We live in a time and place in Asheville where Mother Nature
and nature itself are worshipped as gods in the way the author writes about
here. When there is no creation to speak
of, there is no creator. When we believe
the myth of uncreation, the myth of the Big Bang without a Big Banger, of
natural and impersonal processes that produce all that is, we miss the chance
to worship a person, an artist par excellence, the Creator. It is quite literally beyond the ken and
ability of science to rule out God, that is a personal decision and choice, not
a scientific conclusion. The beauty and
also the scientific beauty of the math of the universe, the quantum and
particle physics of all that is, the biology and chemistry, astronomy and
geology point beyond themselves and yet we study them atomistically rather than
as Johannes Kepler did, to know the Creator.
We can’t see the forest for the trees when we do.
“Take care how you hear…”
How do you hear? Do you hear in
such a way as to know the truth of things or do you hear only what confirms you
in your prior belief? If the way you
hear hinders you from hearing about Him, perhaps the renewing of your mind is
still in process. When Jesus’ mother and
brothers came to Him, Jesus re-defined familial relationships not because his
blood relatives were not important but in order to show there is a kinship of
those who hear well, those who hear the word of God and do it. These are true family because we recognize
our common parent, God the Father. Are
their final words rhetorical? “Who then
is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
All things, rulers, systems, everything, is under the
authority of God. The sovereignty of God
is all-encompassing. We see that truth
in the prophets, that even leaders who are wicked, even when they persecute God’s
people, are under His authority, are sometimes used as instruments of His
judgment, to bring about His purposes. Paul
is speaking like Jeremiah when he counsels the Roman church to submit to
authority. Jeremiah told the people to
seek the prosperity of the city to which they were exiled, even though David,
in Psalm 137, asked the poignant question, “How shall we sing the Lord's song in
a foreign land?” Jeremiah and Paul agree
that we should sing the Lord’s song with confidence and faith in His
sovereignty even when we are in a foreign land.
The one whose commands are obeyed by even winds and water is on His
throne and in control of all things.
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