Mystics In An Age Of Reason

What is the difference between a dead person and a living one? If a body is lying on a bed, complete with heart, lungs, liver, blood vessels, a brain, eyes, ears, nose, and a mouth, is it a person? If that body has electrical brain function sending signals throughout the body, a heart that’s beating, lungs that are breathing, we say that body is alive. When those things stop, we say the body is dead. But why? Why is one dead and one alive? What is causing those brain waves to function, the heart to beat, the blood to flow, the lungs to breath? In Genesis we read, "Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) The difference between life and death is the breath of God - His Spirit. It's presence is the source of all life in this universe, and without it, there is no life. In humanity we have called this breath of God in us our souls. It is the source of our conscience, our love, and joy itself. It cannot be quantified, reasoned, or understood. Only accepted and embraced. 

And yet we live in a world consumed with what is called “reason.” We are in love with what we can see, hear, taste, feel, and touch with our physical bodies in real time. We hear day after day that we have to follow the “science.” We commit ourselves to what we can understand. We seek life without God, and it creates torment for our souls. There is no life without God. Our souls scream this truth into our hearts. And reason cannot lead us to life.

Christianity has always been about a mystical relationship between God the Creator and his creation. He speaks to us, but usually not with human words. He reveals Himself to us, but usually not to our human eyes. We feel him moving around us and within us, but cannot put adequate words to the feeling. We hear his gentle, quiet whisper within, cutting through the shouting and clamoring around us. 

This past Sunday we were considering how God worked through the life of Philip. We talked about his commitment to immediate obedience. But I was trying to bring out the idea of “Why?” Why would people choose to follow the way of Jesus even when it was costly? Why would people make huge moves, endure persecution, sell off their property to give to the poor? Why would they walk 70 miles without knowing any more than a general destination in order to talk to one stranger? I was asking what it means to hear God speak and direct our lives.

What I think is most important is this idea: The Christian life is not a study, not a reading program or a memorization program, not a book, nor a song, nor a service, nor an organization nor an institution. That doesn’t mean all those things are bad, or that they can’t help us to see or know God. But Jesus tells us, “Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come.” (Matthew 12:32) Why? Because the life is in the Spirit. The Spirit gives us new hearts. The Spirit ushers us into the Kingdom. Jesus death re-opened the relationship between God and man so that His Spirit could dwell within us. Salvation is the presence of the Spirit within us. If you reject the Spirit, you reject life itself! 

But life with the Spirit doesn’t always make sense. It isn’t measurable. The scriptures are full of unreasonable events, and if we follow the Spirit, our lives will be as well. The invitation to the Kingdom of God is an invitation out of the kingdom of reason. The ancient Celts called the Holy Spirit the Wild Goose, because you never really knew where he came from or where he was going. So following God is a journey into a realm unseeable by our reasonable world, a place where, when the world asks, “How can this be,” we have the only answer that makes reasonable sense. 

“With God, all things are possible.”