Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 80; Isaiah 5:1-7; John 1:19-28; Revelation 5:1-10; Psalm 40
One of the most frustrating aspects of living in the modern age for me as a mystic is resisting the urge modernists have to neatly define everything – including God. Lost in the modernist approach toward life is the reality that some things – by their very definition – defy definition. I can think of nothing where this is more true than of God. The psalmist beautifully captures this truth in the 40th Psalm when he wrote in verse 3: “More & more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.” The natural response to this mystery? “I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither number nor words account for you” (Psalm 40:5 – The Message). While many modern folks are uncomfortable without having things neatly defined, I can think of no time better than Christmas to abandon yourself to the mystery we call God. Think about the many times your experience of God transcends definition during this season: the feeling you get in your heart when you watch your child excitedly open a gift; the emotion you feel when you sing “Silent Night” by candlelight at the Christmas Eve service; that moment when you walk out of the Christmas Eve service at midnight and your breath is taken away by the cold and the calm. Each of these experiences testifies to the truth of the psalmists’ words. This Christmas season I invite you to resist the urge to define God and instead abandon yourself to the Mystery. Til next time…
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