Robert T. Young - "Just a Spring of Hope" (February 2, 1975)

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-	When John Glenn made his orbital flight six months ago,	0:11
	he was questioned often regarding his religious faith	0:15
	in contrast to Gagarin Pito's scornful assertion	0:19
	that he didn't see God anywhere up there,	0:22
	Glen commented quietly,	0:26
	"I do not know the nature of God	0:28
	but he'll be wherever we go."	0:31
	That affirmation of faith made me resolve	0:37
	to wrestle with the mammoth issues	0:40
	related to the God of outer space.	0:41
	Obviously, this is a timely topic	0:45
	even without this week's assist from the Russians.	0:48
	I did not know	0:52
	that the North Carolina Methodist layman's conference	0:53
	meeting on this campus this weekend	0:56
	was to have a discussion group	0:59
	dealing with Christianity in the space age.	1:00
	Even if I had been invited	1:05
	I should not have dared to attend	1:06
	for you men have probably	1:08
	completely undermined this sermon.	1:10
	During the University Alumni weekend	1:14
	here at Duke this past June,	1:17
	a panel of distinguished professors	1:19
	approached the year of the astronaut	1:22
	from various perspectives	1:24
	and thereby whetted the appetite of many of us	1:26
	for further exploration.	1:29
	Two weeks ago another Methodist related school,	1:32
	Simpson College in Iowa,	1:35
	held its second Aerospace Institute	1:37
	for college and church leaders	1:41
	with the avowed purpose to explore a concept of God	1:43
	and his relationship to man and the universe,	1:47
	adequate to man's expanding concept of the universe.	1:51
	I regret that I do not yet	1:57
	have a report on their findings.	1:58
	But if we are to venture	2:01
	into the vast reaches of outer space,	2:02
	we must obviously reject certain unreliable rockets,	2:05
	which are popping off all around us.	2:09
	A recent television fantasy about flight to another planet	2:12
	took as its theme, the conviction that quotes,	2:16
	"God shaped people from a fixed formula.	2:19
	Therefore they'd be the same as here.	2:23
	Minds and hearts must have souls	2:25
	that makes them people."	2:29
	The ironic conclusion was that these planet people	2:32
	did look and talk and act like human beings	2:35
	though they had extraordinary powers	2:39
	that we do not yet possess.	2:41
	But when they captured the hero	2:43
	and put him in a cage on display	2:45
	as a strange inferior earth-man,	2:48
	he realized tearfully that they were just like us,	2:52
	with the same, yes alas, the same hearts	2:55
	and minds and souls.	3:00
	Or take a very different approach,	3:05
	one religious magazine this month	3:06
	turned to a verse in the first chapter	3:08
	of John's revelation of Jesus Christ.	3:10
	"Behold, he is coming with the clouds	3:14
	and every eye will see him."	3:16
	The editor then hailed the marvel of tale star	3:19
	which thrilled us all	3:22
	as answering at long last the biblical puzzle	3:24
	of how every eye will see the return of Christ.	3:27
	A fulfillment of John's prophecy,	3:31
	not as poetry he said, but literally,	3:34
	and in precise detail.	3:37
	Now, I think we are somewhat off course	3:41
	if we expect to see the second coming	3:43
	on our television screens,	3:45
	simply because a visible image	3:47
	now comes literally from heaven.	3:50
	One further example, sometime ago	3:54
	a German scientist convinced	3:56
	that there may be as many as 10 inhabited stars	3:58
	within a 1000 light years of earth	4:02
	suggested that we should watch for signals	4:05
	from these planets in the particular hope	4:07
	that stellar civilizations,	4:10
	which have already experienced atomic war	4:12
	may advise us how to avoid it	4:16
	or how to meet it.	4:19
	A commentator cynically inquired the probability	4:21
	of having to listen to planetary commercials	4:24
	claiming that stardust travels the light	4:27
	50 light years, the smoke 50 light years further.	4:30
	But many Christians have a far more serious concern	4:34
	with the implications of the space age	4:39
	for their religious faith.	4:41
	If this is a timely topic,	4:44
	it is also an eternal topic.	4:47
	And I prophesy that we shall hear	4:50
	many speculative discourse like this	4:51
	in the years ahead.	4:54
	Having neither scientific nor theological qualifications	4:56
	for the intricate details involved,	5:00
	I would share with you this morning	5:03
	only some of the introductory thoughts	5:04
	about the problems which are raised.	5:08
	To my own surprise, this turned out to be	5:11
	not only a three point sermon	5:13
	as all professors of preaching recommend,	5:16
	but a Trinitarian sermon as well.	5:19
