BooMama: All Science, All The Time
Today I had the unexpected opportunity to hear Dr. John Lennox speak. Excuse my limited vocabulary, but he is, well, realllly smart. A professor of mathematics at Oxford (in England, not Mississippi). A world-respected scientist. A textbook writer. And above all these things, a believer.
The theme was the universe and God's role in it. Now you tell me - what are the odds of me, Science Doofus of the Free World, a person who would never knowingly go into any lecture that involved scientific concepts, hearing two talks on science and God within five days? And being interested?
Anyway, I looked up Dr. Lennox after I heard him speak, and I happened to run across something from All Saints Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where the priest actually used some of Dr. Lennox's remarks as a springboard for his sermon. I dig it, so I'll share it (just an excerpt):
"When you ask the question of how will God come, you are told of the central expectation of Christianity, that Jesus Christ Himself will come, He who loved us, He who freed us from our sins. He is coming. Jesus Christ Himself will come.
And you say, 'You’re a mathematician.' That’s right. Or, 'You’re a scientist from Oxford.' That’s right. 'Do you seriously mean to tell me that in the 21st Century that Jesus Christ will one day come?' I do, ladies and gentlemen. I do.
After all, it stands to logic that if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is risen from the dead, how is it that we think we have heard the last of him? The one who invented the atom, the human brain, who painted every color there is…how is it that we have heard the last of him? [emphasis mine because I love that]
There is another world and it’s real. This world is not the only world there is, and the issue that confronts us today is not which world do we live in. That’s obvious. We live in this one. The issue is which world do I live for?
...Imagine I were to come to your home for lunch and you put there a beautiful steak and I eat it and you try to talk to me and I don’t say a word. It would be difficult after awhile. I’m enjoying it, you’re talking and I’m eating. You go into the kitchen and you bring apple strudel (which I love by the way,) and then you put it on the plate and I eat it. You put on my favorite CD and I still don’t talk to you. Finally, at the end, angry, you say, ‘Don’t you see I’m here?’ and I turn to you and say, ‘The music is wonderful. The food is beautiful, but as for you, I’m not interested in you. In fact, it doesn’t matter to me whether you exist or not.’
There are millions of people in our world today who are exactly there. When it comes to God, He stands. He stands at the door and he knocks. The handle is on the inside, on my side. I can invite him in to eat with me and he with me, and enter the relationship of life that has sustained my life, my marriage, for the past 40 years. Or, I can live for the by-products of life and end up disastrously missing the goal. These are the biggest things in life."
As Elise says..."if that don't light your fire, your wood's wet."
The man who has arranged Dr. Lennox's speaking tour said that when they were in the car this morning, Dr. Lennox mentioned off-handedly that C.S. Lewis was one of his professors in college. The guy nearly slammed on his brakes. Dr. Lennox looked at him and said, "Oh. Do you think that might be of some interest to the audience?"
And the guy said, "Um. Yeah. I think I'd mention that if I were you."
Can y'all imagine?
(In the irony department, despite all my theological talk of the last few days, come 8:00 tonight BooMama will return - at least temporarily - to its All-Bachelor, All The Time format. I don't want to beat the theological horse to death, after all.)
The theme was the universe and God's role in it. Now you tell me - what are the odds of me, Science Doofus of the Free World, a person who would never knowingly go into any lecture that involved scientific concepts, hearing two talks on science and God within five days? And being interested?
Anyway, I looked up Dr. Lennox after I heard him speak, and I happened to run across something from All Saints Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where the priest actually used some of Dr. Lennox's remarks as a springboard for his sermon. I dig it, so I'll share it (just an excerpt):
"When you ask the question of how will God come, you are told of the central expectation of Christianity, that Jesus Christ Himself will come, He who loved us, He who freed us from our sins. He is coming. Jesus Christ Himself will come.
And you say, 'You’re a mathematician.' That’s right. Or, 'You’re a scientist from Oxford.' That’s right. 'Do you seriously mean to tell me that in the 21st Century that Jesus Christ will one day come?' I do, ladies and gentlemen. I do.
After all, it stands to logic that if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is risen from the dead, how is it that we think we have heard the last of him? The one who invented the atom, the human brain, who painted every color there is…how is it that we have heard the last of him? [emphasis mine because I love that]
There is another world and it’s real. This world is not the only world there is, and the issue that confronts us today is not which world do we live in. That’s obvious. We live in this one. The issue is which world do I live for?
...Imagine I were to come to your home for lunch and you put there a beautiful steak and I eat it and you try to talk to me and I don’t say a word. It would be difficult after awhile. I’m enjoying it, you’re talking and I’m eating. You go into the kitchen and you bring apple strudel (which I love by the way,) and then you put it on the plate and I eat it. You put on my favorite CD and I still don’t talk to you. Finally, at the end, angry, you say, ‘Don’t you see I’m here?’ and I turn to you and say, ‘The music is wonderful. The food is beautiful, but as for you, I’m not interested in you. In fact, it doesn’t matter to me whether you exist or not.’
There are millions of people in our world today who are exactly there. When it comes to God, He stands. He stands at the door and he knocks. The handle is on the inside, on my side. I can invite him in to eat with me and he with me, and enter the relationship of life that has sustained my life, my marriage, for the past 40 years. Or, I can live for the by-products of life and end up disastrously missing the goal. These are the biggest things in life."
As Elise says..."if that don't light your fire, your wood's wet."
The man who has arranged Dr. Lennox's speaking tour said that when they were in the car this morning, Dr. Lennox mentioned off-handedly that C.S. Lewis was one of his professors in college. The guy nearly slammed on his brakes. Dr. Lennox looked at him and said, "Oh. Do you think that might be of some interest to the audience?"
And the guy said, "Um. Yeah. I think I'd mention that if I were you."
Can y'all imagine?
(In the irony department, despite all my theological talk of the last few days, come 8:00 tonight BooMama will return - at least temporarily - to its All-Bachelor, All The Time format. I don't want to beat the theological horse to death, after all.)
posted by boomama at 2/27/2006 04:05:00 PM
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