Thursday, December 18, 2014

Immanuel


Phillips Academy is an exclusive prep school (grades 9-12) located in my hometown of Andover, MA.  Notable alumni include George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Bill Belichick.  Jeb and Bill graduated just as I finished 9th grade in the Andover public school system.  Nope, I didn’t know either one of them.

On the edge of the campus, just a bit over a mile from my house, stands a chapel.  I remember Cochran Chapel for only one reason:  At Christmastime my parents would take me to live performances of Handel’s Messiah.  Handel’s music is superb, but the libretto written by Charles Jennens is based on the King James Bible and is positively glorious.  One solo is a combination of these phrases:

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
(Isaiah 7:14)
 “God with us.”
(This is the interpretation of “Immanuel” given in Matthew 1:23.)

Some scientists have a really hard time believing anything that can’t be supported by evidence that complies with the rules that they have created.  For example, when introducing string theory in The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew, Alan Lightman says that “to explain what we see in the world…we must believe in what we cannot prove. …Such arguments, in fact, run hard against the long grain of science.”  Even so, sometimes those in the inner circles of science discuss God anyway.  Near the end of The Meaning Of Quantum Theory, Jim Baggott includes a section entitled “The hand of God?”  Although he summarizes some philosophical arguments, he doesn’t come to any compelling conclusion on the subject of God’s existence, nor does he say anything about his personal beliefs.  Lightman, on the other hand, readily confesses that he is an atheist.  Regarding God’s existence agnostics ask, “How could we know?”  As best as I can tell, agnostics approach their lives in pretty much the same way that atheists do.  So, for all practical purposes, agnosticism and atheism amount to the same thing:  “Us without god.”

The debate between those who accept “Us without god” and those who embrace “God with us” may or may not be resolved in the near future.  If God actually is with us, then wouldn’t at least some of us have some personal experience with him?

One of the choral pieces in Messiah is based on this:

 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
(Isaiah 9:6)

Life with cancer, and an incurable one to boot, involves a lot of questions.  The answers that satisfy me come from his truth (the Bible), and indeed he has been a wonderful counselor.  Only the Prince of Peace can give deep peace to a deeply distressed soul. God is with me, and he is mighty.

Since my youth I have listened to Messiah many times and it has been a profoundly positive influence on my soul.  You can listen to it here for free (the parts referred to above are the 6th and 8th tracks of the playlist).

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