Mystery

Mystery is an invitation. It invites us in to explore, to look around, to discover.

Mystery evokes awe, wonder, imagination, intrigue. The wonder is in the not knowing.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. --Albert Einstein

Mystery presents a challenge. It provokes action. It moves us from passive spectator to active participant.

Mystery makes for a good story. The murder mystery (the “whodunit”) remains popular today. The thriller movie is popular too. Where is the thrill of discovery without the challenge of mystery?

Mystery puts us in our place. It humbles our mind. It reminds us that we don’t have it all figured out. It makes us depend on revelation. The exploration requires mental work, but work that is enlightened by God, by Gods’ revelation of himself through creation, his Son, his Word, his Spirit, his Church. We are certainly dependent upon Another; we cannot begin to understand God in our own ability.

Exploring the mystery of God requires the revelation of God. We can only begin to explore the mysteries of God based on what God has revealed about himself.

1 Corinthians 4:1 ESV This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

So we are managers of the mysteries of God…

God is mysterious.
God has mysteries (secrets) that he chooses to reveal at a certain time (i.e. the mystery of Christ).

God has mysteries, things he knows that others do not, but God is himself a mystery. While there is much that God has revealed, there is much that remains hidden. This is the nature of apophatic theology. We pursue/worship/know God by what we do not know about him.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Fear is both a reverence for God and an unknowableness about God.

I can say that I know God is a trinity, but do I really know this? I believe it, but do I know it? Can I explain it in terms of reason? How can three distinct divine persons, be on divine substance? Do I know that God is triune based on a mind that is conditioned by reason and logic? Certainly not. Logically, three cannot equal one and one cannot equal three. So I do not and cannot know that God is One – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But I believe and that is just as powerful. I did not know how the heart surgeon was going to be able to fix my son’s heart when he had open heart surgery at 15 months old, but I believed he could.

Faith can embrace a mystery that repels reason.

All talk of God fails to hit the mark precisely. Catholic Theologian, Luke Timothy Johnson writes: We should be aware that neither the biblical nor the creedal language about God is fully adequate to the mystery of which they speak. They speak truly but not fully. All language about God reaches into a mystery it cannot grasp or comprehend. (The Creed)

For some people, mystery is too much of a challenge, too difficult of an exploration, so they choose to stick with what they know, to rest in the comfort of easy answers.

Easy answers devoid of mystery will always leave people sitting on the sidelines of the Jesus way. To walk with Jesus requires that we embrace certain mysteries and explore them with awe and wonder. To strip the Christian faith of mystery is to sentence faith to its death. Chesterton writes:

Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Your spiritual life dries up when you remove mystery from your faith, because mystery prevents boredom. We are tempted to make Christ a commodity, to dress him up in the latest fashions and make him seem appealing according to cultural standards. He become the Christ who can help you, the Christ who can make you a better person, the Christ who can add something to spice up your life. He becomes the Christ of “seven steps,” “five principles,” “four laws,” or “two keys for successful living.”

This pared-down, manageable Christ-commodity sells. People will buy into it quickly, but when they mistake it for the essence of the Christian faith they become like those who receive God’s word with joy and spring up quickly but because they have no root the sun rises and scorches them and they wither away.

Boredom leads distraction.
Distraction leads to replacement.

Christians who by in to the Christ-commodity ultimately get bored (or disillusioned) with the Christian faith and seek to replace it with some kind of commodity that will bring them the lasting happiness they are looking for.

Let’s not look away from the brightness of the mystery.
Let’s embrace it.
Let’s explore it.
Let’s rise to the challenge and leave the easy answers behind and worship and seek this God veiled in mystery. Especially as we approach the Christmas season.

Christmas is God’s unveiling of his ultimate mystery – the birth of Christ, Jesus the King.

Colossians 2:2-3 ESV …that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I am developing this for Sunday’s message--The Mystery of Christmas. After December 2nd, you can listen to the message online at www.cornerstoneamericus.com/sermons

What I like about Billy Graham

After watching these wonderful videos of Billy Graham and Woody Allen, I got thinking about how much I admire ol' Billy. I don't know what it is about him...his wit, his faith, his humor, his charm, his simplicity? I don't know.

