Sermon Library
“Awe, Wonder, and Faith”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
May 02, 2010
Service Theme: Easter V – 2010
Easter V – 2010 May 2, 2010
Awe, Wonder, and Faith
A Rabbi and Einstein
In 1930 Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, a prominent leader in the American Jewish community of New York, fired off a telegram to Albert Einstein. The rabbi did not waste words: “Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid. 50 words.” The telegram was prompted by a public altercation that had arisen when Einstein published a statement that, to the consternation of some of his fellow scientists, he always referred to himself as “religious.” He had written:
“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man.”
Einstein recognized both the strengths and the limitations of science. And he also recognized the place of mystery in human life. Later, it is reported, that Einstein further told the Rabbi that he leaned toward the kind of God Spinoza describes, (and I love this phrase) “who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists.” He did not, however, “believe in a God who concerns himself with the fate and day to day doings of mankind.”
Faith Starts with Awe
“Faith starts with awe. It begins with the mixture of wonder and fear all human beings feel toward the mystery that envelops us. But awe becomes faith only as it ascribes some meaning to that mystery. Since we are creatures who use language and symbols that vary from age to age and culture to culture, the meanings we ascribe inevitably differ. All religions and cultures are responses to the same fundamental mystery, but each perceives and responds in it own way.” (p. 22)
“One of the most fascinating features of the new spirituality is its recognition that human beings exist as an integral part of natural processes. Einstein’s perspective also helps sort out the complex interaction between awe, faith, and spirituality. Awe is a basic and nearly universal human emotion. Not to feel it was, for Einstein, to be less than human. Faith, on the other hand, is a particular human response to what awakens awe. Spirituality, as we have seen, is an ambiguous term, but often implies an element of dissent against belief-bound religion.”
Belief versus Faith
Last Sunday we talked about the difference between belief and faith. Simply stated, belief is an affirmation and often easily stated. Faith, on the other hand, is an engagement and action. We can talk about belief, but faith involves our whole being. During the early years of Christianity people lived out of a life of faith. Three hundred year after Christ when Constantine re-formulated Christianity into Roman Emperialism, it became the age of belief, creeds and doctrine. Today we are transforming into an age of spirit which has substantial similarity to the early and beginning age of faith.
A New Openness
In many ways, we seem to be people of this new twenty-first century who have an unprecedented openness to many aspects and truths of life. We have learned that life really consists of a multiplicity of perspectives and the more we learn, the more we really do not know. Unlike any other period of history, we are people who are beseeched with a post-age-of-information in which any of us can receive far more information on any imaginable subject than ever imaginable by anyone only a half a century ago.
Life as Mystery
No matter who we are, what we do, what our expertise, where we are from, and what we believe, we are all enveloped within a great mystery; a mystery of creation, a mystery of who we are, a mystery of suffering and meaning, and a mystery of life in general. Everyday we all observe millions of miracles of life, yet we have been so accustomed to these mini miracles of every day life, that we simply take them for granted. The snow melts in the spring and new buds appear on the trees and bring forth buds and leaves and flowers. A man and a woman make love together and a new life evolves. A sun rises and a sun sets. Our very logical brain and reason is an ultimate mystery and miracle. This as an aside is pretty interesting. We think of our brain as logical and reasonable, yet the very way the brain functions as logical and reasonable is, in fact, a mystery and a miracle. And I could go on for a life time stating the miracles of life in which have become commonplace for us and so often over-looked as true miracle. We all live in complete mystery – even when we may be less conscious of such mystery and miracle.
A Mystery Not to be Solved
A mystery, in this sense, is not something anyone solves. It is rather something we simply live with, and people find that this mystery touches them in different ways. This essential and even mystical mystery should not and cannot be solved because it remains as a truth and reality of life. It is not like a mystery novel, which has to be solved or resolved in the end, rather it is a mystery of life which can never be expected to be solved or even resolved. It is an ever-lasting mystery and remains at the heart of life and truth. Our resolution is not to solve this mystery, as we typically seem to keep trying from the beginning of history, but to live within this mystery. One so called mystery solved always leads to another mystery to be discovered. In a sense, mystery leads to mystery and so forth.
