Holy Mysteries

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1-12

Science fiction writers love the concept of a paradox.  A paradox is when two things that should not exist or happen simultaneously do so.  A paradox is something that by its very nature is contradictory.   Exploring paradoxes is the basis for all kinds of works of science fiction, but paradoxes have an oddly specific use in science fiction.  It is one that gets used time and time again and gets used so frequently that it has a dedicated page on the website tvtropes.org that track when it is used.  The TV trope is called the logic bomb, and this is when a contradiction in logic or a paradox is used to confuse a computer or an A.I.  

 One of the earliest and clearest examples of this trope can be seen in Star Trek.  In the original series episode, The Ultimate Computer.  In this episode an advanced computer with artificial intelligence is installed on the Enterprise.   However, things go off the rails when the computer determines to fulfill its program to make safe travel spacer it must keep complete control of the ship.  When a poor crew member wearing a red shirt tries to unplug the computer, the computer kills the person due to its self-preservation programming.  Captain Kirk eventually saves the day by pointing out that killing the crew member violated the computer’s ethics programming so that by carrying out its programming it was violating it’s programming.  This paradox causes the computer to short circuit and shut down.  The original series of Star Trek especially loves this trope, because it was used multiple times.  Over the course of only three seasons, Captain Kirk talks a computer to death four times. 

 Paradoxes are not just a trope that sci-fi writers rely on.  In science there are a variety of observed paradoxes.  Often these scientific paradoxes are questions that do not yet have answers.   Often seeking answers to these questions lead to new discoveries.   Our faith also has paradoxes, but like this morning’s scripture, we often use the word mystery.  These mysteries of faith often are questions without answers, and one of the paradoxes of faith is embracing the mystery often lead not to more doubt but to deeper faith.  

This morning’s scripture is a continuation of the scriptures we have read for the past two weeks.  To briefly recap, 1 Corinthians was written to a church that Paul helped found and one that he spent a year and a half at.  Because this faith community was among the first in the world to navigate what it means to be a Christian church, there were some hiccups, there was some conflict, and division.   Paul largely wrote the letter to address these sources of conflict, but one of the points Paul makes in the beginning of the letter is that the step of faith they have made to follow Christ sets them apart from the world around them.   The faith they now cling to is the wisdom of God, even though the world will see their new viewpoint as foolishness.   This is the part of the point that is being made in this morning’s scripture reading.  

Corinth was a Greek city, and as such was a hub of Greek culture.   This was a traditional culture that valued the philosophy, logic, and wisdom of the Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato.   It was a culture that highly valued skill in rhetoric.   In this morning’s scripture Paul points out that he did not come to the Corinthians as a strong speaker with an incredibly delivered speech to sway them.   He also did not come with a robust presentation based on logic and philosophical wisdom.   Instead, he brought them a simple message:  Jesus Christ-crucified.  He brought this simple message in an straightforward for a specific purpose.  As Paul wrote in verse 5 “so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.”  The paradox the Corinthians quickly experiences is that such a simple message is profoundly life changing.  

Paul points this out.  Even though the message was simple, and even though it was not in line with the philosophical wisdom of the age, it is a message of Godly wisdom.  Paul specifically points out that this wisdom is a mystery, that even though God had planned for from the beginning, had only now been revealed.  This mystery that the rulers of the age could not understand was that of a crucified messiah.  The idea that through condemnation of one, salvation was won for all; that only through death, did eternal life become possible; through undergoing the ultimate humiliation of death on a cross, Jesus has been exalted to the ultimate glory and sits at the right hand of the Father.       

  This life-changing wisdom of a crucified savior is one that continued to be viewed as foolishness hundreds of years after Paul.  In fact, one of the first major heresies that threatened to tear the church apart in the first couple of hundred years was Docetism.  This heresy rose because the mystery of the crucified messiah was still a step too far.  They believed Jesus was the savior, but they did not like the idea of Jesus suffering on the cross.   The thought process was that if Jesus was truly perfect then physical pain would corrupt that perfection.  Thus, the Docetists believed that Jesus did not have a physical body.  He existed perfectly in the spiritual realm, and he only appeared to suffer on the cross, the crucifixion was essentially a magical illusion so that the perfection of the messiah would not be corrupted.  In the first couple of hundred years the Christian community rallied around declaring this belief false.  However, the fact that even 200 years after Paul wrote this morning’s scripture, the idea of a crucified messiah still tripping people up shows just how revolutionary and against the wisdom of the age the wisdom of God was.  

