Pi Day Sermon Newton and Not Seeing

Wesley Menke

March 19, 2023

Happy Pi Day! This past week was March 14. So let’s talk a little bit about science and math. In the time of Isaac Newton there was much high minded idealism about the progress of science and the ability to explain the universe with physical models. Isaac Newton is credited to have discovered gravity, calculus, and much else. The problem with gravity is that you cannot simulate it with physical models. In fact, even today, hundreds of years later, we still don’t really understand how it works. We have formulas that represent what we observe. But there is still a mystery as to how physical objects instantaneously pull against each other. When Newton discovered this he was horrified, because it almost seemed like a step backwards in science. When he came to the end of his life he was not pleased with himself, he thought that he had failed. Other scientists accused him of dabbling in the occult or dark arts. 

Hundreds of years later Newton’s explanation of gravity has been modified, not fundamentally overturned by Einstein. But both Einstein and Newton depend on mathematical formulas to describe how gravity works. The ambition of science to explain and model everything in the universe was humbled by Newton. There are very many hard problems and phenomena that we don’t understand and cannot explain.

Similarly there was much hope and excitement on the ability of mathematics and logic to be able to explain and predict everything in the world. Goedel then proved, that a finite set of axioms cannot produce and explain all of mathematics either. It’s quite remarkable that some of the greatest minds in western civilization end up showing us the limits of what we know, as much as anything else. 

Today the great linguist Noam Chomsky argues that even the language that we use has limits. There are boundaries to what can even be expressed, what questions can be conceived, and what we can think. These boundaries are determined by the biology of our brains. We may not even be able to ask the right questions.

We are, in many ways, still blind to the mysteries of the universe. Paul wrote, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, one day we shall see face to face.”

Jesus and the disciples are walking along and they see a man who had been born blind. The disciples want to know who sinned to cause this blindness, the man who was blind, or the parents? They are thinking of the myth of works-righteousness: someone with a disability or life hardship must have done something to deserve it. But Jesus says, “No. Neither he nor his parents sinned to deserve this. Instead this man is blind so that God’s work would be glorified in him.” That is what we call grace. This man, whether he is blind or not, has lots to offer, deserves respect, and will be a part of doing God’s work. Then Jesus miraculously gives the man vision.

While the method by which Jesus heals the man is strange; what follows, however, is sadly familiar: disagreement, conflict, and disconnection. This is not the kind of thing we would hope to have happen after a miracle of God. Yet, oftentimes when one problem is resolved, a whole new set of problems emerge.

Consider Martin Luther. 500 years ago he had his head down busy working on theological writings that were changing the world. He was opening up religion from the confines of a controlling hierarchy and making the gospel accessible in new ways. But things didn’t really go as planned. For one thing wars broke out. For another thing people didn’t flock to the churches to convert like Luther perhaps had hoped for.

In particular, it seems by looking back on his writings, Luther might have expected the many Jewish people who lived in Germany and Europe to become Christians as a result of the reformation. This didn’t really happen apart from perhaps a small trickle. Luther might have taken this hard. It is deeply unfortunate that later in life Luther wrote hateful and untrue things about the Jewish people. Let me be clear that I renounce these later writings of Luther, along with others who have renounced them, which includes all current expressions of the Lutheran church.   

So what went wrong? The root of the problem comes down to a significant misunderstanding about what faith in Jesus really means. If we say that a person has to have faith in Jesus to be the savior and Son of God in order to be saved, then it automatically excludes anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus as condemned. This spiritual view then leads people to take a very ugly and hateful attitude toward non-Christians. This is a huge problem. The solution is to have a more clear understanding of what faith really is.

Faith in Jesus means believing in what he said and did. What he said and did was to respect the dignity of all people, to love his enemies, to turn the other cheek rather than retaliate with violence. Faith is non-violent. Faith is so much more than just believing that Jesus was a savior, faith is living like Jesus lived. 

So there is a very interesting exchange at the end of the story of the giving of vision. The pharisees, who you should consider to be progressive minded people for their day, say to Jesus, “We aren’t blind are we?” To this Jesus says that if you think you can see, then you have sin, but if you are blind, then you have no sin. What on earth is he talking about?

It makes me think of the old saying, “Ignorance is Bliss.” Not being able to see is not really a physical issue, it’s a spiritual issue. Each of us, no matter the condition of our physical eyes, are vision impaired to a certain degree. There is so much that we cannot see or understand.