“Eureka”

 

Colossians 1:11-20
1:11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully

1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

1:13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,

1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

1:16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him.

1:17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

1:20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

 

 

What does your “Nirvana” look like? Your “Shangri La?” For some people, it is a real place, such as a beautiful Caribbean beach or a wooded campground. I have friends for whom a trip to Disneyworld is like a vacation in heaven. Others find peace at a concert by their favorite band, or on a shopping trip to their “bestie” stores. Still others take a trip to a fantasy world, the product of reading a book or watching a film. Have you ever taken time to ponder this question? Where do YOU find peace? What brings you some version of transcendental joy? [Note here that we’re talking about some “ultimate” place of escape, one that is beyond the incredible, yet real sources of joy in life, such as those intimate times with our most precious partner, the joys of parenting and watching our children—or grandchildren—grow up, or time spent with a best friend.] 

 

Another way to ask the question is, “Where is your happy place? It may have a geography, or it may exist solely in your imagination. 

 

I must confess, that as one who has an over-active imagination, and the gift of being able to visit many “happy places,” I have quite a list. In fact, the line between the “real” experiences of joy and the ones I can meditate on in my mind is very thin. Maybe that would be interesting to a psychologist; I might even have some anomaly or pathology that explains this, but frankly, I like it, and really find great joy in these many “places.” I’m not bragging here, just stating a reality that, at least in my mind, is a gift. I suppose this ability to “escape” without using drugs or smoking “funny cigarettes” is why I enjoyed growing up in the 70s, when many others were experimenting with those things. I could “go there” without going there. Also, I was a product of the space age, growing up through the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, before graduating on to the Space Shuttle era. I have been a rabid “fan” of space exploration, as it sets off my “exploring” imagination. I own an official SpaceX “staff” polo shirt, and set my alarm for 1:00AM this past Wednesday to watch the launch of Artemis I. The opportunity a few years ago to spend two full days at the Kennedy Space Center was a personal trip to Nirvana. And It was just one more way for Dara to demonstrate her love for me, in that she indulged it, reminding me during the Canaveral trip that “You’re the spaceyone!” 

 

So, in retirement, I’ve indulged most of these “ethereal” happy places. I have returned to reading some of the classics such as Moby Dick. I’ve been watching the many DVDs I’ve acquired that cover the space program, from “Eight Days to Moon,” a PBS special, to “From the Earth to the Moon,” a documentary on the entire Apollo program by Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. And, I’ve gone back to watch two SyFy series that sounded SO interesting when they aired on that cable channel, but which my church schedule kept me from seeing when they were in their original run: Warehouse 13 and Eureka. 

 

Eureka is the one that most “transports” me to a happy place. For the uninitiated, this series is about a mythical town founded by Albert Einstein after World War II ends, named “Eureka.” A statue of Archimedes adorns the town square. (If you don’t know your science, the popular myth told about Archimedes (circa 287-212 BCE) is that as he was pondering how to measure the volume of an irregular shaped object, he climbed into a hot bath, and notice that the level of water in the bath went up as he lowered himself into the tub. He had his “ah-ha” moment, and ran excitedly down a public street shouting “Eureka!” while still dripping naked.) The town of Eureka is populated by the brightest minds in the country. If you don’t have a Ph.D., you ain’t nothin’ here. Even the restauranteur who runs the popular “Café Diem” has a Ph.D. in “molecular gastronomy.” The storyline is basically narrated by “Jack Carter,” the town Sheriff, who happens on the novel hamlet quite by accident, but as a U.S. Marshall, he ends up being the right man in the wrong place, and is “hired” as Eureka’s lawman. In the center of Eureka is its largest employer, a Department of Defense-sponsored thinktank called “Global Dynamics.” If you like to put theological labels on such interesting stories, Jack Carter (JC, get it?) is the Christ figure in the story, pretty much being the savior of the town in each episode.

 

Two things really make Eureka a stimulating happy place for me: The idea of so many brilliant minds being brought together to dream, hypothesize, experiment, and discover; and the cutting edge science and quantum theory that pepper the show, most of which—while exaggerated and fictionalized—the creators of the series made sure has some basis in fact. (I know, I’m really a geek, as I read a lot about that stuff.) It all gives the program a spiritual base, as the secrets of the universe are both uncovered and usually tampered with to such a degree it precipitates a crisis in each episode. The cast of “disciples” on Eureka include the brilliant African American Ph.D., Dr. Henry Deacon; the young but impetuous genius, Douglas Fargo, the beautiful Director of Global Dynamics, a dual Ph.D. and M.D. African American, Dr. Allison Blake, and a young, male felon who also happens to be an M.I.T. educated and master of particle physics, Zane Donovan. Eureka has a resemblance to another fictional town, Lake Wobegon, but in Eureka, it really IS true that it is a place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” In spades.

