A Great Big God and a Pale Blue Dot

I wish I had known it was happening.

If only I had, I could have shown you my picture.

But I didn’t and so I can’t.

But at least 20,000 people knew it was happening … and they were there waving.

And this is their picture.

Taken from the Cassini spacecraft on Thursday from the other side of Saturn, looking beyond  Saturn’s rings to a small blue dot – and that is planet earth!

And if only I had known to go out into the garden at 9-30 on Thursday evening and look towards Saturn that could have been me!!!  I would have been there waving.

The God I believe in is a great big God – to quote the words from one of those wonderful children’s songs.

That’s a bit of a paraphrase for a statement about God that one of the philosophers came up with that’s itself got a long name – the ontological argument for God.  Forget the big name – but think of the big God.

God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.

It does put things in perspective somehow seeing Planet Earth and knowing that those 20,000 people are waving at the camera!

And that’s just from a neighbouring planet in our solar system.

Which is part of our galaxy which is part of the universe.

Which is immense.

And God is even greater.

One writer came up with a memorable title for a book when he said, Our God is Too Small.

I believe in a great big God, God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.

That’s at the heart of the Bible’s view of the world.  For this, this planet, this solar system, this universe, is the world of God’s creation.  And God is greater far.

The Creator God I believe in is the God who is not static but dynamic – in that endless dance of creation as the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are one in this God and yet each with their own identity.  The Spirit is that breath that breathes life into the Universe.  The Son is that Cosmic Christ who is the very word of God from the beginning of time.  The Father embraces all in the wonder of the eternity of love.

It is the sheer immensity of this God that captures the imagination of Paul in those wonderful words in Colossians 1:

The beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.

To believe in such a Great Big God is to put things in a different perspective.

If all we see is what we do see – concerns for health and the future, finance and work, problems at home, big concerns on the news – then the world is a world of darkness.

But believe in a great big God and something happens

Jesus said, I am the light of the world, those who believe in me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

Believe in a great big God and we can, in the words of Paul,  be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Christ at the centre

In a world of darkness

The light of life

And it is life.

I guess what I want to share this morning are three simple promises that come from putting Christ at the centre of the world, the universe and all that is and from putting Christ at the centre deep in our hearts.

In a world of darkness

The light of life.

And it is life in all its fullness.

The second of those great promises of Jesus is hinted at in these words of Paul as he thinks of the Cosmic Christ.

all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

In him all things hold together.

Believing in a great big God who is Father , Son and Holy Spirit is life enriching, life enhancing, life fulfilling.  How tragic that too often religion is depicted as a kill joy thing when in truth Christ brings a wonderful promise of life in all its fullness.

I came, says Jesus, that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Or as Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message

I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

And then comes the final thought that Paul has to share in Colossians 1:15-20

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Christ at the centre

In a world that’s brimming full of life

Life in all its abundance

Christ at the centre

That brings me to another promise of Christ – a wonderful one to treasure.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, give I to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

The peace Christ gives is a peace that binds us together with God and then a peace that binds us together with others.

As Paul says in II Corinthians 5

if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20

Christ at the centre

In a world of division

Peace beyond understanding

Christ at the centre

And that takes me back to that photo I wish I could claim to be on …

An earlier one was taken in the year that Felicity and I arrived here in Cheltenham by the Voyager Space Craft.

It inspired Carl Sagan one of the great astronomers to reflect in this way …

Pale Blue Dot Quotes (showing 1-30 of 43)

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” 

He went on to say something else …

“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”

No, no, no!, Karl Sagan, My God is a great big God!

Nothing less than the cosmic Christ brings light into darkness, life in all it abundance and a peace such as the world cannot give … and I don’t just want him to stay that way … he’s going to stay that way!

Christ at the centre

In a world of darkness

The light of life

Christ at the centre

In a world of division

Peace beyond understanding

Christ at the centre

In a world that’s brimming full of life

Life in all its abundance

Christ at the centre

Janet went on to lead our prayers ...

PRAYERS – 28/07/13

Like spokes of a wheel radiating out from the hub

The prayers of your people go out into the world

With Christ at the centre.

Like the ripples on a pond when a pebble is dropped

The actions of your people are felt throughout the continents

With Christ at the centre.

Lord, as we each live our own, tiny lives, it is easy to see our prayers and actions as insignificant in the grand scheme of things – how can I possibly make a difference?  Help us to remember that every little thing we do is part of a chain reaction whose ending we may never see.

And if we are tempted, through fear, ignorance or ambition, to take excess pride in our ability to change the world around us, help us to remember that every little thing we do is our responsibility, whose consequences we may not have anticipated.

As we thank you for this time of holidays, we pray for those who are unable to have holidays, and those for whom holidays bring little or no relief from the problems and anxieties of everyday life.

Be with us all, wherever we may be.

As we think of Egypt and the many other troubled areas of the world, we pray too for the many smaller conflicts, seen and unseen, where differences of opinion and understanding lead to violence in thought or deed, and an unwillingness to listen to another point-of-view.

Be with us in all our conflicts, great and small.

As we look at our harvests ripening in our fields, and rejoice in the wonderful range of material things we are able to enjoy, we pray for those for whom love of material things becomes a trap, leading them into ever greater debt, and those for whom they are a disguise, giving an illusion of abundance to empty lives.

Be with us all in our plenty and our poverty.

Lord, every little thing we do has the power to change the world.  Help us to step out confidently in prayer, word and action, remembering that with great power comes great responsibility.

Like spokes of a wheel radiating out from the hub

The prayers of your people go out into the world

With Christ at the centre.

Like the ripples on a pond when a pebble is dropped

The actions of your people are felt throughout the continents

With Christ at the centre.