Transcendence & Immanence - Isa 40, Psa 147, Mark 1

1. Prayer
O God, you spoke your word
and revealed your good news in Jesus, the Christ.
Fill all creation with that word again,
so that by proclaiming your
joyful promises to all nations
and singing of your glorious hope to all peoples,
we may become one living body,
hailing your presence in all the earth.
Amen.

2. The Church Calendar
February 7

3. Isaiah 40, Psalm 147, Mark 1
TRANSCENDENCE and IMMANENCE

4. An image taken, at Carl Sagan's
suggestion, by Voyager 1
on 2.14.90. As the spacecraft
was departing our planetary
neighborhood for the fringes
of the solar system, it turned around
for one last look at
its home planet…Voyager 1
was about 6.4 billion kilometers
(4 billion miles) from Earth,
which appears as a tiny point
of light, only 0.12 pixel in size.

5. CARL SAGAN
Look again at that dot.That's here.That's home.
That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you
know, everyone you ever heard of, every human
being who ever was, lived
out their lives.The aggregate of our joy and
suffering, thousands of confident religions,
ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter
and forager, every hero and coward, every creator
and destroyer of civilization, every king and
peasant, every young couple
in love, every mother and father, hopeful child,

6. CARL SAGAN
…inventor and explorer, every teacher
of morals, every corrupt politician, every
"superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and
sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a
mote of dust suspended
in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage
in a vast cosmic arena.Think of the rivers
of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors
so that, in glory and triumph,
they could become the momentary
masters of a fraction of a dot.

7. CARL SAGAN
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the
inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the
scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other
corner, how frequent their misunder-standings,
how eager they are to kill
one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the
delusion that we have some privileged position in
the Universe, are challenged by
this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck
in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

8. CARL SAGAN
In our obscurity, in all this vastness,
there is no hint that help will come
from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
- The Pale Blue Dot (1994)

9. Isaiah 40, Psalm 147, Mark 1
TRANSCENDENCE and IMMANENCE

10. GOD’S TRANSCENDENCE
the aspect of God’s nature
and power that is wholly
independent of the material universe,
beyond all known physical laws;
the indescribable, the ineffable…

11. GOD’S IMMANENCE
where God, in Jesus, was fully present
in the physical world, and where now,
through the Spirit, is accessible
to all people and all of creation

12. Isaiah 40:21-31

13. Psalm 147:1-11

14. - “Sits above the earth’s horizons”
and “stretched out the heavens”
like a net,” and “turns sovereigns
into nothing, make’s earth’s
authorities pure emptiness” (Isa 40)
GOD DOES BOTH…

15. - “Sits above the earth’s horizons”
and “stretched out the heavens”
like a net,” and “turns sovereigns
into nothing, make’s earth’s
authorities pure emptiness” (Isa 40)
- “Calculates the number of the
stars and pronounces the names
of them all,” and “He’s the one
who heals the broken in heart,
and bandages their wounds” (Psa 147)
GOD DOES BOTH…

17. Transcendence is a vertical relationship:
God is on high, I am down here…
God drops in on occasion, but mostly
God is on high, and I am down here.
Immanence means God is inside me…
and speaks to us on a very regular basis.
I don’t want to do “either or”…either
God is wholly other…or entirely inner…
I don’t have the authority to put God
anywhere; what I have is the ability
to recognize that God is everywhere.
EMILIE TOWNES

18. - Transcendent & immanent
- Ethereal & embodied
- Holy “other” & wholly human
- One & three-in-one
- Universal & granular
- Cosmic & cellular
- Unsearchable & personal
- Always more than “love,”
but never less than “love”
GOD IS BOTH…

19. As soon as they left the synagogue, they
entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with
James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law
was in bed with
a fever, and they told him about her at once.
He came and took her by the hand and lifted
her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to
serve them. That evening…brought to him all
who were sick or possessed with demons. And
the whole city was gathered around the door.
And he cured many who were sick…and cast out
MARK 1:29-34

20. In the morning, while it was still very dark,
he got up and went out to a deserted place,
and there he prayed. And Simon and his
companions hunted for him. When they
found him, they said to him,
“Everyone is searching for you.” He answered,
“Let us go on to the neighboring towns,
so that I may proclaim the message there also;
for that is what I came out to do.” And he went
throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message
in their synagogues and casting out demons.
MARK 1:35-39

21. CARL SAGAN
In our obscurity, in all this vastness,
there is no hint that help will come
from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
- The Pale Blue Dot (1994)

22. CARL SAGAN
In our obscurity, in all this vastness,
there is no hint that help will come
from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
- The Pale Blue Dot (1994)
MY RESPONSE…
I think I would probably agree… if it weren’t
for the person of Jesus, for the evidence
surrounding the events of his life, and for
the impact his life has had on mine.

23. Well placed trust grows
out of active inquiry,
rather than blind acceptance.
ONORAH O’NEILL

24. AtVintage you are invited to a lifetime
of active inquiry into the life and ways
of Jesus and the mysteries and
revelation of God, not into a blind acceptance
of that which you’ve
never been free to explore for yourself.
Whether you agree or disagree with Sagan’s
assessment,Vintage is a place where your
questions and search
are welcomed and respected.
DEACON GODSEY

25. Isaiah 40, Psalm 147, Mark 1
TRANSCENDENCE and IMMANENCE

26. Benediction
Holy God, you gather the whole
universe into your radiant presence
and continually reveal your Son as our Savior.
Bring healing to all wounds, make whole
all that is broken, speak truth to all illusion,
and shed light in every darkness,
that all creation will see your glory
and know your Christ.
Amen.