Robert T. Young - "Just a Spring of Hope" (February 2, 1975)
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| - | When John Glenn made his orbital flight six months ago, | 0:11 |
| he was questioned often regarding his religious faith | 0:15 | |
| in contrast to Gagarin Pito's scornful assertion | 0:19 | |
| that he didn't see God anywhere up there, | 0:22 | |
| Glen commented quietly, | 0:26 | |
| "I do not know the nature of God | 0:28 | |
| but he'll be wherever we go." | 0:31 | |
| That affirmation of faith made me resolve | 0:37 | |
| to wrestle with the mammoth issues | 0:40 | |
| related to the God of outer space. | 0:41 | |
| Obviously, this is a timely topic | 0:45 | |
| even without this week's assist from the Russians. | 0:48 | |
| I did not know | 0:52 | |
| that the North Carolina Methodist layman's conference | 0:53 | |
| meeting on this campus this weekend | 0:56 | |
| was to have a discussion group | 0:59 | |
| dealing with Christianity in the space age. | 1:00 | |
| Even if I had been invited | 1:05 | |
| I should not have dared to attend | 1:06 | |
| for you men have probably | 1:08 | |
| completely undermined this sermon. | 1:10 | |
| During the University Alumni weekend | 1:14 | |
| here at Duke this past June, | 1:17 | |
| a panel of distinguished professors | 1:19 | |
| approached the year of the astronaut | 1:22 | |
| from various perspectives | 1:24 | |
| and thereby whetted the appetite of many of us | 1:26 | |
| for further exploration. | 1:29 | |
| Two weeks ago another Methodist related school, | 1:32 | |
| Simpson College in Iowa, | 1:35 | |
| held its second Aerospace Institute | 1:37 | |
| for college and church leaders | 1:41 | |
| with the avowed purpose to explore a concept of God | 1:43 | |
| and his relationship to man and the universe, | 1:47 | |
| adequate to man's expanding concept of the universe. | 1:51 | |
| I regret that I do not yet | 1:57 | |
| have a report on their findings. | 1:58 | |
| But if we are to venture | 2:01 | |
| into the vast reaches of outer space, | 2:02 | |
| we must obviously reject certain unreliable rockets, | 2:05 | |
| which are popping off all around us. | 2:09 | |
| A recent television fantasy about flight to another planet | 2:12 | |
| took as its theme, the conviction that quotes, | 2:16 | |
| "God shaped people from a fixed formula. | 2:19 | |
| Therefore they'd be the same as here. | 2:23 | |
| Minds and hearts must have souls | 2:25 | |
| that makes them people." | 2:29 | |
| The ironic conclusion was that these planet people | 2:32 | |
| did look and talk and act like human beings | 2:35 | |
| though they had extraordinary powers | 2:39 | |
| that we do not yet possess. | 2:41 | |
| But when they captured the hero | 2:43 | |
| and put him in a cage on display | 2:45 | |
| as a strange inferior earth-man, | 2:48 | |
| he realized tearfully that they were just like us, | 2:52 | |
| with the same, yes alas, the same hearts | 2:55 | |
| and minds and souls. | 3:00 | |
| Or take a very different approach, | 3:05 | |
| one religious magazine this month | 3:06 | |
| turned to a verse in the first chapter | 3:08 | |
| of John's revelation of Jesus Christ. | 3:10 | |
| "Behold, he is coming with the clouds | 3:14 | |
| and every eye will see him." | 3:16 | |
| The editor then hailed the marvel of tale star | 3:19 | |
| which thrilled us all | 3:22 | |
| as answering at long last the biblical puzzle | 3:24 | |
| of how every eye will see the return of Christ. | 3:27 | |
| A fulfillment of John's prophecy, | 3:31 | |
| not as poetry he said, but literally, | 3:34 | |
| and in precise detail. | 3:37 | |
| Now, I think we are somewhat off course | 3:41 | |
| if we expect to see the second coming | 3:43 | |
| on our television screens, | 3:45 | |
