Emmanuel Lutheran Church

August 2019

I am writing this article as NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. There are specials on just about every major TV network of one sort or another. I was only 6 at the time Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I remember this event. I do remember Apollo missions, and perhaps I remember the first moon landing, but I can’t say that with certainty. Many of you can. You probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing that day 50 years ago. What an amazing accomplishment for humankind.

I do remember the effect on consumers at the grocery store. Remember “Space Food Sticks?” I can still taste them. How about “Tang?” I believe that is still around. And, of course, the freeze dried ice cream! Of course, the NASA program has done a lot more than add a few items to the grocery list. We owe much of the advances in technology today to the space program. I still can’t believe that the Apollo guidance system ran on just 2k of memory! Physicist Michio Kaku, is quoted as saying. “Today, your cell phone has more computer power than all of NASA back in 1969.” Hard to comprehend how far we have come in such a short period of time.

We can do all this and more, and yet the not-so-scientific problems of this earth remain as from the beginning of time – hunger, poverty, disease, etc. There is a famous encounter in the Gospel of John where Mary took a jar of costly perfume and “wasted” it on Jesus’ feet, according to Judas. He said that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus’ response indicates the way things have been for all time: “you always have the poor with you.”

At the time of the Apollo 11 launch, there were many who were criticizing the government for wasting money going to the moon when this money could be used to better serve the people in need. True, yet out of the program has come many benefits for humankind, especially in the area of medicine, farming and severe weather prediction which has saved countless lives worldwide. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said: “We see the transformative effects of the Space Economy all around us through numerous technologies and life-saving capabilities. We see the Space Economy in the lives saved when advanced breast cancer screening catches tumors in time for treatment, or when a heart defibrillator restores the proper rhythm of a patient’s heart….We see it when weather satellites warn us of coming hurricanes, or when satellites provide information critical to understanding our environment and the effects of climate change. We see it when we use an ATM or pay for gas at the pump with an immediate electronic response via satellite. Technologies developed for exploring space are being used to increase crop yields and to search for good fishing regions at sea.”

Here’s what I think as I reflect on this 50th anniversary of Apollo 11: Through the space program (worldwide) God has gifted the world with the knowledge to do much more than probe around in space. God has given us knowledge that can be used for the betterment of the whole human race in a number of areas, provided we use this knowledge wisely. But, the greatest gift of all is the gift of being able to see our “home” from space.

The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.”
– James Irwin

We live on a “marble” in the vastness of the cosmos. Perhaps God wanted us to see that and to know that about our tiny ecosystem. God has placed everything on this marble in our care. The Psalmist didn’t have to travel to space to know how humbling this really is:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! - Psalm 8:3-6, 9

How Majestic!

Blessings,
Pastor Alan