Dear one,
Sacred Mystery … Sacred Theology: according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The task of theology [is] solely to preserve God’s wonder as wonder, to understand, to defend, to glorify God’s mystery as mystery.” Once again, as in days past, this sentence arrested my thinking. Of course, the broader context of his thought are these words: “No priest, no theologian stood at the cradle in Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology has its origin in the wonder of all wonders, that God became human.”
When I pause to consider Bonhoeffer’s words, and because of his words, when I truly pause to gaze upon that cradle, I find that I am at a loss … dumbfounded … unable to proceed further, except to offer as did the hymn writer: “Let all mortal flesh keep silence”.
My intent here is not to bash Santa Claus—neither the original Santa nor his many iterations, but with thought I am aware that, if we focus upon Santa, then mystery is eclipsed. There is no mystery about Santa: he is fully predictable, and he exemplifies good, moral principles easily codified. Oh, I know the lore: a flying sledge and reindeer; a one-evening-delivery system worldwide; whisking up and down chimneys; and knowledge of who’s been naughty and nice. But somewhere in all of this there is a wink and a nod; the hope of good, playful fun, but the certainty, with adult-like maturity, that Santa and his elves are the figment of the imagination: neither truly historic nor real.
Of course, using a very similar lens, some view Jesus’ nativity likewise; and yet, throughout the centuries and to the present, not a few like Bonhoeffer have spoken and written with utter seriousness regarding that birth. Moreover, they have done so in part, because those primary accounts depict a world of taxation and terror, doubt and death, toil and trouble—so very much our human experience, including mystery. And mystery bespeaks a world beyond our knowledge and control.
Santa’s world is really very safe; Jesus’ world is not. Santa’s world we control; Jesus’ world we do not. Rather, His birth is the startling realization that another world has broken into our world—or is it the realization that our world is not ours, but part of something far greater, far grander, and well beyond our knowing? Mysterious.
Santa’s world promises momentary flights; Jesus’ world portends an abiding goodness and love, addressing our most fundamental human need and longing—a world replete with wonder and mystery.
In awe of His mystery,
Stan
Mystery ...