| simply because a visible image | 3:47 | |
| now comes literally from heaven. | 3:50 | |
| One further example, sometime ago | 3:54 | |
| a German scientist convinced | 3:56 | |
| that there may be as many as 10 inhabited stars | 3:58 | |
| within a 1000 light years of earth | 4:02 | |
| suggested that we should watch for signals | 4:05 | |
| from these planets in the particular hope | 4:07 | |
| that stellar civilizations, | 4:10 | |
| which have already experienced atomic war | 4:12 | |
| may advise us how to avoid it | 4:16 | |
| or how to meet it. | 4:19 | |
| A commentator cynically inquired the probability | 4:21 | |
| of having to listen to planetary commercials | 4:24 | |
| claiming that stardust travels the light | 4:27 | |
| 50 light years, the smoke 50 light years further. | 4:30 | |
| But many Christians have a far more serious concern | 4:34 | |
| with the implications of the space age | 4:39 | |
| for their religious faith. | 4:41 | |
| If this is a timely topic, | 4:44 | |
| it is also an eternal topic. | 4:47 | |
| And I prophesy that we shall hear | 4:50 | |
| many speculative discourse like this | 4:51 | |
| in the years ahead. | 4:54 | |
| Having neither scientific nor theological qualifications | 4:56 | |
| for the intricate details involved, | 5:00 | |
| I would share with you this morning | 5:03 | |
| only some of the introductory thoughts | 5:04 | |
| about the problems which are raised. | 5:08 | |
| To my own surprise, this turned out to be | 5:11 | |
| not only a three point sermon | 5:13 | |
| as all professors of preaching recommend, | 5:16 | |
| but a Trinitarian sermon as well. | 5:19 | |
| That is, I wanna suggest very briefly, | 5:22 | |
| some questions related to our understanding of God | 5:24 | |
| as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. | 5:28 | |
| If this particular astronaut lands in the drink, | 5:33 | |
| or if you have to probe the data for days or months or years | 5:36 | |
| after this daring flight, | 5:40 | |
| that too will be typical of our embryonic space age. | 5:43 | |
| First of all, the God of outer space | 5:49 | |
| reveals himself as a creator of infinite magnitude and love. | 5:52 | |
| Long before Galileo and other pioneer astronomers | 5:59 | |
| began peeking at heavenly bodies other than angels, | 6:03 | |
| the Psalmist and shepherds and wisemen | 6:07 | |
| looked to the stars | 6:09 | |
| and found their incredible beauty, | 6:12 | |
| perplexing questions and reassuring faith. | 6:15 | |
| Today, as in ages long ago, | 6:21 | |
| the heavens are telling the glory of God | 6:23 | |
| and the firmament proclaims his handy work. | 6:26 | |
| Of course, this is an affirmation of faith, | 6:31 | |
| not open to scientific proof, | 6:33 | |
| but on the other hand, | 6:36 | |
| no scientific discovery gives any reason thus far | 6:37 | |
| for doubting the opening assertion of Genesis, | 6:41 | |
| that "In the beginning, | 6:44 | |
| God created the heavens and the earth." | 6:46 | |
| To be sure there are some religious people | 6:52 | |
| who look doubtfully at investigation and exploration | 6:55 | |
| lest presumptuous man be guilty | 6:59 | |
| of tampering with God's creation. | 7:01 | |
| In a recent lecture to a group of ministers, | 7:04 | |
| a Michigan professor of mechanical engineering | 7:07 | |
| spoke hesitantly about possible spiritual conflicts | 7:10 | |
| resulting from interplanetary travel | 7:14 | |
| and suggested that outer space might upset | 7:17 | |
| certain narrow visions about life only on earth | 7:19 | |
| or man as the pinnacle of creation | 7:25 | |
| or the absoluteness of time and matter. | 7:28 | |
| But he decided that this kind of intellectual rigidity | 7:33 | |
| is really an attempt to limit God to man's image. | 7:36 | |
