William Brown, Professor of Hebrew
Scriptures at Columbia University in Atlanta, GA, was a presenter at Epiphany
Explorations in Victoria at the end of January.
He has an interest in ecology and justice as well as astrophysics and
astrobiology. He gave three
presentations in Victoria about interpreting biblical stories and the life we
live through wonder, i.e. a hermeneutic of wonder.
While I’d not heard of using wonder
as an interpretive lens by which to view biblical stories and the stories of
our own lives, I’ve long had an interest in science and astronomy and am often
in awe at the beauty of life. I love
getting to the top of a mountain and spending time in silence just taking it
all in. Almost every night, I will go outside
to look up to the night sky to see if any stars or planets are visible. I have a couple of aps on my iPad to help me
understand the placement of the constellations and I look at it often.
Keep Jumbo Wild! |
I’ve long loved Psalm 8 and think of
it as the philosopher’s psalm. “Who are
we mortals that God should give us any heed?
And yet God has made us little less than God’s self.” I imagine the writer of Psalm 8 looking up at
the night sky and wondering about our place in the universe and God’s intention
of love and justice for the world.
A couple of weeks ago, just after Epiphany
Explorations, I was visiting my mother in Nanaimo; there was a convergence of
Mars, Venus and the sliver of a waxing moon just after sun-down; these three celestial
lights were in a tight triangle and very visible. Last night (Monday the 13th of February),
I went to a dark place just after 7 pm to look at the constellations. Venus is very bright in the southwest sky;
Mars is visible too, but much fainter.
I love the night sky. When I was younger, a friend and I bought a
map of the night sky constellations. We
were camping with our spouses and we had red lights and were looking up at the
sky, consulting the map and trying to guess what we were looking at. But it wasn’t computing. After some ½ hour of trying to figure it out,
we both realized that we had inverted the directions so where N was, we were
thinking it was S, and vice versa. Well,
our spouses thought this was hilarious… so did we, as a matter of fact. We all laughed and this seemed to reinforce
the wonder with which we viewed the night sky (not to mention the wonder of
human laughter).
Brown outlined how physicians are
telling us that a sense of wonder can open up vistas of healing for us. It helps calm us and helps us put stress into
perspective. A sense of wonder leads us
to value and cherish—indeed, love—all creation.
Without anthropomorphizing creation, love can be experienced in the
wonder of a grizzly seen at a distance, the grace of a deer leaping in the
forest, the jumping salmon in running river, the spring display of colour, and a
meadow just after the snows have gone. A
sense of wonder puts a new energy in our love for our fellow humans and in the
intimate love we share with lovers, close friends and family.
And a sense of wonder helps us come
at Scripture with new eyes and hear familiar passages with new ears. It can make the story come alive. Wonder can cultivate our deep commitment to justice
and the well-being of the planet. The
old hymn invites us to take time to be holy.
We can take this time by being present in the moments of our days to see
the world with wonder, to hear music with new wonder, and to share in life with
an incredible sense of awe.
Cultivating more wonder in our lives
can change us and create well-being... and it's good for the planet!
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