	That is, I wanna suggest very briefly,	5:22
	some questions related to our understanding of God	5:24
	as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.	5:28
	If this particular astronaut lands in the drink,	5:33
	or if you have to probe the data for days or months or years	5:36
	after this daring flight,	5:40
	that too will be typical of our embryonic space age.	5:43
	First of all, the God of outer space	5:49
	reveals himself as a creator of infinite magnitude and love.	5:52
	Long before Galileo and other pioneer astronomers	5:59
	began peeking at heavenly bodies other than angels,	6:03
	the Psalmist and shepherds and wisemen	6:07
	looked to the stars	6:09
	and found their incredible beauty,	6:12
	perplexing questions and reassuring faith.	6:15
	Today, as in ages long ago,	6:21
	the heavens are telling the glory of God	6:23
	and the firmament proclaims his handy work.	6:26
	Of course, this is an affirmation of faith,	6:31
	not open to scientific proof,	6:33
	but on the other hand,	6:36
	no scientific discovery gives any reason thus far	6:37
	for doubting the opening assertion of Genesis,	6:41
	that "In the beginning,	6:44
	God created the heavens and the earth."	6:46
	To be sure there are some religious people	6:52
	who look doubtfully at investigation and exploration	6:55
	lest presumptuous man be guilty	6:59
	of tampering with God's creation.	7:01
	In a recent lecture to a group of ministers,	7:04
	a Michigan professor of mechanical engineering	7:07
	spoke hesitantly about possible spiritual conflicts	7:10
	resulting from interplanetary travel	7:14
	and suggested that outer space might upset	7:17
	certain narrow visions about life only on earth	7:19
	or man as the pinnacle of creation	7:25
	or the absoluteness of time and matter.	7:28
	But he decided that this kind of intellectual rigidity	7:33
	is really an attempt to limit God to man's image.	7:36
	That it may be closer to sin than to enlightenment	7:40
	and that man has a moral obligation	7:44
	to seek to know God and his universe more fully.	7:47
	What shocked me even more than his fear	7:52
	about man's spiritual mandate to leave this earth,	7:54
	was it its distance that the most urgent present reason	7:59
	for pushing ahead in the space program	8:04
	is that of national survival.	8:07
	He listed three facets of justification,	8:10
	national security, national prestige,	8:13
	and the future economic and spiritual development	8:17
	of our nation.	8:20
	Now, one may expect such narrow patriotism	8:23
	from the Pentagon and occasionally from Congress,	8:26
	but for a scientist and Christian layman,	8:29
	addressing a ministerial conference,	8:31
	to put the whole focus of space exploration	8:34
	on national survival,	8:37
	even spiritual development	8:39
	for the sake of our own country alone	8:41
	seems to me to miss the religious significance	8:44
	of the space age,	8:47
	namely the creation of a vast universe	8:49
	by a God whose power and love	8:52
	infinitely transcend one nation or one planet.	8:55
	In a sense, one might say	9:02
	that the exploration of outer space	9:04
	shatters both deism and humanism.	9:06
	The further we push our scientific horizons,	9:11
	the more we might be in to say	9:13
	with the Psalmist,	9:15
	"What is man that thou art mindful of him?"	9:17
	The infinite complexity and scope of the universe	9:22
	makes it easy for some people	9:25
	to talk about an impersonal mechanical God	9:27
	who set the planet spinning	9:30
	but cannot possibly have loving concern	9:32
	for the infinitesimal insects	9:35
	who inhabit the tiny dot of earth.	9:38
	But when those infinitesimal insects	9:42
	begin to unlock the mysteries of that vast universe,	9:45
	when they speculate and plan and reach for the moon	9:50
	both physically and spiritually,	9:55
	then we are led toward the conclusion	9:57
	that they do have a purpose of place	9:59
	in the entire scheme.	10:02
	For the miracles of creation	10:05
	line not only in the distant phenomena of stellar space,	10:08
	but also in the minds of men.	10:13
	God shows his love	10:16
	not merely in the beauty and vastness of the heavens	10:19
	but in the wisdom and the ambition	10:23
	of human seekers after his truth.	10:25
	By the same token, those who have thought	10:32
	that man is the master of things,	10:34
	the lord of all he surveys, the apex of creation	10:36
	must look again.	10:41
	In this space age, we become newly aware	10:43
	of the incredible magnitude of the universe,	10:46
	of the distances and problems,	10:50
	which still separate us from the nearest star.	10:51
	We have come a few hundred light years	10:55
	on the path of scientific knowledge,	10:59
	but we have millions more to go.	11:01