| That it may be closer to sin than to enlightenment | 7:40 | |
| and that man has a moral obligation | 7:44 | |
| to seek to know God and his universe more fully. | 7:47 | |
| What shocked me even more than his fear | 7:52 | |
| about man's spiritual mandate to leave this earth, | 7:54 | |
| was it its distance that the most urgent present reason | 7:59 | |
| for pushing ahead in the space program | 8:04 | |
| is that of national survival. | 8:07 | |
| He listed three facets of justification, | 8:10 | |
| national security, national prestige, | 8:13 | |
| and the future economic and spiritual development | 8:17 | |
| of our nation. | 8:20 | |
| Now, one may expect such narrow patriotism | 8:23 | |
| from the Pentagon and occasionally from Congress, | 8:26 | |
| but for a scientist and Christian layman, | 8:29 | |
| addressing a ministerial conference, | 8:31 | |
| to put the whole focus of space exploration | 8:34 | |
| on national survival, | 8:37 | |
| even spiritual development | 8:39 | |
| for the sake of our own country alone | 8:41 | |
| seems to me to miss the religious significance | 8:44 | |
| of the space age, | 8:47 | |
| namely the creation of a vast universe | 8:49 | |
| by a God whose power and love | 8:52 | |
| infinitely transcend one nation or one planet. | 8:55 | |
| In a sense, one might say | 9:02 | |
| that the exploration of outer space | 9:04 | |
| shatters both deism and humanism. | 9:06 | |
| The further we push our scientific horizons, | 9:11 | |
| the more we might be in to say | 9:13 | |
| with the Psalmist, | 9:15 | |
| "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" | 9:17 | |
| The infinite complexity and scope of the universe | 9:22 | |
| makes it easy for some people | 9:25 | |
| to talk about an impersonal mechanical God | 9:27 | |
| who set the planet spinning | 9:30 | |
| but cannot possibly have loving concern | 9:32 | |
| for the infinitesimal insects | 9:35 | |
| who inhabit the tiny dot of earth. | 9:38 | |
| But when those infinitesimal insects | 9:42 | |
| begin to unlock the mysteries of that vast universe, | 9:45 | |
| when they speculate and plan and reach for the moon | 9:50 | |
| both physically and spiritually, | 9:55 | |
| then we are led toward the conclusion | 9:57 | |
| that they do have a purpose of place | 9:59 | |
| in the entire scheme. | 10:02 | |
| For the miracles of creation | 10:05 | |
| line not only in the distant phenomena of stellar space, | 10:08 | |
| but also in the minds of men. | 10:13 | |
| God shows his love | 10:16 | |
| not merely in the beauty and vastness of the heavens | 10:19 | |
| but in the wisdom and the ambition | 10:23 | |
| of human seekers after his truth. | 10:25 | |
| By the same token, those who have thought | 10:32 | |
| that man is the master of things, | 10:34 | |
| the lord of all he surveys, the apex of creation | 10:36 | |
| must look again. | 10:41 | |
| In this space age, we become newly aware | 10:43 | |
| of the incredible magnitude of the universe, | 10:46 | |
| of the distances and problems, | 10:50 | |
| which still separate us from the nearest star. | 10:51 | |
| We have come a few hundred light years | 10:55 | |
| on the path of scientific knowledge, | 10:59 | |
| but we have millions more to go. | 11:01 | |
| The question of whether life exists on other planets | 11:05 | |
| is but one small reminder | 11:08 | |
| that the universe lies infinitely | 11:10 | |
| beyond man's understanding. | 11:12 | |
| And if one can multiply infinity | 11:16 | |
| still further beyond man's control. | 11:18 | |
| The vastness of our physical setting | 11:24 | |
| makes it difficult to believe | 11:26 | |
| that mortal man has any absolute power. | 11:28 | |
| The vastness of human thought | 11:34 | |
| makes it difficult to believe | 11:36 | |
