Everything Is Connected

Jer. 8:18-9:1

I Tim. 2:1-7

How many of you believe that one day we will discover life somewhere else in the universe?  That is, you believe that there are other civilizations in some other galaxy that we just don’t know about yet?  That would be a pretty amazing discovery, wouldn’t it?  It would change the way we see almost everything.  

How many of you believe that life on earth is the only life in the universe?

Maybe some of you saw the recent news reports of the spacecraft Voyager I.

Voyager 1 (launched September 5, 1977) is an unmanned space probe designed to explore the outer planets and then travel out of the solar system.  Well, just this week it was confirmed that Voyager 1 has passed out beyond our solar system.

A gold-coated copper phonograph record containing a message to any possible extra-terrestrial civilization that they may encounter is attached to the spacecraft.  The record contains both video and audio images of Earth and the civilization that sent this message to the stars.

The record begins with 118 pictures.  These show the Earth's position in the galaxy; a key to the mathematical notation used in other pictures; the sun; other planets in the solar system; human anatomy and reproduction; various types of terrain (seashore, desert, mountains); examples of vegetation and animal life; people of both sexes and of all ages and ethnic types engaged in a number of activities; structures (from grass huts to the Taj Mahal to the Sydney Opera House) showing diverse architectural styles; and means of transportation, including roads, bridges, cars, planes, and space vehicles.

The pictures are followed by greetings from Jimmy Carter, then president of the United States, and Kurt Waldheim, then Secretary General of the United Nations.  Brief messages in 54 languages, ranging from ancient Sumerian to English, are included, as is a "song" of the humpback whales. 

The next section is a series of sounds common to the Earth - including thunder, rain, wind, fire, barking dogs, footsteps, laughter, human speech, the cry of an infant, and the sounds of a human heartbeat and human brainwaves.

The record concludes with approximately 90 minutes of music, "Earth's Greatest Hits."  These musical selections were drawn from a broad spectrum of cultures and include such diverse pieces as a Pygmy girl's initiation song; bagpipe music from Azerbaijan; the Fifth Symphony, First Movement by Ludwig von Beethoven; and "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry.

It will be tens, or even hundreds of thousands of years before the Voyager comes close to another star, but it carries a friendly greeting just in case it ever makes its way to another civilization.

A group of scientists in England is committed to using the latest scientific research to search for life in the universe.  These astronomers and physicists have formed the SETI Network (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). 

Six powerful telescopes across England have been linked together by fiber optic cable, creating a super-telescope called eMerlin.  It is capable of listening to radio frequencies throughout the Universe, scanning for possible transmissions from other civilizations.

Here’s my point (you were worried there wasn’t one, weren’t you?).  If aliens exist, they’re not really alien to us.  They’re connected to us and we’re connected to them.  Because everything is connected.  And everything is connected because everything, and everyone, is created and loved by God.

So think of whatever you can that is foreign to you or unlike you.  Think of some prehistoric cave person hunting deer in the Alps; or some Chinese peasant farmer out in the middle of the country we’ll never meet; or imagine some little blind fish that lives in a thermal vent down 7 miles deep in the Marianas trench; or picture some advanced civilization of beings inhabiting some distant corner of the universe. Everything is connected.

The Pastoral Epistles are first-century letters addressing how congregations are to shape their lives in the context of the wider society.  There are rules for Christian behavior, family life, the conduct of church leaders – all given as helpful wisdom for how to live as minorities, but as minorities connected to everything else.

And one feature of this instruction is how to pray.  Now that may seem sort of ho-hum.  Offering instruction on how to pray usually doesn’t stir much excitement in congregations.  If you have been in church very long, you have heard too many sermons on prayer.  Not another, please!!  We’re for it.  We pray.  Enough. 

If that’s you, then you should enjoy Paul’s approach here.  He gets to what matters: Pray all kinds of prayers, for all kinds of people.  Or as William Matthews summarizes the passage: “Pray often.  Pray for everybody.  Prayer is good.  Prayer pleases God.”  Amen.  Let’s go home!

What is offered to us in this passage is really something special and wonderful.

Because if we pray this way it will make a difference in our lives together as a congregation.

