Article 5: Creation and Divine Providence – the work of an artistic engineer
September 26, 2010
BMC- Ps. 19:1-6 & Is. 45:11-12
Introduction: The Universe in PerspectiveThis morning we move on to Article 5 and make another shift. Now we move to the work of God in creation. We, like most of Christianity, believe that God created the universe and everything in it. We believe that God has created everything around us, but I think that we sometimes struggle to really put this into perspective. So I want to share the contents of an e-mail that I received a number of months ago that puts the universe and indirectly us into perspective.
Here we see a picture of Earth and a few other planets in our solar system depicted to scale. Note how large earth is compared to Pluto. Next we see the earth compared to all of the 8 other planets in the solar system. This e-mail obviously predates Pluto being demoted to a planetoid. Notice how small earth is compared to Jupiter, the largest of the planets in our solar system.
Next we add in the Sun. At this point, earth is barely visible at all. It is merely a dot that is highlighted by an arrow pointing to it. Then we move beyond our solar system and see a comparison with some other stars. Notice how small the sun is. You probably can’t read it, but there is also a note that states that Jupiter at this scale is noting more than one pixel, one dot on the screen.
Finally, we add in a few larger stars. At this scale, the sun only registers as one pixel, one dot on the screen. The star Antares, depicted here as the large orange globe, is so much larger than the sun that at this scale the sun is not even visible on the screen. We can’t even fathom the extreme size of many of the stars in the universe.
Our planet earth, which seems rather large to many of us, does not even register on the scale, let alone we as individual people. And then we may pause to realize that things get even smaller than us as well, right? There are one-celled organisms and there are single atoms and there are protons and neutrons and electrons that make up those atoms. God has created all that we can see and everything from electrons to massive stars that we cannot. For me, this helps to put things into perspective a bit.
For all of our accomplishments and all of our efforts, we are so insignificant in the scope of the whole universe. We are so limited in our ability to grasp the vastness of space and the complexity of the inner workings of all that is in the universe. What is man that God should acknowledge him? Things like this graphic can really put this into perspective for us.
We are small but matter
It also serves as an example of how creation teaches us about God. By looking to creation, we are able to see the grandeur of God. We are able to see the tremendous scale and power that God possesses to be able to make everything from an electron to the huge stars that are beyond our reach. Creation teaches us about how great God is and how insignificant we are.
At the same time, looking to creation also teaches us about how important we are to God in spite of how insignificant we are in so many ways. Because in the midst of all of the wonders that God created and all of the magnificent living creatures, God also created us and sought to have a relationship with us.
In fact, Jesus uses creation in the Sermon on the Mount to name how important we are to God. In the midst of his teaching about worry and how we should not do it in Matthew 6, Jesus points to the lilies of the field who are dressed in all their splendor and to the birds of the air that God feeds. Jesus reminds us that if God cares for the least of these things within creation and provides for their needs, how much more will God care for us? He is demonstrating how much more valuable we are to God and he uses creation to make his point.
With or Without People[1]
“A second grader once asked his teacher how much the earth weighed. The teacher looked up the answer in an Encyclopedia. "Six thousand million, million tons," she answered. The little boy thought for a minute and then asked, "Is that with or without people?"
“Viewed from one perspective, it might very well seem that people don't really matter very much. After all, we are but microscopic inhabitants of a tiny planet orbiting a relatively obscure star in a small galaxy among the billions and billions of stars and galaxies that make up creation. Yet the God of creation has counted the very hairs of our heads. Wow! What a magnificent picture of God.”
God is artistic
From looking to creation, we can learn our place in the grand scheme of things. We are both insignificant and yet deeply valued. We can also see that God is an artistic being. We can look at the beauty of the world around us and see that God too appreciates beauty.
Not too long ago I watched a couple of episodes of the documentary on PBS, National Parks: America’s best idea. It was about the national parks in the US and the history of how they have come to be what they are today.
I haven’t watched the whole series yet, but it was fascinating to learn some of the history and the challenges in creating the national park systems. One of the things that was most striking about the program was the grandeur and beauty of many of these places throughout the country.
So many places like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Mt. Rainer are simply breath taking vistas of creation. They display the grandeur and the beauty of God’s creation. By creating a national park around them we both preserve them in their natural state and prevent them from becoming nothing more than summer get a ways for the rich and famous.
It seems to me that the beauty of creation comes out in our Psalm for this morning. In the beginning of Psalm 19, we read that creation teaches us about God, “1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” We learn about God from scripture and we are called to proclaim the gospel to all; but as the Psalm declares, creation itself is declaring truth about God, truth that is accessible to all.
It then goes on to say, “In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.” In poetic language, we read of the beauty of creation. God didn’t have to make the world such a beautiful place, and yet he chose to include such beauty and diversity and the fact that he did so, teaches us about God.
We see glimpses of this in modern poetry as well like this one. It is about being who we are and doing our part, but it also names the beauty and diversity of creation in the process.
