Finding God Beyond Science and Religion Feb.

10, 2013 Author: Stan Moody Matthew 11:25-30 Science, in its attempt to reach deep into quantum physics for the origins of life, has conceded. Science has discovered that there has to be more to life than materialism and its component parts. As the antithesis of religion, that realm in which materialism is subsumed by spiritualism, science cannot plunge any deeper without an admission of something called "downward causation". Downward causation, it seems, is the discovery of order in the most microscopic of particles. For want of a term that will resonate with the masses, there are those who will defer to downward causation as "God". The god of science is the irrefutable evidence that the material world cannot stand alone without a non-scientific hypothesis. You cannot be a holistic scientist, therefore, if the material world stands removed from its causation. It will be a relief to you, then, that science has discovered God. We might ask, "If so, what need have we for Jesus Christ, the revelation of 'downward causation'?" While I was in AZ this past week, my grandson brought to my attention a book he was reading, "God is Not Dead: What Quantum Physics Tells Us about Our Origins, and How We Should Live". This book was written by eminent physicist, Amit Goswami. I am sorry that I did not have sufficient time to read more of the book, but what I did read seemed to bear directly on our text this morning - that those who labor to find God can be put to rest through Jesus Christ, the prefect revelation to us of the Father. In a sense, then, Goswami seeks to elevate quantum physics to revelatory theology, rendering the Bible a moral and ethical code rather than the revelation of the eternal God to His human creation. In our frame of reference, Goswami prefers morality and ethics over righteousness, a condition that, ironically, seems also to be plaguing the church these days. First, let me say that the book is well worth reading in that it leads us at the very least to a single creator source, rather than to an ethereal presence of our own choosing. Yet, it is clear that Goswami rejects the biblical God as revealed in Jesus Christ, preferring a god revealed by evolutionary science and New Age philosophy. He picks and chooses through the best of all religions but makes the error of a failure of objective revelation, a condition, again, that seems to be plaguing the church these days. Goswami finds precepts of biblical Christianity to

be indefensible, which, when you think about it, well ought to be indefensible from a scientific apologetic that rejects the mystical in favor of empirical research. If you can find the Creator in creation alone, with a few enlightening philosophies such as the Sermon on the Mount to guide your focus, you need not, in fact, be a believer in Jesus Christ. Jesus becomes simply the one who got it right. Science, through quantum physics, becomes the new Gnosticism, available only to the truly educated and enlightened. Welcome to science, a new apologetic against religious fundamentalism, interjecting order in the place of such bothersome and superfluous doctrines as the virgin birth, the deity of Christ and the Resurrection. This flies in the face of our text in Matthew 11, where objective truth is discovered not through illumined minds but through the foolishness of "children". In those 6 verses is the key to life - the revelation of God the Father, "downward causation" if you will, through His only begotten Son, the Christ of Calvary. We will begin by asking the question, "Why are we here in this place of worship?" Are we here because we are smarter than the average person? No! Are we here because we have analyzed every religion and have chosen the right one out of our wisdom? No! Are we here because we are better educated than others who seem to have no basis in faith? No! Are we here because we are more moral than "people of the snowmobile"? No! Are we here because, while we are pretty good people who make a mistake now and then, we want to see how we can learn to make fewer mistakes? No! We are here because what makes no sense to the wise and educated makes sense to little children - you and me. I suspect that that is not very encouraging in this day of enlightenment and freedom of choice in everything, including religion. This may be a tough sell when we try to explain the why's and wherefore's of the Christian faith to those who are grounded in the material world. In fact, when you think about it, it is sometimes a tough sell to ourselves because the Christian belief system does not make logical sense. That is why it takes faith to believe it and faith to live it. Jesus has sent out the12 disciples on their first missionary journey. He is operating alone now but continues to teach and preach in the towns in Galilee. John the Baptist is in prison and is beginning to have some doubts as to whether or not Jesus is the one who was prophesied to come or whether they should expect someone else. Things are not going according to John's plan. Jesus tells John's disciples what He has been doing and pays tribute to John by saying that no human before John had been greater. He draws a crowd and begins to berate them: What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swaying by the wind; a man dressed in fine clothes? No! John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say that he has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a

friend of tax collectors and sinners because he socializes with the common people. Jesus likened them to children in the marketplace who could not decide which game to play. They found a way to criticize every prophet and rabbi. They claimed to be people with the wisdom to discern whether or not a person was honest and legitimate. Their wisdom, however, was all talk and no action: "Wisdom is proved right by her ACTIONS - not her WORDS." He goes on to give meaning to the difference between the wisdom of this world and that of the heavenly world by condemning the cities of Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum because the works that He did there did not result in repentance: If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Jesus then changes His tone and offers hope to those who are hearing His word. He begins by praising the Father. Instead of jumping in and praying for what He wanted, He praises the Father, saying, "I praise you, Father, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and have revealed them to little children". That seems a bit strange in our world, does it n not? The Gospel of Jesus Christ is, apparently, hidden from the wise of this world. It doesn't go to those who may be more worthy. It doesn't go, apparently, to those who can stand on their own two feet or pull themselves up by the bootstraps. It doesn't go, apparently, only to those who help themselves (you know, "God helps those who help themselves"). It goes to the unworthy; the broken; the naive; those to whom the crushing burden of their sin has been revealed. Jesus is praising the Father that He has hidden the Gospel - the Kingdom of God - from the self-righteous and the self-satisfied. Hiding or revealing the Gospel has nothing to do with IQ. Hiding the Gospel has to do with keeping out those who think they can make it their own way - to figure it out and find the path themselves. Hiding the Gospel has to do with keeping out the scientist who has found downward causation in the tiniest particles of the atom. It has to do with the philosopher who looks down a deep well for God and sees his own reflection. This praise of the Father extends into our day. The eyes and ears of the Christian cults that teach and preach salvation by works have been stopped. The denominations that have traded the truth for liturgies and pet doctrines of when, how and why Christ will return have been shut out. Baptists who think they are saved because they have made some sort of decision - walked down the aisle, raised their hands, prayed the Sinner's Prayer - are being shut out because they see

