|
2No one can oppose you,
because you have the power
to do what you want.
3You asked why I talk so much
when I know so little.
I have talked about things
that are far beyond
my understanding.
4You told me to listen
and answer your questions.
--Job 42.2-4, CEV
Two monks went to the Abbot complaining that a brother was not seeing the truth clearly. They asked, "Father, what would you do if you knew of a brother who did not see the truth but refused to admit the error of his way?" Replied the Abbot, "I would remind myself that it's not given to us all to see the same thing at the same time. Likewise, I would recall that I often had judged myself in the past to have been seeing clearly, when such, I discovered later, was not the case at all."
Martin Bucer is the inspiration for the above story. Bucer, born in 1491 and in a period of marked religious dispute, was a leader in the South German Reformation movement and ended his life directing affairs of the Reformation in England. Bucer was a strong, positive influence on John Calvin: the latter lived with Bucer during the time of Calvin's exile from Geneva, and Calvin remembered that time as the happiest of his life.
Bucer sought to provide a moderate position between the Zwinglians and Lutherans. In trying to bring reconciliation between Luther and Zwingli's views on the Holy Communion, Bucer said that when our bodies receive the bread and wine our spirits receive the body and blood of Christ, but we should not speculate any beyond this.
Bucer advised, "Flee formulas, bear with the weak." And, "While all faith is in Christ the thing is safe. It is not given to all to see the same thing at the same time."
An anonymous person wrote of the power of story: "People tell themselves stories and then pour their lives into the stories they tell." For two thousand years the Church has been blessed with great minds struggling to articulate an ever-unfolding theology. While the theological foundation was set for the Church in the seven ecumenical councils in the early centuries, speculations and developments in theology have happened since, in many guises. However, we still pour ourselves into the same story, the Gospel. And pouring our lives into that sacred vessel of hallowed time and space, which touches the imagination and affect and transforms the will, at some point we are led, if we follow faith, to that point at which we say, "I do not understand, but I trust. With that, I am content."
This morning I led a little church in Pinetta, FL, in one of the most enjoyable Holy Communion services I have been blessed to join in. We about twenty persons entered that story again, the same story instituted by Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, two thousand years ago. I do not understand what happens in such moments of the holy Eucharist. I am led to a meeting point with past, present, and future, one that defies my everyday norms and logic. But I keep, along with the gathered People of God, pouring my life into the same story, and I keep being led to that point where I must cease speculation and rejoice in the Joy. This is the Unknowing of Knowing.
*Written August 3, 2006, Lee, FL.
|
