This One Time, Jenn Watched an Episode of "The Big Bang Theory"

The Multiverse, Quarks, and All the Nesting Dolls Between

Ephesians 1:1-14

 The scholarly world isn’t in agreement about who wrote this letter to the Ephesians. It could have been Paul, but there are reasons to doubt that. And the scholarly world isn’t in agreement about to whom this letter was written. It could have been the Ephesians, but early manuscripts leave out any particular community name, suggesting the possibility that this was a form letter to be sent to all of the Christian churches in the Roman Empire. In other words, this letter could have been written by one very specific person to one very specific congregation. Or, this letter could have been written by anyone, for…everyone. That feels like, to me, the very heart of this whole passage. God’s grace is completely individual and intimate and particular. And God’s grace is completely universal and ubiquitous and comprehensive.

What is the biggest, farthest, most expansive thing you can think of? What’s the tiniest? All of reality is a series of nesting dolls, one inside the other, one encompassing the other. From the biggest that holds all the dolls within, even the smallest, to the tiniest doll, which occupies every doll, even to the biggest. You know, those Russian nesting dolls, the ones you can pop open and, surprise, there’s another inside it. And then you open that one, and there’s another, smaller, inside of it. And then you open that one, and the next, and on and on until you find the tiniest doll hidden amidst them all. The biggest doll holds them all. The tiniest is held within them all. The biggest doll encompasses them all. The tiniest doll is the very heart of them all. 

Scientists, at least so far, would venture to say that the biggest thing that we can conceive of is the multiverse, although its existence is yet to be proven. But, at least in theory, the multiverse holds all the universes, which hold all the galaxies, which hold all the solar systems, which hold all the planets and stars which hold all the building blocks of matter.

And scientists, at least so far, claim that the tiniest thing that exists is the quark. They call these quarks “elementary particles” - “the have no apparent structure and cannot be resolved into something smaller.” So far, quarks are indivisible. Leptons, too. But let’s stick with quarks for now. The quark makes up protons and neutrons, which are parts of atoms, which make up molecules, which can form into DNA and RNA, which occupy a fibrillar center, found inside a nucleolus, tucked in a nucleus, surrounded by a Golgi complex, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, which are all surrounded by a cell membrane, which make up a cell, the very building block of all of life. Nesting “dolls”. 

From the hypothetical multiverse, to the elementary particles “the quarks,” and everything in between, all of our reality is experienced in this nesting doll, one inside the other inside the other inside the other, until we can’t hold anymore, and until we can’t get any smaller. In the nesting doll version of reality, everything belongs, everything is a part of something bigger, and everything is connected. You open one doll and surprise! There’s another. You look for another doll bigger than your own and surprise, there’s another. And infused through it all, the dolls holding all of these realities within realities together, is God’s grace. God’s grace is the doll that holds it all together. And God’s grace is the doll that is the elementary particle that makes all the rest possible in the first place. And God’s grace is all the dolls in between. 

God’s grace. Completely individual and intimate and particular. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. 

God’s grace. Completely universal and ubiquitous and comprehensive. Anyone’s letter to everybody. 

God’s grace. The building block of all of reality.

God’s grace. The ultimate reality that holds every other.

God’s grace. The creator of the universe.

God’s grace. Present in fullness in one particular person, in one particular space and time - Jesus Christ. 

God’s grace. In and through and among everything.

God’s grace. That which you do to the very least person, you do to me.

God’s grace. Present before the foundation of the world or atoms or reality itself.

God’s grace. Made known to us through the intimate, particular, actual presence of juice and bread transformed into the intimate, particular, actual presence of Jesus Christ. 

God’s grace. The quarks themselves.

God’s grace. The space between those quarks.

God’s grace. All the good we do in this world.

God’s grace. The redemption of all the bad.

God’s grace. We are God’s beloved creation.

God’s grace. We are God’s adopted children.

This letter to the Ephesians, this letter to all, is “an affirmation that God…is gracious beyond the wildest reaches of [our] imaginations.” The wildest reaches of our imaginations. The biggest big. The smallest small. 

This is amazing. And we should take a moment and just breathe it in. Breathe in God’s grace. Breathe out God’s love. 

But this is also unfathomable. This is beyond comprehension. I mean, can we really, truly understand or have any kind of notion of the multiverse? Of what it might be?  Can we really, truly understand or have any notion of a quark? Of what it might be? Even the mind of Einstein could not comprehend such things. 

So God gave us dolls of all sorts of shapes and sizes to help us. Dolls of every size. Dolls that hold bodies, families, communities. Dolls that hold insects and birds and forests and oceans. Dolls that hold just one breath, in a pair of lungs, in the atmosphere that protects us all. Dolls that connect to other dolls. Dolls inside of other dolls. Dolls that hold more and more dolls. 

If the multiverse is too big, and the quark is too small, then what, dear Goldilocksrs, is just the right size for you? Is it the way your hand fits around your favorite mug? Is it the toothless smile of your grandchild? Is it the feel of the soil under your nails, or the feel of the brush as it scrubs it away? Is it this place? Is it the fact that the place isn’t what it is called to be without you? All of these are containers of God’s grace. And they are God’s grace. Our only task, our one and only task in this world, is to see it, to recognize it, to name it, to protect it. 

These containers are our sign and seal of God’s grace for us. And we each have one - at the very least. This is our task as “little Christs” - To find our containers, the ones made precisely for us, to name them, to protect them and care for them, and then, to see, finally, how they are all connected to everything else. 

And when we find ours, that’s when the work begins. 

Because when we find our “doll” - our container of God’s grace - we want to know it, to really know it, to see how it works, what it’s made of, how it’s connected to everything else. And I promise you, if you start with your doll, and you look to find other dolls within it, and you seek to find the dolls that are holding it, you will, eventually, find yourself connected to the multiverse itself. You’ll find yourself, eventually, connected to the tiniest of quarks, and the spaces between the quarks. You’ll find yourself surrounded by and consisting of God’s grace. All around. In and through and above and beyond. 

And this is when we come back down to earth, back down to our country, our town, our church, the pews we are sitting in and the bodies we inhabit. Because sometimes we won’t believe it. Sometimes, we won’t see it. We won’t find the grace in ourselves. We won’t see the grace in each other. Some of the containers in this world have been so beat up and tarnished and abused that they won’t look like they hold much of anything worthwhile, let alone grace. But Jesus came to tell is that it is there. And we are called to find it, to call it out, to bring this grace into the light, to share it with others. Even when it feels as far away as a Biden and a Trump supporter. Even when it feels as far away as a Ukrainian from a Russian Soldier. Even when it feels as distant as a Palestinian and an Israeli. We must, we have to, we are called to see the dolls in each of us, in each other, no matter how broken or tarnished we may seem to be.

I don’t know exactly how to do it, but I think it starts with something I can hold, or feel, or hear, or understand. It starts with that unique seal that God has given you, and it works itself out from there. And it works itself in from there.

May we find our dolls. May we discover what is inside them. May we realize what is holding them. May we share them with the world, and the quarks, and the multiverse, and everything in between.

Thanks be to God.