A Tour of the Cosmos in Three Churches - Cosmos Sunday, Fourth Sunday of the Season of Creation
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
September 28, 2025
All this week, in
preparation for this sermon, I’ve been contemplating the cosmos. It occurred to me that in the course of my
lifetime, our relationship to the cosmos and our perceptions of it have shifted
very dramatically. When I was a boy, our
heroes were astronauts. People like Buzz
Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Alan Shepard, and John Glenn were household names, daring
explorers who pushed the limits of scientific possibility and carried us into
the stars and even onto the moon.
People flocked to the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch rockets lift off into space, and if
you couldn’t be there in person, you were glued to your television set. As a kid I remember all the pretend astronaut
gear we had, and the toy rocket ships. It impacted our entertainment too, in shows like Star Trek and of course
the Star Wars movies. Americans took great
national pride in every victory we logged in the “space race.” The cosmos were ours to conquer, and there
seemed to be no limits.
All of that changed on
January 28, 1986, when the Challenger space shuttle exploded just 73 seconds
after liftoff. We lost all seven crew
members, including Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old social studies teacher from
New Hampshire who exemplified the notion that the conquest of space was so
complete that it was now open to one and all. But that horrific tragedy reminded us of our human limitations and that
the cosmos remain dangerous. I still
recall President Reagan’s address to the nation that night, when he said, “we
will never forget [the Challenger crew], nor the last time we saw them… as they
prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of
earth” to “touch the face of God.”1
Nearly 40 years later,
where do things stand now? I think we’ve
lost much of our interest in the cosmos. Budget concerns and the privatization of our national space programs have
thrown a virtual wall around the cosmos. Now it’s only the rich and famous who get to “slip the surly bonds of
earth” as they invest unimaginable amounts of money to rocket themselves to the
edge of space. The cosmos have now also
become a technological junkyard for innumerable satellites, and a new frontier
of militarization as the world’s superpowers weaponize space and the stars.
If our secular relationship to the cosmos has shifted, what about our theological relationship with the cosmos? How have
Christians understood the relationship between us, God, and the stars? It’s a deep subject, but let me at least
begin to explore it by taking you on a virtual tour of three church
buildings. Their architecture tells the
story even better than words.
We begin in Escomb, a tiny
village 260 miles north of London. It
contains one of the most memorable churches I’ve ever visited. From the outside you might think it’s just an
old stone cottage. But in fact it’s one
of the oldest churches in all of England, built in the 670’s, long before there
was a Great Britain, or Viking raids, or a Norman Invasion, and 1,100 years
before our American Declaration of Independence.
Escomb’s architecture
exemplifies the early Christian sense of the cosmos and the broader world as a
place of danger, and the church as a sort of sanctuary or hiding
place from any and all threats. The
ceiling is low, the aisles narrow, and the entrance to the altar is framed by
Roman arches that limit entry to that sacred space. The sermon Escomb’s architecture proclaims is
that access to the cosmos and even Christ himself must be restricted. It’s a dangerous world; be content to stay at
a distance from the things we cannot understand.2
We leave Escomb now and
take a 90-minute drive south to the city of York, England and the famous York
Minster. This massive Gothic cathedral
dominates the skyline, with the central tower soaring 235 feet high. Construction began in 1080 and continued for
another 400 years. When you enter the
cathedral, your eyes are inevitably drawn upwards, just as the medieval
designers intended. The theological
lesson is that God is way “up there,” all powerful, distant, and beyond the
reach of ordinary people, who are “down here.” On the positive side, this reinforces a sense of humility in God’s
people. After all, as Luther’s Small
Catechism notes, we are to “fear, love, and trust God above all things.”3
But in practice, the
overall impact of this theological and architectural choice was to create
further separation of God’s people from God and even from the clergy, who
assumed a place of privilege. As further
reinforcement of the smallness and insignificance of ordinary people, access to
the altar in York Minister is restricted by a massive, ornate “rood screen,” a
wall that divides the nave (pew area) from the chancel and altar. It’s decorated with the statues of fifteen
kings, from William the Conqueror to Henry VI.4 The message is clear: the rich and powerful
have preferential access to Christ and the cosmos. For the rest of you: mind your proper place
in the Kingdom of God and in the Kingdom of Britain.
So after navigating 1,400
years of history in Christian theology and architecture, we find ourselves at
what I hope you would agree is an uncomfortable and unacceptable place, a place
where Christ is distant and approachable, and the cosmos exist as a fortress
wall between heaven and earth, an everlasting reminder of our smallness and
unworthiness. Is there a better way to
understand our place in the cosmos with God?
Indeed there is. Travel with me to our final church
destination. Look around. You’re already here. It’s Grace Lutheran Church, built in 1965, a
building that’s very much alive, evolving and adapting to serve an
ever-changing community, but consistent in its proclamation of God’s creation
and God’s cosmos as a sanctuary of love where our Lord is not a distant
theory but a nearby presence.
The stars overhead call
us to respectful awe of God’s majesty, yet simultaneously affirm that God has lovingly
made a home for us amidst the cosmos. The
flagstone floor roots us in the nourishing deep brown soil of creation. The clouds above the choir and the beehive
design above the organ preach the beauty and inherent sacredness of all God has
made.
But it is our altar
that speaks loudest. Entry is not
restricted as at Escomb, and no earthly kings stare menacingly at us as we
approach. Rather, in elegant simplicity,
this sacred space, built in a circle, the very symbol of eternity, reminds us
that God’s table has infinite length and a place for every body. This is not a place where Jesus hides from
us. On the contrary, in this church we encounter the same Jesus who came into our world that very first
Christmas. And who is that Jesus? He is as human as he is divine, a Jesus who
has no interest in scaring, bullying, or intimidating us. For our benefit, not his own, he
willingly becomes small and vulnerable, as inviting and enticing as a newborn
baby.
But why? It’s simple. He loves us. He wants to be with
us, and he wants to draw us away from everything that desires to destroy
us. He wants to transform us from what
we are to what we can become when touched by his grace and “clothed
with power from on high.”5 That’s not work which can be done from a distance, far away. It’s work that’s carried out here in the muck
and mire of everyday life. Here at Grace
the very stones remind us that this is Jesus’s mission and
ministry. Here at Grace we find Jesus as
near as our breath, a Jesus who traverses the length and breadth of the cosmos
just to be close to us. Thanks be to
God! Amen.
Citations:
1 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/address-nation-explosion-space-shuttle-challenger
2 See https://escombchurch.co.uk/
3 Luther’s Small Catechism, Explanation of the First Commandment (see pg. 1160 in
Evangelical Lutheran Worship).
4 See https://yorkminster.org/
5 Luke 24:49
© 2025 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Gospel: Luke 24:44-53
44 Then Jesus said to the
disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with
you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the
psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is
written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third
day 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be
proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you
what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed
with power from on high.”
50 Then he led them out
as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into
heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with
great joy, 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
BACK