Value Science, Trust God

Over the course of the last 10 months, the mantra from presidential candidates to states’ governors to some guy commenting on Facebook has been “Trust the Science.” My governor, Tim Walz (DFL – MN), regularly makes use of the phrase to validate his executive orders covering everything from athletics to zoos.

In its corollary use, these three little words are the automatic response to any who push back against lockdowns, school closures, physical distancing, and mandatory masks, “You know what your problem is? You just down trust the science.”

What science exactly are humans supposed to trust? The discipline of science is in a continual state of change. Researchers hypothesize, test, challenge, and often reverse previous conclusions with the result that science has been wrong at a head scratching rate.

For example, in the field of astronomy, the settled science for millennia asserted our sun circled the earth. The conclusion was filled with problems when other celestial objects did not want to “trust the science” and revolve around the earth too. The science changed only after the genius intellects of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton investigated over centuries the movements and fixed points in the heavens.

George Washington’s stepdaughter suffered horrifically from seizures. So serious was Patsy’s condition her mother did not leave her unattended at any moment of the day. Standard medical science in the 18th century prescribed blood letting as a necessary treatment.

At the time of Washington, bloodletting had been used by medical personnel for thousands of years. Clearly, the practice was established science. Basically, medicine concluded all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood. Bloodletting, it was held, cured illness and disease by the withdrawal of blood from a patient by means of a physician’s scalpel or by leeches attached to the skin. Remove the blood, remove the illness.

Patsy died at 16 years of age, but you know, “Trust the science.”

Further, science cannot account for everything. Science cannot tell us why one person sees a sunset and smiles while another sees the same sunset and cries. Science cannot tell us why Chicago's Roman Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, received a COVID-19 vaccination ahead of others in his denomination, including priests and nuns. Science cannot answer our questions in the fields of aesthetics, ethics, or assumed scientific theory.

An internet search reveals the ongoing shortcomings of science in biology, forensics, astronomy, medicine, and physics, but the problem is not with science. The problem is with humans’ approach toward science. Science is a gift. Science does not give gifts. Science is a servant. Science is not a master. Instead of trusting science, we should value science. Humans direct trust only to God.

The contributions of science cannot be exaggerated. Our 21st centuries lives, while busier and maybe more complex, have been made much better and in many ways easier that any of our ancestors. Household chores, travel, communication, education, medicine, and more are all vastly superior for the human experience today than they were centuries and, in many cases, decades ago. Consider the Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD).

A few days from now will mark five years since my mom went to be with the Lord. She died of the number one killer of women, heart disease, but she would have died much sooner without an LVAD.

In layman’s terms an LVAD does a lot of the work a diseased heart cannot do. An LVAD is not a mechanical heart, but it functions in many ways like a mechanical heart. The surgery to implant the device is long and difficult on the patient. Following implantation, the device requires high dosages of blood thinners to operate well and uses an exterior source to power it. During the day, my mom wore a harness that carried multiple battery packs in similar weight to heavy vests athletes use to train. At night she charged her batteries and plugged her device into a wall outlet, and then went to sleep valuing the science but not trusting the science. Her trust and mine was directed elsewhere.

LVADs work best as a bridge for those awaiting heart transplant. The overall survival of patients receiving continuous flow LVADs is 89% at 12 months and 87% at 24 months. My mom was not interested in a transplant, but her two LVADs (you read that correct, two!) lengthened her life by years. My family values science.

We value science as God’s gift to us. Science teaches us the benefits of nutrition in our diets. Science aids us in understanding the development of children’s minds and bodies. Science informs us about viruses like COVID-19.

For the coronavirus we know the virus is highly contagious. We know the potential for death increases with age and comorbidities. We know the range of symptoms is large and impacts individuals differently both in kind and severity. The science determines possible responses – vaccines, quarantine, masks – but the suggested or mandated responses cannot guarantee you won’t acquire the disease. We value science, but we do not trust science.

As Christians we trust the giver of gifts, our God, and we value the gifts he gives us, science for example.

