"Are Miracles Real?"

The idea of miracles pervades our culture and this is, no doubt, partially a result of the Christian tradition that has so profoundly influenced Western tradition. By definition, a miracle is “an event that apparently contradicts known scientific laws and is, hence, attributed to some “supernatural cause.”

The four gospels – Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John that have become the recognized and accepted “canonical Christian gospels” are filled with miracle stories. Jesus is born of a virgin, he performs numerous acts of inexplicable healing of the dispossessed, he feeds huge crowds from a token offering of food, he changes water to wine. And most spectacular, he is bodily raised from the dead to a heavenly kingdom when he is crucified by Roman soldiers.

The use of miracle stories in the New Testament was clearly an effort by the gospel writers to lend credibility to Jesus and his message. In ancient Jewish history and in the time of Jesus, this was a common technique often utilized by Jewish writers in both the oral and written traditions of Hebrew scripture. In numerous places in the Old Testament we find God performing miracles including the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, the plagues on the Egyptian people, the raining of manna from heaven, and the frequent destruction of the enemies of the Jewish people by God’s hand.

Did all of these miracles actually happen? Well – there is certainly no contemporary proof that any of them did. Then again, there isn’t disproof either. For many, this is a matter of faith.

In the case of the New Testament miracles of Jesus, I must say I am a bit skeptical that all of them happened in the manner described in the gospels. The very fact that St. Paul wrote extensively in his letters (Epistles) to the Christian communities and never mentioned any miracle stories is to me, rather telling. (Paul wrote his letters decades before the gospels were written.) Similarly, the miracle stories in all four of the canonical gospels differ – so there doesn’t appear to be corroborating testimony from the different authors and sources. Still – no proof is not disproof.

Sadly, some Christian writers contend that if the miracles stories are not true, Christianity has no essential value. There is even a lengthy two-part book called, “Evidence that Demands a Verdict.” Essentially, this book asks the questions:

• Is the Christian Bible built upon solid evidence?

• Is the Bible a reliable historical record?

• Can the Bible withstand the onslaught of the most scholarly of critics?

The book contends that ALL the miracles are true (as is every word in the Bible) and therefore ALL the messages of Christianity (particularly those espoused by the author of the book) are true.

The problem with this approach to Christianity is that it misses the point. The loving messages so eloquently preached by the itinerant Jewish rabbi – Jesus – were later folded into mythical stories created to give his message power. And when these stories were written during the century following the life of Jesus, they were written by people who lived in the mindset of the ancient world. Modern factual, historical writing had yet to be invented nor even understood as valuable.

In our modern world, the notion of miracles continues to fascinate us – this despite our love of the rational and the scientific. Books are written about miracles. There is a literary series call “A Course in Miracles.” There are television programs on “Miracles” and even one called “Miracle Pets.”

A lot of people believe in miracles. I remember years ago traveling on business to Clearwater Florida. The gentleman I was scheduled to visit was aware that I am a minister and he eagerly asked me if I knew about the appearance of the Virgin Mary at an office building in Clearwater. When I told him I was unaware of the situation he drove me to the spot.

There before my eyes was a three-story office building. The face of the building was dark glass. On one side of the building was a faint colored oval outline. With extreme imagination, one could discern a trace outline of a woman with a colored hallo. There were no details such as a face, hands, clothes etc. . And as it turns out, when the mysterious colored outline appeared on the glass it became a mecca for Virgin Mary followers who subsequently purchased the property and set up an outdoor shrine in the parking lot of the office building.

Do I think this was or is a miracle? No, I must confess I saw nothing miraculous about the event other than the fact that an image that probably resulted from a garden sprinkler system spraying plant chemicals across the glass of the building resulted in such hysteria and mistaken belief.

This is the basic problem with miracles. There are so many examples of phony miracle claims that most people toss anything that is claimed to be miraculous in a scrap heap. Belief in miracles is unscientific, superstitious,

irrational, and just plain wacky! Or is it?

Well – I suppose it depends upon one’s basic theological perspective. Curiously, the vast majority of the world’s population accepts the existence of miracles as a given. In the God religions – that is Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a belief in miracles is central to the theology of the religions. For reasons known best only to God, God does on occasion intervene directly in the world and cause events to happen. God does have the ability to tamper with the general flow of creation – even on a day to day basis - it is thought.

The basic challenge these religions face with their belief in miracles is why does God appear to intervene miraculously in some cases and not in others? Why does God do wondrous things for some people and not for others? This is a really tough question.

