Two years ago
So much we don't know about how God has blessed us in this nation if you'd like to know more about where we really came from The part that probably didn't teach in school then I hope you'll be here on Wednesday nights come join us and remember dinner at six o'clock So come have dinner with the church family and then stick around for the for the study. I hope you'll be here and be part of it How are you pray with me? Father, we've been reminded this morning of who you are your awesomeness your majesty That you are infinite eternal and unchangeable And you're very being your wisdom your power your holiness your justice goodness and truth We're reminded of who you are and who we are before you and yet you consent to call us to be yours Father that you have called us to be your people We know we're not good people, but we're yours We thank you that you come and you meet with us here in this place this morning My prayers you would make our hearts glad as we Celebrate our family meal as we celebrate the Lord suffer together if we ask it In Jesus name oh man Well, I'm fairly sure that most of you in here are aware that on August 25th We lost a great American hero Neil Armstrong died the age of 82 What everybody probably knows if you either were alive at the time And if you were you can never ever forget watching Midland on the moon how what you Would you and if you weren't alive at the time you've heard about it? You've seen it on the internet you've seen on YouTube etc Let me just remind you a remind us of a few things that most of us know about Apollo 11 First of all the crew most people know of course Neil Armstrong was the commander Michael Collins was the command the command Gonna get this right the command module pilot called the Columbia And then Edwin buzz Aldrin was the lunar module pilot They launched it right up here at Cape Kennedy on Wednesday July 16th of 1969 What you may not know and I had to look this up was that they orbited earth one and a half times Use Earth's gravity to sling them out into space and then they went off to the moon and then they orbited the moon 30 times So they could survey the the terrain they were gonna be putting that ship down on then on that 30th orbit at that point the lunar module again named the eagle it's separated from the command module Columbia The command module pilot Michael Collins continued in the lunar orbit that time He was the most isolated man in the history of the world on the backside of the moon All by himself out of radio contact and then the eagle then began his descent to the surface of the moon with Neil Armstrong And Edwin buzz Aldrin by the way he got his nickname buzz Because when he was little his older sister couldn't say brother So she called him buzzer And that's how Colonel Edwin Aldrin has become known to us as buzz Aldrin by the way. Yes. He is the inspiration for Buzz Lightyear another feather in his cap Well, they put the craft down and then they had a little problem when they saw where they're supposed to land And it had a lot of large boulders in the way, and so Neil Armstrong had to manually override and fly the eagle by sight Manually and put it down a few miles away from the original landing strip when they landed they had less than one minute fuel left Nor to put that ship down on the planet Now some of that you remember but once you watch again see what just feel it with me all over again I don't know what do you know here we go. I don't want to scrub this mission
Yeah, this was July 16, 99
This is July 20
If you couldn't understand what he was saying that was Charles Duke Who's Capcom and he's he was Communicating with the capsule and he said Roger Tranquility would copy you on the ground You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot And so they set the craft down On surface of the moon and then the mission plan called for them to take about five hours to sleep
But they had a few hours of work they had to do not the least of which was they had to go ahead and get ready at that point For lift off again They had to get everything ready for once they re entered the capsule the eagle to go ahead and lift off again So I had a number of things they had to do they had to get into their portable life sustaining systems What we would have called their so their spacesuits and then at 10 56 PM eastern Standard time 10 56 PM our time then this is what happened now a lot of that You either know because you saw it and you can never forget you've read about it. You've seen it so far a lot of that you Know by the way new arms strong maintained for many many years what he said was that's one small step for a man But then they got lost in the audio the audio trans The audio broadcast transmission. It's a big word I never said it before the audio transmission That was lost one small step for a man when giant leap for mankind 20 minutes after he set foot on the moon Buzz Aldrin left the capsule left the eagle got out on the moon with him And he described what he saw around him as magnificent desolation Magnificent desolation so what I'd like to do this morning some of that you probably knew Maybe a lot of that you knew what I'd like to do now just for a few minutes like today about something that probably a lot of us didn't know I've I've had this story in my files for probably seven or eight years You seem to me like this might be a good time to relate this morning I'd like for you to let me read you just just a little bit from Buzz Aldrin's book magnificent desolation the long journey home from the moon Listen to what he had to say For several weeks prior to the schedule lift off of Apollo 11 back in July 1969 The pastor of our church Dean Woodruff and I Have been struggling to find the right symbol for the first lunar landing We wanted to express our feeling that what man