White Lake Wisdom — Proverbs and the DRAO

A sermon for the congregation of St. Stephen, Summerland
Sunday, September 15, 2024
The Very Rev. Ken Gray

[I must first note the passing of Lois Wilson, long serving justice advocate and onetime moderator of the United Church of Canada and of the World Council of Churches. She died Friday at the age of 97 in Fredericton, NB. Her leadership of just causes is too long to mention here. Readers will enjoy For the Sake of the Common Good: Essays in Honour of Lois Wilson from which I continue to draw inspiration.Suffice to say that she influenced me and so many in Canadian Churches through a long life of service, teaching, dedication, and compassion. As Jennifer Henry said in her acknowledgement, Rest in power Lois. The announcement is posted on my blog here.]

As a music student in London, UK in the late 1970s I would often walk across historic Hyde Park. Sometimes I would linger in the NE corner, at the famed “Speakers’ Corner.” There I would hear all sorts of sometimes informed, though often crazy ideas about life and love shouted at passers-by. In those days radical politics included the right-wing National Front. Progressive ideas around sexuality, technology, and of course religion abounded. In those days, the Moonies were on the rise. Some proclamations would have pleased Donald Trump; others were wise and deserved careful attention. While I sometimes heard wise thoughts at Speakers’ Corner, I never met wisdom herself, as we do today in  the Book of Proverbs:

Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

It would be too easy to comment at this point on the recent US presidential debate, that event where gracious wisdom met true folly. The performance of politicians, especially— those who inhabit their own universe by choice—is not essential for us today. What is essential to note, and to savour, are the first verses of today’s canticle from the Wisdom of Solomon.

Wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God (Extract WISDOM OF SOLOMON 7:26-8:1)

What a coincidence! If wisdom is a reflection of eternal light, my recent trip up the hill to the White Lake radio observatory is a marvellous confluence of curiosity and opportunity. If you haven’t been up for a tour you should go; it’s only taken me 25 years to get up there! It’s a different world up on the hill—so interesting, so wise. Kathie and I began our tour in the control room of 50-year-old John A. Galt Telescope: a 26-m diameter, prime-focus, equatorially mounted telescope with interchangeable feeds that currently operate from 0.4 to 2 GHz.

[Local factoid: Kerry Anderson grew up with the Galt family in Penticton; no wonder he appears extra-terrestrial at times!). From their website, and through staff guides I learned this:

The Canadian Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) is an internationally known facility for science and technology research and development related to radio astronomy. Home to NRC astronomers, astrophysicists, engineers and technologists, as well as visiting researchers and students from universities and astronomical observatories around the world, these facilities support the design and development of leading-edge instrumentation for new and existing telescopes.

The Galt telescope is the largest antenna, a piece of equipment updated throughout its working life, though still containing the original 50-year-old chicken wire (I kid you not—the stuff you buy at Home Hardware) which continues to collect data for analysis and understanding.

Also on site is Canada’s largest radio telescope, CHIME, a collaboration between the University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of Toronto. Collecting radio emissions from the Universe between 400 and 800 MHz, it is designed to survey atomic hydrogen from the largest volume of the Universe to date . . . CHIME maps the whole sky visible overhead every day.

My principal interest in travelling up the hill was photographic. The shapes of the antennae are as varied as they were fascinating. Most of us are familiar with dish-shaped radio telescopes. Other telescopes such as CHIME are massive semi-circular metal structures stretching for hundreds of metres, configured as a group arranged on several hectares of land.

[WIKI] Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of different sources of radio emission. These include stars and galaxies, as well as entirely new classes of objects, such as radio galaxies, quasars, pulsars, and masers. The discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, regarded as evidence for the Big Bang theory, was made through radio astronomy.

As Thomas Merton encouraged us to “pay attention to what is there” in our physical world, radio astronomy does the same thing, paying attention to what is there, way out there, beyond human sensory perception. Radio astronomers do not search for intelligent extra-planetary life as does Jodie Foster in the movie, Contact. Through discovery of patterns and elemental presence, enthusiastic researchers meet the miracle of creation in the context of the marvel of the cosmos, something we name in our Eucharistic prayer Sunday after Sunday and especially today. 

Exploration informs wisdom. The question is, do we, will we listen?  And do we allow ourselves to be changed as a result. Again, Proverbs:

They will seek me diligently, but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. PROVERBS 1:20-33

Well them’s fighting words. As Christians we have the chance, and the choice to embrace wisdom as we find it. If we can welcome it, we are blessed in and through change. Change is threatening, yet change is a constant in our spiritual and physical lives. Time does not stand still—the radio observers at White lake can prove it. Wisdom literature likewise challenges our assumptions, our biases, even our dreams and histories.

So here’s the good news. With each and every generation we can adapt to present-day discoveries and realities. We can grow in Christ and in love, but we need compassion and community to lead us forward. With Kamala Harris we know that the only way is forward, with each other, and with Jesus, the author and protector of our and everyone’s faith.

Creator, from the depth and breadth of creation, we thank you.