it is said that we are fearfully and wonderfully made…
what is there to make us wonder about ourselves?
what is there that needs to be feared?
clearly, it is apparrent…
exceedingly more than the eye can see or the hand can grasp
wonder provokes us to reach into the unknown
fear leaves us frightened of that same act
no wonder we build such sturdy, immovable castles
The old “King James” translation of the bible had a phrase that popped up fairly often.
“…and it came to pass that…”
Whatever it is, it will come, and in time it will pass.
Whether it is bad and hurtful, even unimaginably destructive and terrifying …
…it will come … and it will eventually pass.
It may be good and indescribably beneficial, even truly wonderful….
… but it too will come, … and it too will eventually pass.
The word eventually is also an interesting turn of phrase.
It speaks to me of events.
Whatever it is, it is merely an event …a singular happening in a long line of other happenings.
And as we know events happen.
They come and they go.
They too will come … and they too will pass.
And our God, we choose to believe, … is eternal, … infinite.
The same faith we extend to our universe … we choose to believe that it too is eternal, … infinite.
As scary as this might or might not be, this to me speaks of movement.
Whichever way I look at it, it speaks to me of always moving on, of not staying in the same place…
It also speaks to me of ever expanding horizons.
As we move on new horizons will come and go… and each new horizon will come, … and it will pass … into and on to the next new horizon.
… unless we stop.
It suggests to me that if we pitch our tent anywhere … literally, figuratively, theologically, doctrinally, politically, scientifically, culturally, socially, relationally, emotionally, or in any other way… we forfeit the wonder that could be ours.
We will forfeit the privileges of pilgrimage.
Perhaps all we can do is hold on lightly to the present … very, very lightly.
… and with all the joy we can muster, enjoy the ride…
And us?
We know this, that the physical life we live is not at all eternal.
We came, … we have a fairly good idea how, but we have no real idea why…
And we fill this gap with many beliefs… religious, scientific, meaningful, meaningless…
But this one thing we do know for sure… that we will all pass.
In the greater scheme of things we too are an it.
The word wonderful in the dictionary is revealed as exciting a feeling of wonder; marvellous or strange.
For me the word conjures up mystery.
Something could be said to make us wonder if it appears in full or in part to defy definition or even description. Something is wonderful if it leaves us perhaps speechless or somewhat overwhelmed, even mystified. Wonderful means full of wonder, amazing. For me it also possibly suggests that something could be confusing, vexing, disturbing, even possibly shocking.
“I wonder what that means?”
“It makes me wonder what’s going on?”
“I wonder what that could possibly be?”
And when we are stumped by God’s virtue it is often said, “the Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform!”
Wonderful – such a choice, well used, even adored word. It can be such a powerful adjective when used to intensify our statements and feelings. Wonderful is so often appropriately used in honour of God and his ways. It is commonly sung in the verses of songs of praise and abundantly recorded in the ancient hymns of worship and adoration. Even our private and public prayers are very often filled with this word when we speak to or of our God.
Yet why is it that we seem to close down the mystery and wonder of God so soundly? In our theology and the definitions of God, his character, deeds, ways? Why is it that we have so effectively developed tight, systematic theology and doctrine? How did orthodoxy ascend to the cerebral heights it now occupies? How is it that we define so precisely and articulately what we in worship declare as mysterious and full of wonder? And how did spiritual methodology become so logical, so worldly, so empirical?
Could it be said that when the mystery and wonder of God seems to visit that we so easily tend to try pitch our tents and camp at mere signs (which are, as their name suggests, merely directives which point to something rather than being the destination itself) and punish wondering (perhaps because it reveals our nakedness)?
Could it be that we have somehow lost sight of the pursuit of truth being a wonderful journey and not a destination?
I wonder if this could be a sign for this generation?
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There was this man named John who walked with Jesus for a few years. He was one of the inner circle in the life of the Christ and seemed to somehow successfully develop a very close relationship with him, apparently significantly more intimate than the other eleven had managed to do. There are no great details as to what this relationship really was like other than the few suggestions centred around the fact that he and Jesus are recorded to have shared some peculiar intimacies.
On one occasion as they were all reclining during a meal (as was the custom of the day) he was recorded as lying back on the breast of Jesus. To me this is clearly indicative of a level of personal shared space that is not common amongst most men (at least not in our modern, western culture). On another occasion he was requested by the others to approach Jesus about an issue that was obviously very sensitive amongst the disciples in that theyapparently felt they were unable to ask Jesus directly for themselves. To me this is sort of like the other brothers and sisters asking the favourite sibling to speak to their father as to whether they could all have ice cream as the favourite, being the favourite, had far better chance of success. John was also the only recorded apostle at the scene of the death of Jesus. Whilst breathing his last Jesus entrusted the care of his own mother to him, indeed a privilege and a deeply intimate request of anyone. There are other occasions but think these suffice for now in painting an interesting picture for us.
