In the present culture we are often encouraged to embrace mystery at the expense of the work that Christ has done for humankind in redemption. Of course we can never fathom the depths of God and must recognise our lack of knowledge, but this should not stop us living in the blessings that He has revealed to us in Christ. Paul's ancient words seem right up to date here in these words to the Colossians. AK
'I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we've been shown the mystery! I'm telling you this because I don't want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or "the Secret."
I'm a long way off, true, and you may never lay eyes on me, but believe me, I'm on your side, right beside you. I am delighted to hear of the careful and orderly ways you conduct your affairs, and impressed with the solid substance of your faith in Christ.
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
St Paul
As one surveys the majority of the biblical commentaries which were written during the modern era, a pattern emerges which is related to the previous point concerning the rejection of finitude. Most of those commentaries emphasize full and clear explanations of each and every text (except, so the cynic suggests, just the problem that one is trying to resolve). Even what may validly be called enigmas in the text have, if not an authoritative explanation, at least a long list of all possible interpretations. Seldom does one find any musing over the mystery of finite life on planet earth while trying to understand and serve the infinite God. Some, to be sure, go to the other extreme and claim to find paradoxes and errors, but that approach actually arises from the same mindset—the interpreter can control the text.
ReplyDeleteLife is mysterious, intriguing, complex, even chaotic.
The narrative structure of much of
the Bible reflects those realities and recent hermeneutical approaches help discover and expose
them. Dynamic interaction with texts, recognizing the inability to “control” them is bringing a
refreshing honesty to the hermeneutical task. Although a high view of Scripture as Word of God requires one to reject reader-response interpretation, postmodern approaches have reminded us that the interpreter does do the work of finding (establishing) meaning and that it is not an exact
science. As with all human truth claims, interpretations of biblical texts must be held with
varying levels of certitude.
Further, part of the “meaning” of the text is how it changes the way
the interpreter thinks and interprets. The reader stands not only behind the text, but also before it.
Jack W
Paul allows for mystery but he also understands that facts are facts and truth is truth.THe creeds that were developed over the years are what we call 'sound', not just 'secrets or special knowledge pulled out of the air. Some P.M Christianity seems to be only for the elite not unlike the Gnostics during the early Church.It worries me that we have books such as 'the secret message of Jesus' and the 'Lost message of Jesus' as if the Church has got it wrong until now. A slight touch of arrogance and pride here I think! Paul who did know, boasted of his weakness when he could have boasted of his strength and wisdom.
ReplyDelete'Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ'.
ReplyDeleteHow true is that in the postmodern culture!
William
'I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we've been shown the mystery! I'm telling you this because I don't want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or "the Secret."
ReplyDeleteIs Bono being humble when he says he still hasn't found what he has been looking for after experiencing the depths of God.I don't think so.
The man who found the pearl of great price sold all he had so he could buy the field it was in. He had found what he was looking for. The hymn says 'Thou O Christ are all I want, more than all in thee I find.'Anything else beyond Christ he says didn't matter. Christ says 'Behold I stand at the door and knock' we must let him in.
Is there a greater thought or promise?