Psalm 31:19 is one verse of scores if not hundreds that call God’s people to trust the Lord or record the actions of those who trust the Lord or that show the power of God applied to those who trust the Lord.

Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!

• Science delivers valuable information to parents regarding stages of child development, but trust God’s revelation in His word about how to parent your children. Value the science for your parenting, but trust God for your children.

• Science delivers valuable information about staying heart healthy, but trust God’s revelation in his word about the only reason your heart is beating while you read this post. Value science for your overall health, but trust God for your life.

• Science delivers valuable information about the impact, prevention, and possible cures for infectious diseases, but trust God’s revelation about how to live in a world full of infectious diseases. On disease and all other matters, God instructs us to live wisely and not foolishly. He also tells us not to live in fear though we live in a world dominated by death. Value science for disease prevention, but trust God for how to live life in a diseased world.

Christians trust God for all things in eternity and for all things temporal. Christians thank God for gifts that come from science that make our temporary life better, healthier, or safer. But we acknowledge the better, healthier, and safer as blessings from God not blessings from science. We do not bow down to science. We do not place science in the position of omniscience or omnipotence. Our adoration and trust is reserved for heaven. We trust only the Lord.

Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Value science, trust God is all fine and good until the science and God’s revelation conflict. Society is not interested in God’s revelation when it conflicts with science. "The Church is tolerated only to the extent that she does not take any stance on the moral assertions that supposedly derive from science, understood as the only valid form of knowledge," Augusto Del Noce.

For example, the church has no authority and may not call humanity to submission to God in conversations about gender identity, sexual orientation, multiple races in the human family, the origin of the species and the cosmos, or the necessity of the state to educate children. On these subjects and more, science is the authority. Science must be obeyed. Science is God. If you must be religious, value God, but trust science. We will shame you until you do, and we will deprive you if you do not.

So, Christians, in our world moving along at warp speed, we will find it increasingly necessary to trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding of the science. Science is not God and must never be worshipped as if it is God.

Job 38

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?”

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Do It Again in a COVID-19 World

We’ve put away the big tree in our auditorium. The Christmas banners and lobby décor are gone until next year. The children have returned to singing their normal Sunday School songs and won’t work on the next Christmas program for many months. The Call to Worship for the foreseeable future will not be from Matthew 1 or Luke 2. In many ways our church life for the next 11 months will resemble the Christian life. In our church life and in our discipleship, we do the same things over and again. The trap we must avoid is thinking this is boredom. There is a huge difference between the practice of disciplines and a life of dullness.

Humanity’s default position asserts doing the same things over and again is boring, that we need something new, something fresh. Without these new ideas and activities, we are doomed to a vanilla life in a 31 flavors world. The pursuit for the freshest, most exhilarating, and highest thrill is never ending, as any honest man over thirty can attest.

Yet, Christian discipleship is unchanged since the first century. Christians follow 2,000-year-old directives given to them by the founder of their religion. Those who adhere closest to His instructions are those who know the greatest joy in this life and who will know His joy in the life to come.

Down through the years, local congregations and denominations have identified these teachings with a variety of words. The words vary from group to group, language to language, and century to century, but the principles of Jesus remain the same. For our church, the words are connect, care, converse, and chase. Now that the exhilaration of the Christmas holiday and New Year is behind us, we return to the routine of Christian discipleship, a routine we call the 4 C’s.

The work of Christian discipleship is difficult enough without the additional challenge of COVID-19. But the presence of a pandemic does not pause our Lord’s directive to make disciples and exercise our gifts. This is the time for individual creativity and corporate commitment to the fulfilment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and the building up of our church (Ephesians 4:11-12). Even during a pandemic, and maybe especially during a pandemic, our Lord’s disciples connect, care, converse, and chase. How you practice your discipleship may look different, but practice it you must.

CONNECT

Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 all teach the unity of a local church. Each member is connected to the others like various body parts are connected to the whole. What is true spiritually must become true relationally. You connect with others in our church by knowing their names, histories, hopes, dreams, struggles, temptations, circumstances, and gifts. This connectedness with each other makes the functioning of a local church possible, promotes growing discipleship among the church members, and enhances the possibilities of Great Commission efforts. Without this connection, we are little more than a civic organization. With whom can you connect this week?

