Easter Sunday: Of Metal and Mystery
When was the last time you bent apart a paper clip?
Where you talking to your mother on the phone?
Where you taking complaints from a customer at work?
When you hung up the phone,
did you try to bend the paper clip back in shape?
Not possible, is it?
Not at this time, but it soon will be.
For the first time in history,
scientists at the University of Illinois
have concocted metals
that snap back to 100% of its original shape
when heat is applied.
Not a big deal when it comes to paperclips,
but a it’d sure come in handy
the next time you haul your car into Schmoe’s.
The process has to do with the chemical properties
inside the steel,
the micro structure of the atoms
which off-set brittleness with the ability to bend.
The new “metal with memory” relies on atom makeup
less than 100 nanometers.
(For comparison, the width of a human hair is about 100,000 nanometers.)
Now, the process I just described for you
is scientific and, therefore, entirely convincing.
But if I were to try to describe to you
the chemical properties of the burst of light
that resulted in the resurrection of Jesus
and the reconstitution of his physical body,
you’d dismiss my explanation out of hand.
And you’d be right in doing so.
I am not a scientist.
I know nothing of chemistry.
I hold no authority when it comes to the physical sciences.
And neither do most of you.
So, why are we here celebrating something as preposterous
as the reconstitution of a physical body after death
and the crazy hope of a meta-physical life
beyond the realm of chemical properties
and subatomic microstructures?
It’s because science isn’t is the only subject
in the curriculum of life.
It’s a incredible field of study.
Science has provided answers to questions
and solutions to problems beyond telling.
But even the most brilliant of scientists agree
that we only know a fraction of a percent
of the knowledge of the universe.
In other words,
the physical, chemical, scientific approach
to understanding the meaning and power of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead
is a little bit like ants trying to figure out the Internet.
My point here is that life in God
is a mystery to be lived,
not a problem to be solved.
This approach to religion
makes all the difference.
It’s not like the question,
“What’s the cure for cancer?”
Well, that’s a problem to be solved.
But what about the question,
“Will I live forever?”
Now, that’s not a problem to solve,
that’s a mystery to embrace.
You might spend a good portion of your life
talking on the phone and bending paperclips,
but the important questions aren’t going to go away!
Questions like:
Does God exists?
Is there meaning to life?
Does morality matter?
Why do fools fall in love?
Why do I like to dance?
What makes me want to sing?
Why does nobility inspire?
Where does gratitude come from?
And why is gratitude so important, anyway?
These questions have no definitive answer
but, guess what?
They never go away.
Like paperclips in a drawer,
there’s always one lying around somewhere.
We live with these questions
but we don’t answer them with words and formulas.
Rather, respond to these questions
by the way we live our lives.
When it comes to the meaning of life,
who cares if we can manufacture metal with memory?
It might come in handy when it comes to a fender bender.
But when it comes to choosing the right name
for your newborn daughter?
Well, now, that’s a different matter.
Because she is yours and she is beautiful
and she is unique in all the world.
When it comes to the mystery of life
it’s faith, not science, that matters.
When it comes to a boy named Jacob Grayson,
the lad being baptized here tonight
it’s the shape of the Gospel
that will pattern his life.
Yes, tonight he’s but a boy,
but when it comes to the kind of life that he will live
and the contribution will make to the world around him,
and the love that will flow from him
and the sorrows that will confront him
when it comes down to what’s important in his life,
it’s the mystery of God, not chemical reactions that matter.
Don’t get me wrong,
I think it’s great that chemical engineers
can now create metal with memory.
But a deeper memory is far more important to me.
It’s the memory in which I live.
The memory handed on to me by my parents.
The memory safeguarded by the Church
and preserved in the sacraments that we celebrate
and the creeds we recite,
as when we proclaim in one voice:
We believe in the Holy Spirit…,
the resurrection of the body
and life everlasting. Amen.
This is the faith of the Church,
the deep memory in which you and I live:
the memory of a Savior who broke the chains of death
and conveyed to us the truth
that God has carved our names
on the palm of his hand.
That’s true for me and that’s true for you.
It’s the reason we sing.
It’s the reason we hope.
It’s the faith we hold,
the mystery we live.
[For further reading: “God Debate: Sam Harris vs. Rick Warren,” “Rabbi Gellman on Whether God is Real” and “Metals with Memory” all on www.MSNC.com]
Where you talking to your mother on the phone?
