Making sense of culture, history and science

[Jonathan Evens]

Bible reading

Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. (Luke 24. 25 – 27)

Meditation

In Risen, the latest Jesus film to be released, “Roman military tribune Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) remains set in his ways after serving 25 years in the army. He arrives at a crossroad when he's tasked to investigate the mystery of what happened to Jesus following the Crucifixion. Accompanied by trusted aide Lucius, his quest to disprove rumours of a risen Messiah makes him question his own beliefs and spirituality. As his journey takes him to places never dreamed of, Clavius discovers the truth that he's been seeking.”

Alister McGrath described the conversion of C.S. Lewis as occurring in a similar fashion: “It is like a scientist who, confronted with many seemingly unconnected observations, wakes up in the middle of the night having discovered a theory which accounts for them ... It is like a literary detective, confronted with a series of clues, who realises how things must have happened, allowing every clue to be positioned within a greater narrative. In every case, we find the same pattern – a realisation that, if this was true, everything else falls into place naturally, without being forced or strained. And by its nature, it demands assent from the lover of truth. Lewis found himself compelled to accept a vision of reality that he did not wish to be true, and certainly did not cause to be true ...

Lewis finally bowed to what he now recognised as inevitable. “In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

Lewis ... realised that if Christianity was true, it resolved the intellectual and imaginative riddles that had puzzled him since his youth ... he began to realise that there was a deeper order, grounded in the nature of God, which could be discerned – and which, once grasped, made sense of culture, history, science, and above all the acts of literary creation that he valued so highly and made his life’s study.’ (Alister McGrath, C.S. Lewis: A Life)

When Jesus unpacked the scriptures to his disciples on the Emmaus Road, they must have felt something similar. What he said made sense of a situation that seemed beyond their understanding.

As a Cambridge physicist Professor John Polkinghorne might be expected to disbelieve such an extraordinary miracle as resurrection, which appears to contravene the laws of nature. But in fact, it is the cornerstone of his faith. Reflecting on the remarkable rise of the early Church, he has concluded: ‘Something happened to bring it about. Whatever it was it must have been of a magnitude commensurate with the effect it produced. I believe that was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.’

Perhaps as “Sherlock Holmes once remarked to Dr Watson … ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’”

Prayer

Risen Lord, speak into our foolishness and slowness of heart in believing all that the prophets have declared! Help us realise it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, interpret to us, through your Spirit, the things about yourself in all the scriptures.

Risen Lord, be to us the victory, the end of strife; be the resurrection and the life.

Risen Lord, help us see and sense the deeper order, grounded in the nature of God, which we can discern – and which, once grasped, makes sense of culture, history, science resolving the intellectual and imaginative riddles that have puzzled us until know. May we see that if your story is true, everything else falls into place naturally, without being forced or strained.

Risen Lord, be to us the victory, the end of strife; be the resurrection and the life.

Risen Lord, help us by beginning in you to let you read our riddles and teach us truths your Spirit will defend. You are the End who meets us in the middle, the new Beginning hidden in the End. You are the victory, the end of strife. You are the resurrection and the life.

 

Risen Lord, be to us the victory, the end of strife; be the resurrection and the life.

Blessing

Sensing a deeper order grounded in the nature of God, making sense of culture, history and science, resolving intellectual and imaginative riddles, things falling into place, victory, the end of strife, resurrection and new life. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

 

Priest for Partnership Development - St Martin-in-the-Fields (tel: 020 7766 1127, email: jonatha...@smitf.org) and St Stephen Walbrook (tel: 020 7626 9000, email: pri...@ststephenwalbrook.net) Secretary - commission4mission (http://www.commission4mission.org/) Director - Sophia Hubs Limited (http://sophiahubs.com/) Twitter: @jevens / @commission4miss Blog: http://joninbetween.blogspot.co.uk/ Book: 'The Secret Chord' - http://www.thesecretchord.co.uk/ Meditations: 'Mark of the Cross' (http://www.theworshipcloud.com/view/store/mark-of-the-cross-pdf) / 'The Passion' (http://www.theworshipcloud.com/view/written/the-passion-the-passion)