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You know, we humans...we think we're pretty smart these days. Recently, a group of eminent scientists got together and decided that Humans have come a long way and no longer need God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell God that God's services were no longer needed. The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need You. We're to the point where we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't You just retire?"
God listened very patiently and then said, "Very well...but first, how about this: let's have a creating contest." The scientist said, "O.K., great!" God added, "We'll each create a human, but we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam." The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed a handful of dust from the ground. But God just smiled and said, "No, no, no. You go make your own dirt!"
O.K., things may not have gone quite that far, but we - we humans - definitely seem bent on getting as smart about God as we possibly can and on trying to find absolute proof about the ways of God and, yes, even the existence of God.
On news stands this week, the cover article of Newsweek magazine is on "God & the Brain: How We're Wired for Spirituality." The article explains a new field of study called "neurotheology" - "the study of the neurobiology of religion and spirituality." Researchers are testing the chemistry and electrical functions of the brain in people who are deep in prayer or meditation or who are having profound spiritual experiences in order to determine what changes occur that, perhaps, are causing those spiritual experiences. For some of these scientists, the fact that changes do occur in the brain when people feel spiritually "connected" stands as some kind of proof that our experiences of "God" are, literally, all "in our heads." Some, though, are able to leave room for the possibility of God's creative genius at work. One portion of the article states, "...just because an experience has a neural correlate does not mean that the experience exists 'only' in the brain, or that it is a figment of brain activity with no independent reality. Think of what happens when you dig into an apple pie. The brain's olfactory region registers the aroma of the cinnamon and fruit. The somatosensory cortex processes the feel of the flaky crust on the tongue and lips. The visual cortex registers the sight of the pie. Remembrances of pies past (Grandma's kitchen, the corner bake shop...) activate association cortices. A neuroscientist with too much time on his hands could undoubtedly produce a PET scan of 'your brain on apple pie.' But that does not negate the reality of the pie."
One researcher named Newberg insists, "The fact that spiritual experiences can be associated with distinct neural activity does not necessarily mean that such experiences are mere neurological illusions. It's no safer to say that spiritual urges and sensations are caused by brain activity than it is to say that the neurological changes through which we experience the pleasure of eating an apple cause the apple 'to exist.'"
We humans...we can do all the research in the world but the bottom line is exactly as the end of the Newsweek article states: "...it is likely that [we] will never resolve the greatest question of all - namely, whether our brain wiring creates God, or whether God created our brain wiring. Which you believe is, in the end, a matter of faith."
What we believe about God is, clearly, a choice. IF we believe at all is, clearly, a choice. Oh, we might say, "Well, I wouldn't have any trouble believing if I could see absolute proof."
Really? Unless human nature has changed a whole bunch over the last 2000 years or so, I kind of doubt that. In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus was confronted by some folks who had seen, with their own eyes, the miracles...the healings...he had performed and the many lives he had changed, proclaiming the power of God within himself. Yet still they said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Like how many ways does He have to show them and tell them before they will choose to believe? How many ways does God have to show us and tell us before we will choose to believe?
Jesus' response is this: "I did tell you, but you do not believe. ...you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me."
This may sound like Jesus is somehow saying that some people are rejected...that some are not His sheep. But actually the only rejection involved is the rejection from those who choose not to believe. God - Jesus Christ - does not reject us. Only we may choose to reject God.
One of the innovations in computers, so I understand, is "voice recognition." You know, you can sit down and dictate a letter and the computer will type it for you. Well, we, too, are made with internal "voice recognition." You might say we humans are "wired for sound" - wired to hear and respond to the sound of God's voice...IF we choose to listen.
That is the key, of course; we must listen. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice." Now most of us have very little experience with sheep, but we do know something about dogs. Sheep and dogs are similar in many ways. A dog, like a sheep, will normally only respond to the voice of its master. (Unlike a cat, of course, who, when called, will just laugh and walk away.)
To know God, we must learn to listen and respond to God's voice. We often say we have trouble doing that...probably because our ears, our minds, our hearts, our lives are so full of clutter and chaos.
Several years ago I made an interesting discovery about the word "listen." "Listen" is an anagram...another word can be formed by rearranging those six letters. The word that is formed when "listen" is rearranged is..."silent."
No accident there. To truly "listen" we must be silent. Most of us find that hard to do. But if we are to ever truly connect with and hear Christ's voice within us, we must find a way to be silent. That means we must silence our mouths...our minds...our agendas...our demands...our questions...our opinions...our ideas...and allow the mind and heart of Christ to enter into us. The more we practice this "listening silence," the more we will be able to recognize the voice of Jesus and to obey when our Master calls.
God once made a covenant with the people of Israel which was reported by the prophet Jeremiah: [God said] "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." God has wired us for sound...enabled us to hear, respond and believe in God...if we will choose to do so.
The evidence of God around us is subtle. That's why belief is called "faith" - because we have to choose for ourselves. A couple of weeks ago our Gospel reading told the story of Thomas. He encountered the post-Resurrection Christ and wanted to touch the wounds of Jesus' body to make sure it was really Him. Jesus said, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
We are blessed when we choose to believe. The truth is we will never have absolute, undeniable, no-doubt-about-it evidence of God's reality on this side of eternity. We can choose to swim against the tide, fighting the waves and choking our way upstream all of our lives. Or we can choose to lie back and float...moving with the stream, held up on the surface by the unseen hand of God. Whichever way we choose to go, God is still in the river.
I love the story about the mice in the piano. Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. To them in their piano-world came the music of the instrument, filling all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music - though invisible to them - above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see.
Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very pensive. He had found out how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which trembled and vibrated. The mice, he said, must now revise all their old beliefs; none but the most conservative could any longer believe in the Unseen Player.
Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, numbers of hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. The Unseen Player came to be thought of as a myth. But the Pianist continued to play.
We are "wired" for spirituality. Our brains are a huge part of what we perceive and think about God. We are "wired" for intelligence and inquiry. We are "wired" for doubt...but we are also "wired" for faith. And there is a Master Electrician and Builder who created the design and did the wiring!
Believe! It's as simple as choosing to say, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing." Seeing is not believing...believing is seeing - seeing what can't be seen but what is still more real than anything else. We are wired for faith; choose to believe! Amen.
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