| that we are accidental specs of dust. | 11:38 | |
| Very simply, but very profoundly, | 11:43 | |
| the Christian faith assures us | 11:46 | |
| that an infinite God created | 11:48 | |
| not only the miracles of outer space, | 11:50 | |
| but human hearts and minds | 11:54 | |
| capable of receiving and using fragments of truth. | 11:55 | |
| This is one aspect of divine revelation. | 12:02 | |
| The second aspect of divine revelation | 12:08 | |
| is even more difficult. | 12:11 | |
| For some, it poses the threat of spiritual danger | 12:13 | |
| in space exploration | 12:16 | |
| because it relates to the central doctrine | 12:18 | |
| of Christian theology, | 12:20 | |
| namely the Christological problem. | 12:22 | |
| If there should be life in outer space, | 12:26 | |
| whether remotely similar to human beings or not, | 12:28 | |
| we shall try as Christians | 12:32 | |
| to fit them into God's purpose. | 12:34 | |
| No monotheists can exclude Mars | 12:39 | |
| or the hypothetical and much maligned Martians | 12:42 | |
| from God's creation. | 12:45 | |
| Furthermore, we would find it extremely difficult | 12:47 | |
| to exclude them from his plan of salvation. | 12:50 | |
| But what form of salvation? | 12:54 | |
| How, and when, and by whom? | 12:57 | |
| In Peter's bold proclamation about Jesus Christ of Nazareth, | 13:04 | |
| traditional Christianity has found its assurance | 13:08 | |
| that there is salvation in no one else, | 13:11 | |
| "For there is no other name under heaven | 13:14 | |
| given among men, by which we must be saved." | 13:17 | |
| You will note that this sentence | 13:22 | |
| speaks of the only name given among men | 13:23 | |
| and hence may not apply to the Martians | 13:26 | |
| but in view of the inconceivability at that time | 13:29 | |
| of intelligent self-conscious beings beyond earth, | 13:32 | |
| we may regard that as a dubious escape clause. | 13:36 | |
| According to John's gospel, | 13:41 | |
| Jesus himself was even more explicit. | 13:42 | |
| "No one comes to the Father, but by me." | 13:45 | |
| What then are we to say | 13:52 | |
| about creatures in outer space? | 13:53 | |
| Creatures who have obviously never known | 13:55 | |
| about Jesus of Nazareth, | 13:58 | |
| whatever relationship they may hold | 14:00 | |
| with God, the father and creator. | 14:02 | |
| I do not know. | 14:07 | |
| In these few minutes I can only suggest | 14:09 | |
| a few areas of thought for you to pursue | 14:11 | |
| the next time you talk about men on Mars, | 14:14 | |
| or the next time you read your Bible. | 14:17 | |
| If one God made heaven and earth | 14:21 | |
| and all that lives and moves and has its being, | 14:23 | |
| and if he promises to some of these | 14:27 | |
| a unique eternal fellowship with him | 14:29 | |
| as Christian doctrine maintains, | 14:33 | |
| are the Martians in or out? | 14:36 | |
| Did the man who died on the cross 2000 years ago, | 14:39 | |
| offer redemption to beings | 14:43 | |
| totally outside of human history? | 14:45 | |
| Or are they forever excluded | 14:48 | |
| from the glorious salvation | 14:50 | |
| to be found in Jesus Christ? | 14:53 | |
| All sorts of suspicious arguments may be proposed. | 14:57 | |
| If Mars didn't have an Adam | 15:00 | |
| or perhaps more aptly, an Eve to disobey God | 15:03 | |
| in the first place, | 15:06 | |
| creatures without a fall may not need a cross. | 15:08 | |
| But as we seek to understand original sin today, | 15:12 | |
| in terms of pride and selfishness | 15:16 | |
| rooted in our finite natures, | 15:18 | |
| I suspect that finite men on Mars, if any, | 15:22 | |
| have also sinned against God and one another, | 15:25 | |
| even if they too created in the spiritual image of God, | 15:30 | |