Like the western religions, the Eastern religions including, among others, the Buddhist and Hindu sects also believe in miracles. Intervention from a god or gods or the reincarnation of a holy person or prophet is most definitely possible and can happen on a frequent basis. Like the western religions, miraculous interventions are not predictable and do not follow an understandable rhyme nor reason in Hinduism or Buddhism.

Similarly, primal (native) religions in the Africa, Asia, and America, also accept the miraculous – the intervention of a god or divine force or spirit in the day-to-day workings of humankind.

Does the fact that most of humanity accepts the existence of miraculous events mean that miracles happen? Well no, I don’t think so – but it is a clue that miracles may just be very possible because miracle claims have been around since the dawn of civilization. Here again it depends upon one’s perspective.

One of the best parts about being a Unitarian Universalist minister is that I run across people with very diverse theological backgrounds and most of these folks are quite willing to share their perspective. As a result, I think I understand the theological thoughts and feelings of a lot of people.

From the humanist, the agnostic, or the atheist perspective, the existence of miracles makes no sense. What appears to be miraculous does – in the final analysis – have a logical, rational, scientific background. For most people who share this perspective, the world – as magnificent and complicated as it may appear – is ultimately explainable in scientific terms. It is also believed that extraordinary miraculous claims demand extraordinary proof.

It is very clear that such a rational approach to miraculous claims makes a certain amount of sense. How many extraordinary claims about the miraculous have been “debunked” and proven to have ordinary, explainable causes? Frankly, a lot!

Most human beings in the world, however, do believe in God or gods or supernatural forces that interact with the world and universe we know. For people who hold this perspective, there is a separation - a distinction between the sacred and the profane. A God or gods created the universe and our world and he or she or it exists separately from the creation. This God or gods is always “watching” us and can choose to miraculously intervene in our lives. From our perspective as the created thing, it is difficult or impossible to understand why God or gods choose to intervene in some cases and refuse to intervene in others.

This can be a cause for no small amount of dismay because accepting that a supernatural God has the power to miraculously intervene in our lives but believing that God chooses not to in some instances, can lead a person to a feeling of deep sadness and separation from God. Why does God help some people but not others is the real question here.

Some years ago, a Great Neck, New York rabbi, Harold Kushner, found himself asking just such a question. As a liberal, compassionate rabbi, Harold Kushner was often faced with helping consol members of his congregation who were experiencing tragedies in their lives large and small. He offered his care, his love, and his recommendation for prayer. God will help you he would say to his congregants.

Then one day, his eleven-year-old son developed a rare and fatal disease that aged his young body and resulted in his death a few years later. Perplexed and deeply saddened, Rabbi Kurshner grew angry with God. How could you do this to my family? “Why won’t you save my son? After all, I am a man of God. I am your servant. I am a good person and yet you are taking the life of my son.” (It was, in all respects, a remaking of the Hebrew story of Job.)

After years of soul searching, Rabbi Kurshner came to the conclusion that God was not all-powerful in the sense that he or it could not or would not intervene in the universe to save the life of a dying child. When a child suffered, so too did God. When tragedy befell a person – God experienced the same tragedy. When a person cries, so too does God. In Rabbi Kushner’s view, you might say that God lives with you and through you and so the presence of the miraculous does not exist, or at best, is most rare indeed and happens for reasons we cannot understand.

The culmination of Rabbi Kushner’s thoughts were written in his, now classic, book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”

OK – so far, we have people who do not believe in a God or gods and therefore do not accept the existence of miracles. We have people who do believe in God but separate God from the world (the sacred from the profane) and explain miracles are divine interventions for reasons that cannot be explained. We then have people who believe in God but think he is part and parcel of creation and not truly all-powerful in the sense that God does not miraculously tamper with the creation. In this view, God lives with creation and through it and suffers the joys and sorrows that we humans suffer.

Is this the sum total of possibilities regarding miracles? Not in the least. There is yet another, what I consider fascinating, possibility. Consider, if you will, that God and universe, that is creation, are the same essential thing and that God exists in all things, in other words, all things are divine. The illusion of separateness from God is created by our own human inability to perceive beyond our limited senses and reach an understanding of the true nature of things.

