Blogging Towards Sunday, July 16, 2023
OPEN. But to what? And why?
1 Kings 19:1-13 & John 14:1-7
It often seems like the deepest truths in life are paradoxical. They appear to be made up of contradictory or opposing positions and perspectives; and yet they hold together. Think about love. It both opens our eyes to more and blinds us at times to what is right in front of us. Or think of pain. It can shut us down and also motivate us to action.
Today’s scriptures point to the paradoxical reality of God. God is both beyond our knowing (transcendent) and also infinitely close and intimately knowable (immanent). God is both open and welcoming to all, and yet also desirous of a seemingly exclusive commitment.
I grew up hearing that life – and God – and faith – are all black and white. Things are really clear. But as I’ve grown, I’ve had to wrestle with the way in which that’s untrue, or incomplete – the world has a lot of grey. God is both knowable and can’t be put in a box. Living for Jesus is both clear and not clear. Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, but rather something else. The famous preacher Barbara Brown Taylor wrote, “Doubt often brings me to poke as what I believe. And when it topples, I realize it was an idol. And so, doubt has been a divine gift that has led me deeper into God.”
Elijah is at his wit’s end, facing burn-out, ready to give up. He’s lived for God, but now seems to struggle to know or hear God. God comes to him, speaks to him, in the sheer silence after the storm. In John 14 the disciples are con-fused, they don’t know the objective or destination of Jesus – where is he going? Where are they going? Jesus’ answer is paradoxical – you do know because you know me. It’s less the destination in walking the way of Jesus that matters than the walking. Truth and life are less about head knowledge and more about relationship.
For me the word OPEN is a vehicle for that dialectic notion of paradox. It’s being open to everything and committed to something in particular: the Way of Jesus. It’s recognizing that sometimes our certainty, or our need for black-and-white clarity to make ourselves feel safe and secure – is actually idolatry that blinds and deafens us to the wild ways of God. It’s part of why the early Celtic Church represented the Triune God known in Jesus as a wild goose who shows up un-announced and uncontrolled in your garden.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION & EXAMEN:
• What engaged, enraged, or surprised you in these texts?
• How have you experienced God in your life? More like the silence after the wind or in relationship with Jesus?
• How are you open to experiencing God or hearing God’s voice? How or where are you “closed off” to that? Why?
• What does OPEN mean to you in terms of faith and life-in-community as the church?
• What invitation do you hear the Spirit of God speaking to you – or to us – through this word of scripture?
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