Inspired by Genesis 29:21-28, Romans 8:31-39, Matthew 13:44-50
I don’t know about you but no matter how much I try, there are things that are a complete mystery to me. Things like why my house is wired the way it is; why cruise ships can float and bumblebees fly; how most of the motorized things in my life work; why humans can never seem to get along for extended periods of time; how subatomic particles interact and why there are colored quarks; how stars form and why the Minnesota Vikings have never won a Super Bowl!
Another mystery is God. Over the last 25 years or so, I have been engaged in an intentional pursuit of knowledge about and personal experience of God. This journey has brought me from a place where I thought I knew many things about God to the point where I realize that God will always remain mostly mystery to me. I’ve gone from a place where my understanding of God was small and controllable – where I thought I could keep God on a shelf to call on when I was in need – to a place where I trust that God is mysteriously capable of being everywhere at once all the time. I now stand in reverence, awe and with a sense of peace at all that God has revealed to me, knowing that God is all grace.
During seminary and in the years that have followed I have read much theology. Theology at its core is the study of how God is present in the world. It gives to us non-theologians a place to stand when contemplating the mysterious God that we seek to follow. Christian theologians over the last 2000 years have posited ways to identify heresies (false teachings), to see how God was at work over the whole of the Bible and how that can help us seek God in our day and time. Some of these theological statements I have found helpful. St. Augustine was active during the last days of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century. Agustine’s helpful theological statement is that if we humans understand something, it is NOT God. Augustine was comfortable with the mystery of God and sought God’s self-revelation as a faithful response to following God. St. Anselm was active in the 11th Century and built on those who had come previously. His motto for a faithful response to a mysterious God was “faith seeking understanding” which really means “an active love of God seeking an ever deeper lived experience of God”.
The mystery of God and God’s plans is on full display in our scripture readings today. We hear more of the story of Jacob in our reading from Genesis. Jacob travels to his Uncle Laban’s home to find a wife. He enters into an agreement to work seven years for his uncle to win the hand of Rachel. However, Laban gives Jacob the older sister, Leah, first and then Rachel afterward (in exchange for another seven year’s indentured servitude). It is a mystery to us why God complicated Jacob’s life by marrying and living his life with two women, only one of whom he loved.
The Apostle Paul is teaching about some of the mysteries of God to the believers in Rome. Paul mentions how if God is for us, then no one can prevail against us – the mystery of God’s almighty love. Then there’s the mystery of why God did not spare Jesus but allowed him to be sacrificed and resurrected so that we might follow the same path. Paul winds up this section of his letter stating a monumental mystery, “…Who shall separate us from the love of the Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord….”
The parables of Jesus continue this week in our reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. Here we are confronted with the mystery of what it means for us to live every day in the kingdom of heaven. Some people are blessed with the realization that the kingdom of heaven exists all around. This is why people would sell all they have once they discover the priceless treasure they seek. Another mystery is the gathering and sorting of all of us fish. Those that are “good” (i.e., those that know and follow God) will be gathered and those that don’t will be thrown into a “blazing furnace”. The mystery is why God is sorting and how we can make sure that we end up in the right basket.
In a key moment at the end of all these parables in Matthew, Jesus asks in verse 51: “…Have you understood all these things?...” If you’re like those first disciples (and quite frankly me) when answering honestly, you’d say, “No, Jesus, I don’t understand all of what you have said!” Truth be told, we and those first disciples usually only get a portion of what Jesus teaches – and even after 2000 years of study, we still find his sayings doggedly mysterious. It is that mystery, however, that keeps us coming back. Afterall, if Jesus and God had just made everything cut and dried, then we would have left the Bible and her teachings behind long ago. Most of us are made in such a way that we enjoy a challenge. We enjoy digging into something that is just beyond our reach and trying to wrestle from it the blessing of a degree of insight into God and God’s plan for our life and world.
Our Wesleyan heritage gives us a perspective from which to engage the mystery of God. For John and Charles and all of those who have followed in their teachings, the practice of discipleship was all about living lives that are intentionally focused on learning how to love God and neighbor in an ever-deepening way. The brothers Wesley and their colleagues found that as they studied the Bible and their faith in God’s abiding presence deepened, then they began to move out of the walls of the Church and University to put into practice what they had learned. Their calls focused on making the world a better place by providing direct care and advocacy for the least, last, lost and those left behind by the Industrial Revolution.
The Wesley brothers and their followers have consistently put into practice St. Anselm’s motto of developing an active love of God which continually sought a deeper lived experience of God. In every age since the time of Jesus, faith-filled people have sought to have experiences of God’s grace and presence in their lives. The great teachers of the Church have left behind those experiences to be guides for us in our day. Our role is to continue that process of seeking God’s self-revelation in our lives and then living out of that experience to help others. It is a continuing mystery to me why some people never seek after God – to discover the God-treasure hidden in the field of their lives.
The Bible shows us that God wishes to be known by us. Twelve Step recovery programs consistently and humbly refer to the “God of our understanding”. This is because our understanding of God should continue to grow across our life as we discover the fullness of who God created us to be and experience the transformational love of God in our lives. The delightful mystery of God is that the God that I “understand” today is not the God that I understood a few years ago – nor (if I keep intentionally growing in my faith) will it be the God who I experience in my life for all of my tomorrows. When we are faithful in our discipleship – in our life-long learning about and experience of God, then God reveals more of God’s-self to us. That revelation then deepens our relationship with God and calls us to help change the minds and hearts of those around us so that they seek to live in God’s kingdom too.
Experiences of God lead us to trust God and God’s grace. We find ourselves more at peace with not striving to define or limit God, all while living in the peace that Paul wrote about. We become convinced of the divine mystery that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. The mystery of God’s abiding love continues to draw us into “an active love of God seeking an ever deeper lived experience of God” – thanks be to God for this holy mystery. Amen!