Creekside Church Sermon of February 21, 1999 "Leaving Room for Mystery" Matthew 17:1-9	Rev. David Bibbee
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Mysteries don't appeal to me, but mystery does. Mysterium tremendom is Latin for "tremendous mystery". It expresses what is inexpressible. Mysterium tremendom is to be in the presence of God in such a way that neither words, categories, nor concepts are adequate to describe the experience. The Bible is a record of God's mysterious ways. Christianity is not the result of our successful search for God. Our encounter with God is not an achievement; it is a gift. We do not find God. We are found by God.

I will share some thoughts with you today about the need for a mystical component in our faith. There will be no vitality in our relationship with the Lord if there is no room for a transcendent experience of God's majesty and holiness. I know people who have dropped out of the church, not because of a crisis in belief, but because there is a lack of imagination and mystery in worship which they need to feel close to God. Without mystery, worship and the spiritual life are hollow.

Annie Dillard says this kind of church resembles a bunch of cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute. "We stand around having coffee and small talk with the tour leader, oblivious to what the Absolute is all about. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blindly invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?"

Our lesson today describes a mystical moment experienced by Peter, James and John. Jesus took them up on a mountain to pray. In the Bible, when someone climbs a mountain, you can be sure that something big is about to happen. What better place to encounter God than on a mountain? On a mountain Moses met God and was given the Ten Commandments, and on a mountaintop the disciples saw Jesus transfigured-his face was radiant, his clothes brilliant light. Moses and Elijah dropped in for a chat, a cloud descended over them and a voice said, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

What do we do with such a story? Encounters like this don't happen every day. Peter wanted to preserve the moment-get a handle on it, draw out the implications, make some life applications. This amazing revealed Jesus' identity. Moses and Elijah disappeared and only Jesus remained, God's beloved Son. And the disciples were appropriately on their faces, filled with awe.

What are we to make of this story? In a world come of age, it's hard to take a story like this at face value. If a story doesn't conform to our experience, we dismiss it. There doesn't seem to be much room left for mystery these days. When this was written, people had a primitive, very limited way of making sense of the forces at work around them. We live in an enlightened age. What ancient people called a miracle we explain with the scientific method. We think that with a rational, reasoned approach, there isn't anything we can't figure out.

The only reality is that we can see, touch, and explain. Something isn't real if it can't be weighed, measured, or reproduced in a laboratory. The future isn't guided by invisible forces, but by the Dow Jones Industrials, the Consumer Price Index, and the gross national product. There is little room for mystery, only mastery. We can control whatever we understand.

There is mysterium tremendom all around. I know a Presbyterian minister who related this story. A dear friend named Dudley had recently died and this pastor and wife spent the night with Dudley's widow. That night he had a dream about Dudley. He dreamed he was standing at the foot of the bed wearing the navy blue sweater he often wore. The pastor told Dudley how much he was missed and how good it was to see him. Then he asked, "Dudley, are you really there? Are you real or am I dreaming?" He said he was. "Can you prove it?" "Of course." Then Dudley pulled a blue strand of wool from the sweater and tossed it to him. It felt so real he woke. It was as if Dudley had come on purpose. He told the dream at breakfast, but before he finished his wife said she saw the blue strand on the carpet while getting dressed. She was sure it wasn't there the night before. They rushed upstairs, and there it was.

What do you make of something like this? Was it just a dream? The blue thread could have been there a long time. Nothing more. Or maybe it's evidence of something more.

Ten years ago I dreamed I was back in seminary taking a test. The professor distributed pictures of abstract art which we were to interpret in an essay. I couldn't make any sense of mine. Next thing I knew I was holding a light bulb, wondering where it had come from. Then a voice said, "Ask it anything you want." This dream took place during a dark, difficult time when I was in a spiritual desert. God seemed remote. So I asked the light bulb, "Does God desire a relationship with me?" I held it up to my ear and a voice simply said, "Yes." "This isn't happening," I said to myself. I asked the question a second time. Again the answer was, "Yes." I started laughing, then I noticed a classmate also holding a light bulb. "Ask it anything you want," I said. He asked it the same question, held it to his ear, and I could tell by the look on his face he had received the same answer.

A psychiatrist might say these dreams were the result of our unconscious working through an issue. But for me it was a communiqu‚ from God, which came when I needed it most. The pastor who dreamed of his friend asked, "If I had to bet my life on whether it was real or not, which would I bet on? If you had to bet your life, which would you bet on...yes, there is a God in the highest, and mystery and meaning in the deepest, or no, things only mean what you choose them to mean?"

Few of us have ever had mystical mountain top experience like the disciples. But being a believer calls for a willingness to embrace what can't be explained.

There is one thing christianity in not...it is not reasonable. God coming into the world as a baby is not reasonable. God dying on a cross between two crooks isn't reasonable. Paul calls it, "Foolishness." But what cannot be grasped with the mind or expressed with the tongue can be expressed on bended knee. To the disciples Jesus was a brilliant teacher, a charismatic preacher and compassionate healer, but on the mountaintop he was revealed as the Savior of the world, and a wave of awe rolled over them.

Being a vital Christian leaving room for mystery. This is the information age. We are told that those who will make it in the world will know how to access and use information. But life isn't facts and figures. When reason rules, when we are numbed by knowledge, when there is no sense of God's presence in life, we become hollow and hungry. It's a hunger that is evident in the church.

The church is told over and over again that to attract people, it must be relevant. Boil the Bible down to a level people can understand or tolerate. Distill it into manageable points and principles and "how to" lessons. Follow the five spiritual laws. The purpose of going worship is to hear practical applications in our daily lives; something we can use to be better people. Obviously we need to learn how to live and behave as Christians. But too often we leave worship thinking more about what we should be doing about it rather than being caught up and losing ourselves in wonder over what God has done for us.

We do not worship to have our needs met, or share our joys and concerns, or enjoy the company of nice people. There's something missing in many worship services today...God. Little attention is given to beauty in music and the worship environment. There's a lack of imagination, majesty and dignity...little to inspire wonder in God, His love and grace. There is no mystery.

Years ago I wrote a parable about a boy fishing on a riverbank. A man saw him and said, "What are you fishing for?" "Just fish," the boy said. The man was a zoology professor. He saw a stringer with three fish tied to the bank and said, "Those are nice pomoxis nigromaculatis you have there." The boy looked confused. "They're just fish to me." The professor then pointed out the features of the fishes' anatomy and other fish facts. The encounter changed the boy. No longer was a fish a fish or a bird a bird. He became so engrossed in identifying and studying creatures that he became a zoology professor. Then one day he realized something was missing from his life. Something had been left behind. Now he goes down to the river with his son in hopes of recovering the capacity to "just fish."

I see there is something missing in our worship and daily walk with the Lord. Our need isn't more knowledge. Paul never said we are stewards of the knowledge of God. We need to humble ourselves because there is much about God's ways we will not grasp this side of eternity.

Paul said we are servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. After the disciples saw Jesus transfigured, they saw the world through different eyes. Throwing their lot in with God's son meant rethinking what was possible and impossible. Will the same be true of us? Will we assume more than a rational, reasoned approach to following Jesus? Will we allow ourselves to be overcome with awe when Jesus parts the curtain and gives us a glimpse of God's grace and glory? Will our worship become a divine encounter with God? Will there be room for mystery in our lives?

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