1,000 signatures and this year's celebration focuses on both climate and the pandemic experience we share. I've printed that new letter in this week's bulletin for you.
This project began to counteract the false idea that faith and science are at odds and that people of faith must reject science if it contradicts a literal understanding of sacred texts. That literal understanding in the United States was sparked by the writings of Darwin and others in the nineteenth century, suggesting that life on earth evolved over millions of years rather than being created fully formed in six days. Since then, some people have equated faith with believing the Bible stories as literal explanations of history and science, something they were never intended to be and were never understood to be in earlier days of Christianity.
We celebrate Evolution Sunday as a chance to clarify for ourselves and others how we see science and religion as partners in our contemporary world. This year Psalm 104 provides part of our scripture for reflection. The Psalm celebrates the goodness of creation as a gift from God. Three thousand years ago when the Psalm was written this was the common explanation of how the earth and its wonders came to be. Even now we look at the beauty of creation and the abundance of food Earth provides and see the hand of God. We use verses from this Psalm in our opening prayer each Sunday.
They speak of how amazing this planet is and how grateful we are for its bounty. It's not necessary for us to accept these words as a literal explanation of how the earth was made in order to see God's presence in creation. In fact, as we learn more about the complex processes of Earth's development over billions of years, we are even more amazed that so many minute happenings coalesced to make such a magnificent place. Our home in this universe is amazing and it speaks to us of the presence of something greater and more wonderful than we can imagine - God. The capacity to be amazed may be one of the starting points of religion and faith.
Today 's reading from the Gospel of Luke is one of the foundational scriptures in our understanding of Jesus and his ministry. Jesus is preaching in his home synagogue, reading from the prophecy of Isaiah and suggesting that the prophecy was being fulfilled in that moment. The poor hear good news; the blind see; the oppressed are set free; God is visible in the midst of the people. His neighbors questioned him, asking for the miracles that were rumored from other places. "If you're so great, Jesus, show us the signs!" But Jesus doesn't do miracles at home, suggesting that they weren't able to see them. Maybe that's because these folks weren't in a mind to be amazed by Jesus.
After all, he was Joe and Mary's boy who grew up down the street and played with their kids when he was younger. He took over the family business when his father died and worked with them on building projects in nearby Sephoris. Then he abandoned his mother and took off to follow that radical John the Baptist and came home spouting strange and dangerous things about raising up poor people and healing beggars. They saw what they had always seen and consequently they couldn't see new things - healing illness of body or of community. They couldn't change what they had always believed to receive something new and better.
I wonder if the perceived conflict between science and faith in our own time is caused by the inability of people to see something new and be amazed by it. In Jesus' day his teaching was radical and challenged the status quo. Over time it's become settled as tradition. In his time it was quite new. In our time it can be used to prevent change.
Science tells us that creatures and systems that aren't evolving - or changing - are dying. The same can be true of religions, any religions. Unless we are changing in response to new situations and circumstances, including new scientific knowledge, we're dying. We lose our capacity to be amazed and our capacity to grow.
Our sacred texts inform our understanding of our world, but they were written in a time when the world was quite different, and people understood it differently. They are an accurate reflection of the time they describe, but their contemporary truth is in the underlying meaning and not in the details. The stories of creation in scripture don't include contemporary scientific understanding because that wasn't part of the knowledge of their time. But we can make space for their conviction that there is a greater power at work at the same time we learn about how that power worked over time through intricate scientific processes. This knowledge isn't mutually exclusive.
My very Catholic granddaughter told me a joke this week: How does a scientist answer a question he doesn't understand? Become a Catholic and when he gets to heaven, he can ask God to explain it! (She thought that was very clever.) I suggested she could use her God-given mind and do experiments to find the answer. Just because contemporary scientific evidence gives us answers that weren't known thousands of years ago doesn't mean they aren't right or that God isn't in them. We can believe in both God and science, and we can change and adapt to continue the holy work of creation - preserving the earth and making its benefits available to all creatures.
This Evolution Sunday we're asked to think about Climate Action. Science agrees that the earth is in trouble because of pollution caused by our current use of fossil fuels and over-exploitation of natural resources. Al Gore called that "an inconvenient truth" because it challenges our current lifestyle. Our faith makes it clear that we are stewards of these resources and of the earth. We can't ignore the harm society is inflicting on Earth and be good stewards. Jesus calls us to be advocates for justice. We can't ignore the injustice that people with less advantage pay the highest price for this harm. Rather than denying the need for climate action, faith leads us to engage in change which benefits our own and future generations.
We're also asked to connect this Sunday with the pandemic that has changed our lives for two years now. Science has.given us ways to address this illness and reduce infection and death. Scientists developed vaccines in record time and are just as quick in finding treatments that improve recovery. They have given us guidelines for masking and distancing and updated those as they learned more. Some are resisting this help on religious grounds. But religion which rejects science when science saves lives looks a lot more like politics than faith. We are indeed our neighbor's keeper, and we love our neighbor best by using all tools available to prevent disease and promote health. Might I suggest that the amazing advances made in such a short time show the presence of God among us? Isn't it more faithful to accept new knowledge and adapt to new realities than to say "no" to simple measures which save lives?
Our religious ancestors saw God in their time and place and tried to live by the values they believed were godly. Our time and place are much different and scientific knowledge is a big part of that difference. We don't honor faith by refusing to evolve with these new realities. We don't honor God by freezing God in the first century. We can trust God to be just as present in our time and place and live by the values which are timeless. We apply those values to our new knowledge and our new circumstances by asking that they preserve the planet, improve the lives of all people and all creatures, and do no harm. And we give thanks for good brains and kind hearts that use science to continue the creation of the amazing world.