was doing this mission Transcended electronics and computers and rockets Dean often speaks at our church webs or Presbyterian just outside of Houston about the many meanings of the communion service One of the principal symbols Dean says Is the god reveals himself in the common elements of everyday life Traditionally these elements are bread and wine Common foods and Bible days and typical products of man's labor One day while I was at Cape Kennedy working with the sophisticated tools of the space effort It occurred to me that these tools with the typical elements of life today I wondered if it might be possible to take communion on the moon symbolizing the thought the god was revealing himself there too as man reached out into the universe For there are many of us in NASA who do trust that what we are doing is part of god's eternal plan for man I spoke with Dean about the idea as soon as I returned home. He was enthusiastic I could carry the bread in a plastic packet the way regular in-flight food is wrapped and the wine also There will be just enough gravity on the moon for liquid to pour. I'll be able to drink normally from a cup The next week Dean showed me a graceful silver cup I hefted it and was pleased to find that it was light enough to take along Each astronaut is allowed a few personal items on a flight the wine chalice would be in my personal preference kit Dean made special plans for two special communion services at Webster Presbyterian Church One would be held just prior to my leaving Houston for Cape Kennedy When I would join the other members in a dedication service The second would take place two weeks later Sunday, July 20th when Neil Armstrong and I were scheduled to be on the surface of the moon On that Sunday the church back home would gather for communion While I joined them as close as possible to the same hour taking communion inside the lunar module All of us meaning to represent in this small way not only our local church But the church capital C church as a whole Right away a question came up How much should we talk about our plans? I am naturally rather reticent But on the other hand, I was becoming increasingly convinced that having religious convictions carried with it the responsibility of witnessing to them Finally, we described we decided we would say nothing about the communion service until after the moonshot I had a question about which scriptural passes to use Which reading was best capture what this enterprise meant to us I thought long and hard about this and came up at last with John 15 1 through 5 It seemed to fit perfectly I wrote the passage on a slip of paper to be carried aboard eagle along with the communion elements Dean would read the same passage to the full congregation at the service held back home that same day so A small group of our church took communion on the night before I left for Cape Kennedy At the end of the service Dean tore off a corner of the second loaf of bread and handed it to me with the tiny chalice Within a few hours I was on my way to Cape Kennedy What happened there of course the whole world knows Saturn 5 rocket gave us a rough ride at first but the rest of the trip was smooth On the day of the moon landing we awoke at 5 30 a.m. Houston time Neil and I separated from Mike Collins in the command module Our powered descent was right on schedule and perfect except for one unforeseeable difficulty The automatic guidance system would have taken eagle to an area with huge boulders Neil had to steer eagle to a more suitable terrain with only seconds worth of fuel left We touched down at 3 30 p.m. Now Neil and I were sitting inside eagle while Mike circled in lunar orbit unseen in the black sky above us In a little while after our scheduled meal period Neil will give the signal Step down the ladder and onto the power reserve to the moon Now is the moment for communion So I unstowed the elements in their flight packets I put them and the scripture reading on the little table in front of the abort guidance system computer Then I called back to Houston Houston this is eagle This is the LM pilot speaking I would like to request a few moments of silence I would like to invite each person listening in Wherever and who member he may be To contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours And to give thanks in his own individual way For me this meant taking communion in the radio blackout I opened a little plastic packages which contained bread and wine I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me In the one sixth gravity of the moon the wine crawled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup It was interesting to think with the very first liquid a report on the moon In the very first food eaten there were communion elements And so just before our partook of the elements I read the words which I chose to indicate our trust That as man probes into space We are in fact acting in Christ I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home and with the church everywhere I read John 15 1 through 5 I am the true vine and my father is the gardener He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit Well every branch that does bear fruit He proves so that it will be even more fruitful You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you Remain in me and I will remain in you No branch can bear fruit by itself It must remain in the vine Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me I am the vine you are the branches If a man remains in me and I in him He will bear much fruit apart from me You can do nothing It is interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ Who made the earth and the moon And who in the immortal words of Dante is himself The love that moves the sun and the other stars I also read Psalm 8 O Lord our Lord How majestic is your name in all the earth Who have displayed your splendor above the heavens From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of your adversaries To make the enemy and the revengeful cease When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers The moon and the stars which you have ordained What is man that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him Yet you have made him a little lower than God And you crown him with glory and majesty You make him to rule over the works of your hands You have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea who have whatever passes through the paths of the sea O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth I then offered a private prayer for the task at hand And the opportunity I have been given
