QUOTE: What we measure is the Earth kind of moving in this sea. It’s bobbing around — and it’s not just bobbing up and down, its bobbing in all directions,” said Michael Lam, an astrophysicist at the SETI Institute and a member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), a team largely based in North America. The NANOGrav team released the findings in five papers that were published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Teams in Europe, India, Australia and China also observed the phenomenon and planned to post their studies at the same time. The simultaneous release of papers from far-flung and competitive teams using similar methodology came only after some scientific diplomacy that ensured no group tried to scoop the rest of the astrophysical community.
Quote: “We’ve been on a mission for the last 15 years to find a low-pitch hum of gravitational waves resounding throughout the universe and washing through our galaxy to warp space-time in a measurable way,” NANOGrav chair Stephen Taylor of Vanderbilt University said at a news briefing Tuesday.
“We’re very happy to announce that our hard work has paid off.” UNQUOTE
The Holy Spirit is busy bobbing Earth. Space-time is disrupted, because God is not contained by our measurements. I love this notion. Let’s pray:
God of the Cosmos,
Who came to dwell in person on the ground with us then, now and until Your kingdom of heaven is complete, we bow down. We choose to sit under Your Holy Word today, to listen carefully, to eat this Word and welcome the Holy Spirit to bob us too. In Jesus’ Powerful Name we pray. Amen
Read Matthew 10:40-42 The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Welcome, God.
Bidden or not, God is present.
This sermon is going to be a random collection of thoughts, ideas, wonderings and questions, as I have scanned the firmament, the ground, the text and your faces. For this is my frame of reference as pastor. I sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever - this particular word love from the Hebrew hesed - 400 times in Scripture - translated mercy, such mercy, faithfulness, deep loyalty, loving kindness, it is a bedrock for these Psalms, and any reference to God’s love in both the first and the second testaments. For God so hesed the world, He gave His only Son, Jesus. Sometimes translated ‘womb-love’ the kind of love a wanted baby experiences before they are even born. Held in the waters, nutrients flowing, life-giving, hesed for this baby to thrive. You could even say a cup of cold water is filled with hesed.
What is important to note, and what the lectionary leaves out frankly, is the way the writer of the Psalm wrestles with God! He says, “How long o Lord will You hide Yourself for ever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? For what vanity have You created mortals?”
John Calvin, the Reformer, says this: quote: “the writer’s complaint sounds like God has forgotten the covenant, abandoned his Church to her enemies, and in the midst of strange and woeful desolation, has withheld all succor and consolation.” Unquote. Kind of like our times right now. He too faced the disaster of Christianity being subsumed in corruption, bribes and heresy. But he goes on to suggest the spiritual life contains these laments, but begins and ends with praise. Calvin’s view is very broad - when he uses the words ‘the church’ he includes children of David, now called Jews, and Jesus’ disciples, now called Christians; we are all in the covenant together. Where we place our faith is in the divine promise of covenant, first given to Sarah & Abraham, then through King David, and then, in -person, in flesh, Dear Jesus. In this supreme act of sacrifice, Calvin sees God moving toward us, alluring us to Himself by His melodious voice. This history in the making we live every day, full of tragic failure and yet with this promise: I am with you always. I am with you always. I am with you always.
A mantra to tamp down our fear and defeat, to look up and beyond what we can see, the firmament shines with hesed. God and the Cosmos
It is this beautiful voice that calls us to gather around this table in communion. And to build tables out there for communion too. For the little ones might just be Jesus, right? The other day I was driving by the Ballard Food bank, a beautiful new building, and in big bright letters on one side it says, “Welcome neighbor”. And then you drive around the corner and there is another set of haphazard tents and homes being created, right on the parking strips, so easy for an accident to happen; neighbors who struggle to find a room or apartment they can afford; to get the help they need for their addictions; steady work; and a community that will walk with them through their valleys. They are not easily lovable, but they are someone’s baby.
I don’t have answers for these systemic problems. Our economy is tilted heavily toward the rich and the richer. If you are white, you have advantage. If you are male you have advantage. If you own your home, you have advantage. If you can go to the store and buy whatever you want, you have advantage. If those of us with advantage don’t do a thing about this injustice, the system is not going to change.
Scripture teaches us to tithe, that is ’10%’. We can argue about gross vs. take home; wait I’m on pension and social security. Or we could do a bottom line, what is your net worth - are you giving 10% of it away? But its not only money. Its our formation, our attitudes, our capacities for empathy and compassion. You might dismiss your small act of kindness yet this is what generates a worldview that can lament those living without, opened eyes to see injustice and just a bit of generosity.
I have a small practice: each week I get $20 or $25 in 5’s and call it my ‘give away’ $. And I do. This is not a moral practice - right or wrong - rather it is my small attempt to offer a cup of cold water to someone dying. God and the Cosmos
The hard part of Jesus’ welcome is this: we are called to offer it without expecting it to change the other person or people! We cannot look for their gratitude or demand they do things our way. He wants us to simply see the face of God in our neighbor, whomever they may be, whatever station of life. They belong to Christ as much as you or I do. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the choices people make, why can’t they just get up and go to work? Who wants to live in a tent on the sidewalk anyway? What is the matter with them?
As long we point our finger at them, we stand in need of judgment ourselves. It is only with repentant hearts, confessing our hubris and arrogance, with a strong dose of self-righteousness, that must be stripped away. Then, we have this realization: we are the little ones too, desperate for a cup of cold water. Amen