CARE

The myriad of one another statements found in the New Testament calls disciples in a local church to be the front line of physical and spiritual aid for other disciples. There may be some matters of physical aid we cannot provide each other because of our limitations of human and monetary resources, but we can provide a great deal of physical aid to each other. As for spiritual aid, we have been equipped by our Lord Jesus to assist every other disciple in our church with any and every spiritual need she may have. To care for each other is the daily work of every disciple. For whom can you provide care this week?

CONVERSE

From the earliest days of the church to the present, disciples of Jesus Christ talk with each other about God and talk with each other to God in prayer. The chats look like edification, accountability, challenge, and encouragement. These meetings for prayer unite the hearts of disciples to consider matters bigger than themselves. The New Testament knows nothing of disciples who do not engage in regular conversations with other disciples, conversations about Jesus Christ and conversations to Jesus Christ. With whom will you converse this week?

CHASE

Read the New Testament and you will see Jesus’ disciples chasing those without Christ, chasing the fringe disciples not connected to a local church, and chasing the wandering members of a local church. It is the work of Jesus’ disciples. His Great Commission to us is to make disciples of all the nations. This can happen when the church puts on an event, but our chasing of the lost cannot be limited to church events. Acts 1:8 says, “You shall be witnesses.” We carry the message of the cross with us 24/7/365. Read the book of Acts and breathe in the conversions of those in the first century. Consider the work of God to get the gospel to you. Think about the new believers in our church, and then ask God to give you opportunities to chase. Whom will you chase this week?

The high point of the Christmas season is behind us. The reality of routine is upon us, and that routine discipleship is the path to joyful living under the Lordship of Jesus.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Best Movies Are Those You Watch Again

Sometimes the familiar is better than the novel and the previous better than the new. In this last Lunchtime Musing for 2020, would you read again or read for the first time, what I think are the most significant posts I wrote in 2020 for our church and for your life? They appear in the order they were written.

1. Our grandson is now a one-year-old. Shortly after his birth, I wrote The Kind of Grandpa I Want (and don’t want) to Be. While this is a very personal muse, I think you will find it helpful to you if you’re a grandparent or not.

2. Almost forgotten in the disarray of 2020 are the tragic deaths of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the seven others aboard the helicopter that slammed into a California hillside, January 26, 2020. Days later I penned, We Only Have Minutes to Live. If 2020 has taught us anything, it has taught us the fragility of life and how quickly all of life can change.

3. One month into stay-at-home orders, growing uncertainty about COVID-19, and exploding numbers of infections, I claimed, To Recover Is Christ, To Die from Coronavirus Is Gain. As people who will battle the pull of this life until the day we die, this may be the most important devotional I wrote in 2020. Now that we have nearly a full year of the coronavirus in our rear view, you will benefit from revisiting this post.

4. In July I turned 55. “How’s it going?” you ask. Well, I’m glad I’m not yet 56. I wrote a series of articles about lessons learned over the years. The Error of a Christian Husband is one I am reading again for my own benefit. It is about as transparent as I can be.

5. Titles are critical in a world flush with digital information. Sometimes I spend nearly as much time thinking of a title for a post as I do editing a post. The fact is you are more likely to read a Lunchtime Musing if the title grabs you. PG-13 is a story about a woman and man who are more than best friends or soulmates; it is a story about lovers and is my favorite piece of the year. I hope you smile when you read it again or for the first time.

If you read one or all of my weekly posts, thank you for reading. I write with two audiences in mind — my children and our church. My hope is my writing challenges you, educates you, inspires you, and sometimes, just makes you smile as you think about our Lord on a given day.

Your time is valuable. That you give a few minutes to me to read my thoughts is humbling.