 

Now, I know you think I’ve taken you down a rabbit trail, but here is where we get to this weekend’s lectionary passage from Colossians. In this text, the author (allegedly the Apostle Paul) kind of “goes nuts” with ethereal and highly theoretical God language about the creation. Like in Eureka, no postulate is too highfalutin as to be unbelievable. The idea of a divine creator both crafting the universe and holding it together somewhat Zeus-like is quite real to this author. His narrative would have certainly charmed the intellectuals in the Greco-Roman world of his day. Let’s look at some of those postulates spelled out in Colossians 1:

 

*the [Heavenly] Father…has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

 

*[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness

 

*[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

 

*for in [Christ] all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible

 

*in [Christ] all things hold together

 

*[Christ] is the firstborn of the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything

 

*in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

 

*through him God was pleased to reconcile to Godself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

 

Not only are these highly philosophical ideas, but they border on the “science” of matter and creation. In invoking images of “light and darkness,” the author is going beyond symbolism to suggest that these basic elements of the creation story from genesis are more than just poetic in nature. Light is a force, we know now, and darkness, or what science calls “dark matter” is a force as well. Whether one is talking about the dark matter that permeates the universe and separates star from star, galaxy from galaxy, or the utter blackness of “Black Holes,” the author says that Christ “has rescued us” from the “power of darkness.” The light in which we live—indeed the light that makes all life possible and separates us from the darkness—has its source in the divine. When Jesus proclaims that HE is the light of the world, he is alluding to the same cosmic connection that the Colossians author is invoking in this mystical narrative. And in “rescuing” us from the smothering forces of darkness, we are deemed “children of the light.” 

 

Not only is there something sacred about light, there is something—actually many somethings—quite fascinating about it as well. Light may be the very “fabric” of creation. Even modern science doesn’t fully understand what light IS. On one hand, It behaves like a particle, and yet on the other, like a wave. It is made up of photons, which somehow are able to “communicate” with one another, and they exert a force on everything they “hit,” albeit quite miniscule. We can capture evidence of these photons on photographic film or on an electronic sensor, which is what makes photography possible. 

 

Einstein (and a million physicists since) have said that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, which is about 186,272 miles per second—much faster than a Tesla on Ludicrous Speed. This celestial speed limit is derived from Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC², where “E” is “energy,” “M” is “mass,” and “C” is the speed of light, which is “squared,” in the equation. From what I’ve read, the closer one gets to the speed of light, the more of one’s mass is converted to energy, until that’s all that is left. Talk about “burning rubber!” All that said, this is just another illustration of the “magic” of light, and how it is at the very center of the created order. No wonder Jesus, who embodied the fullness of God, called himself the “light of the world.” And no wonder a first century thinker like the author of Colossians made it such an important part of his effort to explain how the universe works to us.

 

Speaking of which, one of the most unusual parts of this narrative, and the one that has fascinated me ever since my faith “grew up” beyond the little painted chairs of the Sunday School, is in verse 17, where it says that “in him, all things hold together.” Science tells us that we, and all the matter that makes up the universe, is actually a coordinated series of “energy events” held together by some mysterious force, often dubbed the “strong nuclear force.” We know it’s an awesome force, for splitting an atom yields a whole lot of energy, as witnessed to by nuclear power reactors and hydrogen bombs. Could it be that this force is actually the hand of God? Or even more specifically, the incarnate Jesus Christ? Ponder that one for a while. It’s truly mystical to think that we are a miraculous bundle of energy given life and held together by the very hand of God. 

 

This sermon is already getting too long, but it could be worth exploring what the text means when it says in verse 20 that God is “pleased to reconcile all things to [Godself]…by the blood of [Christ’s] cross.” Blood is pretty much as miraculous and impossible to understand as light. We know that it is an iron-based fluid that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body, but we can’t replicate it, despite numerous attempts to do so. [A number of years ago, medical science came up with a blood substitute called “fluosol” that may be a temporary substitute for some percentage of the body’s blood, but it IS temporary, used only in the case of blood emergencies.] Blood, light, and the “cohesive force” of the hand of God—makes us possible, reconciles us to the Creator, and gives life vector and meaning. Who said scripture was “boring?”

 

Back to Eureka. Most good drama borrows from the immensely pregnant narratives in the Bible. It just does, if the story is to be good. The SyFy series Eureka did an entertaining job of blending science with spiritual subject matter and good old storytelling. You had your Christ figure, the inquisitive human mind (how many times were the words of the prophets, the teachings of Jesus, or the letters of Paul precipitated by good questions from inquiring minds, or crises that popped up, due to human failings? So many times in this TV show, the crisis began with a brilliant mind unlocking some deep secret of the creation, turning something loose into the world that we weren’t ready to manage. Sound familiar? While I don’t like to “go negative” very often, isn’t much of what we (and the Bible) calls “sin,” just this? Us, unlocking something that the Creator didn’t want let out, or at least not YET? Yes, we are often guilty of premature speculation. 50 years ago, it would have been considered a heinous sin against God’s created order to play around with human ovum and sperm outside of the “normal” way of human procreation. Now, there are countless individuals walking around in our midst who were the product of a petri dish and a prodding scientist.

 

The author of Colossians is giving us good stuff to ponder, and I believe she/he is giving us permission to wonder, as well. God is so much more, this writer is saying, than a “religious” overlord who demands obedience to a list of rules and precepts. This is an interactive Creator who wishes her people well in their own investigations about the nature of the universe, and ourselves. And Jesus Christ is the fulcrum or the center of the Creator/human creation link, first to reconcile us from the error that separated us, and then to provide the necessary light and energy for our life as Children of God. Eureka! Believe, love, live, and explore! These are the things that God offers to us, and these are the things that make God happy when we do them, with passion, purpose, and power. Amen!

 

P.S. If you have access to Eureka on Prime Video, or wherever, and you love Christmas as much as I do, view Season 4, Episode 10. You’ll love it!