Homily Outline Combining Resources

Homily outline

• All of today’s readings focus on communication. Science itself is the practice of communicating (interpreting) data to form an explanation for why or how something observable happens, i.e. how something that has happened requires further interpretation to make sense in the here-and-now.
• The physics of Light and Time
  • The lights that we see in the heavens (planets, stars) are – often – the result of something that happened long ago that we are only perceiving now.  For instance, the moon is 380,000km away; light emitted from it requires 1.3 seconds to reach earth.  So, what we are seeing is – in effect – something that happened in the past.  We are literally viewing history.
  • This means that though light travels fast, it does not travel fast enough to reflect the event as it’s happening.  Thus, light is always slightly late; it’s appearance must be interpreted now.
  • Time, likewise, is more fluid than we once believed:
  • Einstein’s theory of relativity declares that time – an event that happened – can only be judged according to one’s frame of reference.
  • John’s Gospel has long understood this, focusing not exactly on a chronological order of events, but rather what those events
• Theological questions: such understandings of light and time pose significant theological questions about how something is able to reach from the past into the now:
  • Easter is just such a question: is it a thing happened, or a thing happening? Or might it be both, implying that God’s grace pervades (and exceeds) time and space?
  • How does one interpret an event that happened in the past but is encountered in the present (like, for instance, observable light from an exploding star)?
  • The reading from Acts is, similarly, asking questions after the fact about how the community should function as a result of the resurrection for
  • The reading from Revelation concerns matters of light, communication of the living Christ, and the new creation that God is bringing to birth.
  • Direction of travel seem to matter here: the New Jerusalem is coming down to earth, earth is not going up to it.
  • This has implications for the science of climate change: how the present creation is not being replaced but restored by God’s proactive action.  Consequentially, what is the cooperation – or rejection – of human beings in fashioning this New Creation?
  • The New Jerusalem is presented as being built of precious stones.  While they are beautiful to see, another point to consider is their geological Stone lasts (basically) forever, just like the New Creation that uses it to fashion the Holy City.