CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
September 20, 2009
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
www.cypresswoodchurchofchrist.com
THANKSGIVINGS AND PETITIONS:
God’s will for our congregation Various friends, relatives and co-workers
Our nation, leaders and military The spread of the good news
IT’S A MYSTERY TO ME!
“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Psalm 115:3).
Many years ago, Yevette and I were invited to go to the movies with a couple to see Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Not being familiar with her work, the movie started slowly but we soon found ourselves engrossed in it, trying to figure out who done it. That hook us on Christie and her novels. We have read many of them; watch the Masterpiece presentation of various ones, and have even been to the famous The Mouse Trap at a dinner theater (1). A short lived but really good television show was Ellery Queen, in which throughout the show clues were given to who did it. Then right before it was revealed, the star would face the camera and say that all the clues are there, do you know who did it? Even Dan Brown’s The Di Vinci Code was a page turner and the movie was good as well, even though it was fiction and generated a lot of controversy.
Then there are real life mysteries that we read or hear about and are disappointed because we do not know the solution. What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? No, it’s not in a government warehouse. How about Noah’s ark? Or how about disappearances of well known people like Amelia Earhart in the Pacific around 1937 or big band leader Glenn Miller‘s disappearance between England and France sometime after June 1944? Then there are the hour long news shows that try to solve various disappearances and murders but still leave us doubting in the end. Out of all of this come conspiracy theories that some think they know what was behind this or that.
The Bible speaks of mystery. In the New Testament in particular, mystery is spoken of as something that is hidden in the past but now revealed. Most of these center on Jesus Christ and God’s plan of redemptive fellowship that came through Him. Ephesians and Colossians in particular address this idea. Paul was dealing with problems in Asia Minor that centered around what was known as mystery religions. These thought that one had to have secret or special knowledge to be a true follower. This led to the Gnostic teachings we see in the second and third centuries. For Paul, the mystery was what was hidden in the Old Testament, not a Bible code as some have written recently, but of an understanding of God’s purposes that have been revealed in Jesus. The use of various Old Testament texts in the New is part of this idea as Paul and the rest of the apostles explain who Jesus is and how He reveals God.
There is another idea of mystery that we find in scripture. I preached one Sunday about the Holy Spirit and stated that He is and His work is a mystery in that we do not always understand the Spirit’s work. That was part of the explanation to Nicodemus by Jesus in John 3 when He talked about the wind blowing. Anyway, I was later criticized for saying that I did not understand all the work of the Spirit. As a preacher, I was told, I should know these things (2).
Our problem is that we sometimes think that we have God all figured out. We have used logic and reasoning to draw our propositions and conclusions as to how God works, and once done, to state that this is the only way He works. So for instance, we read in 1 Timothy 6:16 that God is unapproachable. This is true in one aspect but is it true in all cases? In Exodus 24, God invites Moses, Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel up the mountain where, the text says twice, they see God, and they do not die. Later God Himself will tell Moses that no one can see Him and live (Exodus 34). Contradictory? It would be unless we keep in mind our opening text, God is in heaven and does whatever pleases Him (Psalm 115:3). In this case, it pleased God to allow Moses, Aaron and the rest to see Him. Leo Tolstoy said, “God cannot be understood by logical reasoning but only by submission.”
There is another aspect to this case. We have taught that evil cannot enter the presence of God. This too is true, at least in one aspect. But then we have to deal with Job 1 and 2 where the Accuser enters God’s presence. Then we have to explain Jesus Himself coming into a sinful world. It isn’t all that cut and dry as we would like to think. There is a mystery of God’s activity that we do not understand because God has chosen not to reveal much about Himself. Keep in mind that we have more than we can handle in what God has revealed about Himself in scripture but that certainly isn’t everything.
Prayer remains a mystery. We pray and we expect God to act in someway, but we just do not know how or understand all the ins and outs - if we understanding any of them. We trust that God hears and responds. We then wait and observe to see what God does. Sadly, some see prayer as nothing more than obedience to a command, that we cannot effect change from God. Somehow that misses much of what is taught in scripture.
It is difficult for us at times because we like to solve mysteries. We want solutions to problems. When dealing with God however, that will not always be the case. There are just too many mysteries that we must walk by faith. We must just accept that God does whatever He wants. We do not have Him figured out. This certainly will affect our understanding of any number of Biblical texts. Instead of trying to get everything line up right, we might just have to accept the fact that God works differently when He wants because of who He is and He has a broader view of His creation than we do.
So while the clues are there in many cases, we just do not understand it all and must accept that God knows what He is doing.
George B. Mearns
(1) The Mouse Trap is the longest running play in London having run around twenty three thousand performances as of 2000 A.D. It continues to run in London and in other countries. It had over nine thousand performances in Canada at one time. If you get a chance to see it, do!
(2) See Tim Woodroof, A Spirit for the Rest of Us, Leafwood, 2009. While somewhat sarcastic, he certainly pegs what we have taught over the years and the fear of the mystery of the Spirit, especially in its the last two chapters.