Cosmos: It was, it is, it will be.
Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
Ralph McFadden, Guest Preacher – 6/18/23
Cosmos: It was, it is, it will be – Exodus 3: 1-15, Isaiah 65: 17-25
Cosmos: It was, it is, ֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה. it will be.
As you know, I am 90 (ninety) years old. I remember conversations over the years with Martha Bartholomew, who said, “we are not only aging, but we are also sagging.’ Which means, as we grow older, we grow wiser. I can only hope that is true.
It is a privilege to be here with you today. I have been in and out and about this congregation since I was a senior in high school. I am indebted to you for you have frequently supported me and you have enriched my life.
I was thinking about writing these thoughts of today when I ran headlong into the new and fascinating creations of the James Webb Space Telescope. I have had some interest in the past in astronomy: – the stars, planets, and constellations. Then the James Webb Space Telescope, and it’s views. Absolutely amazing and astounding.
Not only have I begun to marvel and wonder at the vastness of this cosmos, but, as a searcher, seeker of truth, of reality, I began to think more about creation, my belief, history, and the promise of the future. I really think that this new – this very new view of the universes that are way beyond our planet, changes radically our perspective, not only of how/when this cosmos came into being, but unequivocally to a thinking being, it must change how we view our own individual lives: our breathing, living being in a fundamentally and profoundly different setting and milieu. At least, it certainly changes my observation and assessment of living today.
“Pastor Katie said something in her sermon this past October. She said in considering Exodus Chapter 3: “The divine voice speaks in this chapter, telling us “I am the Lord, that is my name.”
Pastor Katie said, “God tells Moses ‘I am who I am’, but I have told this church before, how I love the interpretation that those same letters, along with I am who I am, could also be translated as I have been, who I am, and I will be.”
The Exodus verse and Pastor Katie’s comments reminded me about the James Webb Space Telescope – and what I/we continue to sort out and try to understand about the Universe. It is, it was, it will be. For eons and ages. Immense. Unbelievably enormous and outside of my understanding.
(Jim puts pictures on the screen from the Webb camera.)
I think that the enormity of this discovery is, frankly, beyond the capacity of most folks to grasp. The Space Telescope and its fantastic pictures of the Cosmos opens our view and perspective in a way that I cannot comprehend. I can see the pictures, I can read the information, but it is, nonetheless, almost unimaginable.
With the findings of the Space Telescope, I want to understand more, to take it all in. I want to learn more. I may and probably will live a few more years. Why not soak up more? Breathe in this beautiful, immense, enormous, colossal, massive, gigantic vast cosmos and universe. And as I consider this cosmos, I have decided to reflect, and be thankful for my life: what it has been, is, and will be. And, at 90 years of age, it just seems like a great idea to be open to this new perception.
If you want to check into this amazing cosmos view… google James Webb Space Telescope. I am now on their list of eyewitnesses, and I get occasional updates on what the telescope is seeing.
About the time of Christ, the Earth was the center of the Universe according to Claudius Ptolemy, whose view of the cosmos persisted for 1400 years until it was overturned — with controversy — by findings from Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. Ptolemy, about 50 AD, posited that the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and the Sun all revolved around Earth.
Through the following centuries, there were thousands of discoveries, inventions, and new developments in astronomy. That was an astronomical past.
And for me … and you, there was also a past.
I have been thinking about my past as I have been preparing for this Sunday. I have remembered some significant events and beliefs of my life. And while I will not share those memories, it is of enough importance to encourage you, if you have not done so recently, to ask yourself, in light of the very unusual and dynamic cosmos enlightenment, what have you believed and what have I believed and how has my belief been challenged.
And so, It Was. And It Is and It Will Be.
Let us concentrate for a moment on the Space Telescope and on our beliefs.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST was launched December 25, 2021, at 6:20 AM CST. It weighs 13,580 lbs. and was built at the cost of 10 billion USD (2016).
The James Webb Space Telescope is not in orbit around the Earth, like the Hubble Space Telescope is - it actually orbits the Sun, 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2. What is special about this orbit is that it lets the telescope stay in line with the Earth as it moves around the Sun. This allows the satellite's large sunshield to protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun and Earth (and Moon).
