Good morning! Do you remember the last time you were captivated by wonder? If you were to make a list of the 7 wonders of the world, what would they be? In ancient times, the list included the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the Colossus at Rhoads, the light house at Alexandria in Egypt, the Great Wall of China. People would see these things and be captivated by wonder. How amazing.
More recently people have pointed to the natural wonders. Victoria Falls in Africa, the California Redwoods, Monument Valley, Glacier Park. Some point to astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics. How about the artistry of Rembrandt, Mozart, and Bill Gates?
What fills you with wonder? Not long ago my grand-daughter, who fills me with wonder, left a message on my answering machine. “Hi, Papa. Hi, GG. This is Kenzie, I love you, call me back.” Grace and I played that message over and over again and it filled us with wonder. Morning by morning, we are surrounded by wonder – but can we still see it, or have we somehow lost it?
We are in a sermon series called the Truth Project and we are looking at two opposing world views that compete for our allegiance. One is built on the premise that God exists and that he has revealed himself through the wonders of creation, and the special revelation of his Word, the Bible, and finally through wonders of wonders, the incarnation of his Son, Jesus.
The other world view is built on the premise that there is no God and that we only the product of random chance, animated mud, without purpose or intention or meaning. There is no room for wonder since we came from nothing, we end in nothing, we therefore mean nothing. How absurd! No one can convince me that my granddaughter’s kisses mean nothing or that her words, I love you, papa are meaningless and hollow. These are things of eternal wonder!
Here’s today’s point – are you ready! When we reject God from our world view, we lose our capacity for wonder. Like pearls before swine, we begin to despise and desecrate those things that are most precious. Jesus told the Pharisees (the word Pharisee means, the serious ones) “unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
When we lose our capacity for wonder, we are no longer child-like, open, curious, teachable. Instead we become like childish know-it-alls pretending to be wise, bullying those around us.
Our topic this morning is science. What is the Biblical world view on science? Do you have your thinking caps on? Are you teachable this morning? Etymology is the study of the origin of words. And the origin of the word science is “to know”. Science is the study of those things that cause us wonder. It’s the quest to know and understand the reality of what God has done.
Psalm 19 begins with these words, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4
One of my all time favorite poems was written by a 7 yr. old. He wrote. “All the stars are out running all about, flying in the sky like a firefly.”
But as we get older, the world begins to steal our wonder. We learn “new and better” definitions. Someone says to us, “That’s dumb. Stars are just balls of flaming gas” Maybe the guy who said that to us is just a ball of flaming gas! As CS Lewis writes, “When we lose our wonder, we lose track of the difference between what a star is and what a star is composed of.”
Read with me from Isaiah 40:25-29 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” Says the Holy One. “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens; Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:25-29
The European Space Agency in 2004 estimated that there are 1024 stars in the universe. The Bible says the Creator knows each one by name and called them into being, just like he knows your name and called you into being. Some scoff at such an idea primarily because they know they could never do such a thing and they are too arrogant to admit that there might be Someone who is smarter and wiser than themselves. They believe that just because they can describe what something is made of, that they know what something is. How foolish!
They have lost their capacity for wonder! Let’s go back and read again what Paul wrote in Romans 1. “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened… They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.” Rom 1:21;25
In Col 2:8 He writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Col 2:8
Good science seeks to discover what God has done. Good science maintains a childlike wonder, a teachable humility before the awesome beauty and complexity of the universe.
Losing our sense of wonder seems to be part of our sinful nature. It happens to us all. The Pharisees were eye-witnesses to the amazing miracles Jesus did fulfilling the OT prophesies about the coming Messiah. Yet they refused to believe their own eyes. They dismissed the miracles as tricks of deception; they even accused Jesus of doing them by the power of Satan.
They thought they were so sophisticated. In reality they were blind and deaf. They had lost their capacity for wonder. Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 18:3
Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Martha had lost her sense of wonder. The cares of the world, of being a good hostess, the chores of the day, her need to be needed, to be in control, to be “serious”, had robbed her of her ability to see the wonder that was before her.
She had invited Jesus and his disciples to stay with her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary at their home in Bethany. But as the evening went on she got upset that her sister Mary wasn’t helping her. Mary had sat down at the Lord’s feet and was caught up in the wonder of listening to him. Martha went to Jesus and complained, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha”, the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:40-42
When we lose our sense of wonder, we lose our ability to worship. We even lose our capacity to maintain healthy relationships. We lose our ability to know and respond to God.
Nicodemus was a theologian, a Bible scholar. He loved God. But somewhere in the study of all his Biblical texts and theological principles he lost the wonder of the one who the Bible and the principles point to. For some strange reason, his “knowledge” of God had displaced the wonder of God that had drawn him into the Word in the first place.
But there was something about Jesus that reminded him of the wonder he had lost. So, in the middle of the night, he sneaks in to see Jesus. “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jn 3:2
What’s the question behind Nick’s statement? “Jesus, who are you? And why are you here?
Jesus answers the question Nick doesn’t enough know how to ask. “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Is Jesus sharing the secret to recovering our wonder? Becoming like a child again? Becoming teachable again? Being set free to not have to have all the answers, to live by trust and faith, rather than a façade of control?
Jesus goes on to tell Nick that salvation is not achieved through climbing some ladder of adult achievement, rather it is a gift to be received by faith. Faith and wonder go together.
Jesus reminds Nick of that story from the Exodus when Moses and the people found themselves in the midst of a slue of desert cobras. They cried out to the Lord for deliverance and the Lord told Moses to cast a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. When a snake bit person looked up at it he/she would recover. It was a symbol of what Jesus would do for us.
Centuries later King Hezekiah had to destroy this thing because the people were worshipping it rather than the Lord who gave it to them. Why is it that we are so much more willing to worship the stuff God gives us that we are to worship the God who gives us the stuff? It’s called sin!
Science is driven by the wonder of what God has done. Whether its biology, astronomy, history, mathematics, physics, homework or housework - if we will look and listen – it will point back to him. He is the source and object of our wonder. Life without wonder is empty. Wonder can lead us to worship. Have you lost your wonder? Let’s read Psalm 19 again:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4
Take time to look, listen, wonder at what God has given you in creation, in His Word, in Jesus!
