Here A Mystic, There A Mystic

Okay, I realize I didn't give everyone enough time to leave comments on the last post, but I have so many things to blog about that I have to get them out or I will go insane...or just forget about them altogether.

Once agian readings from Generous Orthodoxy intersected my own thoughts (maybe Brian McLaren is reading my thoughts for ideas for his next best-seller). Anyway, one of the chapters talks about the mystical side of our faith. Come to think of it there really isn't a rational side to faith, faith is itself mystical, and that is the point of this entry.

It has been said that upon the very edge of reason and logic lies faith. The very furthest point that your mind can possibly fathom, on the very tip of that horizon is the place where faith takes over and procedes from there. And here's the mind-splitting, paradigm-shifting, crotch-grabbinly delicious point: Christianity Is Mystical. You are a mystic.

Not many things in the Christian faith check out logically, in fact, most of them are counter-intuitive. A god who created the world with pure will, who exists in three distinct parts, but not, who becomes all man and all God, a woman who gets pregnant without sex so that she can birth God in order that He might die, thus magically removing all sin and the power of death, miracles, angels, demons, healings, smitings...no, no, no Christianity is totally rational and straightforward.

Two things strike me about this realization. The first is that we are so anxious to "prove" our beliefs to non-Christians and to ourselves that we have no appreciation for the sheer absurdity of this God we serve (editor's note: the use of the term absurd in reference to God is in no way a slandering of the infallible character of said Deity, but is rather intended to reflect and intensify His very positve, but contrary nature in juxtaposition to that of the world. This blog neither supports nor condemns any fallout consequent to the misunderstanding of said term. In addition, if you don't like it read Kierkegaard or go back to Russia). What really drove this point home was a conversation, or rather overheard converstation, with a non-Christian in a bar. He was marvelling at an earlier conversation with Christians who denied the mystical cant of Christianity. Using some of the above examples, he pointed out the absurdity (editor's note: not used as per above) of this denial. It really struck me as to how obvious it is to others that our beliefs are quite out there.

I realize that this need to "prove" ourselves is a result of good intentions. The age of reason has instilled a great need to systematically evaluate everything, for good or ill, and it has extended to this day. While I do see the good of checking ourselves and avoiding a faith without introspection I think we have gone to far, and the result is that our dependence upon the absurd is dead. We need to regain the sense that our God is not of this world's logic and is not normal or reasonable or safe. I think G. K. Chesterson sums it up in his comparison of reason and poetry: "The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits." We don't need to reduce God to a finite understanding. We need only find glimpses everywhere we go.

The second striking is that we are so scared of all things mystical: healings, exorcisms, tongues, pentacostals. What a contradiction in terms to believe in a God of such power and marvelous variety and to condemn the fantasmical outworkings of his unworldly might. The problem is that these things are not controlable or measurable. These things are not safe. But then God is not safe...but he is good.

We are scared of the mystical because it is not explainable or rational, it is neither impirical nor producale on whim. If I see someone performing an exorcism I can't prove that it's real or point to tangible signs of its validity. I can test the fruit of the person who performs it, but it is beyond the scope of this world's logic to describe it.

So before you all start pretending that you can speak in tongues (I think Matt's pretty good at that some times) and casting demons out of your house plants, a word of warning. The mystical and spiritual worlds are not safe. There is need to test the spirits and to regard everything with a level of discretion, but we need to open up to the truth that is out there (oiy!). It's more a matter of mindset than anything, a realization that we serve an indescribable, unimaginable God whose simplest movings are beyond anything we can dream. God is so much more than any of our human analogies can warrant.

If you believe in this God, you are a mystic.