2021 will be here soon, and I plan to write weekly. Is there an idea you’d like me to address or question you’d like me to answer? I’ll do my best to add it to the list.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Five Christmas Prayers

The child asked, “Why are we singing a song that asks Jesus to come when he already came?” This was the question after we sang the Christmas song, O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Luke 2 records the birth of Jesus and events immediately following. According to the Law, parents of newborn boys took their infant sons to the priest for ceremonial affairs. The priest on duty when Joseph and Mary arrived with the baby Jesus was Simeon who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). He was waiting for the promised Messiah to comfort the people (Isaiah 40:1), to fulfill the promise made first to Adam in the garden (Genesis 3:15), and to make his blessings known far as the curse is found. Uniquely, Simeon had been promised that he would see the promised Christ before experiencing death (Luke 2:26).

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son to his people when they were wearied from the realities of a broken world, the impact of the curse, and their own failures in their covenant relationship. They longed for relief. The relief is found in a person, Jesus Christ, Bethlehem’s babe.

The text for O Come, O Come, Emmanuel captures the longing of the people in its opening lines.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lowly exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Each new verse in the Christmas hymn begins with a plea to come using a different title for the promised Christ.

• O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse…

• O Come, Thou Dayspring…

• O Come, Thou Key of David…

• O Come, Desire of Nations…

Each expression is the cry from God’s people to make right the myriad of wrongs, to end the misery, to overthrow injustice, to conquer tryants, and so much more. Jesus Christ did this when he came. His sinless life led to his sacrificial cross and his glorious resurrection. The prayers and hopes of the ancient people of God had been answered and met in the promised Christ.

But the results of Christ’s coming are not yet fully realized, and like Simeon of old, we wait, not for the consolation of Israel but for the consolation of the church, the second advent of Jesus Christ. When he returns, all our longings for the end of abuse, betrayal, conspiracies, disease, envy, fear, greed, hatred, injury, jealousies, killings, lawlessness, mourning, oppression, pain, rage, sin, temptation, ugliness, vengeance, wrong, and finally, the grave will be realized in his righteous reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Until his return, we wait (Philippians 3:20), and like pre-Christmas people of God we post-Christmas saints pray.

• O come, Emmanuel, you paid our ransom, but our exile is not yet overcome.

• O come, Rod of Jesse, free us from death, illness, rebellion, wicked men, and the wicked one himself as he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

• O come, Dayspring, and complete the change that you began when you saved my soul.

• O come, Key of David, display in the open your sovereignty for all to see.

• O come, Desire of Nations, unite every image bearer around the beauty that is your person ending all our fighting and replacing our strife with your never-ending peace.

The days of Joseph, Mary, and Simeon the priest were not all that different than our experiences in 2020. While we realized God’s grace and faithfulness over the last year, all of us have felt the impact of the brokenness that was 2020. I suspect we all are looking forward with a great deal of hopefulness to 2021. But 2021 won’t deliver consolation to the church, only Jesus Christ can do that. Therefore, I point you to Jesus, and I invite you to make these Five Christmas Prayers a practice in your Christian life.

O Come!

Click here for an entire sermon I recently preached on these Christmas Prayers.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

A Family Reunion Where No Fights Broke Out

I’ve never been to a family reunion. If I passed them on the street, I would not recognize anyone from the Jackson clan. As a child, I interacted little with Tom VerWay’s family. His parents were dead, many of his siblings lived out-of-state, and his nieces and nephews were much older than I. We simply were not around them very much. I did spend a lot of time with my mom’s family, including my cousins. But that was a long time ago. The last time I saw or spoke to a cousin on my mom’s side was five years ago at her funeral. My cousins are scattered around the country with only a few living in the Chicago area. It’s not that we are estranged; it’s just that we aren’t close.

Last weekend, Brenda and I along with our four children, their spouses, fiancée and our grandson (MJ) spent two wonderful days together celebrating MJ’s first birthday. Those 48 hours were a gift from God to Brenda and me. His grace was on full display, and we praise him for the family he has given to us.

We combined the little man’s birthday celebration with a Christmas bash. We laughed, exchanged gifts, spoiled MJ, received hugs and kisses, worshipped together on the Lord’s Day, and genuinely enjoyed each other. There was no fighting, no sniping, no jealousy, no complaining, no expressions of anger, and no distancing of any one person from another, pretty amazing consider there were 10 sinful, selfish people in a small space. Like I said, God’s grace was on full display. It’s not simply that we are physically related; it’s that we are close.