The Mystery of the Universe, the Self and the Other
Dr. Harvey Cox, Harvard Professor Emeritus, states in his recent book The Future of Faith that we exist within three essential mysteries; the mystery of the world or even universe, the mystery of the self, and the mystery of the other, or society. First, we all have mystery of the universe, whether we are a philosopher, scientist or enlightened theologian. And all human beings have asked the basic question, is this universe friendly, hostile, or just indifferent to human life. (The physicist Stephen Hawking said recently that it is quite likely that three is life on other planets, but if you meet an alien stay away and do not get too close.) Einstein said that the mystery of the universe begins with awe, but soon evolves into faith. Ultimately, scientists, philosophers and theologians must conclude that the universe is always more mystery than fact.
Second, Cox states that the mystery of the universe is not only “out there” where Einstein found it, but is also unavoidably “in here.” We know that we are part of it. As Homo Quaerens, (or humans innately curious) we not only wonder about ourselves, but wonder why we are wondering. Just as part of the mystery of the universe is that we find it a mystery, so part of the mystery of the self is why we find it a mystery. Who am I to reflect on myself and on myself reflecting? Simply put, there is the obvious mystery of the universe and the world and then there is the equal mystery of the self, the single human being. We equally ask what is out there as we do who we are.
Ironically, both remain equally mysterious. The question of who I am is equal to the question of what is the universe or even world about. The “I” is not a problem that can be solved, but a mystery that remains with us as long as we live and as long as the universe exists. The universe within is just as mysterious as the universe out there. Both the universe and the self can stir up, as Cox says, tremendum as well as fascinans. I interpret these two terms as the tremendous and the fascinating without even looking up their definitions. Cox concludes, more importantly, that faith involves our response to both.
But mystery has still another locus, namely and thirdly, the “other.” Not only does the universe and the self open onto mystery; so do the other people we meet and live with. Since the beginning of time people have encountered other people in various ways and various forms: Most often as enemy and foe, and more recently and hopefully as comrade and friend. Encountering another person can ignite both fascination and terror, the same hope and longing that the vastness of the universe and my place in it generate. They all seem part of the same unfathomable mystery, states Dr. Cox.
The meeting with the other is equally mysterious. For various reasons it is good and for various reasons it becomes a threat. The encounter with the other can produce peace and, in a heart beat, produce war; produce love and unfortunately produce hate. Cox reminds us that our meeting with the other carries with it horror as well as promise. The other can defeat us or complete us. How we relate to the universe, ourselves and others can accumulatively make a difference in how we are defeated or completed.
Mystery Invokes Faith
“This is the point at which the encounter with mystery meets the possibility of faith. The three ways we encounter the great mystery – the universe, the self, the other – all leave us with a sense of uneasiness, incompleteness, and dissatisfaction. Do we have any clues, even provisional ones, to the question of why there is something and not nothing? Is time going anywhere? Or is it cyclical or maybe just illusory? It is my hope, states Harvey Cox, ‘that my encounter with the other need not always be a conquest, a capitulation or a stand-off a futile one?’ Faith, although it is evoked by the mystery that surrounds us, is the mystery itself. It is a basic posture toward the mystery, and it comes in an infinite variety of forms. Faith begins with awe in the face of mystery. But awe becomes faith only when it takes the next step. It is this step which we will look at in two weeks from now and entitled, The Voyage from Mystery to Faith. Mystery is a part of life, plain and simple. Faith is our innate response to mystery. We call it religion. We call it spirituality. We call it faith. Einstein concludes, “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle or you can live as is everything is a miracle. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
0077 Meadowood Drive
Aspen, Colorado 81611
http://www.aspenchapel.org