An excerpt from Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning:
The late Karl Rahner insisted, “In the days ahead, you will be a mystic, ie, one who has experienced God, or nothing at all. If Christianity is merely an ethic, a moral code, or a philosophy of life, it will not withstand the incursion of suffering. The graced experience of the divine kabod (Hebrew for ‘glory’) is not something esoteric reserved for an elite few. When Thomas Merton was asked who might receive the gift, he replied, “The answer is obvious: everybody.”
What is the Christian faith all about? Too often we default to the rules and the routines. Do this; don’t do that. Go to church. Good stuff (mostly), to be sure. But sometimes they box us in and we forget…
At its heart, Christianity is about an encounter with the living Jesus Christ who is the full expression of God’s glory. Humble, broken people given full access to a holy, loving God. For all eternity. That’s Grace. It is an undeniable experience with the living God that engenders not a sense of duty or mere sentimentalism, but child-like awe and joy. And, mystery. Always mystery.
Grace pushes back against the church boxes. Grace pushes back against the world where success is found in the far-from-mysterious boxes: working with excel spreadsheets, the number of cubicles you manage, the number of square feet you own, and the number of rectangular degrees on your wall.
Sometimes we forget the grace offered us, the Three-in-One God before us. The boxes enfold around us. Is God calling you back?
Joyful, joyful we adore Thee, God of kabod, Lord of life… are lyrics that speak powerfully to the response of one who has encountered the living God. Time and time again…
I love this. “In the days ahead you will be a mystic … or nothing at all.” It must go beyond simple cultural things we do on a weekly basis. Our personhood must be gradually shaped and molded by that consistent encounter – theosis – with the kabod of God. Keep it coming Bobby.
Bobby, This is a great post. A Ruthless Trust is my favorite of Manning’s books – he always has a way of unfolding the glory of God in my imagination in new ways. The mystery of the life in Christ is so outrageous that it simply cannot be neatly categorized. God in Christ did something so new and outside the normal realm of human experience, that it is difficult for us to fully grasp. Because of this I would argue that a mystical appropriation of the incarnation is nothing less than essential for a vital and faith that remains full of awe and wonder! Indeed, the Christian who accepts the mystical nature of the faith is a Christian who will always be falling back in love with God as s/he continues to approach the story with fresh eyes and a new capacity to imagine the wonder of the glory of God!
Tim