Sermon: The Path of Totality
Friday Nudge: Look Up!
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Friday Nudge: Look Up
Did you see the solar eclipse on Monday? We live near the path of totality, but not quite. In Ottawa, it was 98.99% total, but that is not enough to see it in its totality, so we took a road trip to our friend Lynne’s house.
On her back deck, with treats like sun chips and moon pies, we were able to gaze up at the sun, our cardboard eclipse glasses in place, and enjoy this amazing occurrence. It truly was awe-inspiring! Inside, the TV was on a news station as it tracked the eclipse from earlier spots in the world. While it was fun to see it on the screen, it just didn’t compare to looking at it live, our necks craned, and all of us, from as young as 8 to as old as 77, gushing in wonder.
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And that’s the crux of it; it really doesn’t compare to seeing the wonders of the Earth community through a mediated channel like TV, the internet, photos or text. While I’m grateful that we do have such mediums to introduce people to the wonders of God’s creation, especially those parts that exist in other parts of the world, it is important - indeed, necessary to our faith and spirituality - that we get out and see the complex, mysterious, inspiring (and yes, frightening) more-than-human world that God has and is creating.
So this is your Friday Nudge, my friends: Look up! Look up and pay attention, unmediated attention, to the sky and what’s in it, to this part of the Earth community. Look up in the day, and look up at night. (Fun fact: the big dipper looked kind of ‘upside down’ to me when I was in Geneva last month. If I hadn’t looked up, I wouldn’t have experienced that!). Look up, and tell me what you see.
Look up! What do you see that is part of God’s creation?
Sermon: The Path of Totality
Preached at Rothwell United Church, April 7, 2024
I couldn’t help it; I had to preach about the solar eclipse this past Sunday! I chose three readings, two of which will be familiar: the first creation story in Genesis 1:3-25, and the opening of the Gospel of John, John 1:1-5. However, the most interesting reading for me is a passage in Romans that is not in the lectionary, the schedule of readings for Sundays used in many churches.
Scripture Reading:
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. (Romans 1:19-20, NRSV)
God of Life, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our minds and hearts lead us to deeper understanding of you and the love you call us to live. AMEN.
Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Romans 1.20).
Ever since the creation of the world, God’s eternal power and divine nature have been understood and seen through the things God has made.
Sit with that, for a moment. We can learn what we need to know about God, through God’s creation. That is surely something to meditate on, to pray about.
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