Every organization, churches included, will face the temptation to become selfish over time.  To allow its focus to shrink.  To become smaller and less creative in its outlook and vision.

This instruction to pray with a wide imagination will keep us from closing down into an isolated organization.  This instruction to include all kinds of people in our prayers will keep us connected to what’s going on in the world.

Paul uses the Greek phrase for “everyone” three times in this passage.

He urges congregations to pray for “everyone” (v. 1)

He reminds us that God wants “everyone” to be saved (v. 4)

And he points out that Jesus Christ gave himself for “everyone” (v. 6)

So here’s the point: our praying is to mirror the wideness, the generosity, the inclusiveness, of God’s love shown to the world in Jesus Christ.  The way we pray is a kind of sharing in God’s own life.

Now this will require a fresh way of seeing the world, and a new way of praying.  Here the wideness of God’s love is rooted in the specific confession about Jesus Christ.  Paul doesn’t urge us to pray for everyone because there are many paths to God.  He doesn’t say all religions are the same.  Nor does he simply urge us to pray for Christians, for church-people, limiting our concerns to people like us.  He instructs us to pray for everyone because God loves and is working to save everyone through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As a congregation, this expansive, generous, all-including love of God connects us to everyone and everywhere else.  It connects us to all places of wounded-ness and all places of joy around the world.  And it connects us to everyone in our community as well. 

But this way of praying is also a wonderful invitation to personal growth and flourishing.

Prayer opens the heart.  And prayer connects things.  

Paul invites us to keep our hearts open and to imagine our connectedness to everything else.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with loving those nearby.  You will, of course, feel special affection for your immediate family, for your closest friends, for your community and for your country. 

And yet Paul invites us to develop an openness of heart that broadens out beyond that.

Let me remind you of the truest thing about you.  God love you.  And God loves every part of you.  Every dark corner, every embarrassing failure, every heart-wrenching struggle, every bit of hard to get rid of anger.  There isn’t any part of you that escapes God’s love for you in Jesus Christ.  And it’s this experience of being loved that opens the heart and connects us to everything else. 

Let me take an example from today’s news.  I read of a suicide bombing today in Peshawar, Pakistan.  A suicide bomber blew himself up at a church, killing around 60 and wounding hundreds of Christians. 

Now do we have the kinds of hearts who can feel our connectedness to those Pakistani Christians?  Their skin marks them as different from us.  Their allegiance is to another country, one Americans have had a difficult relationship with.  They speak a different language.  It might be hard to see our connections to these Middle Eastern Christians. 

The challenge might be that our hearts are racist, seeing Middle Eastern people as always on another team.  Or the challenge might simply be indifference: there will be lots of news stories today and these people are a long way away.

But let’s press further.  Can we develop hearts that will pray for their leaders, prayers for the peace of Pakistan so that the people can live quietly and with godliness?

And now can we pray for Pakistani Muslims, the clear majority religion of the area?

And finally do we have hearts to pray even for the terrorists who planned and executed this terrible bombing?

With all of our daily routines, duties, obligations, busyness – can we really extend the affection of our hearts around the world to people we don’t know?  Yes, we really can develop open and generous hearts.  That’s the work of God’s Spirit in us.

We can pray for everyone, because God’s love includes everyone and Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death was a death for everyone.  For Pakistani Christians, for Pakistani Muslims, for terrorists.  And even for our personal enemies.

This is the kind of heart Jesus had.  He invites us to bless our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  These are the hardest kinds of prayers.  But this way of praying will deepen you as a person and open your heart.

John Chrysostom (4^th cent bishop): “No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.”

Everything is connected.  You are connected to everyone and everything else, because you share with everyone and everything else the blessing of being loved by God in Jesus Christ.  This includes every people group, of every color and every religion.  This includes giraffes and centipedes, rocks, trees, rivers and mountains.  And if there are alien civilizations 50 light years away, it includes them too.

What is at stake?  Christians and congregations who do not respond to this challenge are missing out on a wonderful opportunity for growth and renewal.  Here we have a chance at a largeness of vision, a wideness of generosity, a satisfying connection of our hearts to everything else in a love that mirrors God’s love for all things.