The creative artistic picture that is often painted doesn’t do it for me. It too unreal, with too much of a fairy tale feel.

The wow is in the science.

It was fantastic to see, so early in 2011, the wonder of the natural world displayed with the solar eclipse. Living in the UK there wasn’t much to see other than cloud but one or two quite staggering pictures made it onto the BBC website. It’s awe inspiring.

I’ve recently finished reading a document that will form the basis of a new study series at St Simon’s on the subject of science and God. It is quite a piece of work highlighting that there really is no conflict between the two despite what the tabloid media would have us believe.

Science and technology wow me everyday. We really are living in the future; some of the things we can now do are right out of science fiction. Our understanding of how things work, while far from complete, is now vast and growing all the time. The more we learn the more I find myself blown away by Gods creative genius.

Whether it’s DNA mapping and the new tree of life that it is drawing, or new discoveries about the nature of space, matter and time (yes, time travel!) coming out of CERN, or even our expanding view of the universe and all it’s wonders, it is the science of creation that wows me every time.

I am looking forward to seeing how this new course at St Simon’s goes down. I hope that in 2011 the balance of understanding will start to shift andthe myth that you have to lose your mind and forget your brains to be a Christian will be dispelled.

So you can keep your pretty pictures. Give me the science. I want to see the power of God!

If you are interested you can have a listen here.

The book from the gag at the beginning is one mentioned in this post; “Service Unrighteous Mammon”. Well worth a read; the book that is, the post, not so much. *Smile*

It fits well a truly within the realm of debates that I mentioned in my last post; in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. So why do I bring it up I hear you say.

I was recently listing to a song by Phil Wickam  when it dawned on me that I was listing to a hymn. Granted, the music style is contemporary, but replace that with a dirgey organ tune and you could be back, smack bang, in the middle of Victorian Christianity.

Four verses build a clear narrative, growing in scale to the grand finale. No chorus to speak of and a short musical interlude between each verse.  This might have been obvious to most but to me this was a bit of a revelation.

This song, for me, is one of the most powerful worship songs of recent years. It leads me to the throne room of God like no other at the moment. And it’s essentially an old style hymn with  contemporary  music.

It’s fantastic to have a modern worship song with such powerful words. It makes a nice change from the standard ballad; Jesus is my boyfriend type format.

There are some fantastic old hymns out there. Let’s not write them off because they have been locked up in their relic like muscial body. When I Survey, Be Thou My Vision, Amazing Grace have all had musical refits, that I know of, to great effect.

I’m not very musical. So this is a cry for help. Can you point me at good remakes of old classics? There is power in these old songs. Let’s make them relevant again.

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing
You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

In reading this account I was struck by Paul’s reaction to this difference in theological opinion. Paul is far more interested in what united his ministry with the eastern church than what separated it.

I wonder if this is something that we should be taking heed of today. While, on the one hand, denomination seems to be a long way down the list when many folk are choosing a church, we also hear of stories such as this one. that make the national press.

There is a clear divide (unfortunate choice of word, sorry) between the hard core traditionalists and those who hardly know what the difference between a Baptist, Methodist, or Anglican might be.

Paul didn’t seem to see these issues as ones to make a fuss about. Churches since then have split over much less I’m sure. But are there issues to split a church over? Or maybe such differences are what define us as an authentic community?

I’m not sure. What do you think?

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Is it my imagination or are there two creation stories here?

Read Genesis 1 & 2 here

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