I don’t often get very angry, but I do have a special place of crossness for any version of faith (or even ideology) that claims it can fully explain God. That is not to say we shouldn’t seek God and try both to know him and know about him more every day – but to claim we have fully ‘got’ God is a great failing.
It is partly our own culture that is to blame convincing us that we should be able to fully ‘solve’ God. I confessed before Christmas my love of murder mysteries in all their forms – from Agatha Christie to Midsummer Murders to Colombo, Vera and all others of that ilk. And as a family we very much enjoyed the new Benoit Blanc ‘Knives Out’ film ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ (which had more than a few things to say about faith!)
Now in those mysteries what generally happens is that the detective gathers up various clues by asking people questions or spotting things others had missed. They then put those clues together and solve the mystery. This solving or resolution is very satisfying as Poirot, Blanc, or whoever it is, gathers the suspects and then tells the story of what happened, how and why. The mystery is ‘solved’. We like solutions and we like ‘solving things’. No loose ends, no untidy plotlines but a tight and sealed solution.
But this approach of ‘solving’ is somewhat dangerous in matters of faith, and lies the heart of any cult, or indeed any Christian denomination, party, group or club that claims to have the full (and for them usually only) truth of God.
God by contrast in the bible I read and in the loving Father I have got to know so often has to remind us that there is always more to him than we can ever perceive, imagine, or dare to capture with our words, and even our poetry, music or art.
One of the shortest psalms, Psalm 131 is a wonderful reminder of the humility we need in approaching a God who is always bigger than our understanding :
My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.
Within Judaism there is also a notion to not even write the full name of God out, lest we think we have ‘captured’ or portrayed God – hence you will sometimes see God written with a letter removed and replaced by an underscore : G_d…
The fullness of God is not something that we this side of the new heaven and earth can or even should grasp. This is not God not trusting us with important things but so often God protecting us in love..
When Jesus is talking to his disciples (John 16:12) he says “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear” he is picking up this notion from various places like Isaiah 55 were God reminds us “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways” and we see this idea gloriously expressed in Romans 11:33 where Paul (after ten chapters of the most tight and stunning theology ever written) writes :
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
There is in the Christian faith a living breathing tension between what do know about God and what we don’t know about God – the difference between the two is of course faith. Faith is trusting God for what we don’t know based upon what we do know, both of the character of God in Theology, but more importantly the love of God in our experience of knowing him.
God is gracious and continually reveals new things to us – but he does that very much at a pace and at a speed that we can cope with. Epiphany is one such season where we explore God revealing new things to us and tomorrow in our service I will be exploring with God’s help some of what these revelations might be.
By all means read your bible and great christian books, do your courses and listen to your podcasts – get to know God better. But don’t worry about what you don’t know – not only is God good with that but he designed it that way!
So for me and for those who watched it I very much enjoyed the final few episodes of the super series ‘Stranger Things’ which was also on TV over the Christmas break. Many fans were disappointed that the writers left a lot of plot lines hanging in the ending and asked us viewers to develop our own endings, not merely to receive a nice solution but to ‘believe’ – to have faith. I loved it however for all the reasons I have explained above.
So come tomorrow and let us believe together in the goodness of God and the new things he wants to reveal to us and let us be comfortable and even relaxed with the things that will remain forever, thankfully, a mystery.
Peace and blessings
Andy
Brislington Community News 