The Law of Disorder

In the 1978 version of Superman, Superman is faced with a decision with which all of us can empathize. Does he save his girlfriend or save the world? Lois Lane was driving through the desert when her car is swallowed by an earthquake. A nuclear warhead is cruising toward Washington D.C. Superman has to decide who to save. So he diverts the warhead and Lois dies in crevice. Superman does something amazing. He starts flying counter-clockwise around the earth and reverses the rotation of the earth. This in turn, causes time to go backwards and he then pulls Lois out of the crevice before she dies. Of course, the thing I could never figure out is...if time really went backwards and he can save Lois, wouldn't the missile still be cruising toward the capital again.

I know it's bad science, but it makes a great movie. Wouldn’t it be great if you said something to someone you wish you hadn't said, you could reverse time and pull it back in. Unfortunately, in life, some things are irreversible.

Some things in life are irreversible. But God specializes in reversing the irreversible. Think about all the things Jesus reversed...the weather, blindness, paralysis, even death. Acts 2:24 says it. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”  Don't miss the phrase impossible for death to keep its hold on him. In the 21st century, we have a saying that says something like this "The only thing certain is death and taxes." But this verse tells us that while humans tell us that it is impossible to escape death, it was impossible for death to hold Jesus.

Thermodynamics is the study of energy. The first and second laws of thermodynamics describe the way the energy works. For this sermon, we are going to focus on the second law of thermodynamics. It introduces a term called entropy, which basically says that, left on its own, everything moves towards disorder. It's the reason why iron rusts, technology glitches, apples rot, and your teenager's room gets messy.

So this week, we are going to explore the relationship of entropy with sin, and the way we combat entropy...and sin.