May Blog

Dear Family of faith,

I believe in evolution!…or more accurately said, “I believe that evolution is a theory which helps explain a lot of things in this world.” Having said that though, I do agree that Pope Benedict had a point when he said in his Easter Vigil homily last Saturday that it is a mistake to think that at some time “in some tiny corner of the cosmos there evolved randomly some species of living being capable of reasoning and trying to find rationality within creation, or to bring rationality into it….If human beings [lit. man] were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then [his] life would make no sense or might even be a chance of nature, but no, reason is there at the beginning: creative, divine reason.”

For me personally, I have no problem with an even more far-reaching view of evolution than the Pope. I can accept the randomness of evolutionary development at the DNA level. And I don’t think that the concept of Intelligent Design (the idea that God breaks into the evolutionary process to make “corrections” periodically) really does justice to the magnificence of God’s creation. Even so, I do agree with my brother in the faith that there was Divine Reason behind our humanity. Let me tell you my most recent experience that makes me believe that.

On Sunday evening, April 17th, Jill and I had the privilege of attending the Florida Orchestra performance at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. That particular evening I was mesmerized by pianist Lilya Zilberstein’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The Moscow native who currently lives in Germany was captivating, to say the least. She performed flawlessly from memory the grandest of melodies with fingers flying over the keys and dynamics that swept us away into emotional ecstasy—the result of which was an immediate standing ovation from the audience when she had played the last note and four curtain calls to an appreciative crowd that didn’t want to quit. As she was playing the Russian composer’s concerto, I was awestruck thinking about all that was happening before me on the stage: a Russian-born woman just two days shy of her 46th birthday with a fantastic memory, perfect technique and a gargantuan reservoir of emotion, playing a magnificent piece of music composed by a giant of Russian Romanticism whose own compositions stunned audiences more than a century ago, and performing the piece on an exquisite instrument (Steinway Grand) that is the finest in the world today. Then there was the orchestra and all the musicians who were capable of accompanying the soloist with their equally-fine musical instruments (no doubt some Stradivarius violins among them). As I pondered all the intelligence, all the artistry, all the soul and stamina, all the spirit that was represented on that stage in a single city on that single night; I thought to myself: “Accidental freak of nature? I think not!” Not only that, you see, but I and the hundreds of admiring listeners also had to bring to the musical extravaganza an appreciation for something that has nothing to do with “survival of the fittest.” In other words, being captivated by Rachmaninoff’s music performed by Lilya Zilberstein came from lofty aspirations so much greater than a base impulse just to stay alive. Somewhere in the distant past, somehow in ways we will never fully understand, a Divine Spirit set in motion the processes that resulted in that fabulous night at the symphony. That Divine Spirit is God, the same God who raised Jesus Christ from death and promises the same to us. Talk about a symphony of life! Life is all around us every day. I encourage you to recapture the ability to wonder at it—to wonder at what a stunning world we live in, and especially to marvel at the life that you and all that is around you enjoy.
With affection, Pastor Carlan