He is towards the end of his life and I just think we are going to lose a precious gift when he dies. People have asked who will take his place. Who will fill his shoes? It is certainly not T.D. Jakes or Joel Osteen. Really, I don't think anyone can fill his shoes. Billy Graham is a one of kind.

Watch these videos and then read my thoughts below. This interview aired in 1969. (Thanks Todd for posting these on MMI!)

Seven Things I Like about Billy Graham

1) His love for Jesus
Billy was accustomed to calling Jesus by the title "Christ." I heard it said that people call Jesus by his title "Christ" when they know something about him, but if you truly knew Jesus, you call him by his given name, "Jesus." I don't think this is the case for Billy Graham. He may have used the title "Christ," when referring to Jesus, but I think there was (and is) a deep abiding love for Jesus with Billy. Whenever I have heard Billy Graham whether in an interview or preaching a sermon, he always talks about Jesus the Christ.

2) His dedication to preaching the gospel
Billy Graham dedicated his life to proclaiming the life, death, burial, resurrection and soon return of Jesus. I remember hearing Billy Graham on TV at Nixon's funeral. Even in that setting he was preaching the gospel. I remember (and repeat at the funerals I preach at) Billy saying, "For the Christian there is hope after death. For those who put faith in Christ there is the promise of the resurrection."

3) His commitment to the authority of Scripture
Even in this interview, Billy appeals to the Scripture. I like the way he says, "Scripture." It reveals his Southern roots. He has that "ah" sound on the end of the word. He pronounces it "Scriptu-AH" instead of "Scriptu-ER." No matter how you say it, the authority of the Scripture has kept the Church on target. Billy's sermons are always filled with "the Bible says...." What a powerful example to follow.

4) His humility
I appreciate that Billy never allowed his popularity or success to be marketed or commercialized. Most people cannot name a book that Billy wrote, although he has written several. (I have an original 1953 copy of Peace with God in my library.) There is no Billy Graham board game, Billy Graham Study Bible, Billy Graham journal with matching Billy Graham pen. There is just Billy and his love for God. Even though Billy Graham has preached to more people than any other human being in history, he remains humble.

5) His knack for engaging culture
Billy never seemed to be afraid to engage culture. He embraced the Jesus Movement in the 70s and included Christian rock/pop in his crusades. He went on TV with Woody Allen for goodness sake! The thing about his interview with Woody Allen is that he seemed just as comfortable with Woody Allen as he would be with a bunch of preachers. What a great example.

6) His ecumenical spirit
Billy was raised Presbyterian, but spent most of his ministry years as a Southern Baptist. Nevertheless, he was a tremendous bridge builder between various denominations. He was even able to bring Catholics and protestants together for his evangelistic events. He never compromised his convictions. He never wavered on the exclusivity of Jesus or the inspiration of the Scriptures. Yet he would join hands with Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Nazarenes, Anglicans, Presbyterians…anyone who loved Jesus and preached the gospel.

7) His work towards racial harmony
During the tumultuous 60s, he refused to hold segregated crusade meetings. He did meet with civil rights leaders, but he worked to bring racial harmony through action and not politics. It seems that all Christians – white or black, Catholic or protestant – can look to Billy as a hero. I certainly do.

My friend Santosh Ninan wrote an article on Billy Graham in Relevant Magazine a couple of years ago. Read the article here.

75% of Americans believe the resurrection of Jesus is literally true

Andrew Vanover recently blogged on the latest report from the Barna Group concerning the contemporary beliefs in various Bible stories. Barna conducted a nationwide telephone survey in August 2007 of 1000 randomly-selected adults.

What surprised me most is that 75% of the participants said they believed that the resurrection of Jesus is literally true. Amazing. What does this say about how we have communicated the truth of the resurrection? It is great that so many believe in the resurrection, but why isn't this belief causing people to live differently? I am preaching on the resurrection this Sunday, so I find this interesting. How is it that people can believe that a human being came back to life and not believe in his claims. Unbelievable.

Survey respondents were asked if they thought a specific story in the Bible was "literally true, meaning it happened exactly as described in the Bible" or whether they thought the story was "meant to illustrate a principle but is not to be taken literally."