While many families experience the happiness of family gatherings, many others do not, like the man who recently told me he hasn’t spoken to his older sibling in seven years. Years of pain and conflict have left many families separated by more than state lines. Frankly, some prefer it that way. Being together is little more than an opportunity for spontaneous combustion. It’s easier and less emotional to stay away than it is to be together. Can those situations be resolved? They can, but that is a subject for another time.

I am not naïve to think what I have could not be destroyed in a moment, such is the nature of the flesh and sin. About the closeness of my children, I’ve been asked, “What’s the formula?” My answer, "I don’t know." If required, could we duplicate the outcome? I’m not sure. As I look back and as Brenda and I reminisce, I can point to some critical components.

Our move to Minnesota contributed to our family’s closeness. We did not know anyone in the state of Minnesota when we left Michigan twenty years ago. Our children’s friends were each other. We were concerned when we left Michigan where our children each had dozens of friends. We wondered how they would fare in a place where they knew no one. Our last Sunday in Michigan, we received great counsel from parents of youth group teens who told us how the move had the potential to draw us close as a family if we would see the opportunity for developing relationships over the loss of relationships.

We had no great epiphany that led to homeschooling our children. In fact, upon arrival in Minnesota, we were settled that homeschooling was not what we wanted, but that’s what happened. I am convinced Brenda’s daily influence in their lives as she instructed, managed, and modeled before them promoted in them a growing love for each other.

Practically, I think the pattern of resolving conflict biblically played a significant role in their developing relationships. Like other empty nest parents, Brenda and I have heard stories from our sons and daughters that we had no idea happened when they first occurred. When they tell the stories, the kids laugh. Brenda and I look at each other with puzzled expressions. “How did that happen in our house…how did we not know about that…how did that not cause a major issue?”

Our kids are PK’s but being a PK does nothing to absolve sin and diminish the sin nature. When we sinned against each other, we tried to apply the teaching of Jesus and his apostles to address transgressions. We taught and modeled accepting responsibility and expressing humility both to God and to your sibling. The regular expression in prayer to God and in communication with a brother or sister was, “I was wrong. Will you forgive me?”

When one complained to their mom or me about the behavior of another, we sent them back regularly in the spirit of Matthew 18 with the instruction, “Can you take care of your problem on your own?” Often, they could not and needed parental assistance, but, in time, they learned to address their own problems in a way that honored our Lord, honored each other, and promoted family harmony.

Practically, I believe, without hesitation, corporate prayer promoted the closeness we now enjoy. Our minivans were places of regular family prayer. With some exceptions, the practice was prayer before jumping out of the van for Sunday School, youth activities, sports practices, music lessons, going to a friend’s house, and most everything else. Following conflict between siblings, with some exceptions, the practice was prayer between the sisters and brothers where each heard the other confess sin and pray for God’s aid to love others and not self. I am convinced people who pray together are closer. It’s that simple, and that includes brothers and sisters.

One final thought, I am convinced the shared ministry and love for the Lord and for the local church contributed to their closeness as children and to their ongoing closeness as adults. They love Jesus and they love the church for whom Jesus died. What binds them together now, maybe more than before, is what they share in Christ.

As young adults, I think they all are committed to keeping what they have. I fervently pray they are. I observe as they cover in love. I smile as they share with each other what they have. I am hopeful as they set aside personal preferences for the advantage of another. If they will continue to love the same Jesus, I have every expectation the Holy Spirit will continue to mesh their individual spirits with each other.

I know some will read this and come away frustrated. I am sorry for that. I have no intention to add to your grief. I can offer hope if your children are distant and have little interest in being together. Our Lord is an expert at making the bad good. His working may take longer than you desire (see Joseph and his brothers), but he is capable of bringing about the change that will promote family closeness. My suggestion for you is to pray toward that end, and when you are together with any combination of your children, find occasion to pray with each other and for each other.

As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision