Responding Creatively to Mystery
- davidwperk
- Jul 11, 2023
- 6 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Proper 9, the week of the sixth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Phrase for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
(You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of the reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 974)
AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11
1 Samuel 15:24-35; Acts 9:32-43; Luke 23:56b-24:11
Today we celebrate the Feast of Benedict of Nursia. (See below.)
David's Reflections
Safe to say that resurrection of the body was outside the experience of the women and the Twelve. They may have heard Jesus speak about his approaching death and resurrection, probably in quite veiled terms (maybe toward the end of his life and in a fashion more like what we read in John’s Gospel with terms like “lifted up” and “glorified”), but they were totally unprepared for this scenario—his crucifixion and an empty tomb. In this moment, the report of the women seemed like idle tales to the men (not a rare occurrence for men in religious communities to this day).
Through my years of parish ministry and classroom teaching in college and seminary, many parishioners and students have expressed reservations and doubts about the literal reality of some of the key events related in the Gospels--Jesus' full humanity and deity (incarnation), the miracles, the virginal conception, the resurrection, the personal existence of Satan and demons, the return of Christ.
Please do not misunderstand. I am not writing from some space of smug certainty about any of this. The spiritual realm, that dimension beyond the five senses, teems with mystery. I find all the aforementioned concepts even more mysterious and elusive than ever. As one theologian defined it, mystery is "an inexhaustible source of soluble problems.”*
Doubting seems natural and inevitable to me; what I find objectionable is a hardened skepticism that rejects any of these possibilities out of hand because they are outside the rejecter's experience and/or because they do not square with his or her view of how the world works. That perspective enthrones the stance of the skeptic as exclusive of all other possibilities. I find equally offensive a smug dogmatism that affirms all these realities with relative ease and feels smugly superior to those with uncertainly.
Like Harry Emerson Fosdick once proclaimed in a sermon at Riverside Church, NYC, it benefits one to "doubt their doubts." Look behind our skepticism, our discomfort, and ask whether realities are breaking into our field of vision that could well be genuine. Perhaps they feel bizarre simply because they are beyond our experience and/or our view of the world. Best to avoid the extremes of hardened skepticism and the easy smug certainty of condescending dogmatism. After all, we are not saved by our ideas or our belief system. We find saving love only in a relationship of faith.
(Note: If you want to look farther into this, go to the Internet Archive, www.internetarchive.org and find volume 2 of Paul Tillich’s systematic theology, Systematic Theology II: Existence and the Christ, and read pages 78-86, for his discussion of five different forms of self-salvation we attempt apart from faith. This is the exact link - https://archive.org/details/systematictheolo0000till_r2x2)
Perhaps it is not only the realities we are questioning that should be interrogated, but what sparks our skepticism or dogmatism as well. I would hope that church would be a place where every question is a safe one to bring. In that ideal community, no one would be saying, "You shouldn't question that." Had these earliest believers not struggled with the resurrection, their easy, smug faith would give me pause. Embracing the reality of Jesus’ resurrection stretched them, requiring the assistance of the witness of angels and the appearances of Jesus himself. Our struggles with the mysteries of faith put us in good company.
May our churches offer a safe haven for just such questioning a haven from both hardened skepticism and smug dogmatism. Best to seek the company and counsel of friends with a vigorous faith and a positive way in relationships. May we have the grace to look behind our questionings to see where the energy that prompts them originates. We may find ourselves stretched beyond our previous experience and our previous ways of viewing the world. The women and the Twelve certainly did.
One more thing. We embrace mystery in all areas of life. I don’t understand gravity, but I certainly depend on it. I don’t understand insect and bird migration, but I don’t deny those realities. Somehow, we get into our intellects in the face of spiritual mystery and resort to dogmatism or scepticism. Could it not be exciting to be stretched into responding creatively to the mysteryies of the unseen realm of the Spirit, stretched into deeper faith?
Studdert-Kennedy’s poetic lines get at it for me.
I followed what I could not understand
Because I knew,
That only that which passeth understanding
Can be true.+
*John S. Dunne, A Search for God in Time and Memory (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame UP, 1977), p. 7.
+G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, The Warrior, The Woman, and the Christ (New York: R. R. Smith, 1930), p. 147.
Collect of the Day, Proper 9, The sixth Sunday after Pentecost
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 230)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Benedict of Nursia, founder of western monasticism (died ca 547 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Benedict of Nursia
Gracious God, whose service is perfect freedom and in whose commandments there is nothing harsh nor burdensome: Grant that we, with your servant Benedict, may listen with attentive minds, pray with fervent hearts, and serve you with willing hands, so that we live at peace with one another and in obedience to thy Word, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Peace
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
For the Departed
Almighty God, we remember before you today your faithful servant N.; and we pray that, having opened to him the gates of larger life, you will receive him more and more into your joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served you in the past, he may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)
A Prayer for Light
O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Gospel, Luke 23:56-24:11 56Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
24:1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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