| they remain creatures. | 15:35 | |
| And creaturehood itself needs redemption | 15:37 | |
| and restoration by a loving God, | 15:40 | |
| rather than an arbitrary judge. | 15:44 | |
| I mentioned earlier, the German scientist | 15:48 | |
| who is waiting perhaps a thousand light years | 15:50 | |
| for words of advice from outer space. | 15:54 | |
| The commentator suggests a story in the style of CS Lewis | 15:57 | |
| in which the astronomer feverishly decodes | 16:01 | |
| a message from space, | 16:03 | |
| just as the first missiles of an atomic war | 16:05 | |
| begin to fall on earth. | 16:08 | |
| The message reads, "Watch oh, wise man | 16:11 | |
| of the dark planet. | 16:15 | |
| Watch for the star of the king of the Jews." | 16:17 | |
| That theme is poetically moving | 16:23 | |
| and spiritually valid for us earth men. | 16:26 | |
| But it does not explain how our Martian neighbors | 16:29 | |
| know about the Jews, | 16:32 | |
| even if they know about the king. | 16:34 | |
| So for myself, I would seek an answer | 16:39 | |
| in the infinite love of God, | 16:42 | |
| not in theoretical or even biblical formulas. | 16:44 | |
| Remember that the same gospel | 16:49 | |
| which includes the most exclusivistic passages | 16:51 | |
| about the role of Christ in salvation history | 16:54 | |
| starts with the assurance that, | 16:58 | |
| "In the beginning was the word | 17:00 | |
| and the word was with God, | 17:03 | |
| and the word was God." | 17:06 | |
| In other words, although we may recognize him | 17:09 | |
| as incarnate at a particular time and place | 17:13 | |
| in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. | 17:16 | |
| The second person of the Trinity, | 17:19 | |
| Christ, the son is eternal with the father | 17:21 | |
| and not to be limited by space or history. | 17:25 | |
| John's gospel goes on to say, | 17:30 | |
| "The true light that enlightens every man | 17:32 | |
| was coming into the world." | 17:36 | |
| And Paul and Barnabas declare that in past generations | 17:38 | |
| he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, | 17:42 | |
| yet he did not leave himself without witness. | 17:46 | |
| Jesus, the itinerant carpenter of Galilee | 17:52 | |
| manifested God's redemptive love in human history. | 17:55 | |
| And those who draw close to him | 18:00 | |
| will see God's will for us | 18:02 | |
| more clearly than in any other form. | 18:05 | |
| But the word, the light which enlightenth every man | 18:09 | |
| and the planet, | 18:14 | |
| the way, the truth, the life, | 18:16 | |
| may conceivably, perhaps necessarily, | 18:21 | |
| reveal God's love in other forms as well. | 18:25 | |
| Now, some of you will be asking | 18:31 | |
| why we are playing at word games, | 18:32 | |
| why we are apparently tampering | 18:35 | |
| with Orthodox Christian beliefs, | 18:36 | |
| I submit that the once fantastic notion | 18:40 | |
| of life in outer space, | 18:42 | |
| merely dramatizes a profound and crucial problem, | 18:45 | |
| which has confronted the church | 18:48 | |
| in its evangelistic mission for 2000 years. | 18:50 | |
| The distinction must be kept in mind | 18:55 | |
| between universal salvation, | 18:57 | |
| the conviction that all people | 19:00 | |
| are ultimately to be forgiven and restored by grace | 19:03 | |
| and universal opportunity for salvation. | 19:07 | |
| That is, for a deliberate choice | 19:11 | |
| between obedience and rebellion toward God. | 19:13 | |
| Are we compelled to believe | 19:18 | |
| by the Bible or historic creeds | 19:21 | |
| or the master himself | 19:25 | |
| that the loving father whom we see revealed in the son | 19:27 | |
| will permanently exclude from his kingdom | 19:31 | |
| all those on Mars | 19:35 | |
