The People of God at Worship
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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH INVOCATION O God Who Was God Before Time. of PAINTED POST, NY O God Who Will Be God Gary McCaslin ~ Pastor Beyond the End of Time We gather this day humbled by Creation THE PEOPLE OF GOD ~ its majesty and creativity, AT WORSHIP its abundance and beauty, its gentleness and power. Science & Religion Sunday Help us live in ways that continually February Fourteenth ~ Two Thousand Ten praise all we have been given. QUOTE ON BULLETIN COVER MORNING PRAYER Tell me a creation story more O God Who Was Present Before Time ~ O God Whose Majesty and Mystery wondrous than that of a living Knows No End ~ we gather cell forged from the residue of in awe of all Creation. We are overwhelmed by the magnificent exploding stars. Tell me a story gift of each life on the planet. Sometimes of transformation more magical we feel so insignificant and yet we feel your Love in every corner of our souls. than that of a fish hauling out Thank you God for your nurturing blessings that are ours in every moment onto land and becoming we draw breath and for all eternity. amphibian, or a reptile taking to We offer our prayer your sacred and holy name ~ AMEN the air and becoming bird, or a mammal slipping back into the SCRIPTURE ~ Genesis 1: 1-5 In the beginning when God created the sea and becoming whale. heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the Surely this science-based face of the deep, while a wind from God culture of all cultures can find swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there meaning and cause for was light. And God saw that the light celebration in its very own was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light cosmic creation story. Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was - Connie Barlow morning, the first day. ____________________________________________________________________________ The Oldest, Newest, Greatest Story We Know ~ 1 Gary McCaslin ~ 14 February 2010 ~ The First Baptist Church, Painted Post, NY ~ SERMON ~ The Oldest, Newest, THE OLD CONFLICT Greatest Story We Know This past week, Alex McInroy ~ Why is the Great Story so good? a young friend of mine who knows my views on evolution ~ told me about a INTRO: A BAPTIST DISCLAIMER group on facebook called “Let’s Find One It is important that I begin this Million People Who Believe in Evolution sermon with what I hope has become a by June.” I found the group and added familiar Baptist disclaimer. Today we myself as a fan. are participating in a time honored The very next day I got an email Baptist tradition ~ sharing a personal from my daughter Amanda in Boston belief as openly and honestly as possible. telling me that one of her roommates Actually we do this every time the Sarah noticed on her facebook account preacher stands in this pulpit ~ but the that I had become a fan of this evolution process is highlighted a little more today group; Sarah knew that because we are because the subject is controversial. facebook friends. 1 As Baptists, we believe in soul Sarah mentioned this to Amanda freedom, which simply means each person as a comment that just passed in a casual of faith is responsible for how his or her conversation. But Ashley, a friend from faith is constructed. Baptists revel in the college, was visiting for the weekend and reality that we are all different and we as she walked through the living room, celebrate this fact in our worship and she heard Sarah and Amanda talking. education. Ashley said in disbelief… Real learning comes when we get Amanda… I thought your dad below the “surface talk” of our lives and was a minister… share a little of our faith ~ and maybe Manda said some doubts ~ even though our beliefs He is. may differ. Incredulous, Ashley asked: The worst thing we could do is But, if he is a minister, how can have a Baptist Church where everyone he believe in evolution? had the same beliefs. It’s impossible to Amanda told me she almost didn’t know do any way but ~ we certainly know how to answer and simply said: churches who try. He’s a minister who believes in evolution. My responsibility is to share the Still confused Ashley said: words and ideas God has given me. But atheists are the only ones who can believe in Your responsibility is to take those words evolution. Christians are Creationists. in and wrestle with them and determine They believe in the Bible and the Bible how the ideas affect the nature of your says God created everything. faith. As Baptists, we believe we can all grow closer to God ~ and closer to each 1 If you are having any trouble with this facebook other ~ in the process. Please join us. terminology, please contact any teenager as soon as you are able for complete explanations. ____________________________________________________________________________ The Oldest, Newest, Greatest Story We Know ~ 2 Gary McCaslin ~ 14 February 2010 ~ The First Baptist Church, Painted Post, NY This particular conversation went and you know what we humans think of on for a little while but then ended the change. Sometimes there is a little way a lot of my daughter’s discussions on resistance. religion end: she gets on the phone, calls But my proposal here this morning me and says: is that The Great Story of How We Got Here Dad, will you please send me a few of your invites us into a way of thinking about sermons on evolution? science and religion in a way that is so I’ll let you know how these future totally transforming, it can alter how we Boston apartment discussions go. see every single aspect of our lives. SCARY QUESTIONS BIG HISTORY I called Amanda and asked for The primary inspiration for this permission to tell this little story because I sermon is a college course I just heard on believe it highlights the conflict between a set of CD’s entitled: religion and science present in the minds BIG HISTORY: The Big Bang, of many people and not just conservative Life on Earth and the Christians. Rise of Humanity2 While we have only met and Professor David Christian of San Diego talked with her a few times, I do not State University has been teaching this doubt the sincerity of Ashley’s confusion. class for almost twenty years. This is because when any Christian says In BIG HISTORY, Christian he or she believes in evolution, it attempts to tell ~ with the most recent immediately raises many questions that research in a wide variety of fields ~ can be very upsetting to a person’s faith. the entire story of our Universe from the Questions like… very beginning right up to the present If God did not create everything, moment. what did God do? Yes, it is a course taught in and colleges, but for me, it was a kind of If everything in Creation can be explained by spiritual experience, as I was able to see science, what do we do with the Bible? for the very first time what a truly, Do we stop teaching those magnificent story we all share. This was Creation stories to our children? especially so as I allowed myself to step If you and I just evolved from a process scientists back and see and understand all of the call evolution ~ where is God in the process? forces that have led to this point in our evolutionary history. AN INVITATION How does hearing this story The invitation to live happily and encourage a transformation to take honestly with science and religion in our place? lives means that some old ideas about God, and certain things we believe about 2 the Bible, are going to have to change… Available from THE TEACHING COMPANY, Chantilly, VA, www.TEACH12.com ____________________________________________________________________________ The Oldest, Newest, Greatest Story We Know ~ 3 Gary McCaslin ~ 14 February 2010 ~ The First Baptist Church, Painted Post, NY The answer is simply a new kind of shortly after the Big Bang awareness that comes from knowing the 13.7 billion years ago. That's old! events, circumstances and forces that I looked at the water bottle on my desk. brought us from the Big Bang to the It seemed different somehow, vaguely miraculous, present. filled with the most ancient things in the universe. I took a drink, and remembered that ONE OF MICHAEL’S BUDDIES my body is about 70 percent water. Some of you may remember way The idea that that much of me is directly back on July 6th, 2008, the evolutionary connected to the Big Bang gave me a very evangelist Michael Dowd came here to strange feeling. Connie continued: First Baptist and talked about The original hydrogen was thinly spread Evolutionary Spirituality. throughout space and gravity slowly pulled each I have been a fan of Michael’s for cosmic cloud of hydrogen closer and tighter a long time and have continued to keep together until some of them suddenly up with his work through the Internet. burst into atomic fire as the first stars. On his website, I recently discovered a She said it was the red giant stars that have been colleague of Michael’s named Tom using hydrogen for billions of years to forge more Atlee.3 atoms – like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. Connie explained how all the heavier elements ~ AWARENESS I ~ WE ARE STARDUST! like calcium and magnesium, iron ~ were made On Tom’s website, he described a when these supernovas exploded – time he had just come from a workshop each star as bright as a whole galaxy.