Identity[2]
A petunia doesn't try to be a pansy,
A rose is quite content to be a rose,
A poppy holds its brilliant head up proudly,
The zennia is so bright it fairly glows.
A sunflower stands as tall as it is able,
A daisy shares its freshness with us all.
With unique charm, each blossom gives us pleasure;
The variety of flowers never pails.
How grateful we should be for these creations,
Proud or shy, a flower's a work of art.
In addition to the cheer they spread, they teach us:
Be the best of what you are and do your part.
Author Unknown
I personally have experienced the artistic aspect of creation and have been deeply touched by it. When I was in seminary, we were living in Harrisonburg, VA. One of the blessings of being there was that we were only a half hour away from Skyline Drive.
At the end of spring semester if I didn’t already have a year long pass to the park, I would buy a week long pass. I would use it everyday to get away into nature, to hike the trails and to witness the beauty of creation from the overlooks along the trails. In the process, I was refreshed and renewed. There was just something about being in the beauty of creation that made me feel closer to God and that taught me more about who God is.
God is an engineer
I saw the beauty that God created, but also the functional side of the miracle of creation. I saw the new life that comes with the spring sun and rain. I saw that there is design in creation. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.”
Likewise, Ps 19 does not only proclaim the beauty of creation. It also reminds us of the design and the engineered function within it all as well.
In Psalm 19, we read of the Sun and its path. The Sun is engineered to come up everyday and to set every evening. It is engineered to be just the right distance away to support life. Too close and we become a super green house like Venus. Too far and we become the frozen, barren world of Mars.
Isaiah 45 alludes to this as well as it declares that it was God who made all things. It also describes the fact that God put the stars, which would include our sun, into place, as this comic from Reverendfun.com portrays. From creation, we see that God is a cosmic engineer.
The Oldest Profession[3]
“A doctor, a civil engineer, and a computer scientist were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world. The doctor remarked, 'Well, in the Bible it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam. This clearly required surgery, so I can rightly claim that mine is the oldest profession in the world.'
“The civil engineer interrupted and said, 'But even earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most spectacular application of civil engineering. Therefore, fair doctor, you are wrong; mine is the oldest profession in the world.'
“The computer scientist leaned back in his chair, smiled and said confidently, 'Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?'”
Regardless of which profession came first, we see God’s engineering touch all around us from the movement and the position of the sun to the ecosystems that sustain us. God is an engineer and this is one of the things that the National Parks have also taught us.
In these documentaries, we see that while we tend to think of the national parks as beautiful places; which many of them are, they are also very functional places. In fact, some of the places were saved more for their function than for their beauty.
It seems that the Florida Everglades were set to be drained and used for real estate. And in fact many acres were lost to this cause before the national park was put into place. But a crusade of sorts began to preserve as much of the Everglades as possible not because we think of swamps as beautiful places to visit, but because it is a unique eco system that is not found anywhere else in the world and as such contains wild life that is not found anywhere else in the world either. It serves a particular, designed function that needed to be saved.
With time and its existence, the national park system also learned more about the function of nature. In the early years, the national parks allowed and even encouraged the killing of wolves. They allowed it to the point of eliminating wolves from most of the national parks for several decades.
Some argued on the other side, that wolves actually served an important purpose and that herds would be healthier and stronger with the wolves hunting them than without them. And in fact, upon doing further study that found this to be true. The wolves didn’t hunt the strongest and the healthiest of a herd, they hunted the old and the weak. As a result, the presence of wolves increased the health of the herds.
God had designed it this way. Human pride or ignorance had interfered with it. But in recent years, park management has begun to reintroduce wolves into parks that have not had them for many years.
So What?
But as I consider these realities of whom God is, what seems most striking to me is the fact that God is an artistic engineer. We know that God is an artist and we appreciate seeing this throughout creation. We also so know that God is an engineer, we witness this everyday in the wonders of our human body and what all it can allow us to do. But what may be most profound is that God is completely both. God is both an artist and an engineer.
We have artists in our midst that are able to create beautiful music or paint beautiful pictures. We also have those in our midst who are able to design structures that will serve important purposes. Yet in many cases, we tend to be one or the other. We tend to be the artist or to be the engineer. We don’t tend to see both of those qualities held together in one person.
Yet in God, we see both of those realities held together in perfect balance. In God we see a creator who is both artistic and an engineer. In God we see both of those sides of humanity that has been created in God’s image coming together in one spiritual being.
Conclusion
This morning as we consider Article 5 of the Confession of Faith and God’s creation, let us look to creation to learn more about the creator. Let us learn our proper place as both insignificant in scale, but priceless in value. Let us observe the artistic beauty of creation while also appreciating the functional complexity of it all. And most importantly of all, let us give all praise to the one who has made it. May we praise God in all that we do.
Amen.[1] ChristianGlobe Illustrations, King Duncan, Christianglobe Networks, Inc. www.esermons.com
[3] http://jokes.christiansunite.com/Creation/The_Oldest_Profession.shtml
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