Perhaps God exists as a force beyond what is comprehensible or understandable because of our human limitations, and perhaps, because we do not allow ourselves to reach beyond the limits of what we comfortably know and understand. In other words, what I am suggesting here is that there is no real distinction between the sacred and the profane. They co-exist with each other because they are each other. There is no such thing as the natural and supernatural because what is called the supernatural is merely the natural – but because of our limited human understanding and perception we are unable to discern or perceive this.

In this scenario, what genuinely appears to be miraculous may, in fact, be an event that links the hidden reality of what is called God to that which we can see and perceive and understand – that is, our world. It is as though God and creation are a house and we humans have only ever lived in one room of the house. Then something happens and for the first time we open a door in our room and see into another room. What we see may appear miraculous but it is, in fact, only another part of the house. We just haven’t seen it before.

If we do not consider this possibility and if we only confine ourselves to our room - confidently assuring ourselves that the door in our room leads nowhere and that all reality exists in our room – we will never explore the rest of the house and we will never have the potential of understanding of the whole of creation/God.

In many cases, I believe that what appears to be miraculous actually apparently is. But, I just think that in the ultimate scheme of things there is an explanation of miracles – albeit – one that involves a coupling of the sacred (which goes by many names) and creation and the divine’s mysterious workings in the universe.

In the scheme of my life, I have been blessed to witness miracles on many occasions. And when I slow down a bit and spend time just looking at creation and life and love or staring into the infinite star-filled sky in the darkness of an ocean night, I know that I see miracles every day. Sadly, it is our own mind and soul that can blind us to the reality of miracles that surround us each and every day of our lives.

If you want to consider just one miracle – consider your own existence. Next time you have a quiet moment, look at yourself in a mirror. How did you come to be. Just the act of looking at yourself in the mirror is a part of a process that began with the creation of the universe some 13.5 billion years ago. Every moment since that time, 13.5 billion years ago, has been filled with actions (and inactions) that set conditions that guaranteed that you would be born and that you would be looking into that mirror at that moment in time.

Had hydrogen condensed a bit differently about 13 billion years ago, there would be no Milky Way Galaxy. Had our star (the sun) collected a bit more hydrogen, it would have been too big and too hot and earth could not have formed. Had the composition of earth’s minerals been just a bit different, an oxygen atmosphere and oceans of water – the birthplace of life - would not exist. Had a small planet not collided with earth billions of years ago, we would have no moon and without the moon, our world would not exist as it does.

Had a massive meteor not slammed into earth some 600 million years ago, the huge dinosaurs would still roam the earth and mammals would never have had a chance to grow and evolve. And since the dawn of humanity, each war, each prophet, each ruler, each empire, each love, each life, each death has created the conditions that have enabled you to be born and to be the person who you are.

How could anyone debate the existence of miracles? The question one might ask is that did all of this happen by some kind of a plan. Am I supposed to be here or is my life just a random, chance happening. It’s a tough question, but the more I experience life and people and the more I perceive about the creation and the divine, the more convinced I am that things are not random. They are part of a plan. There is meaning and purpose behind all of it. As the great German philosopher Schopenhauer thought, it is as though each of us is an instrument in a grand symphony which creates the music of creation.

For reasons I cannot explain – extraordinary things do seem to happen – those things that we call miraculous. Strange and inexplicable healings happen. People escape death under the most incredible of circumstances. People meet and fall in love in ways that seem impossible, or perhaps, part of a plan. Some people seem to have the ability to understand and even to some degree predict the future or know what is happening in some distant place. People visit new places and have a haunting feeling they have been there before. Others strangely and almost unimaginably seem able to talk to people long since dead. People from around the world describe holy people and wondrous places in near death experiences in almost identical fashion despite vast cultural and economic differences in their lives.

Of course not all that is claimed about miraculous events is necessarily true. Reasonable and understandable explanations often provide the real cause for what appears to be a miracle. In other cases miracle stories are merely hoaxes or claims made by people who are not mentally balanced.

But, in truth, all of creation and all of life is a miracle and the sacred forces – the divine – behind the process have unleashed powers and circumstances that make the miraculous possible.

Remember the words of Mark Twain – “Truth is stranger than fiction because at least fiction has to make sense.”

If you close your heart and your mind to the miraculous you will never allow yourself to experience it. That door in the room of your life will remain forever closed – and you will never see or understand what lies in the rest of the house – the rest of the sacred creation.

Reach for the miraculous. It surrounds each moment of each day all the days of your life.

Reverend Christopher McMahon

UUMH August 2024