So. I was trying to consider my sermon for next Sunday, and I had the following written conversation with God. …And while I think perhaps I’ve never shared these sorts of conversations, believe you me, they’re more or less every day occurences for me.

In considering John 1:1-18, and drawing an odd line and arrow diagram that looks likes a Worshac inkblot, Sare wrote:

What is John trying to explain?

The mystery of God

He’s failing spectacularly.

You try, then.

After thinking about the prospect of explaining the ineffible niftyness of God, possibly to a bunch of people that don’t care one way or the other, plus taking a moment to consider the ins and outs of the Greek philosopical mindset that has largely shaped the West and how the niftiness of God according to, say, the current Dalai Lama, or Deepak Chopra sounds so different (and yet isn’t) from say, Plato’s understanding of the world, to say nothing of Augustine’s, Sarey writes this:

::sigh:: It’s all about your audience, right?

Something like that.

And then Sarey starts drawing waves and particles, because you can’t see God, but to know God through seeing the Son, or so says the Gospel of John. It’s like that with quantum bits: we know the waves exist, but as soon as we try to see the waves, particles appear that weren’t there before. You can’t actually see the wave, even though you know it exists – we see evidence of its existence, but we can’t see it. We can only see the particles. So the waves are a mystery, but the particles are manifest – but only when you look at them, like the tree in the forest and that cat in a box – Shrodinger might have missed his cat, but let me tell you, mine still exist and will be pissed if you enclose them in a box. Anyway. God is a mystery, but here we have a lovely manifest version: the J-man. (And arguably, every other atom that has ever been manifest, including you, me, the computer screen and the tree outside with which you are currently not communing.) And so Sarey writes:

…It always comes back to quantum mechanics, doesn’t it?

You have Legos. I have quantum particles.

And then Sarey has a warm fuzzy feeling, because really, it’s nice to know you share interests witih your God, like… making stuff. I like to make stuff. God likes to make stuff. We have that in common.

However, I’m not sure I can write a sermon about Quantum particles that will make sense. After all, I am a liturgical groupie and fan of physics, but when the chips are down, I’m more mystical than mathematical. (But just barely.)

Hm. Worthy of more thought. Like, tomorrow.