Look Up! — By John Reed

Look Up!
Last week, anyone looking into the western sky soon after sunset was treated to a celestial dance of planets. The annual conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was closer than usual, and was dynamic enough to be seen almost in real time motion.
Even to those who don’t ascribe every event to divine intervention, these sky fireworks were visible proof of powers beyond human scale. It’s easy to see how earlier cultures built entire belief systems around astronomical cycles. And all the more impressive how precise predictions were for such events as conjunctions and eclipses, even thousands of years before computers or even pencil and paper.
Spectacular as the meeting of planets may be, smaller clues to higher purpose are all around us, from the distant rumble of thunder to the nearby call of a bob white. All we need to do is clear our minds of the noise, metaphorical and otherwise, of our modern world. Yet we seem to do all we can to do the opposite.
Even our modern churches are designed to reject the outside world. No glass anywhere, stained or otherwise. Natural sunlight conflicts with projector screens and television broadcasts, so thousands of artificial watts illuminate the speaker.
The center of attention has been shifted from the Message to whoever is pounding the pulpit. Using the exact Scriptures being espoused, we’ve moved from the divine to the corrupt. Man is defined from the beginning or Genesis as being imperfect.
And I’m certainly near the front of the line for imperfection: my life is full of mistakes, big and little. Modern churches services leave little room to admit that. Lots of praise, worship, hallelujah. Not much on confession, sacrifice, or atonement.
Maybe we need fewer praise choruses and more walks in the woods, ears to the meadow, eyes to the stars.