Let me step away from those old narratives now I suspect probably if you copies of that book might be ordered today or bought at your local bookstore Can you imagine the impact it must have had on him as he read those words and looked At the earth Hovering in that blackness of space above that magnificent desolation of the lunar landscape
And so somebody's here for the first time or maybe Been why so that's really interesting camp. We're glad you liked the space program And I am I grew up in the space era my dad was a pilot. I followed the astronauts One of my prized possessions. I have locked away security. I have Gus Christen's autograph You may remember Gus Christen was one of the three Apollo one astronauts who gave his life on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy Yeah, I grew up falling space program and I really looked up to them greatly respected the astronauts I know a lot of you did but why take time this morning To talk about something that happened 43 years ago even something as monumental as putting a man on the moon God of wonders beyond our galaxy indeed Why talk about the fact that buzz Aldrin took communion there on the surface of the moon He was right. I remind you get in his words god reveals himself in the common elements of everyday life elements of bread and wine In every culture Throughout the history of the world in every culture They have had some form of bread and some form of wine The most common the most basic elements foodstuffs all over the world Bread and wine So as Buzz Aldrin took those elements on the surface of the moon. I want you to think with me what other action could he possibly performed It would be as universal as communion What other act better represents the coming together of god the creator And man the creature What better symbol could there possibly be to represent the coming together of man With his fellow man putting a man on the moon was One of the greatest achievements in human history, but it was not accomplished without sacrifice Two men died in the Gemini program. I mentioned he three died in the Apollo program And almost everybody here was alive and Old nut remember when we lost 14 astronauts in the space shuttle program after long after Apollo The event that we commemorate and celebrate this morning that we call communion or the Lord's Supper was also costly and accomplished With great sacrifice the incarnation of the Son of God who came to earth and lived and died On an old rugged cross and rose again that we might be able to as well And as we contemplate the cross as we look at the cross. I do not think that it is incidental That in the cross you have a vertical beam Representing the reconciliation of a holy god With sinful mankind Reaching out bringing God a man together and holiness and love in justice and mercy And you have a horizontal beam representing the reconciling of man to man reconciling this from All across the world every tribe every nation young old male female All of us Called to become as one people of God's people the church as buzz Aldrin capitalized the church with a capital C reconciling us into his people
This table this sacrament is meant to represent this coming together this unity this reconciliation between God and man As buzz Aldrin in his church illustrated as he took communion on the surface of the moon And they were taken communion back in Houston as we take communion this morning as others of God's people are taking communion all around the world This is a place of unification of unity sadly. It has also become a place to division to our shame This is meant to represent What links God would go to reconcile man to himself the church scattered throughout literally space And time Different languages different customs different tribes different ethnicities, but united around this table Buzz was right God reveals himself in the common elements of this life in the bread and wine But most especially most fully God has revealed himself in the person of his son Jesus Who came and died that we might live together with him forever Let's pray together Father, I am so grateful for the manifold ways the endless ways that you have represented your truth to us in the common elements of bread and wine unleavened bread and grape juice in our case And then these magnificent accomplishments of rockets and calculations and fuel and man's will and ingenuity The Lord the heartbeat the beats to it all is that you are a God beyond time and space a God of wonders beyond our galaxy And Lord that you are holy You called us to yourself in this most holy of acts Celebration of can mean the Lord some Make our prayer in Jesus name. Amen
We thank you again for being with us today. Wish you a great rest of your Sabbath day Come back at six for evening worship and join us Wednesday evening at six for dinner and seven for the class Yes, you're seated now the Lord's benediction Go now in the love of God the Father the grace and mercy of God the Son the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit and live the life. Amen