Bri K

I was reading this morning and two different quotes sparked contemplation on mystery. With the help of those smarter than I, I have come to learn that my goal should not be to comprehend God, but to be comprehended by Him…that indeed my chief role is one of response, not initiative. So as I thought on mystery, here’s the response the Lord prompted…

Stanley Hauerwas: “Indeed it is a mistake to think that these great doctrines [Trinity and Incarnation] of our faith…are meant to explain. These doctrines are quite literally names for mysteries…”

Philippians 3:8 “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…”

Lord you are truly beyond my comprehension and I am comprehended by you and contained in you. You are a great mystery and the fact that you would allow yourself to be known is a greater mystery still. And you do not merely allow, but you invite us into this knowledge, this relationship. Yet you do not stop with an invitation, but you pursue–relentlessly and recklessly–you pursue our hearts in order that our longing for you might, but some strange miracle, begin to reflect, even in small part, your longing for us! Oh mystery that Paul, that any could proclaim a desire to know you at any cost in the face of losing all! Than any mere man, could actually desire you is itself a radical gift of grace. For this is not merely religion of morality or volition, this is affection! A miracle! And it is such, not because you are not desirable, but because we are fooling around with meaningless mirages hoping to find life and are too dull to recognize you for who you are. It is a miracle that you can take a dark self-saturated heart and breathe to life a love that costs the very self. A miracle!

In this, it is absolutely true that you are too good for me. Indeed you are the only good. And yet once again you surprise by not being a far-removed, arrogant and disinterested God and not even by standing close to the mess that is me and my sin. But rather, you dive in entirely immersed in this woman that does not even deserve a second glance. For as with Israel, so too you by right could have left me despised and rejected kicking in my blood, but instead you wash me and clothe met. Yet after this, once again comes your mysterious eccentricity–your lavish lavishness that seems to transcend even grace. For grace itself is lavish, but then you give grace upon grace. You not merely clothed your whore-Bride, but you adorn her with your riches, your best. Oh mystery! She who was naked and bare and working the street corner as someone worse than the common woman. Oh She has not merely been given rags to cover her, but rather a robe and she is not given only morsels upon which to tame her famine, she has been given a feast that satisfies eternally!

Oh mystery that You define love and all of our best constructs of its essence or its works fall short of You. Certainly I have nothing to repay you and this kind of love is strangely uncomfortable. It is true that oft times we want to wiggle and squirm out of such a fierce and gracious grip for we have nothing to give, nothing to return! And once again you surprise, for you do not want our gift or sacrifice. You want Us–undone, messy and incapable of loving you like you deserve. This is the heart you fight for? How strange it is that in a sense, you choose to love those who cannot love you back. You turn toward She who continually turns away.

But once again, miracle of miracles, you take not merely the man and order his steps to righteous acts, you take the heart of the man and in so doing make him righteous. You became sin. My crucified and risen Christ now in You do I become the very righteousness of God. Oh stunning mystery that is unsearchable and knowable You!