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“Should We Trust In Human Evolution?”
Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – November 29, 2020
Centenary United Methodist Church Isaiah
64:1-9; I Corinthians 1:4-9
First Sunday Of
Advent The title of my message this morning sounds rather
odd. Whoever heard of the
followers of Jesus placing their trust in people?
Dare we put our trust in both God and God's created subjects?
This morning, we are going to think about this and
hopefully find an answer that may help us feed our curiosity.
Just where do we actually anchor our Hope? Where is the
source of our inspiration, our curiosity, our recognition of truth, and
our ability to make wise choices? Many Scriptures have taught us that we are
sinners which literally means we miss the mark with our
thinking and choices. In Paul's letter to the followers of Jesus
living in Rome, he wrote that all of us have fallen short of God's
Plan for us. (Romans 3:23) We are flawed and make constant mistakes
in our judgments. (Matthew 7:5) The first Sunday of Advent attempts to prepare our
thoughts, feelings, and spirits for looking forward to the coming of one
who saved us from such flaws. At least this is our annual approach to
our theme of Hope, symbolized by our lighting the first candle on our
Advent Wreath. Has our annual celebration of Advent and Christmas
done anything for our spiritual development?
Seriously! What happens to us by the New Year?
We find our way back to our normal behavior.
All the attitudes that we had before Christmas are right
where we momentarily parked them.
This can happen when we continue to emphasize the same themes and
expect a different outcome.
What happened to the Hope that was promised?
We exposed ourselves to Scriptures, prayers, sermons, and hymns
that the coming of Jesus would help us overcome the theatrics and drama
of our human experience. A truth is clearly present, but
spiritual growth for the masses is seldom noticed because each of us
matures in spirit at a different pace. Think about this.
What comes our way is the arrival of new products and services
that enhance and improve the quality of our lives. We often give a
passing glance to such products.
If anything, we look forward to the arrival of new products every
year without giving any thought to their origin. What is fascinating is that those in the medical
community who study the human genome know that there are countless
aspects of our DNA that have yet to be isolated and studied. This is the
genetic substance that contains all the markers that make us a
one-of-a-kind individual. Has God designed us to evolve? Is our
potential buried somewhere in our DNA as it is with all other seeds?
Each generation passes on its genius to the
next generation. The horse and buggy evolved into the first
cars. Cars evolved to the
point where there was competition.
Different companies were established and the race was on to see
which company could create a better, more efficient car. Carburetors were abandoned in favor of the superior
system of fuel injection.
Cars running on fossil fuels have evolved into vehicles that are powered
by electricity. Soon
batteries will evolve to where cars will become powered by a power-pack
that will allow drivers to go for thousands of miles. Think of the evolution since Orville and Wilbur
Wright experimented at Kitty Hawk with a heavier-than-air craft that
went only 852 feet in 59 seconds. That occurred on October 10th,
1902. My grandparents
remembered that moment in history. Today, we have rockets that took
astronauts to the moon and continue to send supplies and people to the
International Space-Station orbiting the earth. Spiritually, the greatest transforming
quality that Jesus brought to humanity was teaching a multi-level
expansion of what was buried in
the very ancient Golden Rule.
(Leviticus 19:18) The Church has been teaching that Jesus saved us from
the temptations in the material world by dying on a cross, while Jesus
was teaching how our choices save us by applying what he taught.
Jesus sowed the seeds that people and
industry have used to describe a growth process that Jesus predicted
would come. It is the process taking place in the evolution of our
species that we can use to base our Hope.
God buried spiritual growth into our DNA. Our choices do create
both good and bad results. We slowly discover that not everything works. Again, teachable consequences are part of Creation.
We learned that filling blimps with helium is safer than hydrogen
because of what happened during the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. A process that has been given many names
describes the struggles of humanity during its shedding of many
cocoons woven by our days of spiritual
immaturity. We
have to be willing to recognize what is happening to us in order to let
go of our caterpillar nature.
Only then will we open our eyes and understand where our
spiritual evolution is taking us. Jesus taught this. (Matthew 13:11-12) He borrowed
and applied to his teachings what was once written by the Prophet
Isaiah: The people listen and listen but do not understand.
They look and look, but do not see, because their minds are dull
by the distractions of the world that has stopped up their ears and
closed their eyes. (Isaiah 6:9) This is why I teach by story-telling. Today's religious practices may represent a
primitive source that has kept spiritual energy alive and visible as its
mutated forms are being passed on to future generations. Today, we only
sense the importance of such energy by seeing the results coming from
the lives of those who have found and harnessed it. Last week we pointed to the results of this
awakening process in the lives of Francis of Assisi, Martin of Tours and
Doctor Ronald Campbell.
Before them was Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, Saul of Tarsus, and the
writers of the Gospels.
What is within people that causes them to seize the moment and become
completely transformed? On and on this constantly mutating process moves
into the future with all of its very descriptive adjectives such as
Humanism and its followers or Best Practices touted by
industries who have incorporated them into their company's policies. Thousands of years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote in
our lesson this morning, "God can be trusted.
God inspired you to align yourselves with the spirit that Jesus
taught and modeled." (1 Corinthians 1:6-9) Those who understand this
have never lost their confidence that God is at work slowly allowing
people to mature in spirit at their own pace. This process is only
propelled forward or held back by a person's own awareness. Jesus knew
that not everyone would achieve such understanding and he said so.
(Matthew 7:13-14) The Apostle Paul got the message. All his worldly
accomplishments including his countless Doctor of Ministry Degrees
meant nothing to him. What
Paul held up to those he was ministering to was their potential to
choose to live the same spirit which Jesus modeled. (Philippians 3:4b-9) What is fascinating is that great nations have
risen and fallen throughout history, but each has contributed to the
evolution of humanity. It
does not matter who is ruling, who is making the laws, who is dictating
what people must believe or what narrative they must parrot to be
saved. Everything that
works to further the growth of our species has roots that can be traced
to those in our past. What today's engineers do is build on the genius of
people in our background. The primitive telephones with the crank on the
side were the great grandparents of the cell phones. Our hope
comes from recognizing what God buried in our DNA, the seeds for
our spiritual evolution. Humanity will collectively continue its steady
evolution regardless of the sideshows that come along. Such
things only become a pause on our eternal song.
What cannot be stopped is God's Plan for all humanity
that is unfolding exactly as it was designed to do.
No one throughout history has been eternally lost regardless of
the fear-ridden theology of some religious zealots.
The mistakes we have made, the
self-sabotaging-decisions that most of us can easily make, or the
earthly power we have been wielding for a while – all of it has served
to teach what path we should follow.
When we understand the meaning of our repeated failures, that
awareness will teach us a better way to live. Our lesson communicates the message that, "Our
Creator can be trusted."
We are slowly and agonizingly evolving as a species from the creation
of the wheel by the earliest humanoids to our eventually exploring other
planets. Remember what Jesus said, "It is written in your
own Law that God said, "You are gods." (John 10:34)
The process of human evolution can become the basis of Hope
on which we can easily stake our lives!
Hope defines the drama taking place between an
invisible God and God's very visible creations. We have no idea where we
are going or what kind of beings we will eventually become.
Author, Tim Galway, once wrote: When we plant a rose
seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize
it as "rootless and stemless."
We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment
required of a seed.
When it first shoots up
out of the earth, we do not condemn it as immature and underdeveloped;
nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear.
We stand in wonder at the process taking place, and give the
plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a
rose from the time it is born until the time it dies.
Within it, at all times, is contained its whole potential. It
seems to be constantly in the process of change; yet at each stage, at
each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.
As we continue to
evolve, so are we.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Eternal and
always faithful God, there are moments when we feel as did the people of
old. We experience
uncertainty because our future remains unclear.
Guidance from you is frequently mixed with other voices that
cloud our perception. Our
values can remain invisible to those who hold different points of view.
The demands of our schedules pull us in many directions.
Yet we are more than ready to prepare ourselves for the coming of
the renewal of our minds and spirits.
Bless us
again with renewed insight as we enter Advent together. Amen.
PASTORAL
PRAYER
Loving God,
we come into your presence this morning hoping to renew our lives as we
experience the unfolding themes of Advent. All of us have moments that
challenge our sense of security and control.
We experience events that create stress. We walk through valleys
created by our losses and life reversals.
We have learned that permanent change can come in the blink of an
eye. The miracle in the midst of change is that you created us with the
potential to fill our minds, emotions, and spirits with hope.
Just as change can evoke our fears, so it can also create new
opportunities to radiate our faith and trust in you.
Thank you, loving God, for inspiring us
to remember who we are, and how you equipped us to bring the vitality of
your presence into each moment, each drama, and each relationship. As we
prepare ourselves to welcome again your son into our world, we do so
remembering how he embodied hope.
He taught his listeners attitudes of being.
He pointed to a God-consciousness that becomes our pearl of great
price once we find it. Thank you that through him we have learned that
by loving others just as they are, we demonstrate our love for you who
created them.
Help us realize that our faithfulness to
you becomes the source of our strength and the channel through which
your spirit achieves form in our world. We pray these thoughts through
the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . . |