There were four theologians- three naturalists, and one super naturalist.  They liked to go on long hikes together, and get into deep philosophical conversations.  In the course one such conversation atop a mountain, the usual pattern emerges.  The three naturalists agree, and the super naturalist is the odd man out.

The super naturalist begins to despair, so he decides to call for supernatural assistance.  He falls to his knees and prays, “Please, God, send a sign to show that I am right and they are wrong.”  Just as he finishes his prayer, a dark thundercloud rolls across the sky on this perfect summer day, claps of thunder and lightning appear, and just as quickly they disappear again.  The super naturalist puts his hands on his hips and says, “Well, now do you agree?”  The naturalists shake their heads, reminding him that thunderclouds often form on hot summer days.

The super naturalist prays again, asking for a bigger sign.  This time there is an almighty crash in the sky, clouds converge, an entire symphony of noises is heard, and then just as quickly it all disappears again.  Still, his naturalist friends were not convinced, citing that there are plenty of natural explanations for what just took place.

A third time, the super naturalist prays to God, “Once and for all, you must show these stubborn people a sign to prove that I am right and they are wrong.”  This time, the sky turns black, and a deathly silence falls over the entire region.  Then a deep booming voice comes out of the heavens, “HE’S RIGHT!”  The super naturalist turns to his friends and says, “Well?”  And one of his friends says back, “That proves nothing.  All we now know is that it’s three against two.”

Science is Filling God’s Gaps

Too often, science and religion discussions end up something like that.  Everything falls to pieces when someone invokes the name of God.  And, if you have God on your side, that trumps all else.  God trumps every scientific explanation or reasoning that you could ever come up with.  End of conversation!

Over the past few decades we have seen science give us explanations that, up until this point, were understood as miracles of God.  The question I ask today  is, “Where does that leave us?”  What does it mean for religious people, when science can explain most of those gaps that we have always held dear as miracles of God, or as mystical, spiritual moments? 

I want to explore this question using the story of the transfiguration.  I want to go through the story in a slightly different way than you may be used to, and show that there are at least three different ways to gain a miracle out of the story.  One way or another, in the end, you will get your miracle.

You Can Have your Miracle

The first approach is to take the story literally (As it happened).  The second is to understand it metaphorically (As if it happened).  Number three is to understand it physiologically (As if it happened, but only in the brain).  Whichever of the three makes the most sense to you, you will have your miracle.

Taking it literally means believing that it happened exactly as it was recorded and given to us.  We believe that it was a miracle, and there is nothing much more to say.  No one can prove that it did not happen, just as no one can prove that it did happen.  If you want to understand the story literally, then you have your miracle.  They climbed a mountain, significant dead people appeared all around them, Jesus’ clothes changed color, and a voice came out of the clouds.  If you understand this literally, then how would you live your life?  Well you might go and find a mountain, climb it, and wait there for Martin Luther King or Gandhi, or some of the great heroes of recent times to appear before you as a revelation, and a sign of the greatness of God.

There are other ways, however, to get a miracle out of the story.  One other way is to see it metaphorically.  It’s unlikely that it happened literally.  It’s possible, and we can’t prove that it didn’t happen, but it is highly improbable.  But you don’t need it to have happened that way to get your miracle.  If you understand it metaphorically, those that compiled the story had such a profound experience of Jesus, of being in the presence of a wondrous vision, a movement that was magnificent, the only way they could express it was to gather together the best of the images and language of their tradition to create a story.  When they were in the presence of Jesus it was as if they were high on a mountaintop, and in the presence of the heroes of the past, and as if a voice came from the clouds to comfort and reassure them. 

If you wanted to gather a group of people on a mountaintop in the first century, this was the perfect group to gather.  Moses received the law on the mountain.  Elijah prophesized on the mountain.  Both had mysterious deaths.  According to Jewish folklore no one knew how Moses died.  His death was shrouded in mystery, and it was believed to be so because he had lived such a life of service, that he now resided in the heavens with God, in a place of privilege.  Elijah disappeared in a fiery chariot, according to the mythology of the time.  It was believed that there were three people in this privileged position in heaven: Moses, Elijah, and Enoch.

Moses and Elijah being on the mountain created the setting for a wonderful metaphor.  Similarly it made sense for Peter, James and John to join them as well, if you are putting together a story full of miracle and wonder in the first century.  These three were the first disciples to be martyred, so they enjoyed a privileged place in heaven. 

The mountain was the symbolic meeting place between heaven and earth, and the mountain welcomed this symbolic collection of key people, all of who lived lives of service, and now enjoyed eternal lives of privilege according to folklore.  The metaphor includes mountains, clouds, dazzling white garments, and mysterious voices.  All of these ingredients make up a story about wonder.  If you get your miracle by believing that it was as if these things happened, then religion gathers the language and the images of your past, and the heroes of your past, and inspires you to live as if you are surrounded by miracles at every point.  You can interpret those miracles using the language of your past.

The third option is to get your miracle physiologically.  What took place happened as if it had taken place, but it only took place in the brains of those who were there.  Those who climbed the mountain had a brain-induced altitude experience.  They experienced an altered sense of perception, high on the mountain.  All distinctions between them and others, between the past and the future, mountains, people, and creatures, all came together in this moment.  It was as if it all took place, but it all took place in their heads. 

The Three Pound Universe

So there we have three ways to read the story of the transfiguration. Many of us grew up hearing it as a literal event in history. Then many liberal traditions introduced the metaphoric possibilities in the story. Now science has opened up the possibility that we can get our miracle from the physiological.  We can take a miracle from that 3lbs. of flesh that sits on top of your shoulders, the  3 lbs universe, which speaks of all possibility.  You can get your miracle with every step that you take, in every moment of your life.  You are carrying a miracle around with you. 

I want to explore a little further the notion of the brain and what it brings to us.  I believe that when we open ourselves to the possibilities of the conscious brain and the unconscious brain, we open ourselves to the wonders of the universe.  We all know what wonder is, don’t we?  If you listen very carefully, you can hear it.  Kosmos speaks to us of creative possibility.  The universe is too wondrous to even begin to worship.  Human imagination has no boundaries.  If you listen carefully you hear the Kosmos, the universe, and human creativity whispering to you.  Science and religion come together and pull us forward, beckoning us with the promise that there is always more.  The evolutionary gift is that there is always more, and it puts us in our place.  And yet, it gives us significance at the same time. 

You may be used to hearing me speak about the within, between and beyond.  I want to do that again, as a comprehensive way of mapping human consciousness.  Mapping the possibility for experiencing sacred wonder.  Experiencing wonder within, between and beyond.  It’s just a map, it’s not the experience itself, it points us to the experience.  I want to explore the within between and beyond from the perspective of the human brain.  Within is the personal, between is the inter-personal, and the beyond is the trans-personal.  Within is the individual- awareness, consciousness, between is the relational, and beyond is the natural.

Proving the Existence of the Brain

About 25 years ago a neurologist was waiting for a train in London, like he did every day. He noticed the grey London sky, some dilapidated buildings, and some weary looking people, and he had what he described as a moment of enlightenment.  In that moment, it was as if he had experienced all eternity merging.  There was no separation between himself and other people, and no separation between the past, present, and future.  It was as if there was nothing to fear.  Everything was as it should be.  Out of this amazing moment, the neurologist decided to give his life to exploring the brain.

Many would say that he had a mystical or religious experience, or an experience of God, but the neurologist said only this, “My experience that day proved to me the existence of the brain.”  And so he gave his life to exploring the brain as the center, which science and religion, evidence and experience,  come together.

So how does the brain mediate an experience of God within?

Apples and the God Within

I brought an apple with me this morning.  If I hold this apple up, what meanings does it create for you?  It may make you think about baking, or Eve being tempted in the creation story of Genesis.  Perhaps it makes you think of “keeping the doctor away.”  There are any number of other meanings that you can take from the sight of this apple.

If I held the apple up in front of a monkey, what would the monkey see?  He would see a piece of food and nothing more, as far as we can tell.  This apple is a symbol of the evolutionary gift that we enjoy, the ability of the human brain to create meaning out of the most mundane things.  And, if I raise my arm, your brain creates the meaning that I am going to throw it at you.  That’s what human brains do- the miracle of meaning, the evolutionary miracle of creating meaning in our brains.  That’s the God within.  The God within is the wonderful array of sensual experiences of life.  This 3 lb. universe mediates all human states, all experiences, all emotions, all poetry, all philosophy, all fear, and all joy.  This wonderful piece of flesh that sits on our shoulders mediates the God within; awareness of the full range of human experience and consciousness. 

Mirror Neurons and the God Between

What about the God between?  Over the last ten years there has been a very important discovery of “mirror neurons”.  I don’t understand much about them but I do understand just enough to say this: Research from the last decade suggests that when a monkey picks up a peanut, a mirror neuron fires.  When he eats the peanut, a mirror neuron fires.  When he sees a human pick up a peanut, a mirror neuron fires.  If you stop to think about the possibilities that come out of this research, the possibilities for human empathy and role modeling, human decency and good behavior, then you have the God between.  The God between can be summarized simply as “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”  If you live the change you wish to see, you will be changing the world.  Mirror neurons point to the ability to connect with each other and inspire each other and feel something as if we are feeling what the other person is feeling.

The God Beyond as the Subconscious

The God beyond is the unconscious, or subconscious, or even the collective unconscious.  Most of our human brains operate out of a level of unconsciousness.  A very small amount has come into our consciousness, but if I may borrow from one of the Wednesday night class participants, our conscious psyche is “like a screen which lights up silhouettes, behind which our unconscious figures powerfully project.”  Isn’t that profound? 

There is a famous story out of Greek philosophy about Plato’s cave.  In the cave there are a group of people being held prisoner in shackles.  In front of them is a blank cave wall.  Behind them there is a fire and a wall, and in between the two, people shine various images, which appear on the wall.  Since early childhood these images are all the prisoners know.  And so, as human beings do, they create names for the images, so they all know what they are talking about.  They call the animals, shapes, and images different names.  One day, one of the prisoners is let free.  He emerges from the cave into the light, rubs his eyes, and gets to the point where he can see the “real thing”.  He finally realizes that all he had seen in the cave were only images.  So he decides that he must go back into the cave and liberate the other captives.  He tries to describe the experience to the other prisoners, and the other prisoners decide that all this man has discovered is insanity.  “What could be better than our images?”

The Menu is Not the Meal

Religion has been very good at confusing people, by creating attachments to form, and confusing the map for the terrain, the menu for the meal.  That is a trap in religion.  People are so uptight about their system of belief, that they forget that it is only a map to a direct experience.  Don’t let my map of within, between and beyond do the same thing to you.  It’s only a map that points you to a direct experience of wonder and miracle.  This direct experience of wonder is available to you at every moment, thanks to human brains, consciousness and the unconscious. As we shine a light on that universe of unconscious possibility and bring it into our conscious psyche, our lives become more integrated and the miracles increase.

We all know what wonder is, don’t we?  If we listen very carefully, we hear it speaking to us in nothing more than a whisper.  Religion and science come together, beckoning us forward, with a reminder that it is all real, it’s all metaphor, and there’s always more. 

I want to leave you with a short verse from Reinhold Neihbur, in which I believe he has captured all that brings religion and science together, the gift of evolution.  It captures, for me, everything that we talked about as progressive religious people in this series on religion and science:

“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime;
Therefore we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
therefore we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone;
therefore we are saved by love.”