Have you ever fallen completely in love with someone? Remind yourself of the feelings and emotions you experienced. What kind of things would you do to show your love? Would you spend a lot of money buying roses, perfume, chocolates or jewelry? Would you write letters, cards, and poems until your hand hurt? What if your love or rather the object of your love asked you to do things, would you not try to satisfy their every wish? You would climb mountains, descend canyons, and you complete anything, even death to demonstrate your love with proof. True?
Once upon a time I was walking in a lumberyard looking for materials for the house when I saw a guy with a different t-shirt. Printed on the shirt were the words: “Faithful unto death…but never before.” I chuckled. But I also doubted if that gentleman really had a wife, girlfriend, or friend in his life. This shirt maybe was useful for earning points with your friends or laughter from strangers in the lumber yard, but it was not a good strategy for gaining trust, for gaining love.
Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” It is easy for anyone to say, “I love Christ. Jesus is Lord, or I accept Jesus Christ as my savior.” It is another thing to live and demonstrate your love in obedience to God’s commandments. Do you really obey Christ’s commandments?
Love is difficult. It is even more difficult when you don’t know what your love wants you to do. For example, would God want parishioners to gather during the pandemic for praise against the governor’s direction? Dozens of churches in San Bernardino and Riverside counties say they will physically assemble him on May 31. Other churches think the opposite, that doing this is a threat to the well-being of members and the community. How is it possible that God’s people can be so divided on this question of what God wants? Maybe we don’t know God with very high confidence.
Once upon a time St. Paul was walking in the city of Athens, Greece. The variety of religious objects and altars was impressive. Paul found an altar that said, “To an unknown God.” And Paul took this curiosity as his starting point for preaching. Paul said that in God, “We live, move and have our being,” because we are also his lineage” Acts 17:18. The point is that we can learn more about who God is by studying and observing reality. This is called Natural Revelation. God shows herself in nature. If only there was a way to study nature in order to know more about God.
Thankfully there is a tradition of studying and learning from nature. It’s called science. Biology, physics, chemistry and more all have their roots in the spiritual desire of human beings to know God more. Throughout history many of the great scientists were religious people as well. Science, then, is not an obstacle to a life of fidelity to God, it is a companion. If you want to love and know God, you can use the wisdom of science as his helper in knowing and loving God.
Do you know who was one of the first scientists? Noe and his family. Think about it for a moment. His experiment was whether he could sustain life in every type of animal on the ark while the flood destroyed the world. His laboratory was the ark. His samples were animals. They consider the great learning he and his family received in observing and caring for the animals and themselves. It was not easy. Most of the world thought that Noah was crazy. But he and his family were left in the ark each day struggling to survive against depression and anxiety. The water and rain fell for 40 days. But Noah was on the ark more than a year before they left. And the result? Only the salvation of life on earth. You have to be like Noah. Serve and love God, to care for and protect life, through studying and learning from nature. Amen.
Leave a Reply