Solstice Dawn: I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.

It is December 28 as I write this.
Winter solstice has come and gone. Christmas has come and gone. Yet, for me, the magic of these holy days has come and remained.

Solstice day this year was dismal. But he first dawn after solstice was on fire with God’s glory. It immediately reminded me of this short poem:

I believe in the sun, though it be dark;

I believe in God, though He be silent;

I believe in neighborly love, though it be unable to reveal itself.

Like much of the poetry that gets under our skin, we will never be quite certain of the exact words, the order of the lines, or if these words were written on the wall of an underground passage the Jews used to hide from the Gestapo, or by some latter day “influencer.”

But for me, in these words, there is truth, especially if we substitute “I trust,” for “I believe.”

My son and I had a conversation after dinner this Christmas Day after dinner. We do enjoy going rather deep, and so he probed about what I was thinking and writing about these days. Of course my thoughts are fed by my exploration of Christian Scriptures, and I am most interested in how it helps us today to discern moral right from wrong when we trust that we all need each other and that God’s design is to gather us into a circle of mutual blessing.

Son Jeremiah considered and then probed how I might consider the “many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.” If there are alternative realities doesn’t that mean that there is no absolute right and wrong?

My response was that I didn’t know much about multiple universes or quantum mechanics, but the idea of such absolute relativism was scary and dangerous. If I pointed a gun at my son’s head and threatened to shoot him, wouldn’t that be a wrong thing that I should act against?

But my son posited that he could turn out to be someone who would murder tens or thousands of people in the future in some universe. So in some universe I might be quite justified in murdering him before he could perpetrate these things.

I had to admit I could not mount an argument against this line of quantum mechanics theory. But as a pastor, with a pastor’s spirit, I want most of all to help people find fulfillment in their personal lives and peace in a society where we must live together. I test things—I discern right from wrong not on the basis of having all the answers, but on the basis of experimenting and working to do the best we have with the world we live in.

And that takes trust.

I feel that the conversations my son and I have, and that so many others have today, are muddled by the mistaken idea that belief is always “belief that.” But New Testament belief is usually trust in relationship, not an intellectual thing. It is not a claim to absolute truth, but it is investment of one’s self. I trust!

This is mutual trust between people and between people and their God – or even trust in the world they live in. This is trust that says, “None of us can have all the answers, but we must live with each other and seek peace nonetheless.”

This trust alone can enable human beings to live in peace and fulfillment in this universe.  It alone can allow us to give of our own gifts and receive help for our deficiencies.

My son sees the science of quantum mechanics as the future. But I asked him if he saw the fascinating idea of alternative universes in any way contributing to world peace. My son is an avid thinker, but he is also a man with a great spirit and heart. So he struggled with that question; and I know he keeps struggling as I do.

On such a day as the winter solstice it is quite easy to believe all thought of world peace is laughable. Those handicapped by far too much darkness think any notion of moral truth and falsehood is a chasing after wind. Somewhere any discernment runs into an alternative universe of alternate truth that negates it.

I myself do not know much about quantum mechanics. I cannot compare my truth with the truth of another world. But I have felt practical truth in my world. I have felt peace. And I have experienced practical untruth. My own practical, experimental discernment of moral right and wrong has been shaped by my success and failure in dealing with others. But most of all it has been shaped by the story of Christ who emptied himself to serve all and draw them to the God who is the meaning of their lives.

Christ has freed me from having to be the one who looks good to others, or who looks good to God. Christ has freed me from the need to be the one with the right answers or the great resume. Freed me from the need to make myself worthy. Christ has freed me to be the one who needs—needs others, and needs God.

I know what it is to fear and forget all these things and become filled with resentment and loneliness. My practical discernment tells me such forgetting is darkness. When I remember to love as God, in Christ, has loved me, and can just be there for someone else, my practical discernment tells me the light is breaking in.

My belief is less and less “belief that” some idea or even dogma is true. It is more and more self-investment. It is more and more trust that the way, truth, and life that Christ showed us works for me. It gives me and those I love peace and fulfillment.

The 28th day of December, my sainted mother’s birthday, is the feast day of Holy Innocents in the church’s calendar.

Why a feast on the day Herod’s minions slaughtered the children of Bethlehem in a futile and tragic attempt to kill the Christ? Because the church is called to trust in life in God, even when we feel caught up in the alternative universe of a madman. God will always overcome power-hungry madmen through the Christ-child.

Such a beautiful dawn as we had this day after solstice speaks to my heart as followers of Christ must steel themselves for the rule of yet another paranoid man working to trap us in yet another alternative universe of alternative truth.