| or in Old Testament times, | 19:38 | |
| or in India, or even in our own country | 19:41 | |
| who have never heard of Jesus of Nazareth? | 19:45 | |
| Is it possible that the God of outer space | 19:49 | |
| may send or have sent his son on other missions, | 19:53 | |
| to other places, | 19:59 | |
| that other peoples may know his love | 20:01 | |
| in other ways? | 20:04 | |
| I simply raise the question, | 20:07 | |
| I do not presume to answer it. | 20:10 | |
| The third point is more obvious | 20:14 | |
| and perhaps more imperative. | 20:16 | |
| The God of outer space | 20:19 | |
| is also the God of inner space. | 20:21 | |
| The God who reveals himself in his fabulous creation | 20:26 | |
| and by his incarnate son | 20:30 | |
| reveals himself also as the holy spirit | 20:33 | |
| who acts in and through his receptive creatures. | 20:36 | |
| If we reject the notion of divine automation, | 20:41 | |
| which pushed the starter and let the mechanism roll, | 20:44 | |
| then we must recognize that somehow God works | 20:48 | |
| not only in history, | 20:51 | |
| but in human relationships | 20:53 | |
| and in individual lives. | 20:55 | |
| Jesus himself promised the counselor, | 20:59 | |
| the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, | 21:02 | |
| he will teach you all things | 21:06 | |
| and bring to your remembrance | 21:09 | |
| all that I have said to you. | 21:11 | |
| How tragically we have failed | 21:15 | |
| to prepare a solid launching pad | 21:17 | |
| for spiritual journeys, into outer space. | 21:20 | |
| From a material, economic or political standpoint, | 21:25 | |
| it may be true as we are being warned on many sides, | 21:29 | |
| that our moral foundations | 21:33 | |
| are inadequate to win the space race. | 21:35 | |
| A civilization riddled with corruption and shady values, | 21:40 | |
| in home and school and office, as well as public life | 21:45 | |
| may lack the single minded commitment | 21:49 | |
| that it takes to reach the stars. | 21:53 | |
| An affluent society, which spends more for shifting fashions | 21:58 | |
| or conspicuous waste | 22:02 | |
| than it does for lifting hungry masses | 22:03 | |
| to subsistence level, | 22:05 | |
| can hardly afford the sacrificial cost | 22:08 | |
| of soaring to the moon. | 22:11 | |
| A people not yet ready | 22:15 | |
| to treat dark-skinned fellow citizens | 22:17 | |
| with equality and dignity and love | 22:20 | |
| are far from prepared to deal | 22:25 | |
| with unknown creatures on distant planets. | 22:27 | |
| A world of disunited nations | 22:32 | |
| poised fearfully to destroy itself | 22:35 | |
| will find itself at critical disadvantage | 22:38 | |
| for interplanetary war or peace. | 22:41 | |
| As Jesus himself asked, | 22:46 | |
| "If I have told you earthly things | 22:48 | |
| and you do not believe, | 22:50 | |
| how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" | 22:52 | |
| Astute Bible scholars will remind us | 22:59 | |
| that the very next sentence declares, | 23:00 | |
| "No one has ascended into heaven | 23:03 | |
| but he who descended from heaven, | 23:05 | |
| the son of man." | 23:08 | |
| Skeptics may claim derisively | 23:10 | |
| that this week's sensational space achievement | 23:11 | |
| disproves the scriptures. | 23:15 | |
| What it may reveal instead, | 23:18 | |
| is the vast difference between physical space | 23:20 | |
| where man has now lived for three spectacular days, | 23:24 | |
| and heaven where God dwells, eternally. | 23:29 | |
| All of us are odd and fascinated by the conquest of space | 23:34 | |
| even when accomplished by our political rivals. | 23:38 | |
| But we know full well | 23:42 | |
| that man is not really worthy to live among the stars | 23:44 | |