When asked about "the story of Jesus Christ rising from the dead, after being crucified and buried," three out of four adults (75%) said they interpreted that narrative literally. Here is the breakdown of the survey on the question about the resurrection.

One out of five (19%) said they did not take that story literally.


Two-thirds of college graduates (68%) believe the resurrection narrative is literally true.


83% of mainline Protestants take the resurrection literally


95% of non-mainline Protestants accept the resurrection as fact


82% of Catholics embrace the resurrection narrative as being true.


Black adults were much more likely than either whites (74%) or Hispanics (80%) to consider the resurrection to be true.

You can read the entire report here.

Thoughts on The Golden Compass & Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman is an Oxford-educated British author. He published a trilogy of children's books in the 1990s called His Dark Materials. The books include Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997), and The Amber Spyglass (2000). He has been honored with several awards for these books and he has sold millions of copies in the UK and the US.

Northern Lights was published in the US as The Golden Compass and New Line Cinema is releasing the film adaptation of the book next month. The movie is a fantasy adventure similar to the look and feel of The Chronicles of Narnia, but with a much different theme. Read a synopsis of the movie here. My guess is that most kids will miss the meanings of the metaphors in the film, but a review of Pullman and his books makes it clear--the books, and presumably the movie, challenge some of the basic tenants of the Christian faith.

I have not read any of Pullman's books and I have not seen the movie, but from what I can piece together from reading a number of interviews with Pullman, he is passionate in his position that God doesn't exist, the Christian Church is oppressive and the biblical view of God, creation and redemption is wrong.

Here are a few quotes from Pullman in an Interview with the UK's newspaper the Guardian:

Pullman says: 'Blake once wrote of Milton that he was a "true poet, and of the Devil's party, without knowing it". I am of the Devil's party, and I know it.

'I'm just as interested in the Creation story as the fundamentalists are,' says Pullman, 'but in the part played by the tempter, who leads us to the kingdom of good and evil, which is wisdom, as an act of kindness towards those beings who had been kept as prisoners by the authority.'

'I hate the Narnia books, and I hate them with deep and bitter passion, with their view of childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling away...

'The Kingdom of Heaven was over... we shouldn't live as though it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.' [Source]

Pullman's distain for Narnia seemed to fuel his passion to write a children's trilogy that paints a view of reality that is quite different than the biblical picture. In Pullman's trilogy, the climax of the final book is the killing of a character called "God." He feels that the Christian faith leads people to social and intellectually bondage, a prison from which people need to be set free.

Peter Hitchens, a British writer and columnist called Pullman "the most dangerous author in Britain." Why? Because it is clear that Pullman desires to undermine the authority of the biblical story and the vitality of the local church. In one of the books, a character says, "Every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling." [Source]

So how should Christians respond? Should we boycott the movie? Hold up picket signs at local theatres? Should we allow our kids to see the movie? Or read the books?

I think Christian parents should be aware and be educated on the movie and the books. Whether you purchase a movie ticket or a book is their choice. I think we need to be careful not to make the movie too controversial. Controversy leads to more publicity. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as bad press. But certainly get educated. Learn what the movie is about before you launch into a tirade against atheists in America or how this is a sign of the end of the world.

Here are two good articles you can read:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226fa_fact

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials:_The_Golden_Compass

I believe it will blow over, much like The Da Vinci Code. Do you remember when that movie came out? I heard one national Christian leader say that The Da Vinci Code was going to be the biggest attack on the Christian faith in our lifetime. Maybe that was a bit of an overstatement.

For me, I don't intend on watching the movie or reading the books. I still haven't got through all of the Narnia books! For me, Lewis and Tolkien are masterful story-tellers and the stories they tell reinforce biblical truth. These are the books that I want to stick in the hands of my kids as they grow up. For me and my family, we will stick with Lewis and Tolkien.

Here is one of my favorite scenes from Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

Mr. Beaver says,

"You'll understand when you see him."

"But shall we see him?" asked Susan.

"Why, Daughter of Eve, that's what I brought you here for. I'm to lead you where you shall meet him," said Mr. Beaver.

"Is – is he a man?" asked Lucy.

"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King I tell you.

I think Aslan could take out Pullman's armored bear anyday!