grace and mercy as being the result of something THEY have done rather than something God has done through Christ Jesus. It is the Father's good pleasure, apparently (v.26), to hide the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who want to credit themselves for being smart enough to accept it. That keeps the self-righteous and self-satisfied out of the Kingdom, even though they may have all the clichs and the language of favored religion; even though they may have enticed a lot of others to repeat that same Sinner's Prayer. Where we are going with this address to the crowd is to offer a rest to the foolish in the eyes of the world - to help us to rest from the wrenching business of trying to make it up ourselves or earn it ourselves. How is Jesus qualified to make these statements? It is certainly not because science will eventually prove the existence of God. To the contrary! Jesus makes it clear that these things that have been hidden from the wise and intelligent and proud of this world and revealed to such as little children - you and me - have been first given to Him by the Father. Jesus is the keeper of all these mysteries that have been hidden from the smartest quantum physicist in the world because the Father has entrusted Jesus with these gospel truths. He makes a statement of divinity here: No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son AND those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him." (v.27). This verse should strip us of all religious pride. You cannot know the Father just because you are a quantum physicist and can find him in the molecules of matter. You cannot claim to have a corner on the truth just because you are smart enough to recognize the truth when you see it. No! The mystery of the Kingdom of God is revealed not to the swift, the strong or the smart. The mystery of the Kingdom of God is revealed to those who have nothing to give - nothing to offer God. Instead, they come to Him begging for mercy. It is in the begging of mercy, apparently, that the poor of spirit find rest to their souls: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I do not believe Jesus is talking here only about folks who are struggling with health problems, grief, financial difficulties - all those burdens that we carry from time to time in life's passing. His vision, while it would include such burdens, is more global than that, I believe. It goes to the root of how we react to our burdens. If we are earthbound, the difficulties of life will weigh us down and

almost defeat us because our image, our reputation, our pride and our dignity are at stake. If, however, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, our personal burdens, however heavy they may be, will not defeat us. Our treasure is laid up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrodes and where thieves do not break in and steal. We have the innate sense that God sees us in our troubles, and He comforts us so that we may be able to bear it and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Jesus is speaking here, I believe, to those who are weary of trying to please God with their own efforts. He is speaking to those who labor to be good and moral instead of righteous, from which goodness and morality spring forth. He is speaking to those who are burdened under the weight of guilt. "Come to me, and I will give you rest." The Pharisees of Jesus' day were the same as the Pharisees of OUR day. They avoid the convicting impact of the law and, instead, pick and choose what they can master. As a result, they take the teeth out of the convicting nature of the law, water it down to a few absolutes like abortion and homosexuality and make it manageable without divine help. Jesus spoke of these folks in this way: "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders." By directing people to their favored lists of moral absolutes, they tie a heavy load on converts. Keeping the commandments of God is a load heavier than you and I are able to bear. We are not strong enough to lift it, and yet it must be lifted if we are to earn eternal life by our own merits. The Apostle Paul said it this way: "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" The battle within the very one that Paul faced - rages within every Christian. We are unable to do what we know we should do and unable not to do what we know we shouldn't. Who will deliver us from this body of death? Paul answers this with a burst of joy: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" That is the joy in the midst of an acute awareness of our sin that Paul finds lifts the weight. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Relief from the impossible weight of our sin is for those who come to Jesus. A cautionary note is in order here, however. Jesus is not inviting us to earn our salvation by coming to Him, thereby patting ourselves on the back for being winners. He is telling us to stop making ourselves worthy and to trust in His merits alone for the rest for which we so long. We cannot make ourselves born again, nor can we make others born again. "Come to me" is not restricted to our initial moment when we accept His divine forgiveness and grace. "Come to me" is an invitation to STAY in His rest by staying in His presence. We know because the next sentence after "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" is, "Take my yoke upon

you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls". What have we here? Are we trading one burden for a yoke? Ah, but it is a yoke that is shared! We are invited to come to the Lord Jesus and step into His yoke so that the load is distributed evenly. It's an act of submission. "OK, Lord, I have tried it my way. Yoke me to yourself so that my burden may be lighter, and I may go where you go and LEARN from you - not learn OF you but learn FROM you." What Jesus is saying here is that there is a direct benefit to coming to Him. That benefit is not that He will make it easier to walk through life but that HE will help carry the load of grief over our inability to save ourselves. To take on His yoke is to shift the burden of sin and death onto His shoulders. Is that not a wonderful metaphor for us? I will close with this thought. St. Augustine once prayed to God, "Thou has formed us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in thee". That rest is found not in taking Jesus yoke away from Him but in permitting Him to share the load. To take His yoke and to submit to go where He goes is an act of discipleship. "Come to me!" "Learn from me!" "Follow me!" "Receive rest from me!" That, my friends, is the divine path to the peace and joy of salvation.