In this morning’s scripture Paul writes about the mysteries of faith, and he points out that mystery is an inevitable part of faith.  Paul wrote, “In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”  We are finite beings seeking to live in relationship with the infinite creator of the universe.  So, of course there are going to be paradoxes, there are going to be questions without answers, there is to going to be mystery.  It does not seem we are always a big fan of that though.   I remember 23 years ago when I started in youth ministry, In the youth minister’s office I inherited there was a meager collection of books and resources.  One of them was a book of answers.  It put worth that had it had the biblical answer for everything.  It had a wide range of topics and for each of these topics it would list scripture that supposably addressed this topic.  A lot of this involved proof-texting, taking a single verse of scripture out of context, and jamming it into a completely different context. The bible after all, does not have a single scripture about television or video games for example.  

I did not use that book much in youth ministry, but the idea that the bible is a book of answer, or an instruction manual of sorts is one that I continue to encounter from time to time.   This is a popular notion, because we like the idea of being able to take any question and then getting an easy answer that can be quoted chapter, and verse.  But I do not think that is how the bible works.  The bible was never meant to be an instruction book or some sort of answer key to life.  The bible is a book full of truth and mystery.  When we read the scripture we can find all kinds of potential paradoxes and questions without answers. For example, from the scripture we can learn that Jesus, as the messiah is fully God yet Jesus is also fully human.  We can learn that God is a God of unwavering justice, yet God is also a forgiving God of endless mercy.   We can learn that there is only one God, yet this one God is three distinct persons of Father, Son, and Spirit-united in perfect Trinity.  All of these are mysteries that do not have easy answers.  Studying the bible has been one of the primary focuses of my entire adult life, and I am convinced it is not a book that is meant to give us easy answers, it is a book that God uses to help us ask better questions.   

Research has shown that the older we get the less likely we are to ask questions and the less curious we become.   However, this research has also shown that maintaining curiosity in age promotes a higher level of mental, emotional and physical wellbeing in older adults.  This research has also shown a correlation that the more curious an adult is the less likely they are to have signs of dementia.  Curiosity is important factor for our overall health, and this is true for our spiritual health as well.   Our faith grows when we ask questions.  Often for a potted plant to be able to grow, it will have to be repotted into a bigger vessel so that it has space to grow.   When we stay curious and ask questions, we give our faith room to grow and space to get deeper.  In verses 9 and 10 this morning’s scripture puts forth that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us gain wisdom and understanding in the mysteries of faith.   When we are willing to ask questions and stay curious, then we give the Holy Spirit space in our lives to work and to grow our faith. 

 It is true, sometimes the questions we ask do not have good answers. In explaining his approach teaching science theoretical physicist Richard Feynman said, “I Would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.” I think that a similar approach is helpful in our faith.  Because there are some questions that do not have an easy, straight forward answer.    Sometimes we need to be willing to accept a little mystery.  However, that should not stop us from questioning.  If God is big enough to create the universe, then God is big enough to stand up to our questions, and again it is through staying curious and contemplating the questions without answers that our faith grows the most.  

This morning’s scripture puts forth that God had revealed in their age one of the great mysteries, which is the singular message that Paul brought to the Corinthians: Jesus Christ crucified.    Christian tradition has long found the essence of this great truth best captured in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Even this straight forward statement is full of mystery, full of big questions.   What compels God to love the world enough to make that big of a sacrifice?   Why does God love me enough have to include me in that?   What does it mean for me to truly and fully believe in Jesus?  And what does it look like  to live an eternal life?    These are questions that we contemplate every single days of earthly lives.  I believe doing so will give he Holy Spirit room to work, it will grow our faith, but we will also discover that the answer always goes a little deeper.  There is a always a little more to discover because we are asking curious questions of the infinite love of a forever God.  

This morning’s scripture is an invitation to explore the questions that do not have easy answers, the mysteries, and paradoxes of faith.  It is an invitation to grow in faith, but we have to be willing to stay curious.  In The Big Book of Christian Mysticism Carl McColman wrote, “Paradox is not always warmly received by those who want their faith to be watertight and easy to control.  If you have invested your heart and soul in the idea that God makes everything neat and tidy and your job is simply to obey the rules, then you will have no room  for paradoxical statements in your spirituality. . .But for those who regard faith as a relationship, paradox is not nearly so threatening. . .A spiritual paradox may provide evidence that God is bigger than our limited human capacity for reason and logic.” 

In this morning’s scripture Paul reiterates that the message he brought to the Corinthians was an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ-crucified.   Paul invited the Corinthians to contemplate the holy mystery that a crucified messiah grants the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who believe in him.   This is an open invitation that stands today.  So, friends, may we stay curious.   May we be willing to ask questions without easy answers, may we contemplate spiritual paradoxes, and may we explore holy mysteries.  In doing so may we give the Holy Spirit room to grow our faith as we learn a little bit more each day just how deep the love of God truly is.