| until he has learned to live with himself | 23:49 | |
| and with his fellow man. | 23:52 | |
| If our great culture would invest 1/10th of the money | 23:55 | |
| or resources or energy or brains | 23:59 | |
| which go for space research | 24:03 | |
| into conquering juvenile delinquency, | 24:06 | |
| crime, race prejudice, mental illness, and so on, | 24:09 | |
| we might be better able | 24:15 | |
| to cope with problems of outer space. | 24:17 | |
| Thus, if we are unprepared mechanically and morally | 24:23 | |
| to win the stellar universe for Uncle Sam, | 24:26 | |
| how much less prepared are we | 24:29 | |
| to recognize God's presence there? | 24:31 | |
| Even though John Glenn does say, | 24:35 | |
| "He will be wherever we go." | 24:37 | |
| I'm not proposing immediate plans | 24:41 | |
| for an evangelistic crusade to Mars, | 24:43 | |
| although I have read recently | 24:46 | |
| an unpublished manuscript | 24:48 | |
| about our missionary task in space, | 24:50 | |
| and there is good biblical warrant for such concern. | 24:54 | |
| Paul's letter to the Ephesians | 24:58 | |
| speaks of the plan of the mystery hidden for ages | 24:59 | |
| in God who created all things, | 25:04 | |
| that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God | 25:07 | |
| might now be made known | 25:12 | |
| to the principalities and powers | 25:14 | |
| in the heavenly places. | 25:16 | |
| In other words, the church does have | 25:20 | |
| a truly universal mission. | 25:23 | |
| But the basic to the job of the church | 25:27 | |
| is the power and purpose of God. | 25:30 | |
| The marvels of outer space | 25:35 | |
| and of human knowledge | 25:37 | |
| merely emphasized the majesty of creation. | 25:38 | |
| Man's dreams and his determination | 25:42 | |
| to free himself from earthbound life | 25:45 | |
| are part of his God-given nature, | 25:49 | |
| however, corrupted by mortal pride. | 25:51 | |
| To quote again from Ephesians, | 25:55 | |
| "He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight | 25:58 | |
| the mystery of his will, | 26:02 | |
| according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ | 26:04 | |
| as a plan for the fullness of time | 26:07 | |
| to unite all things in him, | 26:10 | |
| things in heaven and things on earth. | 26:13 | |
| Things in heaven and things on earth, | 26:19 | |
| united in him." | 26:23 | |
| For the God of outer space | 26:26 | |
| is the God of inner space, | 26:28 | |
| of moral values and of Christian love. | 26:31 | |
| The God who created the farthest galaxies | 26:34 | |
| and the laws by which they move, | 26:37 | |
| ordained also the laws of space technology | 26:40 | |
| which man now dabbles with and tries to use. | 26:43 | |
| He, it is who implants in man, | 26:48 | |
| the longing, the courage and the wisdom | 26:51 | |
| to reach for the stars. | 26:55 | |
| And he revealed himself to us | 26:58 | |
| in his son, Jesus Christ, | 27:00 | |
| gave us in that act of grace, a more excellent way, | 27:03 | |
| namely, the assurance | 27:07 | |
| that the Lord of the far horizons | 27:09 | |
| is nearer than hands and feet | 27:12 | |
| as close as the smallest act of loving service, | 27:15 | |
| as imminent as the whisper of a prayer. | 27:20 | |
| What is man, that thou art mindful of him? | 27:26 | |
| We do well to wonder. | 27:32 | |
| We do better to capture the faith of Psalmist, | 27:36 | |
| "Thou hast made him little less than God, | 27:39 | |
| but less, neither equal nor more. | 27:42 | |
| Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands | 27:47 | |
| to an extent the Psalmist never dreamed." | 27:51 | |
| Oh Lord, our Lord, | 27:55 | |
| how excellent is thy name in all the earth. | 27:58 | |
| Let us pray. | 28:06 | |
| Lord. | 28:14 |