A Speck of Dust in Time?

A Speck of Dust in Time?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer – August 18, 2019

Psalm 90:1-6, 12; 2 Peter 3:8 ESV

You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”   

For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 

(Psalm 90:3-4)

I had at least two experiences this summer that I would describe as bordering on the spiritual, or as being mystical in nature.  The first was in the company of our grandson, Josiah.  In June, Josiah and I enjoyed our fourth trip together on another stretch of historic Route 66.  This leg of the trip included Western New Mexico, all of Arizona, and just across the border into California.

On our second day on the road, we took a 56-mile excursion north from Route 66 to the Grand Canyon.  We spent a good part of the morning stopping at various look-off points around the canyon’s South Rim, shooting photos, and taking selfies, but mostly just standing in wonder and awe before that vast, beautiful, mystical wonder of nature.  It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day just right for viewing.

You stand there and you can see the different dozens – perhaps hundreds – of layers of sediment and rock, representing different periods of time, and you marvel first at the eons that it took for the forces of nature to layer and compact those different strata of earth, so different in composition and color.  The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and over a mile deep in places.  Some geologists believe that about two billion years of earth’s geological history have been exposed in the Grand Canyon.  I don’t know about you, but I find that thought to be mind-boggling. 

And then you marvel at the process involved for the forces of nature by way of the Colorado River, erosion, wind, and so on to carve through all of those layers of time to form this magnificent wonder of the world.  After two billion years of formation, studies suggest that it took the Colorado River between 5-17 million years to cut through all those layers of time.  A person could spend an entire lifetime exploring and marveling at the Grand Canyon and all the geological wonders, history, biospheres, life forms, fossils, and so on to be found there, and you probably would only scratch the surface.

The Grand Canyon has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years.  The Pueblo peoples considered the Grand Canyon to be a holy site and made religious pilgrimages to it.  I can understand why.   Is the Grand Canyon a natural phenomenon that can be explained by the forces of nature?  Yes.  But is it also something sacred?  I would say definitely.  Along with John McCain, when I look at the Grand Canyon I can see evidence of evolution, but I can also see the hand of God.

And then the second summer experience that I would describe as being mystical in nature was standing in wonder and awe before Hubbard Glacier, Alaska.  For two and a half hours, Mary Lou and I stood on the bow of the cruise ship marveling at this blue wonder of nature of a different order.  Hubbard Glacier is 5-6 miles wide, 300 hundred feet tall above the surface of the water, and 76 miles long, winding its way all the way back to Canada. 

A glacier is a massive body of compacted ice that is formed when the amount of snowfall exceeds that which melts each year.  So the snow is compacted and compacted, and since the glacier is on a downward grade, it is slowly and constantly advancing forward.  When the Hubbard Glacier reaches Disenchantment Bay, the edge is constantly breaking off in giant blocks of ice – icebergs, some of them as large as a ten-story building – in a process called calving.  When the icebergs break loose and fall into the bay, there is a loud blast like thunder or a massive gunshot.  One estimate suggests that it takes 400 years for snowfall on the back end of the Glacier to make its way to Disenchantment Bay.  It seems to me that it would take a lot longer than that.

And so, we stood there mesmerized for two and a half hours, on a gorgeous, sunny, radiant blue-sky morning before this blue wonder of nature, not wanting to step away for a moment, even to go to the bathroom.  I know it is just a huge frozen river of fallen snow and ice.  But at the same time, you have the feeling that you are witnessing something sacred.

When you stand before such massive natural wonders and consider the span of time it took for them to be created, it makes you think of just how insignificant we appear to be in comparison.  Along with the psalmist, who exclaimed in Psalm 8, we are inclined to say, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! . . . .  When I look at . . . the work of your fingers . . . what is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8: 1, 3, 4 ESV).  Our span of life upon the earth, when compared to the process that created the Grand Canyon, is like a second or microsecond or nanosecond of time.  A thousand years in God’s sight are but as yesterday or a few hours in the night, the psalmist proclaims.  And “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” echoes the author of 2 Peter (2 Peter 3:8 ESV). 

Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon or contemplating the face of Hubbard Glacier can help you put things back in perspective.  Such can be a reminder that our days are short and numbered, and how we need to make the most of them (Psalm 90:12).  And you are reminded, as the psalmist says in Psalm 90 that we read earlier, that we are as a mere speck of dust in time. Such is the sobering message that a wonder of the earth like the Grand Canyon shouts out to us – you are a mere speck of dust in the whole, in the process of Creation, and in the time table of God.  We could allow such a thought to depress us, if we dwelt upon it too long. 

But the other side of the equation and the good news is if we allow ourselves, we can make a difference; we can have an impact upon the world; we can leave our mark upon the pages of time.  When compared to the vastness of the Grand Canyon as a whole, the Colorado River is not that big.  When standing on the canyon’s rim and looking at the Colorado River down below, it looks like a thread on the floor of my wife’s sewing room.  And yet, slowly, steadily, faithfully, that river carved its way down through the eons of time a mile deep.

And it took one tiny snowflake after another to create Hubbard Glacier.  Together all of those snowflakes compacted to form a mighty wonder of nature.

Each of us, though we may think ourselves to be small and insignificant, can leave our mark upon those close to us, upon our community, perhaps even upon our world at large through the lives we touch, the loving service we demonstrate, perhaps through something we have written.  We don’t have to publish a book.  All of us can keep a journal of our most insightful thoughts about life; or we can record thoughts in a journal that we would like to leave with our family, for our children, grandchildren, and great-children.

And working together in the church, like tiny snowflakes compacted together, we can make a difference for the greater Oak Ridge Community and perhaps even beyond because of the image we project, stands we take, and lives that we touch and see changed.  One hundred years from now, what will the history books have to say about the United Church, Chapel on the Hill, and who we were and how we made a difference in the first quarter of the 21^st century?  Wouldn’t it be interesting to know?  What did we do?  What stands did we take for the greater good?  What set us apart, that made a positive difference in the community and the world?

Yes, in the overall scheme of the world – when we find ourselves somewhere like the Grand Canyon – we may feel ourselves to be no more than just a speck of dust in time that is carried away by the wind.  But at the same time, we can make a difference and leave our mark, at least on our little part of the world, if we set our minds to it.

May our attitude be that of the psalmist, when he prayed: “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” so that we prove to be more than just a speck of dust in time.  May it be so.  Amen.