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.

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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 ~ 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 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. with Michael Dowd and his wife Connie When each star exploded ~ it hurled those Barlow. Tom was sitting in his office as tiny atomic building-blocks of planets and life he was across millions of miles of space. listening to Connie explaining evolution as a Dying red giant stars and supernovas, like giant sacred, meaningful story and claiming that if we cosmic seed-pods bursting, are our ancestors ~ understand this story deeply enough, it will that’s where every single element of our bodies transform how we think, feel, and all life on Earth came from. and act in the world. Based on these facts, Connie calmly pointed out, Attlee said: with a glint in her eye, that we are all, I expected to become better informed ~ scientifically speaking, stardust. but I didn't expect to be transformed. There's no secret mystery or trickery about it. …Connie explained to a group of teachers how We are made of the stuff of stars ~ we are all all the hydrogen atoms in the water that is echoes of the Big Bang ~ and so is everyone and everywhere in and around us were all created everything around us. Ancient stars had to live and die before our Earth could be born.

3 Atlee, Tom ~ REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY THE UNIVERSE IS YOU AND ME ACTIVISM: Essays, poems and prayers from an Tom Atlee then looked out his office emerging field of sacred social change. Tomʼs window and thought book downloaded for free or purchased in quantity When I look out and see the world ~ at http://evolutionaryactivism.com. ______

The Oldest, Newest, Greatest Story We Know ~ 4 Gary McCaslin ~ 14 February 2010 ~ The First Baptist Church, Painted Post, NY

my entire me is seeing and not just my eyeballs. When we begin to see our species With great enthusiasm, Connie was saying the as stardust living lives that include opera same thing about each person and airplanes and cell phones and in relation to the Universe: medicine and movies and dreams and we humans are the Universe, pizza and cinnamon buns and we are the unfolding story of evolution itself, grasshoppers and kangaroos… newly aware of itself, peering at itself through our how can we look at this story and eyes, through our telescopes, through layers of not be overwhelmed with wonder? fossils and rocks, we are awe-struck And if we are truly filled with and full of wonder... wonder, how can we not see our own Finally Atlee said, lives and the life of every other it suddenly hit him… human as sacred? One moment I was watching and listening to Connie say all these things and then ~ I can't AWARENESS II ~ explain what happened next except that my body THE EARTH IS NOT FLAT and chair and computer and desk and house and We could deny or just ignore the neighborhood and city and world science of this story of our journey from became stardust ~ not static specks ~ but the Big Bang to the present. We could a slow-motion, incredibly complex and changing deny that we evolved from single cell wave of evolving “star-stuff” unfolding into organisms but if we did that, I believe we tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow... would not be true to ourselves ~ which is There was no separation to learn and grow and try new things at between me and everything else. every opportunity. … and in every cell of my body and mind I That creative drive and burning could feel an urge to become more alive, be more desire to know and explore new ideas is conscious, more responsive and engaged, to join exactly what allowed our species to whole- heartedly, whole-spiritedly in this great evolve into the complex world we have wave of evolutionary unfolding of which I was today. suddenly, a conscious part... Michael Dowd suggests that to Now I cannot promise such a deny this story is to employ a flat-Earth transformation experience for each of way of thinking. By that I do not mean you like Tom Atlee’s but I believe the we actually believe the Earth is flat. new perspective offered by this new What I do mean is that we would understanding of stardust that is you and be using the same science and me and a part of the Great Story can understanding of our Universe as the 4 make a difference in any life. people who wrote the Bible and they

4 There are two short videos available on the web that summarize the entire 13.7 billion year journey from exploding stars to human life. One is from is from the website the website http://thankgodforevolution.com. In the http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu upper right hand corner, play the “Trailer for the Click on the window that says book Thank God for Evolution.” The other video “History of the World in Seven Minutes.” ______

The Oldest, Newest, Greatest Story We Know ~ 5 Gary McCaslin ~ 14 February 2010 ~ The First Baptist Church, Painted Post, NY

certainly believed the world was flat.5 As an example, think about all that They were doing the best with what they is good and wonderful about a Baptist knew but their world was flat and we Church such as this one. have moved far beyond that thinking. Don’t think about the squabbles people have or all the things the pastor FLAT EARTH MEDICINE? forgets or the building that seems to be in Why is it that in every aspect of our lives, constant need of repair. we want the best and most recent ~ Just think about the community whether it be doctors, dentists, lawyers, into which you are welcomed when you psychologists, pharmacists ~ we want the join. The people of the church become most up-to-date technology ~ but still we your family. find those who are satisfied with two From that moment of joining, the thousand year old science and history as stories of the members you grow close to it is presented in the Bible? will join with your stories. Do we believe that revelations In addition, the more you see from God ended when the Bible was yourself a part of this church, the more written? you will also begin to see the stories of Michael Dowd also suggests that as yours ~ from this moment scientific facts are the language of God all the way back to the days Jesus walked and ~ in this way of thinking ~ God is on the Earth. constantly being revealed in more and more dramatic and exciting and Now imagine the story of Big mysterious ways everyday we are alive. History being told all around the world. Here is one story… one beautiful, AWARENESS III ~ THE STORY OF practically unbelievable story that holds BIG HISTORY IS OURS inside of it ~ not only every Christian When we consider the people here in story ever conceived ~ but also the stories this sanctuary this morning and all of of all religious faiths, all cultures, those alive on the planet today, all beliefs of every single person that we come to realize we are the first has ever existed and will ever exist. generation to know this Big History story Now that’s a big story and worthy of as well as we do. celebration everyday we draw breath! Once we know it, we have to tell it to as many people as we are able. My prayer is that from this day, Why? the Great Story of Our Existence will Because it is one story that can begin to be yours and not just in your bring together the diverse populations head, but in your heart and in your life. and cultures of the entire world. AMEN

5 This idea is from Michael Dowdʼs book Thank God for Evolution, pages 64-67 entitled: Flat- Earth Faith vs. Evolutionary Faith ______

The Oldest, Newest, Greatest Story We Know ~ 6 Gary McCaslin ~ 14 February 2010 ~ The First Baptist Church, Painted Post, NY