The Ultimate Renewable Resource

How many of you still wear a watch that has to be wound every day? Not many of us still do, right? Unless there is something really special about it, it’s an heirloom or an antique or something like that, most of us have switched to the battery-powered ones. It’s so much easier, isn’t it? One less thing you have to remember.

But batteries run down, too. It just takes a little longer. And when they do, you have to go to the store and have someone else replace it. At least that’s what I do, although I expect I could probably do it myself. But it is more complicated than just winding it up, like the old watches. Not even progress can actually reverse the laws of nature....

And one of the most fundamental rule of all is the law of entropy. That’s one you all have right on the tip of your tongues, right? Go to bed thinking about it, get up in the morning staring it in the face... You may be surprised to find that you really do! The dictionary definition - at least the one I’m talking about here - is

“a measure of the degree of disorder in a substance or a system: entropy always increases and available energy diminishes in a closed system [such] as the universe.”

What that means is, everything runs down. Everything wears out. Even the Energizer Bunny.

Another implication of entropy is that as things run out and wear down, they get simpler... The universe is not naturally designed to evolve into more and more complex systems, it’s naturally designed to disintegrate into simpler and simpler ones.

I once asked my sister the science teacher to explain to me how - under those circumstances - evolution, that is the whole idea that more and more complex forms just naturally come into being as the universe does it’s impersonal thing, could work and she said, “Why, energy, of course.”

And that’s true, as far as it goes, but it leaves the question “Where does energy come from?” completely unanswered. I asked her to think about the possibility that energy - in all its forms - is simply a way scientists have to describe the breath of God... She didn’t want to touch that one.

But that’s what the Psalmist implies.

"[You] are ... wrapped in light as with a garment...." [v, 2] Light is one form of energy. Have you ever thought of the very existence of light as evidence of the presence of God?

'You stretch out the heavens like a tent ...You set the earth on its foundations." [v. 2,5] The force of gravity that holds all the stars and planets in relationship with each other, that keeps them spinning and circling in predictable, measurable patterns is another kind of energy. Did you ever think of gravity as being one way God holds onto us, keeps us safe? Think of God holding you tight in his arms on this mad, roller-coaster ride through the universe.

"You set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind, you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your servants." [v,3-4]

The winds obey rules that we barely understand and still can’t control - yet wind was one of the first kinds of energy human beings learned to work with... And, of course, you know that the most frequent symbols of the Holy Spirit is the wind....

The only source of energy that’s been in use longer than wind is fire, which is the other most common metaphor for the Spirit....

The process that turns seas and lakes and rivers into clouds and back again takes energy ... and yet it also generates so much additional energy that we harness it to run our industries and heat our houses…. Isn’t that just like God? Even his leftovers are lavish. And all the other forms of energy - electric, magnetic, atomic, solar... those are all just built into the very fabric of the universe - filled to overflowing with the power of God.

The Psalmist goes on to celebrate all the living things that God has made, from the grass to the cattle that feed on it:

"You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart." [v. 14-15]

Did you know that almost every other form of energy we know about comes from living things? We get our own, bodily energy from eating plants, or animals that have in turn fed on plants. Coal and oil and gas were all plants, once.... And where do the plants get their energy from? Light. The process is called “photosynthesis.”