Where you taking complaints from a customer at work?
When you hung up the phone,
did you try to bend the paper clip back in shape?
Not possible, is it?
Not at this time, but it soon will be.
For the first time in history,
scientists at the University of Illinois
have concocted metals
that snap back to 100% of its original shape
when heat is applied.
Not a big deal when it comes to paperclips,
but a it’d sure come in handy
the next time you haul your car into Schmoe’s.
The process has to do with the chemical properties
inside the steel,
the micro structure of the atoms
which off-set brittleness with the ability to bend.
The new “metal with memory” relies on atom makeup
less than 100 nanometers.
(For comparison, the width of a human hair is about 100,000 nanometers.)
Now, the process I just described for you
is scientific and, therefore, entirely convincing.
But if I were to try to describe to you
the chemical properties of the burst of light
that resulted in the resurrection of Jesus
and the reconstitution of his physical body,
you’d dismiss my explanation out of hand.
And you’d be right in doing so.
I am not a scientist.
I know nothing of chemistry.
I hold no authority when it comes to the physical sciences.
And neither do most of you.
So, why are we here celebrating something as preposterous
as the reconstitution of a physical body after death
and the crazy hope of a meta-physical life
beyond the realm of chemical properties
and subatomic microstructures?
It’s because science isn’t is the only subject
in the curriculum of life.
It’s a incredible field of study.
Science has provided answers to questions
and solutions to problems beyond telling.
But even the most brilliant of scientists agree
that we only know a fraction of a percent
of the knowledge of the universe.
In other words,
the physical, chemical, scientific approach
to understanding the meaning and power of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead
is a little bit like ants trying to figure out the Internet.
My point here is that life in God
is a mystery to be lived,
not a problem to be solved.
This approach to religion
makes all the difference.
It’s not like the question,
“What’s the cure for cancer?”
Well, that’s a problem to be solved.
But what about the question,
“Will I live forever?”
Now, that’s not a problem to solve,
that’s a mystery to embrace.
You might spend a good portion of your life
talking on the phone and bending paperclips,
but the important questions aren’t going to go away!
Questions like:
Does God exists?
Is there meaning to life?
Does morality matter?
Why do fools fall in love?
Why do I like to dance?
What makes me want to sing?
Why does nobility inspire?
Where does gratitude come from?
And why is gratitude so important, anyway?
These questions have no definitive answer
but, guess what?
They never go away.
Like paperclips in a drawer,
there’s always one lying around somewhere.
We live with these questions
but we don’t answer them with words and formulas.
Rather, respond to these questions
by the way we live our lives.
When it comes to the meaning of life,
who cares if we can manufacture metal with memory?
It might come in handy when it comes to a fender bender.
But when it comes to choosing the right name
for your newborn daughter?
Well, now, that’s a different matter.
Because she is yours and she is beautiful
and she is unique in all the world.
When it comes to the mystery of life
it’s faith, not science, that matters.
When it comes to a boy named Jacob Grayson,
the lad being baptized here tonight
it’s the shape of the Gospel
that will pattern his life.
Yes, tonight he’s but a boy,
but when it comes to the kind of life that he will live
and the contribution will make to the world around him,
and the love that will flow from him
and the sorrows that will confront him
when it comes down to what’s important in his life,
it’s the mystery of God, not chemical reactions that matter.
Don’t get me wrong,
I think it’s great that chemical engineers
can now create metal with memory.
But a deeper memory is far more important to me.
It’s the memory in which I live.
The memory handed on to me by my parents.
The memory safeguarded by the Church
and preserved in the sacraments that we celebrate
and the creeds we recite,
as when we proclaim in one voice:
We believe in the Holy Spirit…,
the resurrection of the body
and life everlasting. Amen.
This is the faith of the Church,
the deep memory in which you and I live:
the memory of a Savior who broke the chains of death
and conveyed to us the truth
that God has carved our names
on the palm of his hand.
That’s true for me and that’s true for you.
It’s the reason we sing.
It’s the reason we hope.
It’s the faith we hold,
the mystery we live.
[For further reading: “God Debate: Sam Harris vs. Rick Warren,” “Rabbi Gellman on Whether God is Real” and “Metals with Memory” all on www.MSNC.com]
posted by BlueCollarPreacher at 10:48 AM
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