by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Because I am the son of a literal rocket scientist, I grew up with a deep love and appreciation for the space program. One of the stories told by Astronaut Rusty Schweikart has been a favorite of mine for years. I first read it in Matthew Fox’s powerful book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.

I’ll let Matthew Fox tell the story:

“During the Apollo mission in 1969, astronaut Rusty Schweikert was let out of the capsule on an umbilical cord… Just as he emerged from the capsule, something went wrong within the capsule… and this left Rusty all alone floating around Mother Earth in complete cosmic silence. During this time he had two profound conversion experiences [or awakenings].

He looked back on Mother Earth, 'a shining gem against a totally black backdrop,’ and realized everything he cherished was on that gem – his family and land, music, and human history with its folly and its grandeur; he was so overcome that he wanted to “hug and kiss that gem like a mother does her firstborn child.” Trained as a jet fighter pilot, he was a typical “macho man,” but a breakthrough of his own powers of maternity came washing over him at that moment in space…

Schweikert’s second awakening in space was a political one. He was a red, white, and blue American who believed what he had always been taught – that the world is divided between the ‘communist world and the free world.’ Yet, while floating around Mother Earth he saw that the rivers flowed indiscriminately between Russia and Europe; that ocean currents served communist, socialist, and capitalist nations alike; that clouds did not stop at borders to test for political ideology; and that there are no nations. Nations exist in the mind of the human race alone… Interdependence is what really exists.”

There are many lessons to be gleaned from this story. One is a reminder of compassion; not just for individuals, but also for our entire planet and all of us tiny creatures who live here. Another is “interdependence;” the interconnectedness of all things.

But I think a third powerful understanding in this story is about LOVE. About having a love for the entire beautiful whole of our broken and fractured world.

This Sunday’s scripture includes one of the most quoted verses in all of the scriptures:

“For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son…”

God gave Jesus, not out of hate, or anger, of vengeance, or even to fulfill some kind of mechanistic “plan.”

God gave Jesus to the world out of LOVE…for the world. Not for the world’s destruction. Not for the world’s conversion to specific religious doctrine. Not even to be killed through some predetermined plan.But God gave Jesus for the world’s own sake. And out of love.

Observers have come to describe the kinds of experiences that Rusty Schweikert had as “The Overview Effect.” In short, the effect is an experience of awe, transcendence, love, compassion and unity that comes from stepping back out of our own individual experiences and seeing the “whole.”

Dozens of astronauts have now reported this very similar experience. For many of them it has changed their lives, and they come back from their space flights committed to serve the world through various humanitarian causes.

It seems to me that this famous Gospel verse is God’s own version of “The Overview Effect.”

God takes a look at the whole world…
…all of our artificial borders and divisions…
…all of our tribal natures and petty grievances…
…all of our wars and selfish greed and destruction of the world itself…

And instead of condemning us to harsh judgement…God LOVES the world, and sought to send Jesus as a way for us to overcome all of these things.

Jesus calls us to the same kind of “Overview Effect.” Jesus pushes us to step back from our provincialism and see the world as God sees it. To be awed by the worl and overcome with a desire to make it a better place…to improve the lives of all God’s children.

That, in my view, is the true depth of what it means to say “God so loved the world…”

See you Sunday,

Eric

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