In earlier days of human development, humans thought that the Earth was the center of things. The conception was that everything moved around the Earth. The Earth was the hub.
As human awareness evolved, it became evident that the Earth was not the center of the solar system, but that the sun was the center. And the planets revolved around the sun. Humanity on its garden planet was de-centered. This was a hard blow for conventional thinking and even a harder blow for theology, it turns out. The church had a very hard time accepting this de-centering of the creatures created in the image of God.
Now as our knowledge of space has grown, there are new realities to understand and internalize. We come to know ourselves in new ways. Are we less because there is so much beyond us? Or are we more because we are unique in the ever expanding conception we have of the cosmos?
In the novel Orbital, Samantha Harvey offers this observation:
This planet that’s been relegated out of the centre and into the sidelines — the thing that goes around rather than is gone around, except for by its knobble of moon. This thing that harbours we humans who polish the ever-larger lenses of our telescopes that tell us how ever-smaller we are. And we stand there gaping. And in time we come to see that not only are we on the sidelines of the universe but that it’s of a universe of sidelines, that there is no centre, just a giddy mass of waltzing things, and that perhaps the entirety of our understanding consists of an elaborate and ever – evolving knowledge of our own extraneousness, a bashing away of mankind’s ego by the instruments of scientific enquiry until it is, that ego, a shattered edifice that lets light through. (p. 41)
The centering of humanity and the earth is hard to give up. We humans have a decided affinity for hierarchy, being on top. This image of a universe without a center, a universe of sidelines, points us toward a reality that dethrones not only hierarchy but patriarchy as well. It is a reality that is not based on one group of people over another, one taking advantage of another. One having power over another. But, to quote Harvey, “a giddy mass of waltzing things.”
Maybe our ever increasing understanding of the amazing cosmos will help us to see that we are one precious part, and we don’t have to prove that by subduing someone else here on earth. By elevating ourselves over another. By looking down on another.
Prayer: As we seek to center ourselves in Divine Love, may we come to know that there is no up or down needed. No insider or outsider. But we are all here as an expression of cosmic love. Each one precious and beloved. Amen.
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Please note: There will not be a devotion posted tomorrow, Sunday, because Sundays are not included in the 40 days of Lent.
Devotion prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL
The devotions this Lenten season will be based on the novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024. It is a beautifully written story about the experience of a group of people orbiting the Earth in a spaceship. They see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24 hour period. The book is a reflection on the experience of living together and appreciating planet Earth in a new way.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 