Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: November 26, 2005
Good Sabbath
November 26, 2005
"Mystery is but another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain." (Tyron Edwards)
"A mystery is something of which we know that it is, though we do not know how it is." (Joseph Cook)
"A religion without mystery must be a religion without God." (Jeremy Taylor)
Ancient man looked at the sky, he was filled with fear, for if there were clouds, he imagined monsters to devour him; if there were stars he imagined they were jewels forbidden to him; if there were thunder, he heard the voices of his many gods, for mystery was his master. Ignorance is filled with illusion that can master the mind, for imagination is more powerful than fact, and more interesting.
Today, a new age of science opens up knowledge and fuels imagination. The Spitzer Space telescope reaches a new beginning of time itself, and in its best infrared, an image of emerging stars, which they named "The Mountains of Creation." These pillars reach heights of up to 40 light years and are ten times as large as those in the Hubble image; that's big!!
And then we have scientists who peer into their telescopes and get their first glimpse of the infamous "black hole"--the center of the Milky Way--a black hole that is "gobbling stars". Science takes us to new frontiers of space that even imagination couldn't reach, shattering innocence and ignorance and the arrogance of "knowing". We who can't even cure a cold think that the black holes and creation itself are within our grasp, though the boundaries change each moment.
We humans think that we can know our brains even as new inventions scan it better than ever, bringing a little dangerous knowledge and much more mystery. We can scan our brains but learn little more about why we do what we do. As I devour more books about the brain, I am in awe of what we think we have found, putting temporary knowledge to human choreography of facts like a lyricist to music. (from the divine Diane Ackerman's "An Alchemy of Mind"): are we able to rewire our brains and thus direct our evolution--through the objects we invent and rely on? It is all musical comedy if in finding knowledge, we drift farther from truth and what God is supposed to mean.
Science finds that under hypnosis, a suggestion can turn into perception, just as digital images on the movie screen can promote themselves as reality, or just another form of fantasy
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Time Magazine tells us that the decade between late teens and late 20's is when young Americans just won't grow up, the 'twixers, who dip in and out of school'; we've known them, haven't we. Yet, the truth is that life is one continuous (in wobbly form) transformation from adulthood back to puzzlement as sagaciousness is not necessarily maturity but more mystery of what we think is happening. One illness changes our values and sometimes fears us into wisdom.
Many kids choose sociology and psychology as their fields of study because they are trying to locate "themselves"! This makes them become more confused at what they find in their studies. Others search for a spiritual compass that allows them a feeling of godliness, so that they discover more than science is willing to accept. God is the biggest mystery for He seems so silent and invisible. Yet His beauty and blessings are everywhere that our senses can venture, in living color, just waiting for our attention and discovery.
They need no telescopes nor miraculous visitation. They require common sense, compassion, and thoughtfulness, and just with these, the voyage to distant meanings provide clarity and insights that change lives and the perception of life itself-even death.
So we have choices that enliven debate and bring new clusters of discovery that is marvelously spiritual--filling those vacuums--once empt--but now filling with human feelings and understandings of why we are here and what here is all about.
So, my friends, journey to distant stars and find how wonderfully close they truly are, but make the journey with those you love, for it will make the journey faster and better and bring you all joy!
sandy
