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Acts 18:1-11
BY JIM HUNT

Poor Paul, stranded among unbelievers and charged with teaching the good news among them: it sort of reminds me of trying to preach to my children?s generation. I don?t even seem to have an appropriate vocabulary to open a dialogue with 20- and 30-somethings whose scientific/technological orientation often renders even the church?s most fundamental assumptions a foreign language. At least Paul had a fellow tentmaker, Aquila, to provide him entr?e through a common language of the marketplace.

Today, too often the church finds itself marginalized by a society that has learned to look elsewhere for answers, to pursue truth and meaning through science?s insights into the workings of our world.

What we may have lost sight of is that some of our most ancient spiritual traditions point us in much the same direction.

'Neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.' - Isaiah 55 (NRSV)

There is a yearning within us to experience the divine through the created world, to stand in awe of God?s own nature displayed for us everywhere we turn our gaze.

Yet, there is also the abiding sense that God is so completely unlike anything we are capable of imagining, so far outside (as well as within) our poor four-dimensional framework for knowing, that all our intellectual and spiritual strivings are ultimately toward mystery.

If that much is true, we are living either in one of the most exciting times in the history of humankind, or in its most treacherous epoch. It is certainly a time that cries out for a dialogue about truth. Our Wesleyan heritage calls us to be engaged in an open-hearted dialogue with all that science has to tell us about the wonders displayed in the heavens and the firmament. And, O what wonders there are to behold!

What is it, then, that so impedes this essential dialogue?

More and more I am drawn to one central conviction: The church needs to affirm that there is no truth knowable that does not deepen our sense of God?s glory. All knowledge is revelation, but the church has proved remarkably unreceptive to learning anything new about God, especially if such novelty requires the stretching and reshaping of old mythological frameworks.

But science itself is struggling with the very notion of certainty. In the light of new insights from physics, it is hard to speak any longer of natural 'laws.' Instead, much scientific inquiry is made on the basis of probabilities. How will religion incorporate this conversation into its ongoing inquiry into God?s nature and the nature of God?s interaction with the cosmos?

If religion and science seem to share little, they at least hold this befuddlement in common: how to live with confidence and direction in a universe which more and more reveals itself as unpredictable. Personally, I find this juncture exhilarating, but I have sympathy for those who feel threatened - both those within and outside the church. Still, Isaiah reminds me that when we cast our lot with the God who is ultimately mystery, we 'go out in joy and (are) led forth in peace.'

The Rev. James Hunt is pastor of Brookfield-Immanuel in Brandywine.

A DEVOTIONAL
for the Discipleship Adventure

Celebrate: God?s amazing creations are all around us. As you enjoy the lazy, hazy days of summer, where are you seeing God?s activity? (Hint: It?s not just in nature.)

Connect: Talk to another disciple about how scientific study impacts their faith, and how it impacts yours. Do science and religion really share little in common?

Develop: Where do you look for answers to life?s questions? Where do you find truth?

Share: Hunt writes, 'There is no truth knowable that does not deepen our sense of God?s glory.' How can you share God?s glory in your own life with others today? This week?