	The question of whether life exists on other planets	11:05
	is but one small reminder	11:08
	that the universe lies infinitely	11:10
	beyond man's understanding.	11:12
	And if one can multiply infinity	11:16
	still further beyond man's control.	11:18
	The vastness of our physical setting	11:24
	makes it difficult to believe	11:26
	that mortal man has any absolute power.	11:28
	The vastness of human thought	11:34
	makes it difficult to believe	11:36
	that we are accidental specs of dust.	11:38
	Very simply, but very profoundly,	11:43
	the Christian faith assures us	11:46
	that an infinite God created	11:48
	not only the miracles of outer space,	11:50
	but human hearts and minds	11:54
	capable of receiving and using fragments of truth.	11:55
	This is one aspect of divine revelation.	12:02
	The second aspect of divine revelation	12:08
	is even more difficult.	12:11
	For some, it poses the threat of spiritual danger	12:13
	in space exploration	12:16
	because it relates to the central doctrine	12:18
	of Christian theology,	12:20
	namely the Christological problem.	12:22
	If there should be life in outer space,	12:26
	whether remotely similar to human beings or not,	12:28
	we shall try as Christians	12:32
	to fit them into God's purpose.	12:34
	No monotheists can exclude Mars	12:39
	or the hypothetical and much maligned Martians	12:42
	from God's creation.	12:45
	Furthermore, we would find it extremely difficult	12:47
	to exclude them from his plan of salvation.	12:50
	But what form of salvation?	12:54
	How, and when, and by whom?	12:57
	In Peter's bold proclamation about Jesus Christ of Nazareth,	13:04
	traditional Christianity has found its assurance	13:08
	that there is salvation in no one else,	13:11
	"For there is no other name under heaven	13:14
	given among men, by which we must be saved."	13:17
	You will note that this sentence	13:22
	speaks of the only name given among men	13:23
	and hence may not apply to the Martians	13:26
	but in view of the inconceivability at that time	13:29
	of intelligent self-conscious beings beyond earth,	13:32
	we may regard that as a dubious escape clause.	13:36
	According to John's gospel,	13:41
	Jesus himself was even more explicit.	13:42
	"No one comes to the Father, but by me."	13:45
	What then are we to say	13:52
	about creatures in outer space?	13:53
	Creatures who have obviously never known	13:55
	about Jesus of Nazareth,	13:58
	whatever relationship they may hold	14:00
	with God, the father and creator.	14:02
	I do not know.	14:07
	In these few minutes I can only suggest	14:09
	a few areas of thought for you to pursue	14:11
	the next time you talk about men on Mars,	14:14
	or the next time you read your Bible.	14:17
	If one God made heaven and earth	14:21
	and all that lives and moves and has its being,	14:23
	and if he promises to some of these	14:27
	a unique eternal fellowship with him	14:29
	as Christian doctrine maintains,	14:33
	are the Martians in or out?	14:36
	Did the man who died on the cross 2000 years ago,	14:39
	offer redemption to beings	14:43
	totally outside of human history?	14:45
	Or are they forever excluded	14:48
	from the glorious salvation	14:50
	to be found in Jesus Christ?	14:53
	All sorts of suspicious arguments may be proposed.	14:57
	If Mars didn't have an Adam	15:00
	or perhaps more aptly, an Eve to disobey God	15:03
	in the first place,	15:06
	creatures without a fall may not need a cross.	15:08
	But as we seek to understand original sin today,	15:12
	in terms of pride and selfishness	15:16
	rooted in our finite natures,	15:18
	I suspect that finite men on Mars, if any,	15:22
	have also sinned against God and one another,	15:25
	even if they too created in the spiritual image of God,	15:30
	they remain creatures.	15:35
	And creaturehood itself needs redemption	15:37
	and restoration by a loving God,	15:40
	rather than an arbitrary judge.	15:44
	I mentioned earlier, the German scientist	15:48
	who is waiting perhaps a thousand light years	15:50
	for words of advice from outer space.	15:54
	The commentator suggests a story in the style of CS Lewis	15:57
	in which the astronomer feverishly decodes	16:01
	a message from space,	16:03
	just as the first missiles of an atomic war	16:05
	begin to fall on earth.	16:08
	The message reads, "Watch oh, wise man	16:11
	of the dark planet.	16:15
	Watch for the star of the king of the Jews."	16:17
	That theme is poetically moving	16:23
	and spiritually valid for us earth men.	16:26
	But it does not explain how our Martian neighbors	16:29
	know about the Jews,	16:32
	even if they know about the king.	16:34
	So for myself, I would seek an answer	16:39
	in the infinite love of God,	16:42
	not in theoretical or even biblical formulas.	16:44
