The Otherness of God

I don’t watch much TV, but I do enjoy MIDSOMER MURDERS and FATHER BROWN.  Evidently there are many who like a good mystery!  We root for the detective to solve the case–and always try to figure out Whodunit.  And the best ones are those which have no solutions:  we can mull over “the facts” for a long time, postulating possibilities.  No reason (!) that lots of Biblical stories can’t be in this category of ongoing mystery; our very lives (and deaths) are open-ended to our need to know.  Lessons for this weekend tell some good mysteries that should remain unfathomable and will remind the hearer of The Otherness of God.

We open with II Kings 2:1-12, the tale of Elisha walking with his mentor Elijah, who’s preparing to die.  After the mandatory offer and rejection to part has been made three times, Elijah is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, passing his mantle on to Elisha.  This is a demonstration of God’s Otherness–a theophany–and doesn’t depend whatsoever on either prophet’s faith or witness.  It’s told as holy-history to remind Children of God that there’s a power beyond their own control which breaks into daily life and surprises us.

St. Paul nicely wraps up Epiphany,  the Season of Light,  by reminding the Corinthian Churches “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6)  And John Wesley famously spoke of his heart “being strangely warmed”.  It’s these theophanies, great and small, which become mile markers on our spiritual journey; they acknowledge that God is God, and that we aren’t.

Every year at the end of Epiphany, just before Lent, we tell the story of the Transfiguration:  Jesus and Peter, James & John went up “a high mountain” where Jesus appeared as unearthly and dazzling.  As they watched wide-eyed, Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) conversed with him, symbolizing Jesus’ role as perfecter of that which God was already doing.  The story is repeated annually (this year in Mark 9:2-9) to make the hidden (?) identity of Jesus knowable and public.  Again, the revelation occurs in God’s own schedule, not ours or theirs.  We rejoice that God is Other, and not dependent on our own myopia.

I was gonna call this, “Ready; Set…GLOW!”–but I scrapped the idea, ’cause it sounds too human-driven.  And I was gonna include the doggerel which begins, “Little Willy, full of glee, poured radium in Grandma’s tea..” but that also is on the cutting room floor.  However, we’re glad for the holy fire which fills our hearts and enlivens even our faces:  we could sing, “May your days be merry and bright, and may all your theophanies be Light…”

God Bless Us, Every One             Horace Brown King

My commentary on Scripture passages for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com