Mystery

It is the thing that pulls me. God is mysterious to me - and forever more she will be. As God is eternal, there will always be something old-new and mysterious about God.

The point of mystery is discovery. And if you know this well, then you also know that there is no disappointment in discovery because mystery doesn't end. Instead, the mystery that once made you frown and bite your lip and even, dare I say, pace the room and wipe tears away with frustrated hands now makes you chuckle under your breath and wink. As I have said, an eternal God will always be mysterious.

There are some who claim to love mystery, and therefore resist the pull to understand the mystery. Forgive me if I offend, but that is not love for mystery. In fact, I would say it is precisely the opposite.

The Trinity

It's a mystery and it pulls me. Here is what I have learned. The church doctrines on the Trinity never suggest that we do such a silly thing like believe that 1=3. Yet so many people I meet seem to think this is precisely "the mystery of the Trinity". That's not mystery, that's "fuzzy math" and though we may never figure out how much money is in the Social Security "lock box" or how the government can borrow money from itself so that it can spend more than it has, there is a discovery to be made here.

God is one essence and three persons.

This is the doctrine of the Trinity. It is NOT like saying God is one apple and God is three apples. 1=3=fuzzy math. It is also not like saying God is one apple and Jesus is the skin of the apple, the Father is the seeds and the Spirit is the flesh. The seed is not of the same essence as the skin. And so I am reduced to fishing for metaphors...but wait! I have found one! What is it?

Humanity!

Crazy that, huh?! But didn't we expect it? Imago Dei. Of course we should have known. The unfortunate thing is we tend to botch it up so bad, you can't tell what's going on.

In the second chapter of Genesis, there's one human and God decides to make another human. No more mud pies for God, instead God takes part of the first human for the starter batch. There is one humanity. There are two people. Don't make the mistake of saying there is one humanity and two types - male and female. Apple seeds and apple skins, my friends. There is one humanity and two people. Now within these two people there are, well, more starter batches, if you will, but the point is that there will only ever be one humanity.

One human essence, many people.

*wink*wink*

*chuckle*

;-)

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 6/17/2004 09:31:00 AM