Words of Welcome

Proverbs 8:22-31 “In the beginning was the Word, . . . All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” ( John 1:1, 3 ).  And Holy Wisdom declares:  “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago . . . then I was beside him, like a master worker” ( Proverbs 8:22, 30 ).  Both Word and Wisdom are expressions of God’s nature and are partners with God in the work of creation.    Some in our society believe that one cannot be both a Creationist and an evolutionist. They say that we have to choose – God or science. For the past ten years I have been involved in an effort to counter that belief. For ten years I have invited the congregations I served to observe  Evolution Sunday  on a weekend near the birthday of Charles Darwin. While we didn’t get a birthday cake for Charles, we are joining hundreds of faith communities across the country and beyond by worshiping with Charles ...

Job 38:1--11     The liturgical calendar may say that today is Transfiguration Sunday, and the social calendar might say that it’s Valentine’s Day, but I have another calendar that says that it’s  Evolution Sunday.  As you can see from the service, I decided to go with the latter calendar!  For the  fifth consecutive year churches and synagogues from  across the country will be focusing on the relationship between science and our confessions of faith.       Evolution Sunday and Weekend is observed on the weekend nearest Charles Darwin’s Birthday.   We  don’t do this because Darwin was a saint, or because  he had special spiritual knowledge that we need to pass on.  But, Darwin is important to our conversation, because he personifies the ongoing debate that has rocked our churches and society for decades if not centuries.  Although the debate started long before Darwin – just ask Galileo -- ...

Genesis 1:1-2:3 God said, “let there be light” and there was light.” And when God saw the light, God said, “That’s good!” Indeed, light is good. As you know, it’s kind of difficult to see where you’re going in the dark, so having some light can be helpful. In the beginning of time, you had the sun – not bad during the daytime – and then there was the moon – it gives off some light, but it’s pretty limited. In time somebody discovered fire, and fire helps a lot. Over time the campfire gave way to the candle, and the candle to the lamp. Every advancement in lighting made living in-doors and going about at night just a bit easier. Then came the biggest revolution in lighting history. Back in the 19th century somebody figured out how to hook up lights to electricity and everything changed. Even though he wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of the incandescent bulb, a guy named Thomas Edison came up with a long lasting filament and history was made. In fact, his idea worked so well th...

Proverbs 8:22-31 When you see the Grand Canyon, a Hawaiian sunset, or Crater Lake for the first time, I doubt that science questions will pop into your mind. You’ll probably say something like, "wow, isn’t that beautiful!" And then, after taking in the sights for a bit and likely taking a few pictures, you may finally stop to think about how these things of beauty came to be. The first reaction is aesthetic and even spiritual; the second is scientific. Science deals with the how and faith deals with the wow! Those two different reactions suggest that there’s more than one way to look at things. Neither one is right nor wrong, they’re just different. The scientific angle is extremely important, and it should be honored. But it doesn’t always tell the whole story. That’s where faith comes in. They’re not competitors, they’re complements. For centuries now people have been arguing about the relationship of religion and science. Some people believe they’re opposed to each other, ...