[Warning: the following Sip contains theology.  Drowsiness may result.  Avoid reading if you plan to drive or operate heavy machinery.]

I plunder many sources to use as prayers and litanies, etc. for our worship services.  Recently I used a communion prayer from the new service book for the Church of England.  I chose it because its language complemented the theme of the scripture for that Sunday and because it is beautifully written.

The prayer included this sentence: “In the fullness of time, you made us in your image, the crown of creation.”  Some of you may have tripped over that line.  There was a time when it was easily assumed that humans were the “crown of creation,” but that time was long, long ago.

The last time one could assert that humans were the “crown of creation” without any mental complications was prior to the Copernican revolution.  Prior to Copernicus, people thought that the earth was the center of the universe.  So, it made perfect sense to think that humans, the dominant species living on earth, were the crown of creation – the apex, the high point, the ultimate achievement of nature.

That gets a little harder when you learn that the earth is one planet of several that are circling a much bigger sun.  It’s harder still to imagine humans are the center of the universe when the size of the known universe keeps getting larger and larger.

Folks my age experienced the Copernican revolution afresh when Carl Sagan broadened our cosmological horizons with his book and television series, Cosmos.  Neil deGrasse Tyson is reaching this generation with insight into the vastness and complexity of the universe.

The discoveries and insights of Copernicus (and the many predecessors upon whom he relied) created a significant theological problem for Christians.  For one thing, heliocentrism made clear that the bible might be an inspired text, but it was not a science book.  This new science was disruptive and threatening to established ways of understanding the world and our place in it.  Martin Luther, like many in the medieval church, wasn’t buying it.  Even now, significant numbers of Christians cannot accept that the bible is not intended to teach science.

The crux of the theological problem is something like this: if humans are a recently evolved species on a small planet circling a mediocre star in a non-descript galaxy in the suburban wasteland of a vast universe, who are we to think we’re the “crown of creation?”  Most of creation is beyond our imagination.

One response might be to give up the idea that you and I could hold such an exalted position; better to chalk it up to an outdated cosmology, along with flat earth and dragons.

Another response might be to doggedly hold on to the status.  The size of the universe only serves to emphasize just how very special we are.  After all, Israel was tiny and insignificant by historical measures of power or wealth and we believe God chose this people, so who is to say that God couldn’t choose us humans to be the “crown of creation” even though we are a seemingly inauspicious bunch.

I would suggest that these are not the only alternatives.  The alternative I would like you to consider is based on the idea of consciousness.  Simply stated, consciousness is the awareness that you are, and that you exist in the world.  When you think of yourself as a self – that thing you call “me” – this is your consciousness.

What if consciousness is the “crown of creation”?  What if self-conscious personality is the image of God?  What if our own self-awareness and self-possession that allows us to enter into relationships is the thing that makes us like God?  And what if this likeness to God is the very means of being made one with God, drawn into the heart of Being, Consciousness, and Love which traditionally we call Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

The Gospel of John tells us that the Word became flesh.  John could just as easily have said that the divine Consciousness was perfectly expressed in the human consciousness of Jesus.

To a lesser extent, that is what happens in our relationship with God, when Paul urges “be transformed by the renewing of your minds,” in Romans 12:2.  The promise of our faith is that we will be united with God.  Jesus assures us that we will dwell in God – made one with God as Jesus is one with God. (See John 6:56; 14:20, 23; 15:4-7; 17:20-26)

I don’t pretend to know.  I only ponder and speculate based on the little I understand.  But in my way of thinking, God is uniting with consciousness throughout the universe because God is Being itself and Consciousness itself and Love itself. 

We may be the highest form of consciousness on earth (or maybe not).  I don’t know if there are other forms of conscious life in the universe, although it seems likely to me that there are.  I haven’t a clue where they might be or what form they might take.

What I do feel confident of is this: God is drawing all beings that have consciousness (whether human or otherwise, earthly or alien, if they exist) into the divine Consciousness, uniting us in a relationship of love with our Source and destiny.

Being Itself has caused all that is to be.  Consciousness Itself is manifest in the reason and coherence of the natural universe and in the creaturely consciousness we enjoy.  Love unites Consciousness and Being.  One day our consciousness and our being will join fully with Being Itself and Consciousness Itself bound together by Love Itself.   As Paul says, all creation groans in labor pains for this consummation.

Prayer:  Thank you, gracious God for the Consciousness that became stardust here and everywhere to bring your creation into unity with you.  Amen.