Pastor's Message for September, 2006
Message in the Stars
One of the activities our family enjoys on our Cape Cod vacations is the frequent "walks around the loop" at night, after dinner and before bedtime, when the sky is black and - if the weather is clear - the stars are incomparably bright. The house is on a road that loops for about three-fourths of a mile on an "island" surround by a salt marsh and wetlands. Because this is far from any urban area and because few of the houses on the loop have any external lighting, there is very little light pollution and the night sky is filled with twinkling diamonds that overwhelm my senses as I walk with my eyes skyward (hoping to not walk off the roadway!).
Sometime during these walks, I invariably think of Vincent Van Gogh's painting of "The Starry Night," and the song about that painting written by Don McLean in the 70's. Because of my reading of a book this summer that mentioned the Underground Railway of the Civil War era, I also found myself singing (to myself mostly) the American Negro spiritual, "Follow the drinking gourd..." The Drinking Gourd is the Big Dipper which is the first constellation we see when we step outside the house, just across the street and above the trees. Slaves who were escaping to the North were reminded to make their way north by following the two pointer stars of the Big Dipper that point toward Polaris, the North Star. I have a treasured recording of The Weavers singing this old spiritual that guided many African Americans to freedom from enslavement in the South.
But mostly, when I and my walking companions are engulfed by these incredible night skies, I think about the greatness of the Creator God who set this seemingly infinite universe in motion and placed these stars in their places. The overused word "awesome!" seems too little an expression of praise and wonder.
I picture the Psalmist too having such a starry night experience just before writing his well-known words -
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4)
Some years ago the writer and preacher Frederick Buechner published one of his sermons called "Message in the Stars," in which he wondered "aloud" whether more people would believe...indeed if all would become believers were God to rearrange the stars of the Milky Way some night to spell out the message I REALLY EXIST or GOD IS. Of course, such is not the way God has chosen to reveal God's self to us, otherwise there would be no such thing as faith...only coerced belief (who could still remain an atheist after such an unambiguous heavenly announcement?).
But for me, the stars in their present locations are quite enough; I don't need the message spelled out any more than that. The night sky is not a "proof" of God's existence, but a testimony to the One who is so infinitely extravagant in creating an immense universe, of which we see only a glimpse. No wonder that at the dawn of creation "the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy." (Job 38:7)
The further miracle is that this God of the starry night and the infinite universe whose power is beyond any measure is the same God who comes to us in love and tender mercy in Jesus Christ, "of the Father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be..."
My hope is to carry the awe of those starry nights in my heart in the coming days of autumn and winter, along with the love of Jesus, the love that came down from heaven to earth to claim us as God's very children.
As we return to busier schedules and the tug and pull of "life after summer," I pray that you will find something of God in your hearts to carry you through all the seasons of life...the wonder of God's creation...the peace that passes understanding... the love "that will not let us go," and the joy that keeps a song in our hearts even on dark, starless nights.
"O Lord, our sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
(Psalm 8:1 and 8:9)
Grace and peace to you all,
Rev. Dr. Floyd W. Churn
Pastor
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