Let's Get Small
Subatomic, even
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:5)
Let me put in a plug for my friend the Rev. Warren Mueller, an Anglican Priest with an actual background in the STEM world. If you are drawn to conversations integrating faith and science, his Substack is a good place to stop in.
In a recent reflection, Warren+ says, …if we let a football field represent the size of the universe, the planet earth would only be a trillionth of an inch wide! That would be smaller than a single hydrogen atom. That’s pretty dang small.
As I studied the lessons for the coming Sunday (I’m preaching again — they should call it Church of The Gluttons for Punishment), I was struck by the dang small size (just five verses) of the Epistle from Romans and its seeming shrinkage compared to the other lessons.
The Old Testament, Psalm and Gospel all point to God’s power over the universe (the football field in Fr. Mueller’s example above),
Jonah hops a boat to run from his God-given mission, so God throws down with a storm, then has Jonah swallowed by a sea creature which “tosses” him up on the shore where God wanted him in the first place.
Psalm 29 acclaims God as Lord over supernatural beings and nature’s mightiest forces alike.
The Gospel According to Matthew tells us that Jesus could stroll on the sea and switch off the wind.
But the Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Rome, gives us five verses about Jewish identity and anxiety (his included).
Instead of God’s mastery over all cosmic powers, Paul gets small. He tells us that a small group from a tiny sliver of the planet will bring forth…
One guy. Let’s get small, indeed.
But this one guy is…
God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
You see, this Almighty God who created and rules over the universe chooses to restore and complete it by moving from smaller to greater.
In the midst of the universe (the football field), God chose one planet (the millionth of an inch) and on that one planet entered a covenant with one couple made in the divine image, Adam and Eve (now we’re getting super subatomic, double dang small).
As Paul writes earlier in Romans, the creation was corrupted from micro to macro, as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…(5:12)
God responds to recreate what was ruined, working from micro to macro. He makes a fresh covenant with one man, Abraham. From the one man and his wife, a clan; from that clan, a nation; from that nation, the Christ,
For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:48-49)
This revealed pattern, from particular to catholic (universal) helps answer the question most recently in the public ear via Congressional hearings and a film from director Steven Spielberg, who asked,
Is God our God only on this planet, or is God a God for every system where there’s civilization, intelligent life, and even developing life?
Christian faith reveals that the incomprehensibly great God of the incomprehensibly large universe works from love, bowing to bless the dang small earth and its weird life form, the church, in order to renew everything in the whole creation, other planets and any other life forms included, through Jesus Christ…
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)
Understanding this well before Paul wrote it, John the Baptist was doing "Let’s get small” well before Steve Martin performed it,
And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered … “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:26-27, 30)
Brothers and sisters, quarks or less on the earth and God knows what in the universe, let’s get small. Not to degrade ourselves (life does enough of that), but to exalt the one who came to lift us from the dust to share his eternal universe, Christ Jesus.
Thank you brother Tim for the shout out, and thank you for your message about the reading in Romans. In the writings of agnostics like Carl Sagan or atheists like Sean Carroll, one can perceive how entranced they are with either the vastness of the cosmos or the beautiful complexity of the sub-atomic world.
What you pointed out in the brief reading from Romans is how one single person, born of the dust of the earth, delivered the whole creation to corruption, and another person of heaven, restored that creation.
The incomprehensible God is working out the infinite and eternal cosmic plan on a playing field that is "dang small" in size, yet at the same time unimaginably crucial to that cosmic plan. Your suggestion for us to get small seems like darn good advice!