	Remember that the same gospel	16:49
	which includes the most exclusivistic passages	16:51
	about the role of Christ in salvation history	16:54
	starts with the assurance that,	16:58
	"In the beginning was the word	17:00
	and the word was with God,	17:03
	and the word was God."	17:06
	In other words, although we may recognize him	17:09
	as incarnate at a particular time and place	17:13
	in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.	17:16
	The second person of the Trinity,	17:19
	Christ, the son is eternal with the father	17:21
	and not to be limited by space or history.	17:25
	John's gospel goes on to say,	17:30
	"The true light that enlightens every man	17:32
	was coming into the world."	17:36
	And Paul and Barnabas declare that in past generations	17:38
	he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways,	17:42
	yet he did not leave himself without witness.	17:46
	Jesus, the itinerant carpenter of Galilee	17:52
	manifested God's redemptive love in human history.	17:55
	And those who draw close to him	18:00
	will see God's will for us	18:02
	more clearly than in any other form.	18:05
	But the word, the light which enlightenth every man	18:09
	and the planet,	18:14
	the way, the truth, the life,	18:16
	may conceivably, perhaps necessarily,	18:21
	reveal God's love in other forms as well.	18:25
	Now, some of you will be asking	18:31
	why we are playing at word games,	18:32
	why we are apparently tampering	18:35
	with Orthodox Christian beliefs,	18:36
	I submit that the once fantastic notion	18:40
	of life in outer space,	18:42
	merely dramatizes a profound and crucial problem,	18:45
	which has confronted the church	18:48
	in its evangelistic mission for 2000 years.	18:50
	The distinction must be kept in mind	18:55
	between universal salvation,	18:57
	the conviction that all people	19:00
	are ultimately to be forgiven and restored by grace	19:03
	and universal opportunity for salvation.	19:07
	That is, for a deliberate choice	19:11
	between obedience and rebellion toward God.	19:13
	Are we compelled to believe	19:18
	by the Bible or historic creeds	19:21
	or the master himself	19:25
	that the loving father whom we see revealed in the son	19:27
	will permanently exclude from his kingdom	19:31
	all those on Mars	19:35
	or in Old Testament times,	19:38
	or in India, or even in our own country	19:41
	who have never heard of Jesus of Nazareth?	19:45
	Is it possible that the God of outer space	19:49
	may send or have sent his son on other missions,	19:53
	to other places,	19:59
	that other peoples may know his love	20:01
	in other ways?	20:04
	I simply raise the question,	20:07
	I do not presume to answer it.	20:10
	The third point is more obvious	20:14
	and perhaps more imperative.	20:16
	The God of outer space	20:19
	is also the God of inner space.	20:21
	The God who reveals himself in his fabulous creation	20:26
	and by his incarnate son	20:30
	reveals himself also as the holy spirit	20:33
	who acts in and through his receptive creatures.	20:36
	If we reject the notion of divine automation,	20:41
	which pushed the starter and let the mechanism roll,	20:44
	then we must recognize that somehow God works	20:48
	not only in history,	20:51
	but in human relationships	20:53
	and in individual lives.	20:55
	Jesus himself promised the counselor,	20:59
	the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name,	21:02
	he will teach you all things	21:06
	and bring to your remembrance	21:09
	all that I have said to you.	21:11
	How tragically we have failed	21:15
	to prepare a solid launching pad	21:17
	for spiritual journeys, into outer space.	21:20
	From a material, economic or political standpoint,	21:25
	it may be true as we are being warned on many sides,	21:29
	that our moral foundations	21:33
	are inadequate to win the space race.	21:35
	A civilization riddled with corruption and shady values,	21:40
	in home and school and office, as well as public life	21:45
	may lack the single minded commitment	21:49
	that it takes to reach the stars.	21:53
	An affluent society, which spends more for shifting fashions	21:58
	or conspicuous waste	22:02
	than it does for lifting hungry masses	22:03
	to subsistence level,	22:05
	can hardly afford the sacrificial cost	22:08
	of soaring to the moon.	22:11
	A people not yet ready	22:15
	to treat dark-skinned fellow citizens	22:17
	with equality and dignity and love	22:20
	are far from prepared to deal	22:25
	with unknown creatures on distant planets.	22:27
	A world of disunited nations	22:32
	poised fearfully to destroy itself	22:35
	will find itself at critical disadvantage	22:38
	for interplanetary war or peace.	22:41
	As Jesus himself asked,	22:46
	"If I have told you earthly things	22:48