What is JWST doing now? “NASA's Space Telescope is on a mission to study the earliest stars and peer back farther into the universe's past than ever before.” The James Webb Space Telescope can see 13.6 billion light years. Webb's cameras can look deep into space and far into the past — which will be the farthest we've ever seen into space.
For me, facts and figures such as seeing 13.6 billion light years deep into the past certainly causes me – encourages me – to at least wonder about the nature and reality of God – and of creation.
One writer says, “With the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the universe has gotten bigger and more beautiful than we’d ever imagined. Naturally that beauty and vastness was already there before the JWST trained its infrared eye on it, waiting to be discovered. But from time to time, God loves to pull back the veil, allowing us to see new wonders of his cosmos.”
And new wonders there are. Looking at these spectacular images, we’re led to wonder: Just how vast is our universe? How many stars and galaxies does it contain? What kinds of variety and grandeur are yet to be revealed? Most crucial of all for religious people, what does it say about our God who created such a cosmos?”
I have wondered if I could find comments that take a different religious point of view, one that examines this new perspective of the cosmos from a truly and genuinely insightful innovative reality. In general, it seems to me, as I review some of the comments on-line, that those who have considered the vastly new cosmos details have not changed their opinions, their views. Their wonderment, if they do indeed, wonder, has not changed their understanding or view of God.
The religious community uses the Old Testament verses to continue to underscore their beliefs that there is a Creator…. It matters not how vast the universe is. Or matters not if there is life of some sort on other globes somewhere.
I want to underscore this. The vastly new understanding of the cosmos, as we see the possibilities, would seem to dictate that there should be a broadened understanding of what we believe. My thought is that this enormous new perspective, perception, outlook, would demand a different and altered understanding of God and of creation. But I find little effort on the part of theologians to expand their religious perspective.
Some other thoughts to add and to consider for a moment.
There are other elements of this earth that amaze, inspire, and frighten me. As I have been very amazed by the cosmos, way beyond our earth, I am also amazed and frightened about what is happening on and to our earth. I mention this briefly.
In demographics the world population - number of humans currently living - was estimated to have exceeded 8.1 billion as of November 2021. In 1800 the population was 100 million. In 1950 - 2, 557,000,000. In other words, the world population is staggering. The result of more population growth: malnutrition of hundreds of thousands, increasingly less water, homelessness and endless diseases, evil dictators and uncompromising leaders of nations, very mean-spirited followers of evil leadership.
I need only mention Climate Change and the horrific changes that are likely in the future. In an unwelcoming and an inhospitable juxtaposition to the above quote …… the future climate report is devastating, distressing, demoralizing, and overwhelming. Two writers wrote an article entitled: “What the World Will Look Like in 2050 If We Don’t Cut Carbon Emissions in Half.” 2050. They wrote in 2020, 3 ½ years ago. 2050 is only 27 years in the future. It is a terrifying article. And it makes sense.”
Personally, I still clarify my point of view as being a searcher. Kind of a searcher, hunter, explorer, inquirer, seeker.
We are in what I call a Juxtaposition.
As we view our planet – and our universe, for me there is nothing more astounding and extraordinary than the view of the cosmos by the James Webb Space Telescope. And at the same time, the coming catastrophic devastation of what is happening in our climate forecasts a tragic and cataclysmic future for our planet.
Where does that leave me? Personally? We state and acknowledge ‘what was, is, will be.” Now, particularly, will be.
Of course, I have no prophecy of future events or times. I am 90. That’s wonderful and sort of fantastic. I think that I may have a few more years of living – and despite the fearful future I have predicted, I want to live what life I have fully. And of importance, today and tomorrow, I want to take in the exceptional new and fresh pictures of the very ancient and ageless cosmos.
At the same time, I have one other note: we as people of faith MUST prepare ourselves for the future by asking ..... how do we anticipate we will live/be faithful/be courageous in the coming inevitable times of disaster?
