Baggott, Anders: Time

Baggott: Time

“Our experience of time is not born of an intrinsic, fundamental element of reality called ‘time.’ What we experience is rather the changing geometry of the universe and the masses within it, which we synthesize in our minds and interpret as evolving instants of time.” —Jim Baggott in The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011), p. 369.

Guest Writer: Isabel Anders

“Save us from the time of trial.” —The Lord’s Prayer.

“Preserve us in your will within the changing geometry of the universe.” —Quantum version.

Science writer Jim Baggott , author of The Quantum Story (which I just read) and new title Quantum Space (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019), continues to ask tough questions about the nature of the universe, what space is actually composed of, and the existence of time itself.

“Loop Quantum Gravity,” a new contender for the “Theory of Everything” physicists have long sought, zeroes in on the very fabric of spacetime rather than the pursuit of relationships among particles or strings. It deals with the possibility that time may not exist, a conundrum addressed by physicists as “the problem of time.”

LQG suggests that the ultimate essence of space actually is comprised of little loops of gravitational force. Yet Baggott points out that, in following such a formulation to its logical conclusion, “time gets lost in the equations”—as various theories vie to uncover what we know about the universe.

“[Time] has to be reinstated, in effect, as a juxtaposition of different spatial states, i. e., different geometries. So, as the geometry changes, it creates the impression, or illusion, of time,” Baggott concludes.

Does this bring us any closer, perhaps, to a stab at understanding eternity—a “glimpse” of how all persons and events could be equally present in God’s sight? Of a God who is the unchanging center of the shifting universe?

Certainly it brings to mind the words of Hebrews 4:13 that nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight—as well as these lines of Walter Chalmers Smith’s famous hymn:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

In worship, the questions and the pondering cease for what we, who still feel as though we dwell in time, would call a “moment.”

Isabel Anders

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Kelsey: The Ballad of Judas Iscariot

Kelsey: The Ballad of Judas Iscariot

“We forget that the real task is to bring the totality of our psychic being to God and not just to repress and split off those parts of ourselves that we cannot change.” —Morton T. Kelsey in The Other Side of Silence: A Guide to Christian Meditation (Paulist Press, 1976).

Theologian Morton Kelsey wrote a very practical book more than fifty years ago called The Other Side of Silence: A Guide to Christian Meditation, which affirmed that meditation is not only for those in Eastern religions. His revised edition, which was published twenty years later, The Other Side of Silence: Meditation for the Twenty-first Century, contains more of his writings for an audience that is now more familiar with Christian meditation. Kelsey believes that meditation is simply the way we set up the conditions to prepare for the God who is seeking us and breaks through to us, particularly in silence. “Doing meditation” involves using biblical stories, dream images, poems, and images from other sources.

Included in Kelsey’s book is a moving poem, “The Ballad of Judas Iscariot,” by the Scottish poet, Robert Buchanan, which I read and meditate on every Easter season. It reminds us that no one is lost or unforgiven or unloved by God. The ballad must have been powerful when sung. The story is of Judas wandering through regions of darkness until he spies a light from a lantern at a doorway. Jesus is holding up the light, and he beckons to Judas to come in and join his fellow disciples who are getting ready to eat. Jesus tells Judas that they were just waiting for him before pouring the wine.

I offer the poem also to spiritual friends who feel they have done something unforgivable, or that God no longer loves them; and of course, I meditate on it myself when that darkness of guilt or shame or a poor self-image surrounds me as well. Judas is a reminder and icon of times when we cannot accept that we might be forgiven or loved, or are having trouble opening ourselves to God’s Grace continuously offered through dark and light times in our life. In all honesty, was Judas’ betrayal of Jesus really worse than denying Jesus or abandoning him as the others did? Judas simply could not ask for or accept forgiveness, and had forgotten that the God of his understanding was a loving and forgiving God.

Joanna. joannaseibet@me.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Chant Exsultet Easter Again

Chant Exsultet Easter

“Chant calls us out of chronological time, in which ‘now’ can never be located, and into the eternal now, which is not really found in time.” —David Steindl-Rast in The Music of Silence: Entering the Sacred Space of Monastic Experience (HarperOne, 1995).

David Steindl-Rast reminds us that when we use this ancient voice in praising and praying to God and speaking to each other we are standing in the presence of ancient angel choirs. We are changing the way we address God and each other. The words become notes. The message we chant sounds different. The sounds of chant are soothing, comforting. The music takes us to another place and another time. The sounds open our world to a new dimension. Chanting slows down the words of the message. The squirrels running in the cage in our head slow down and become a bit quieter. Sometimes time seems to stand still, and we feel at peace. We are home.

The chant that deacons most often sing is the Exsultet, which follows bringing the newly lighted Christ candle back into the church at the Easter Vigil. Well before Lent begins, this music becomes part of my body even if I am not the deacon designated to sing this lengthy Canticle. Jason Pennington, the music director at one of my previous churches, describes the Exsultet as “one of the most difficult chants of the Church’s treasury of song, sung at the opening of the Great Vigil, at the culmination of the events of the holy triduum as all of the congregation is holding their candles in the shadow of the one Paschal, the choir not yet allowed into the stalls, standing in the nave with the faithful as that most beautiful of Canticles is intoned, the Exsultet, promising us all the immeasurable gift of salvation.”

I keep a note from Jason from our last Easter together when I was having some mobility issues and standing for a length of time was more difficult. “She was facing excruciating physical pain to stand for the lengthy Canticle as she drew each breath to acclaim its message of life. She paced it well, taking her time and savoring every single phrase as if it were the very first. This was a beautiful gift of ministry, a Holy Spirit gift that put ministry before self. And isn’t that exactly the lesson to have been learned at the Mandatum not two nights before: ‘I give you a new commandment, that you should love one another.’ Joanna’s lovely, quiet chanting voice was tremulous with pain, yet was filled with joy. This was Easter.”

I keep Jason’s note to help remind me and others that chanting is always an offering, never a performance.

Joanna. joannaseibet@me.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.