Rev. Rachel Lewis Cooley
“FAQ: Science / Evolution and the Bible – How Do We Reconcile”
Eastwood Christian Church, Nashville TN
July 19, 2020
Hello Eastwood.
I’ve lit this candle today to remind me that we worship together, though we are apart. I invite you to do the same, taking a moment to attune to the spirit of God with us in community.
So the question we’re tackling today is a tough one – one I’m certain we’ve all grappled with in our own ways throughout our faith journeys.
I have to say I’m not entirely sure why I chose to preach on this topic while I am a seminary student, as we are notorious for having crises of faith as we deconstruct and probe at some of our beliefs, and I’m still looking forward to the day more of the dust will settle – some of it certainly has – and I'm trying to come to know questions and doubt as an integral part of my faith.
As it is, I am grateful that we are part of the Disciples tradition that reminds us again and again that we are more than free to hold our own beliefs however they are in whatever moment we are in, and agreement is not necessary. Having talked with a few of you about this topic this week, I sense we would each preach a very different sermon on this topic – and I celebrate that.
All this is also to say, I’m clearly not going to solve this age-old question, and what I offer may be more satisfying to some of you than others. I hope you’ll join fellowship hour at 11am to ponder more together and share in our ideas and journeys.
Will you pray with me?
Loving God, in Whom is Heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts,
Be pleasing and acceptable to you oh God, our rock and our redeemer.
Amen
In talking to some of you and some of my loved ones about this topic, I came across various sources which held that science and the bible are both different and needed. My dad quoted to me something he’d heard: that the Bible tells us who made the Universe, and Why ; and science tells us how God did it, and What creation is like.
Science textbooks and studies describe, to some degree, what we know about creation, and the Bible – from its creation stories to its psalms and gospels – tell us something of God, and why Creation. Its texts show us authors wrestling with why humans are here too, knowing that if we can answer some of the why question for our lives, we can answer some of the “what are we to do” and “how are we to do it” questions.
Studying creation can be “a marvelous way to get to get to know the creator” as the Vatican Observatory website says. Yeah – the Vatican has had sponsored astronomists in their observatory since the late 1800’s. Did you know that!? I certainly didn’t. They say their mission is to be a bridge, and to say that people who believe in God can also be good scientists.
Perhaps this can be so because both science and religion – both what and why questions – cause us to wonder: to experience that there is so much we do not know.
Bill Nye, the self-identified “Science Guys” says “In science, pretty quickly you figure out that you can’t figure it all out. That there are unknowns.” He says for some people that’s really troubling. For him though, once you accept that you can’t know it all, it’s exhilarating.
I don’t just think that some people have trouble accepting that there are things we can’t know, that we can’t figure it all out and once we think we have, we may be in trouble – I think we allllll struggle with this, and often.
I think perhaps reckoning with the fact that we humans evolved just as every other genus and species on this planet did is also a moment where humility is required – where we are faced with the question of our place and role in creation, and we don’t have neat answers. If our biology and the history of our evolution are the “what” of how you and I got here, though, this still does not answer the why, and how, and through what divine influence.
We go to our faith and our theology for those answers, and we each must come to our own – you may have different beliefs about the place of humans in God’s eyes and in creation than I do. We may even have different beliefs about it than some of the writers of the texts in the bible seem to. Our beliefs may be informed by those texts, and the capital- T Truths we find in them. They are also informed by our experiences in community, in your body, in creation, in relationship, in wisdom grown through experience.
Maybe one Truth that we often tend to forget is that that your experiences with God in the world are just as True as the biblical authors’ experiences with God in the world, and just as True as your neighbors’ experiences of God. We humans do tend to struggle with the realization that our perspective is true and good -- just not all there is, not the only Truth. It really can feel tough to be a human! And I mean this both comically and empathetically. Often it’s anxious, and we have to remind ourselves again and again of lessons we learned before, and we forget even more when we’re fearful or feel threatened or like there isn’t enough.