According to tradition John had a fairly long life in comparison to his fellow disciples and near the end of his days he penned a letter to the churches that we have come to know as “Revelation.” This letter was written as a result of a vision, or a series of visions John received whilst exiled on an island called Patmos. Interestingly, in this letter he writes how he saw Jesus and heard him speak of things that were, and also of things that were still to come.
The thing that really grabs me is that John, the closest one to Jesus, the “Beloved”, who walked alongside him for years and was openly known as the “one whom Jesus loved” at first never recognized Jesus at all in the visions. The appearance of Jesus took him by surprise and if not by surprise it was like nothing he had seen or imagined before. It was either revealed to him that it was Jesus in his vision or he understood it slowly, bit by bit, as the visions progressed. In these visions Jesus was somehow represented by something very un-worldly and even at times frightening, definitely amazing, often confusing. … and this to the man who knew him arguably better than any disciple at the time.
This is amazing to me. John penned this letter possibly only a few short decades after the actual events and did not even recognize Jesus. He was caught off guard and never recognized his great and dear friend and long time companion. … and this after only a relatively short period of absence.
… and here we are, over 2000 years later, with a whole cluster of wonderful letters and stories and even the transliterated copies of the original legal contracts the Jewish leaders had at the time of Christ (even rendered in our day into English, even into multiple different English versions of the same texts). And somehow, as I think of these things I cannot help but wonder just how much we might be exactly like those poor, devoted, yet blind men whose hands, hearts and minds successfully plotted the murder of Jesus? … what with all our very systematic, ordered, detailed doctrines of Christ and things heaven and God related… . . .
It also makes me wonder about the legal qualifications we pursue and obtain to legitimize our ministry of the grace of Christ. Alongside this I cannot help but think of how fully qualified or socially endorsed church leaders build perfectly trimmed and water-tight theologies and doctrines, even attacking those of very similar faith who may differ, if only ever so slightly on certain specific aspects of the nature of grace and godly servitude ( … and just how one can legislate grace is logically beyond me – but that’s perhaps for another time).
What really alarms me though is that the Jewish religious leaders and teachers of the law themselves never recognized Jesus even though he was clearly spoken of in their sacred texts in the law of Moses as well as in the prophets and even though they were diligently searching and eagerly waiting for the revelation of their beloved prophet, the promised Messiah. In fact, they were so unable to recognize him that when he appeared they, as has been said, actually plotted his death as an act of worship and honour to the God they loved to the fullest of their natural ability.
We love to speak, even to preach about the folly of the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Priests and the legalists. But just how similar are we to these infamous rejecters of our Lord and Saviour? I make no personal judgments, …. I merely ask the question, of myself, …. of you… and quite frankly, speaking of myself, I am truly found wanting.
Maybe, just maybe, it might be an idea for us to re-visit our emphatic theology and the air-tight doctrines we hold?
Now I have no clear idea of what we might find, but maybe it might be that God really is far bigger and so vastly beyond our human ability to comprehend with these natural sensory limitations we all so frailly share?
And maybe, just maybe, God is far more gracious, powerful, wise, and faithful than we could ever imagine – even to the extent of not being at all concerned with the almost exclusively cognitive, intellectual manner in which we have allowed our minds to develop into, and with which we have so robustly legislated and documented our theology and doctrine? … . . . or maybe not?
Perhaps the creator of all things is sitting down somewhere, relaxed and happily content to trust the power of the invincible seed he has sown into the human pods who walk about like ants under the blazing sun to germinate and proliferate according to his divine instruction and ability? (regardless of our efforts to help or not).
If John was surprised, confused, even terrified after a short gap of only one or two decades what do we think we might be when it comes to a good old face-to-face in possibly the not too distant future?
Can you imagine if we were wrong? WOW!! … on the one hand it could be devastating … but on the other, it could be literally out of this world!!
…. there is the account in the twenty first chapter of the gospel of John of the miraculous catch of large fish. They were out fishing after being devastated that their hero and saviour had been brutally beaten and murdered. They had fished all night and caught nothing and in the morning they saw someone standing on the shore who shouted out to them, “have you any fish?” to which they answered “no.” This man then told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat and that they would then catch some fish. For some reason they did so and surprisingly caught a large catch. It was then that they saw it was Jesus. The details in the gospel account states that the net had to be dragged ashore and that the net was not torn even though being extremely full of many ‘large fish’. The number of fish caught in the miraculous catch was given specifically as 153.
One could ask, why not 152 or 154 or an even 150, or even “over 100”?
Surely even “a large number of fish” would have been more than sufficient and would in no way have undermined or detracted from the gravity of the event?
153?