	and you do not believe,	22:50
	how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"	22:52
	Astute Bible scholars will remind us	22:59
	that the very next sentence declares,	23:00
	"No one has ascended into heaven	23:03
	but he who descended from heaven,	23:05
	the son of man."	23:08
	Skeptics may claim derisively	23:10
	that this week's sensational space achievement	23:11
	disproves the scriptures.	23:15
	What it may reveal instead,	23:18
	is the vast difference between physical space	23:20
	where man has now lived for three spectacular days,	23:24
	and heaven where God dwells, eternally.	23:29
	All of us are odd and fascinated by the conquest of space	23:34
	even when accomplished by our political rivals.	23:38
	But we know full well	23:42
	that man is not really worthy to live among the stars	23:44
	until he has learned to live with himself	23:49
	and with his fellow man.	23:52
	If our great culture would invest 1/10th of the money	23:55
	or resources or energy or brains	23:59
	which go for space research	24:03
	into conquering juvenile delinquency,	24:06
	crime, race prejudice, mental illness, and so on,	24:09
	we might be better able	24:15
	to cope with problems of outer space.	24:17
	Thus, if we are unprepared mechanically and morally	24:23
	to win the stellar universe for Uncle Sam,	24:26
	how much less prepared are we	24:29
	to recognize God's presence there?	24:31
	Even though John Glenn does say,	24:35
	"He will be wherever we go."	24:37
	I'm not proposing immediate plans	24:41
	for an evangelistic crusade to Mars,	24:43
	although I have read recently	24:46
	an unpublished manuscript	24:48
	about our missionary task in space,	24:50
	and there is good biblical warrant for such concern.	24:54
	Paul's letter to the Ephesians	24:58
	speaks of the plan of the mystery hidden for ages	24:59
	in God who created all things,	25:04
	that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God	25:07
	might now be made known	25:12
	to the principalities and powers	25:14
	in the heavenly places.	25:16
	In other words, the church does have	25:20
	a truly universal mission.	25:23
	But the basic to the job of the church	25:27
	is the power and purpose of God.	25:30
	The marvels of outer space	25:35
	and of human knowledge	25:37
	merely emphasized the majesty of creation.	25:38
	Man's dreams and his determination	25:42
	to free himself from earthbound life	25:45
	are part of his God-given nature,	25:49
	however, corrupted by mortal pride.	25:51
	To quote again from Ephesians,	25:55
	"He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight	25:58
	the mystery of his will,	26:02
	according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ	26:04
	as a plan for the fullness of time	26:07
	to unite all things in him,	26:10
	things in heaven and things on earth.	26:13
	Things in heaven and things on earth,	26:19
	united in him."	26:23
	For the God of outer space	26:26
	is the God of inner space,	26:28
	of moral values and of Christian love.	26:31
	The God who created the farthest galaxies	26:34
	and the laws by which they move,	26:37
	ordained also the laws of space technology	26:40
	which man now dabbles with and tries to use.	26:43
	He, it is who implants in man,	26:48
	the longing, the courage and the wisdom	26:51
	to reach for the stars.	26:55
	And he revealed himself to us	26:58
	in his son, Jesus Christ,	27:00
	gave us in that act of grace, a more excellent way,	27:03
	namely, the assurance	27:07
	that the Lord of the far horizons	27:09
	is nearer than hands and feet	27:12
	as close as the smallest act of loving service,	27:15
	as imminent as the whisper of a prayer.	27:20
	What is man, that thou art mindful of him?	27:26
	We do well to wonder.	27:32
	We do better to capture the faith of Psalmist,	27:36
	"Thou hast made him little less than God,	27:39
	but less, neither equal nor more.	27:42
	Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands	27:47
	to an extent the Psalmist never dreamed."	27:51
	Oh Lord, our Lord,	27:55
	how excellent is thy name in all the earth.	27:58
	Let us pray.	28:06
	Lord.	28:14

Item Info

Title:

Robert T. Young - "Just a Spring of Hope" (February 2, 1975)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4rx97f5r

Date:

February 2, 1975

Speaker:

Young, Robert T., 1935-2009

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0747
ref6695_6r7
uachapelsermaud
duke:628285
dcrau002718
ark:/87924/r4rx97f5r
d05ac62f-c7ba-4a3d-a410-5c92bf9d4cbc

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

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Robert T. Young - "Just a Spring of Hope" (February 2, 1975)

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