And then we have a virus that comes along and shakes us all to our core by forcing us to remember we’re mortal. Well, staying informed about it forces us to remember our fallibility, at least. Some folks may be choosing to deny or ignore – partially or fully - this truth. Some do so more than others, but perhaps we all do in certain moments. We’re only human, after all.
For today, let’s turn to a scriptural passage where I hope we’ll find some Truth, and some connection with the biblical writer who also sought to remember they are a piece of creation and they do not know it all. The book of Proverbs which is part of the biblical wisdom literature, describes “Woman Wisdom” throughout its first 9 chapters. These chapters develop the theme of teaching and learning as well, as a teacher shares with a student some of their beliefs and advice for approaching the world. Wisdom literature as a whole asks us to diligently seek for insight about God in all of creation, with the world as a classroom. The teacher tells the student in Proverbs to study an ant for wisdom of how to live, and this sounds a bit like scientific study combined with humility and faith to me.
Hear now today’s reading in Proverbs 8: 22-36, Common English Bible translation, containing verses imagining Woman Wisdom describing herself:
22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his way,
before his deeds long in the past.
23 I was formed in ancient times,
at the beginning, before the earth was.
24 When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth,
when there were no springs flowing with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 before God made the earth and the fields
or the first of the dry land.
27 I was there when he established the heavens,
when he marked out the horizon on the deep sea,
28 when he thickened the clouds above,
when he secured the fountains of the deep,
29 when he set a limit for the sea,
so the water couldn’t go beyond his command,
when he marked out the earth’s foundations.
30 I was beside him as a master of crafts.
I was having fun,
smiling before him all the time,
31 frolicking with his inhabited earth
and delighting in the human race.
32 Now children, listen to me:
Happy are those who keep to my ways!
33 Listen to instruction, and be wise;
don’t avoid it.
34 Happy are those who listen to me,
watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorposts.
35 Those who find me find life;
they gain favor from the Lord.
36 Those who offend me injure themselves;
all those who hate me love death.
Herein, we seek inspiration and understanding.
This passage, it seems to me, shows some author seeking to be faithful to God pondering with wonder about creation, where it all came from, and what might have existed before.
Have you noticed that scientists today often don’t or can’t guess as to what might have happened before the Big Bang? I don’t know much about how scientists describe the Big Bang, but I would guess the scientific method can’t measure or test hypotheses about a time before the universe existed, just as we might find it impossible to imagine what nothing existing would even be like. We go to theology and faith for those questions – and in this passage we find the idea that Wisdom existed before it all, was present with God before and during and after Creation.
The first line of Genesis is often translated “in the beginning” as though there was nothing before God began creating, but the original Hebrew phrase is closer to “In beginning,” as in When God was beginning to create, implying that something was before. What was before? We don’t know, but we may believe Wisdom was there.
If Wisdom is part of the foundations of creation, then, maybe not as a material building block but as an ever-present Spirit and Call, what does this tell us about the why of our existence, and how we might therefore seek to live?
Proverbs says repeatedly that "Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord,” with fear meaning awe, and humility. Wisdom both begins and ends with wonder at God’s creation, then, and acknowledgement that we will never know it all. And yet wisdom encourages us to seek diligently after understanding and knowledge. “Listen to instruction, and be wise,” Wisdom says in our verses. You need both to look at God’s created order and study it, and wonder at the Creator. Maybe like the Vatican Astronomers do.
Wisdom also delights in creation, having fun, smiling, and frolicking, our verses say. It may be that habits of play and delight can be like spiritual practices that remind us to wonder with awe at the sheer beauty in creation. Wisdom seeks to understand by both study and play, intellect and simply being, seeking and humility.
Proverbs also knows wisdom is lived out in simple things, in every day life. In sharing what you have with a neighbor that needs it, without hesitation or delay. As my CEB Women’s Bible describes, Wisdom encourages us to “embody the joy of wise living” which “promotes the flourishing of life.” May this “intellectual and moral vision” call us to wonder both what and why, remembering that we need both science and theology in our life of faith, that we can listen to both to better care for our neighbor and creation.
May it be so.
Amen